Crossing Cultures – Eric Imhof

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B’more Cultured group offers the opportunity for young people to collaborate with “fellow Americans”

You’ve probably heard of the Peace Corps, study abroad programs, and extra-curricular projects, but odds are you haven’t heard about a local program that combines the philosophies and benefits of all of the above. For local young people interested in studying abroad, cross cultural education, and good old-fashioned hard work, a new program has emerged in Baltimore. B’more Cultured, a group created by Baltimore high-school students, teaches the values of solidarity and self confidence while highlighting the rich culture and history of Nicaragua. The program combines education, activism, and travel. Since 2006 the group has been bringing young people and artists to Nicaragua in order to live and work in partnership with local communities. Past projects have included building homes, farming cacao, making latrines, and painting murals – all in an effort to increase housing and improve sanitation in poor rural areas.

I had the pleasure of participating in the group’s first voyage in 2006 (see The Revolution Will Not Be Microwaved in Issue 4 of the Indypendent Reader). A lot has changed since then. In between trips, the group has been busy making presentations to fellow students, holding planning meetings, recruiting new members, and fundraising. The B’more Cultured youth have organized several events in order to raise the money needed to make the program affordable, such as benefit dinners, movie screenings, photography exhibits, high school fairs, yard sales, and auctions. They also write letters seeking donations and grants.

Of course, the youth are not without adult collaborators and facilitators. Maria Aldana, a Nicaraguan-American artist, activist, and educator, helped the students form the group. Having already participated on similar trips with Bridges to Community, Aldana decided to develop the program to focus on her students at the Academy for Career and College Exploration (ACCE) after realizing that they desperately yearned for a deeper meaning and purpose to their lives - and after hearing several requests from students and parents that she take them on the trips they kept hearing about. Maria started planning with the support of the Community Art Corps (CAC) and the new Masters of Art in Community Arts (MACA) programs at the Maryland Institute College of Art, where Aldana was enrolled as a graduate student, as well as with colleague and fellow student Aleks Martray. After months of preparation, the program was set to begin in August of 2006, just days after Aldana and Martray’s graduation. Six high-school students participated in the first trip, and were accompanied by Aldana, Martray, fellow MICA graduates Sean Keelan and Carol Krawczyk (along with myself), as well as Jennifer Reed, a counselor (at the time) at ACCE.

After two and a half years, the program continues to develop and grow as an all-volunteer organization. With 25 committed members and three trips under its belt, B’more Cultured is gaining momentum as the youth, returning from cultural exchange trips, recruit new members and work to raise more money for future projects – even as they move on to college. In addition, a documentary about the first excursion, called In Solidarity, has been used as both a recruitment tool and a fundraiser. The full-length video, which was made by Martray, documents the progression of the youth from the preparation for the trip until their return to the United States two weeks later. (see www.indyreader.org – under “video.”)

The growing network of youth and adults that the program builds is appreciated by its members. Sache’, a 17-year-old graduate of Baltimore City College High School, who has now been on two B’more Cultured trips, described the group as having a “family atmosphere,” that has “made the world smaller” by allowing her to create connections and gain more confidence in inter-personal relationships. This confidence has led her to want to minor in Spanish and travel to Spain in a study-abroad program in college. Desiree, a 19-year-old student who has been on three trips, says that she trusts herself more and has learned to depend on herself as a result of her work in Nicaragua. She plans to stay involved with the group in order to build the program locally so that more of her community members can get involved. “I originally got involved,” she says, “for a culture change, for something different … and so I could do my own thing, not in someone else’s shadow.” She explains that the group is good for youth like her because it gives them the encouragement and support to follow their own paths. She has currently accepted the office as Vice President of the group.

Other members have taken different lessons away from the program. Aaron-Forrest Wainwright, who was 17 years old when he went on his first and only trip with B’more Cultured (which was his first journey out of the country), learned a lot about poverty and how it manifests itself differently in other cultures. He says quite simply, “Here, when you’re poor … there’s so much violence and misery … but there, everybody was poor, but everybody was happy and got along, everybody helped each other, there wasn’t as much violence as there is in Baltimore.”

Teaching youth about the experiences of people in other countries that are affected by the United States – as well as their struggles to immigrate to North America and assimilate into the culture – is an important component of the program. Aldana explains that “often times we forget that our country [the US] has the ability to develop or destroy other countries. Katrina was a natural disaster, but what about the disasters that we create out of fear of other cultures, belief systems, and politics?”

Her Nicaraguan origins have influenced her goals for the program as well. “Immigrants are often times mistreated, abused, and rejected because of their funny accents, wardrobe, or manifestations of poverty as a family starting from scratch, like mine was in Miami [after moving at the outset of the Sandinista Revolution in the early 1980s],” Aldana says. “I need to remember where I come from and who I represent.” She explains that it was her unique upbringing as both a Nicaraguan and a North American that showed her that she had not only a great gift of translating between two languages, but translating between two cultures that are often oppositional or misunderstood. Indeed, one of the main goals of the program is to equip the youth with the tools to similarly bridge their own culture and history with those of others.

To get involved with B’more Cultured, visit their website, www.bmorecultured.com , or email Maria Aldana at aldana@bmorecultured.com.