YAPA Unleash Mag: Youth Opinion & Action: Ed23. 2013 Feb-March
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ISSUE 23 / FEBRUARY - MARCH 2013 ADVENTURES IN MUSIC AND ART MUSIC FESTIVALS FOR YOUNG PEOPLE NEW ART JUSTIN BIEBER AND FREEDOM OF SPEECH news • opportunities • action • opinion unleash 23 CONTENTS February - March 2013 In this issue of unleash... unleash is YAPA’s magazine of youth opinion and action. Liliana Tai asks what the Price Of Freedom is 04 If you are under 20, unleash gives you the opportunity to Past unleash editor Jess Carter shows us express your opinions on issues that concern you. It also the Power Of The Pen 06 supports and encourages you to take positive action to improve your community and young people’s lives. Elena find out if it’s possible to be in high school and a band 08 EDITOR COORDINATOR Bridie Moran Nick Manning Young artist Darcy captures The Illustrator 09 GRAPHIC DESIGN Get to know the Youth Action and Policy Emma-Lee Crane, Milk Thieves Art & Design Association interns 10 www.milkthieves.com.au Erika Vass creates a DIY music festival 12 YAPA, the Youth Action & Policy Association NSW Inc, Richard Tong asks: can we be Uniformly Individual? 14 is the peak organisation representing young people & youth services in NSW. YAPA is not religious and not Stepping Up creates opportunities for post-HSC artists 15 party political. YAPA receives core funding from the NSW Tess has Pride In Colour 16 Government - Department of Family and Community Services. More at www.yapa.org.au/yapa GET UNLEASH unleash is published 6 times each year. See the subscription details on the back cover, or go to www.yapa.org.au/unleash FEEDBACK Plus our regular features: We want to hear what you like, what you don’t like, and what you would like, in unleash. We also want to hear what Editor’S WORD 03 you think about the issues discussed in unleash. Opportunities 17 Just email: [email protected] NEWS 18 CONTRIBUTE STAY IN TOUCH 19 unleash is a space for young people aged 12-19. See how unleash yourself 20 you can contribute on page 21, or go to www.yapa.org.au/unleash ADVERTISE FRONT AND BACK COVER If you would like to advertise in unleash, please contact Nick Manning at YAPA on (02) 8218 9803 This edition’s cover art is by nineteen-year-old Manon Bot, or email [email protected]. a student at Sydney’s College of Fine Arts. These digitally manipulated photographic works are part of a series titled LEGALITIES Human Nature. unleash is © Copyright YAPA 2012. Individual articles are copyright the individual authors. Contact us if you would like to copy something from unleash. Opinions are the authors’ and not necessarily YAPA’s. CONTACT US Bridie Moran - Editor unleash magazine Youth Action & Policy Association NSW Inc Suite 403, 64-76 Kippax Street Surry Hills NSW 2010 [email protected] (02) 8218 9800 fax (02) 9281 5588 www.yapa.org.au/unleash Manon will receive a voucher for $50 for her amazing art submission. If you would like to see your work on an upcoming unleash cover, email images to [email protected] 2 unleash February - March 2013 Editor’s Letter ADVENTURES IN MUSIC AND ART For most people, music and art are part of our everyday lives. Past unleash editor Jess Carter has been giving young people the Whether you listen to music on the bus or doodle in the side of power of the pen, Natalie Wadwell in Macarthur has been busy notebooks, the creative side of life can take you on all kinds of creating an opportunity for HSC artists to show off their work, adventures. and our other amazing articles show just how much you can do by harnessing the powers of music and art to change lives. Music and art can quite literally change lives. In Venezuela, a program for young people called “El Sistema” provided free I want to know about your adventures in art and music! Facebook instruments and free music lessons for young people in the or Tweet us and answer this issue’s unelashAsks question – what country’s most deprived areas. 300,000 young people have had song has changed your life? their lives changed by El Sistema, and they are happy to tell their tales. On the Opportunities page, find out how you can create amazing things in your world – and remember to send stories about your “I’d either be dead or still smoking crack like when I was eight,” adventures in to unleash! said one french-horn player from its flagship Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra. “Joining the orchestra changed not only my life but Can’t wait to hear from you, my whole family’s. My father was drinking far too much, and my brothers had dropped out of school. When I got hooked on my instrument, my father stopped drinking, and, one by one, my Bridie brothers went back to school,” said a trumpeter. Programs like El Sistema are being used all over the world to create change. unleash is taking a look at how adventures in music and art can change lives closer to home. Our cover artist, Manon Bot, is a young student studying at the College of Fine Art and her beautiful images on the front and back covers were the inspiration for this issue. February - March 2013 unleash 3 Opinion THE By Liliana Tai, who isn’t a Belieber but is a believer in the freedom of expression PRICE OF My little sister is a Justin Bieber fanatic. She fangirls for hours on end about his hair, clothes and “swag”. Often to save myself the effort of listening to her rants I tell her he’s overrated and FREEDOM really, his music isn’t that great. The immediate price I pay for my freedom of expression is a few minutes of death glares and being ignored but I’m soon off the hook. But the price of freedom of expression on a global scale can be much more severe. Rather than just a couple of death glares, sometimes, expressing opinions can result in actual deaths. Recently the world witnessed the disturbing implications of what can happen when freedom of expression crosses an ugly path with acts of violence fuelled by rage. When a provocative anti-Islamic film called “The Innocence of Muslims” was posted online, it sparked international anger, fuelled by violence from protesters. The violence began with attacks on the US embassies in the Middle East but protests quickly intensified and spread rapidly across the globe, with violence erupting in parts of Asia and in our own nation. We saw a rare violent clash between Islamic groups and the police force in the heart of the Sydney CBD. The consequence of one individual expressing hatred for a religion in our world has created a great divide among societies and the loss of many lives. The price – paid in safety, peace and understanding - for one individual’s freedom of expression has become far too steep. 4 unleash February - March 2013 Initially, I believed that to ensure a situation like this doesn’t occur again, the international community needed to draw much clearer lines on the limits of the freedom of expression. But what would we say is not OK? Such a solution is too abstract and this line would definitely in itself cause disagreements among the community, even if we were to take an extreme stand and remove everyone person’s right to freedom of expression, steps like censoring the internet. Such an extreme stand would not only mean we had to listen to our little sisters yap on about Bieber’s “swag” but would also change the fundamental principles of what our society stands for – without freedom to speak and listen, we would not hear important stories from our fellow people. Sure there is a price to the freedom of expression but that does not mean we should stop expressing ourselves freely. Instead, I strongly believe the international community should be focusing on changing the price of expression. I’m sure we all know that nothing comes for free, so if we want to each keep our freedom of expression we need to change the way society currently pays for this freedom through a heavy toll of human lives. And to do so the international governments need to set an example- we can’t fight violence with violence. World leaders need to reflect on their own actions of military intervention to situations such as the Arab Spring and Afghanistan and in the future avoid use of violence. By using brute force as a solution to problems, the international leaders are setting an example to these protestors who themselves are seeking a solution to such outrageous acts of expression that the only way they know to make one pay for their actions is through the suffering that comes with violence. The price that comes with paying in violence will lead to bloodshed and in many cases death. And I’m sure we would all rather receive a death glare then a death sentence. We need to pressure not only the government but also each other to slowly eradicate violence from the equation. I’m sure no one wants to sit at home listening about Justin Bieber but furthermore no one wants to witness or experience the horrors of violent demonstrations- because if we can’t resolve the price now, we will be left in the future with a great amount of debt. February - March 2013 unleash 5 Action THE POWER OF THE PEN By Jessica Carter, unleash Editor 2009-2010 Bithi, Lelin and Rana are three of the students who attend the JAAGO school and whose lives have changed because of the “A boy named Rana lived in a slum with his mother.