Music and murals: Challenging racism and showing solidarity

Music and murals: Challenging racism and showing solidarity

“THE role of the media, e.g. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, WhatsApp, and TikTok, has become more powerful in our lives,” says Gerry McCarthy, chairman of the Gurteen Youth Project in Ballyfermot, whose young members have undertaken to organise several events aimed at challenging racism in the community.

The first event is Concert for Inclusion taking place on Tuesday, February 4, featuring several local music artists in their youth centre.

This will be followed by a new mural to be painted in the main shopping area in late February.

Altogether there are 24 young people in the group with age ranges from 15 to 24 years.

Gerry continued “Sometimes we only hear what is dictated to us from the powerful owners of these media.

Very often young people are portrayed negatively. They are portrayed as a problem, with issues that need to be resolved.

We rarely hear the voices of young people, in particular young people from working-class communities.

We want to create a project for the community of Ballyfermot that captures and creates ways to express young people’s own visions, hopes, and dreams for the future and challenges racism and stereotypes.

Anyone that has seen news about the recent riots in Dublin and seen the destruction that was done to the lives of ordinary people going about their daily lives can only imagine the effect this has on children.

It is important for us here in Ballyfermot that we show our solidarity, compassion and care for the people here from other countries.

It is also important for us to challenge racism wherever it appears to show our solidarity with refugees living here.”

The aim of this project is to empower young people to use creative ways to express ideas and to communicate these to the wider community.

The group will use photography, graphic design, advertising banners, public exhibitions, concerts, community celebrations and podcasts, as well as TikToks on the streets, to display positive images of young people challenging the stereotypes

They also have a connection with a refugee centre in southern Italy, and they aim to have a mobility visit to meet with young refugees there.

Currently they have members of the travelling community and Filipino people using their centre, and they now want to connect them with young people in the project.

Be sure to check out the concert in the Gurteen Youth Club on February 4.

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