BOSTON TEENS IN PRINT SEPT/OCT 2009

T.I.P. MeetsAt ICA, teens learn new“slanguage” of freedomBy Natalyn Yu and Shanasia Bennett // Staff WritersThis summer, T.i.P. was lucky enough tospend time during Slanguage Week atthe Institute of Contemporary Art inSouth Boston. We worked with artistsin-residenceMario Ybarra Jr. and Karla Diaz, who arefrom Los Angeles and who are the creators of Slanguage,which, Diaz says, is a “hybrid of the words slang andanguage, which for us articulates an alternative wayf communicating.”An artist-in-residence comes to a new place specificallyo work on a project. “The focus of the residency was onhe process,” says Diaz. “It introduced students to basicollaborative skills that are used in other art forms suchs music, theater, and writing.”The purpose of the week was to explore Boston’sFreedom Trail, to use what we teens in the program foundto define “freedom,” and to make art to express our definitionsof that lofty concept.During Slanguage Week, we would do warm-up exercisesto wake ourselves up and get to know each other.We started with getting a feeling of just how much Bostonhas to offer by touring the different parts of the city. FromBoston Common all the way to the South End, the amountof rich history Boston has was almost unbelievable. Wewere able to explore the roots of the MBTA lines and theSouth End with mytown, a group of young people who conducttours in Boston.On these tours, we were split up into groups, whichincluded a historian, a photographer, and a sketcher.“What I enjoyed most was the hands on artwork we did,and making flags,” says Christian Hennessey, 16, aBoston participant in the program.In addition to making flags, we made our ownhistorical books, exquisite corpse drawings (a collectionof images and/or words collaboratively assembled) and“’zines” (magazines made out of collages).“Dress the way you think an artist would dress!”Ybarra jokingly advised us on the day before thebig opening.The ICA Art Lab was bustling with people on openingday, with a DJ playing in the back and people chattingexcitedly and surveying the art posted on the wall thatwe had worked on all week. Ybarra and Diaz wereglowing with happiness, reflecting SlanguageWeek’s success. ■▲ AFH photo by Shawn McLaughlinSlanguage = hybrid of the words slangand language, which for us articulates analternative way of communicating.– artist Karla Diazwww.bostontip.com / BOSTON TEENS IN PRINT / SEPT/OCT 2009 / 15