ADVOCATES FOR YOUTH

Transitions
Volume 15, No. 3, January 2004

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Innovative Strategies—Prevention through the Arts

By Jane Norman, Director, Youth Empowerment Initiatives

With the continued high rates of HIV infection amongst youth, especially youth of color, GLBTQ youth of color, and young men of color who have sex with men, some educators and activists are finding new and innovative ways to reach youth with prevention messages.

Theater

Groups such as City at Peace in Washington, DC (www.cityatpeacedc.org) and The Nitestar Program in New York City use theater productions, written and performed by teens, as a way to reach large numbers of young people with information about HIV/AIDS and other sexual health issues. While it is unrealistic to expect one performance to change audience members' behavior, plays and theater can stress the importance of individual prevention efforts, provide information, debunk myths and stereotypes, model protective attitudes and behaviors, and link members of the audience to prevention, testing, and treatment services. Crucially, theater and other performance interventions can effectively address one of the most difficult issues for prevention educators—the perception of invulnerability, the belief that HIV isn't something I have to worry about.

Once audience members have been reached affectively through the drama or humor of the performance and have achieved an empathetic connection with the characters, the individuals in the audience may be open to prevention messages. Then, when performances are followed by question and answer sessions, audience members can ask questions of the performers (who remain in character), perhaps internalizing messages they had heard, but hadn't assimilated before. Sometimes productions are followed by workshops that offer audience members the opportunity to build skills, such as assertiveness.

Radio

Radio soap opera provides another medium for reaching large numbers of people, including those in rural areas or areas with low literacy rates or little access to education. Such projects are used widely in developing countries. The soap operas develop loyal fans, and the realistic situations and characters can provide correct information about a number of sexual health issues as well as model effective communication and negotiation strategies. The Communication Initiative (www.comminit.com) collects case studies on sexual health messaging through soap operas and other mass media.

Film

Scenarios USA takes this concept one step further and produces short films, written by and for young people, designed to promote sexual responsibility and healthy behaviors. Based on successful campaigns conducted by community organizations in France and West Africa, Scenarios USA is an innovative sexual health campaign in which schools, community organizations and media professionals join to support youth in writing, scripting, and producing short films (www.scenariosusa.com).

Music

Music strongly influences youth. The Adolescent AIDS Program at Children's Hospital at Montefiore Medical Center in New York City put hip-hop to work for HIV prevention. Using music, videos, and magazines, HIV and the Hip-Hop Culture: Choices, Challenges and Care deconstructs hip-hop music and lyrics as well as the social forces that influence young people's choices with regard to sexual behavior, relationships, culture, and other sexual health issues (www.adolescentaids.org).

The Taskforce of Greater Cleveland, Ohio, uses hip-hop music and videos to provide information about safer sex and making sexual decisions. Young audiences identify with the content, appreciate the creative approach, and are responsive to the prevention messages, and the Taskforce hopes that young people will 'own' and promote the positive messages throughout their social circles (www.aidstaskforce.org).

Poetry

Poetry slams are gaining in popularity across the country. Heavily influenced by jazz, rap, and hip-hop, slam poetry is the competitive art of performance poetry, putting a dual emphasis on writing and performing. Groups such as WritersCorps give young people a creative, nonviolent outlet for their frustrations and conflicts. WritersCorps holds writing workshops in public schools, homeless shelters, and community centers, working to engage young people in exercising their creative energy and to build their self-esteem through writing. Competitive poetry slams, where youth read and perform poetry in 'verbal boxing matches,' allow young people to be a visible, creative force in their community. WritersCorps currently has projects in Washington, DC, San Francisco, and the Bronx. Another group, the New School Activists (a youth-led theater project of MetroTeenAIDS) uses slam poetry, games, break dancing, and music to accomplish HIV prevention with urban flair (www.metroteenaids.org).

Empowerment

The Sister to Sister/Hermana a Hermana program in Washington, DC, is an arts and leadership program to empower girls and young women. As the founder, Marta Urquilla, says, We consider the arts an effective vehicle for encouraging positive self-expression and for strengthening community. Participants rely upon alternative modes of expression—visual arts, poetry, dance, and performance—to communicate who they are and who they want to become. We encourage the arts as a means to explore and overcome personal struggles and confrontations… We define health as a young woman's foundation, her backbone, emotional, physical, mental, and social—that empowers her to make necessary choices to survive, provide for herself, and take action on her own behalf and that of others (Sts_coordinators@yahoo.com).

Although research has not yet proved that linking art and prevention messages will result in the adoption or maintenance of sexually healthy behaviors, the young people who are the creators and the consumers of these nontraditional interventions attest to art's power to reach and teach.

When asked why I am a youth activist, I tell people that I am a "youth activist in the making." I once thought that an activist was someone who was really involved in politics. Now, I know that a youth activist is a one who strives to create positive social change in whatever issue she/he feels compelled to.

Valencia, MySistahs online peer educator & member, Young Women of Color Leadership Council

Transitions (ISSN 1097-1254) © 2004, is a quarterly publication of Advocates for Youth—Helping young people make safe and responsible decisions about sex. For permission to reprint, contact Transitions' editor at 202.419.3420.

Editor: Sue Alford

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