Painting beauty under the railroad tracks

Reported by Torie Wells

Tuesday August 23, 2011

At the top of Castle Street, in the heart of Great Barrington, you can find beauty underneath the railroad tracks.

“It’s been this contagious art project,” said Paul McNeil, from the Railroad Street Youth Project.

“I like doing things that the public can see,” said Dan Slater, a graffiti artist.

“It’s for everyone,” said Laurel Zukowski, a mural artist.

For weeks now, Zukowski has been breathing life into a mural underneath the railroad tracks in Great Barrington.

Zukowskis work is intertwined with the work of local teens. It is a project through the Railroad Street Youth Project. The organization was started back in 1999 by a 19-year-old named Amanda Root.

“There were a bunch of youth that used to hang out in the railroad street area years ago and it was a hotbed of drug sales,” said McNeil. “So many people close to her were getting affected in horrible ways.”

Amanda wanted to give youth another option, empowering them to take part in the community.

“This is the heartbeat of the Railroad Street Youth Project it’s young people coming together talking about what they want to do that will mean something positive,” said McNeil.

“It feels good, we did a lot. Originally it just looked like a lot of graffiti. After we primed it with the white paint and got the color on it, it’s looking a lot better,” said Sergio Winston, a 14-year-old who volunteers for the project.

He says that if it weren’t for the project he’d likely be home for the summer. Instead he will go back to school, feeling accomplished.

“It’s something definitely to look back on, it’s a memory of the summer 2011,” he said.

Seventeen-year-old Dan Slater is thinking about going to school for graphic arts. But his first passion is graffiti, an art form that is growing. This project is giving him a canvas of his own and a platform to speak to his community.

“I want people to take away that graffiti isn’t just vandalism its also an art form,” said Slater.

Each moment you spend with the mural, you see something new. The ways it is affecting the community are layered too. On the surface, it is a gift to Great Barrington but, if you look closer, you can see it is a gift to each other and themselves.

“Everyone feels like the contributed so it’s theirs,” said Zukowski.

“Twenty years from now you can look back and say I remember this,” said Slater.

Railroad Street Youth Project to Get Upgrade

By Trevor Jones, Berkshire Eagle Staff, Posted: 08/26/2011 12:05:26 AM EDT

GREAT BARRINGTON — The Railroad Street Youth Project is getting help to upgrade its downtown facility from an unlikely source — a Denver-based kidney treatment company.

DaVita, which services 128,000 patients nationwide, is providing $50,000 to the youth empowerment group for upgrades to its facility on Bridge Street. The project is part of Tour DaVita, a 262-mile, three-day cycling and outreach program intended to raise funds for kidney disease awareness and prevention programs.

More than 120 DaVita employees, physician partners and patients will arrive in Great Barrington on Sept. 17. The group will begin the cycling the following day, helping out with volunteer efforts here and in New York before leaving for Connecticut on Sept. 19. for the remainder of their ride.

Vince Hancock, a DaVita spokesman, said Great Barrington was selected because it’s a small town.

“A lot of times we go into smaller communities because we want to make a lasting impact on the community,” said Hancock.

The Great Barrington visit will coincide with the unveiling of the revamped Railroad Street space.

Paul McNeil, program director for Railroad Street, said it will be a “complete facelift” that will include more computers, an Internet café, televisions and a conference room.

Hancock said the company picked this route for its access to dialysis facilities, its scenic and cycling-friendly nature, and because of health rates in the two states, according to Hancock.

Obese individuals are three times as likely to develop kidney failure, and in Massachusetts and Connecticut, more than 22 percent of the population is obese, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

And while a youth organization might not be the first group that comes to mind when thinking of kidney disease, Hancock said it’s important to explain the risk factors to them so they can avoid kidney problems later in life.

Funds will be donated to The Kidney TRUST, a nonprofit organization seeking to educate and raise awareness about kidney disease. For more information, go to TourDaVita.org

To reach Trevor Jones:
email hidden; JavaScript is required,
or (413) 528-3660.

Error Resizing Image: resize_path_invalid
Original Image Path: "/var/www/vhosts/rsyp.org/httpdocs/wp-content/uploads/AmandaJ3.jpg"
Resize path invalid

Update from Amanda Johnston: Railroad Street funded part of my trip to Peru through YOB (youth operational board)!

Here I am with the group of four year olds that I taught english to while in the city of Chiclayo, Peru. They were a wonderful group, very well behaved! I taught them the words for vegetables, colors, and numbers through song and fun art projects. Thanks to railroad street for making this wonderful experience possible :]

While in Peru I went to a festival in the rural mountains in a town called Huambos. It was a festival for their patron saint, San Juan Bautista. There was lots of dancing, food, music, and culture galore! I saw everything from really old people who had lived in the town their whole lives, to little girls dancing like professionals. Lots of things I will remember forever!

Youth create coat of arts in Castle Street tunnel

Click photo to enlarge

Laurel Zukowski, left, Eric Danforth, center, and Nawontah… (Ben Garver / Berkshire Eagle Staff)

Wednesday July 20, 2011

GREAT BARRINGTON — A crew of teenagers and several 20-somethings gathered together in the Castle Street tunnel on Tuesday.

They were neither loiterers nor vandals.

They had come to work.

Armed with paint scrapers, a ladder, paper towels and a bottle of Windex, the crew of young people were busy refreshing the tunnel with a new mural painting project.

The effort was voted on and is supported by the Youth Operational Board of the Railroad Street Youth Project (RSYP), and is a shared and serendipitous vision between 24-year-old South County native Laurel Zukowski and Great Barrington Town Manager Kevin O’Donnell.

“It’s for everybody,” Zukowski said. “Murals are a medium for people to work on, for the people.”

When finished, the work will combine African-American art and heritage, Berkshire County history, landmarks, and people, and words by activist Marcus Garvey, Sufi Poet Hafiz and Cummington native and poet William Cullen Bryant.

“I’ve learned that you have to not be scared of trying things and that you can do what you want to do if the good intention is there,” Zukowski said.

Two years ago, O’Donnell approached former RSYP Executive Director Lannie Moore about town youths getting involved in cleaning up and painting the tunnel. The project began, but was never finished.

“People tagged it and it looked bedraggled,” said Isabel Currie, 13, who worked on cleaning the tunnel glass on with friend

Hannah Handel, who is also 13.

Seven months ago, Zukowski, who studied painting at the Maryland Institute College of Art, returned to Great Barrington and approached the Youth Operational Board about making a mural.

“It was perfect. She has the creativity and vision for it,” said Brenda Barlow, who officially became RSYP’s new executive director this month.

“This is a partnership we wanted to see, and if the kids can take care of it themselves, it’s perfect.” said O’Donnell.

The work officially began Tuesday with a small crew of about eight young people and a couple of parents stopping by the tunnel throughout the day.

“I didn’t realize how many people from all age groups and all classes go through here,” said mural volunteer Nawontah Waters, 18. “I hope people see how we are committed enough to make things more beautiful here,” he said.

There will be another community “mural painting party” from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Tuesday, July 26. For more information, call (413) 528-2475.

To reach Jenn Smith:
email hidden; JavaScript is required
(413) 496-6239

This July, Railroad Street Youth Project’s culinary arts apprenticeship program will partner with the Greenagers work crew program to expand on a summer work crew piloted last summer. This program grew out of the interest many young people expressed in working on local farms in the summer season. Last year, Greenagers hired an 8-member youth crew to help with restoration, conservation and agriculture projects in the Southern Berkshires.  Some of the same youth now involved with Greenagers and RSYP also worked at Farm Girl Farm last summer.  These three organizations are proud to combine efforts and offer the first youth farmer training program in the area.

Here is what one participant had to say about the benefits they brought to the business. “The Greenagers work crew made all the difference at FGF last summer.  They weeded and mulched our entire crop of kale and chard in two days!”  - Sara Wallach, farm girl 2010.

This year our proposed dates for the program are July 5 – August 30 (8 weeks), on each Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, from 8:30-5.  There would be one team of 8 youth, with one adult crew leader, and one youth as assistant leader, working at 3 farms, each farm on a set day of the week.

The initial farm partner is Laura Meister of Farm Girl Farm, and other farms are being approached as future partners. Possible other projects or field trips the team would take during the session would be to Hudson Valley farms, helping out at farmer’s markets, making deliveries to local restaurants, maintenance at Project Native, and assistance on the Front Lawn Garden project through Greenagers.

The crew leader will be an adult with extensive experience in leading teams of young people on outdoor work crews.  A youth crew assistant on each crew will also have experience with working on a crew, and this work will be an opportunity to further develop their leadership skills.  Each day will include a Greenagers daily reading and response. The group will read and journal on topics in conservation, agriculture, outdoor recreation.  The program will also offer two workshops on financial literacy and college application/resume writing for each youth participant during the course.

This summer farm program differs from many similar summer youth crews, in that participants will be paid for their time. Our team has found, increasingly in recent years, high school students are only willing to commit to an extensive summer program if it is also a paying job. This program provides teens with the income they need, invaluable hands-on experience in an authentic workplace, the opportunity to develop their own group leadership skills, and introduces them, by immersion, to a growing segment of the local economy.

The benefits for the participating farms of having a crew of 8 energetic young people one full day per week for 8 weeks is obvious.  Farm Girl Farm staff have identified several projects that the crew will take on:  weeding kale, chard, collards, broccoli, leeks, onions; harvesting garlic and onions; trellising tomatoes; mulching beds; laying plastic/ plant winter squash; upkeeping of water systems; and the harvesting of vegetables for CSA pick-ups.

Chef Brian Alberg, of The Red Lion Inn and the RSYP Berkshire Culinary Arts Program and Berkshire Grown, will offer additional instruction for the participants of the summer work crew.  Alberg will introduce students to the kitchen, where the farm vegetables and meats are used to prepare the area’s most highly regarded cuisine.  Alberg’s commitment to using fresh, local, organic ingredients has led many youth graduates of his culinary class to plant gardens of their own.

Alberg and the students will culminate the summer farm program by preparing a dinner for Berkshire farmers at Farm Girl Farm in September.  Students may also enroll in the fall culinary program through RSYP.

The total cost for this program is approximately $40,000 for 8 weeks.  This includes crew leader salary, crew members salaries, all taxes and payroll expenses, worker’s comp and liability insurance, and transportation.  The 8 youth crew members will be paid $9/ hr.

The summer farm program is seeking sponsorships from individual community members for the $72/day cost of sponsoring one youth in the program.  The organizations are seeking grant funding for the overhead admin and payroll expenses.  If you would like to donate, please contact Will Conklin at Greenagers 413. 644.9090 or Lannie Moore at RSYP 413.528.2475.