Camden Youth Corridor

From 2009-2015, I engaged in ethnographic research with youth and teachers at Camden’s MetEast High School. In 2012, Malcolm, a senior at the time, shared his idea for the Youth Corridor. He wanted to help youth stay clear from violence by developing what he called a Youth Corridor, where youth could go after school, on weekends and throughout the summer.  His idea was to design and develop a block of abandoned row homes into different youth spaces including a dance studio, recording studio and other creative places for youth to create, build, and enrich their talents.  For his senior project, he was developing this plan through an internship with a local entrepreneur.  Malcolm’s life was taken before his ideas could be put into effect. 

 Through collaborations with Josephine Parr, Malcom’s teacher and my ongoing research collaborator, the IDEA youth arts and media center, and other local organizations, we seek to make the youth corridor a reality. With a Catalyst Grant from the Rutgers-Camden Provost’s Fund for Research, we will investigate how young people want the space of youth corridor to look, feel, and function in the neighborhood and in their own lives.  The interviews and focus group questions will be designed and implemented collaboratively.  The Catalyst Grant will support two Camden-based youth research assistants and one Rutgers-Camden undergraduate student who will work collaboratively alongside my graduate research assistant (RA) and myself to co-define the research objectives and methods. 

 This project will contribute to a growing body of work among childhood studies scholars who inspire justice through their research, incorporating children and youth as co-researchers. We envision ourselves at Rutgers-Camden as co-facilitators/connectors/documenters in this project and as we move forward, we hope to support Malcolm’s vision to fruition through deepening partnerships with existing organizations, spaces, and communities.

I am currently collaborating on an Independence Public Media Foundation supported project, “Johnson Park: A Gallery of History Reimagined.” This project is led by IDEA to create media and art in relation to the racist and contested frieze, as well as other monuments in Johnson Park, Camden. Together, we plan to center his/her/theirstory and will share the Black, Latinx, and Indigenous perspectives that otherwise have been and continue to be erased.