Over the last few weeks we highlighted members of our Youth Advisory Group (YAG), including Samir Malik of DRUM and Carry Pak of CAAAV, and learned about their perspectives on youth organizing and culture change. These young visionaries are co-leading a participatory evaluation process to help guide the Fund and support the inaugural cohort as they grow and thrive.
Today, we are proud to introduce Shareef Dean, a dedicated and engaged member of El Puente. Based in Brooklyn, El Puente has inspired and nurtured leaders for peace and justice since 1982.
In this spotlight, Shareef discusses his engagement with young people and long-time residents in his community, and how the intersection of art and social justice have long served as forms of education and a way for his organization to express their feelings about societal issues.
What kind of work do you do with El Puente?
The work I do with El Puente is all about social justice. It’s environmental work centered around artistic culture. The work is really important for our community in Williamsburg, which is mostly people of color, specifically Latino, Hispanic, African American and Caribbean.
What led you to start working with El Puente?
I started working as a community organizer when I was 16 during after-school hours. I found it very interesting that social justice tied into community justice and how we interact with other communities as well.
Now, I am a part of group and cultural leadership. I am also an artist in an El Puente muralist group called Los Muralistas. We paint murals that relate to our community and other young people.
How does your artistic work and your social justice work converge?
One example of where these overlap is in an upcoming mural that we are working on. It’s about environmental justice and the Brooklyn Queens Expressway, the BQE. The BQE is an example of redlining because back in the 1920s, the land it’s on used to be apartment buildings and houses, but they tore those communities down and turned the land into a highway.
Another example is a mural we did in the windows of the Patagonia store in Brooklyn. That one relates to air pollution, and the name of the mural is Nuestro Aire! – meaning our air.
Art is like a form of education. It shows what the world is like. People need to see what it’s really like right now. They need to see how they really feel about what’s going on in our society. We hope the murals help the people in our communities to see how that makes us feel.
What has your experience been with the Youth Advisory Group, and how has your work with the group converged with El Puente?
Being a member of the Youth Advisory Group is very challenging, but I like interacting with people and communicating in groups. It’s a skill that’s really important for all organizing.
The assignments with the Youth Advisory Group generally relate to social justice and other anti-capitalism issues and educating people on those issues. I like being able to educate, but also to learn about the history of other cultures.
What would you say to younger people who want to engage in this type of work?
My advice to them is that you have to stand up for yourself. We have to open our arms to each other and stand up for each other. It’s just like what my mom told me — you have to respect one another. To work everything out, we have to settle our differences. If things don’t work out, try something different. Don’t be afraid to try a different strategy.