The purpose of our itAG “Inviting Risk: Building School Community by Centering the Social and Political realities of New York City Students” is to raise awareness of the social and political realities of young marginalized people enrolled in NYC DOE school communities in the contemporary world. Implementing a multicultural/anti-racist curriculum will allow students to build upon their identities and clarity of their roots with the result of preparing students for modern society. We believe that there must be a structural shift in how schools build community and how they treat and include incoming immigrant students. We name the art classroom as sacred; a space where students of marginalized identities can share stories and experiences and disrupt the “fear of not knowing”. We acknowledge the art classroom as having a vital role in modifying curricular approaches and strategies to be inclusive of students' cultural backgrounds and needs (i.e.: linguistically, academically, etc). 

In our itAG, we use photovoice as one of the many strategies to uplift students who are both new and accustomed to NYC DOE school communities. By using photovoice, we are using it as a tool for social change. With the responses of our students, in addition to their photography, we are hoping to prove a relationship between home and school and the value of inviting “Risk”. As a group, we want to emphasize the importance, now more than ever, of incorporating our student's lives and experiences into the classroom and the school culture. 

This will serve as data to demonstrate to future teachers, current teachers, and admin what are students saying. While interviewing students across the Bronx and Manhattan, their responses will be quite literally centered in this research. Towards the end of our project teachers/admin will be provided with a toolkit needed to be able to enact change within the classroom, within their relationship to students, and the school community at large! This toolkit will include a description of this itAG, about us, what NYC DOE community members can do, resources, a bibliography, and our process!