BALTIMORE — A group of Baltimore City youth have created art displayed throughout the city as a way to be a voice for their peers, saying the narrative of Baltimore City youth needs to change.
Riding an MTA bus or walking past a bus shelter in Baltimore these days, and you might see a powerful message from the city's young people: "I have been told that I am something that I am not."
Baltimore youth fight negative stereotypes with public art campaign
Lorenzo Lara-Parillo is one of the youth leaders behind the "We Are More" campaign, a public art initiative now displayed at 10 bus shelter locations and on MTA buses throughout Baltimore.
The campaign is led by the Maryland Youth Rights and Safety Hub, challenging harmful narratives that too often frame Baltimore's youth through a lens of crime and violence.
"I know that I am misunderstood and that a lot of youth need a voice to be said or heard and I am that power that they may need," Lara-Parillo said.
"You hear about a couple of kids that are bad and then if you keep hearing about it or like only hear about the bad kids you think all of them are bad so they think most of the youth are like bad unmotivated or just disrespectful to everybody," Sela Powell said.
This group wants to change that narrative. They say creating the displays give people a chance to understand the youth and share stories of the good work throughout the city.
Powell says she is beyond proud to see the art on display.
"We actually got to create something and not only did we create it but we get to see it because sometimes reasons why youth don't want to speak their opinion is because they think that its not going to go anywhere," Powell said.
The campaign extends beyond public transit. Youth leaders are sharing coordinated social media content and encouraging community members to take selfies with the ads.
"Our organization were working on making change and were actually making change where you can see the effects of it," Powell said.
In the coming months, these leaders plan to create new messages and storytelling initiatives, calling on decision-makers, media, and community leaders to change how they talk about Baltimore's young people.
For this group, the message is clear: Baltimore's young people are not all bad and their stories deserve to be heard.
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