RACE | RAP | RENEWABLE ENERGY
"When you give kids who've been stereotyped as not being able to do anything the chance to do something great, they'll step up."
-West Philly High School Electric Vehicle Team Coach
The "Green Guerrillas" are local young people who knew relatively nothing about digital media, green building, organic food, or renewable energy at the start of Summer 2006. Through twenty hours per week of hands-on instruction with an all-volunteer staff and limited equipment, the Green Guerrillas learned how to use computer and video technology to build entrepreneurial job skills, convert a diesel engine to run on vegetable oil, and make a music video for a local hip hop group. The Green Guerrillas also learned the power of producing their own media as young people of color and immigrants with limited resources by watching and analyzing films and videos--connecting 500-year-old issues of prejudice, inequality, oppression, and discrimination with the increased use of policing, supervision, detention, and incarceration nationwide and abroad. These young people began to understand the role mainstream media plays in supporting stereotypes which promote the status quo and perpetuate unhealthy behaviors. By dismantling low expectations and offering the Green Guerrillas "the chance to do something great," S.T.A.M.P. promoted self-respect, empowerment, leadership, and self-determination among young people who are stereotypically, disproportionately, and adversely affected by criminal justice and environmental policies in our community.
The Blockumentary features local applications of green building and renewable energy technologies, and also adds another perspective to the local efforts to re-name State Street after Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
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