Open Road at Afro-Punk: Mentor-based skate school & camp

Commodore Barry Park is a deteriorated and underused park located between two public housing projects. For a
period of two months before Afro-Punk Open Road went into both public housing projects, to all local schools
and groups, and in the park itself. We did face to face outreach, at all different times of day. For a period of one
month before Afro-Punk this outreach took the form of a mentorship-based camp, using Urban Youth curricula.
From these activities we learned more about the park, recruited people to the event in the park, and also
changed the park itself by changing the social environment. The effect was immediate and profound. Personal
relationships formed between people who had a common goal of improving Commodore Barry Park. Afro-Punk
was attended by 20,000+ people over a three day period including at least 1,000 youth, and the Parks
Department has been communicating with us on permanent environmental improvements to Commodore Barry
Park. Some of these improvements were previously proposed by the community, and some were conceived and
proposed during Urban Youth planning.

Areas where youth can design skateboard decks, make graffiti murals, and draw were aligned with tables full of
knitting and sewing supplies and children’s art materials. Teens, seniors, adults and kids naturally worked side
by side because of the layout of these freely available materials. They began interacting and mixing naturally.

An area where teens could come and sit in the shade was open to everyone all day. This teen area was in a
walkway between the event areas. It was private and public at the same time; appealing to teenagers and kids.
Teenages recruited one another from this shady area to teach young kids and seniors skateboarding, which was
fun and interactive and led to new relationships forming.

A youth filmer (Tracy Landon, 18) filmed, edited and produced a video for Open Road of the event.
http://www.vimeo.com/12965082. A tutorial “How to Measure your Park” using Google Earth, by and for youth
was published on public mapping and park design websites, and this tutorial features Commodore Barry Park.
https://picasaweb.google.com/OpenRoadPark/ParkDesignHowToMeasureYourSite?feat=directlink. Digital
pictures studied and produced by adult/youth mentor teams are here:
http://playgrounddesign.blogspot.com/2010/06/mentor-pairs-took-digital-pix-of.html

Commodore Barry Park has also been a base for one of our innovative additions to the Urban Youth curricula.
Using the maps and research we developed in the past, we created a Park Design Game, where youth create
maps of parks, create improvements virtually, and then use these virtual parks to engage a youth advocacy team
to make improvements in the real park itself. This has proven successful in the parks surrounding Commodore
Barry and it’s neighboring projects in Fort Greene. At Parham Park/PS 20 and Bridge Park 2 as well as nearby
Squibb and 51 park, people made maps, Skate3 movies and skate videos. As prizes for successful completion
of maps we gave out skate decks signed by local skaters, who themselves are advocates for parks and live near
these parks that are part of our Urban Youth coalition. This combines our previous work from 2005 to now,
where youth created maps and put them on Oasis, Google Maps, and brings it to a whole new interactive level.

The Park Design Game combines popular video game platforms like Xbox 360 with Google Maps and Oasis to
produce the base maps needed for park improvement projects. It has proven very popular with teenagers, and
you can see blue hyperlinks to youth-made maps and youth collected data combined with agency data, as well
as data from the Census and elected officials.

Park Design Game

Choose a park or schoolyard. Measure walls, steps, cracks, drains. Study existing photos.
2. Make maps in SketchUp, Sims, Skate3, pencil.
3. Learn how people use it now. Ask people at the place, search youtube, and oasis.
4. See what people want on scribd, surveys + real people at the place. Draw avatar models of them.
5. Make 2D + 3D game pieces of what people want to to do there. Choose an avatar to represent each kind of
user: skater, biker, student, parent, teacher, kid, teenager.
6. Take pix and list the good + the bad about the place
7. Play design games with people at the real place.
8. Play Android and Skate3 games of your place with people.
9. Play games, skate, football, free play at the place with people.
10. Send game + place info to sponsors who might support it.
11. Get support with info on kids nearby + need for parks.
12. Work with partners to build your new park improvements
Curriculum Outline for Open Road at Afro-Punk
Organizing, Fact Finding, Generating Ideas, Creating a Program Design, Leading the Program

Goal: Art, skateboarding, BMX, are integrated with design, stewardship, and environmental improvements in a
public park to create a high quality camp, festival and after school program. Participants use a structured 5
step Participatory Design process that will be used by the local team for ongoing community improvements.

Organizing
Assessment of community assets and needs. Assessment of Commodore Barry Park assets and needs.
Broad outreach within the park, inside Farragut and Ingersoll Houses, PS 287, Khalil Gibran Academy, PS 261,
PS 20, Academy of Arts and Letters, Parham Park.
Focused outreach: approach people skateboarding, biking, and playing in the park and invite them to the team
Form the team of local youth participants in the pre-event camp, Afro-Punk, and in post event activities
Form the team of local leaders of the pre-event camp, and all other activities
Determine people’s interests, skills, and roles in the program
Make needed revisions in organizing plan and proceed to Fact Finding

Fact Finding and Generating Ideas

Learn about Farragut Houses and neighborhood present, past, and desires for future changes.
Measure Commodore Barry Park and produce digital pix/maps of the festival area and the neighborhood.
Interview neighbors, school principals, program leaders, and youth on improvements to Commodore Barry
Provide Festival site layout, schedule, and plan to youth team
Plan program activities at festival together with the youth team
Lead a full day design and outreach family festival at PS 20 on Afro-Punk festival and Commodore Barry
Learn about PS 20 and produce maps of the Afro-Punk outreach/family festival area and the neighborhood.

Create a Program Design

With the youth team, create a program for 4 days before the Afro-Punk festival. Activities include; outreach,
skateboarding that meets NY State Standards in Physical Education, biking, participating in baseball games at
the park, art, architecture, and mapping activities with children and teenagers within Commodore Barry.

Leading the Program

Local youth leaders of the pre-event camp, Afro-Punk youth programs, and post event activities at Commodore
Barry Park, PS 20, and the surrounding neighborhoods: Olu Wallace, Nikios Wallace, Steven Lora, Michael
Rivas, Anthony Rodriguez, Taji Ameen, Dave Willis/BD, Kane Cameron, Mory Kamara, Stephan Martinez,
Denzel France, Victor Thomas, Tarela Kelvin E, Wade Yates, Patrick Reid, Fiddy Brown, Joseph Delgado,
Rodney Torres, Rob Campbell, Tim Rutgers, Keith White, Billy Rohan, Paula Hewitt Amram, Aswad Foster.
A youth team and 5 adults led a program for the Afro-Punk festival’s 20,000+ attendees. All attendees were
invited to participate in the Open Road at Afro-Punk youth program.

At Commodore Barry Park in Brooklyn we created a youth arts and skateboarding zone that was the center of
youth activities during the three day long AfroPunk festival. 12 youth from our core team, 10 additional youth
and 5 adults and seniors recruited directly from Commodore Barry Park in the months leading up the the
festival, all worked together on the festival overall, youth programs in particular and on environmental
improvements to Commodore Barry Park. The program during the festival had two key components. 1. A broad
effort to provide a rich attractive youth area, where graffiti arts, fiber art, doll making, martial arts and
environmental studies are integrated with skateboarding. The design of the “pop-up” youth space itself
encouraged youth to interact with each other and with people of all ages. 2. A focused curricula on
Skateboarding.

Open Road Skateboarding Curricula follows New York State Standards in Physical Education
Students understand and demonstrate movement concepts and principles in a variety of movement forms:

Skateboarding requires self awareness, balance and physical control. Students learn to walk, push, glide, skate
forward and backward, hop and jump (ollie), all of which demonstrate different movement concepts and
principles. Momentum, inertia, friction, slope, incline and other concepts are learned naturally while
skateboarding, in a fun, experiential and challenging atmosphere.

Students use interpersonal communication skills that respect differences and demonstrate responsible and
social behavior:

In Open Road skateboarding physical education classes students depend upon one another, learn from each
other, work on skills in a group and work independently. Students learn to respect one another's physical
capabilities and differences. Skateboarding as a group requires students to demonstrate responsible and social
behavior by respecting one another's physical space, learning not to skateboard into one another, enjoying the
achievements of others, and learning to assist one another in mastering the skills. In skateboarding culture when
a skateboarder falls in public others show respect. Students in the class quickly adopt this standard.

Students exhibit a physically active way of life and understand that physical activity provides opportunities
for enjoyment, challenge, self expression, stress reduction and employment:

By participating in Open Road skateboarding classes and being encouraged to skateboard on their own after
school, and at citywide skateboarding events with their families, students participate in a physically active way
of life. Skateboarding is naturally enjoyable and fun for children. Learning the sport is challenging, and by
increasing the skills learned, the skater is continually challenged to learn more. Skating encourages self-
expression by teaching the students at their own pace and allowing them to create their own choreography. The
physical and mental focus required to skate well, along with the sensation of freedom felt gliding, reduces
stress. The career and employment opportunities provided by skating are evident from the sponsorship
relationships associated with skateboarding events, and through exposure of students to skating instructors –
professionals who earn a living by skating and teaching the sport.

Students demonstrate competency in physical skills with proficiency in several:

Skateboarding requires competency in a variety of physical skills. At the conclusion of the school year, the
students are able to demonstrate competency in numerous physical skills on the skateboard, including standing,
pushing, gliding, skating forward and backward, balancing on one foot, hopping, jumping, turning forward and
backward, and navigating safely through the playground.

Students demonstrate safe and responsible personal and social behavior in physical activity settings:

In Open Road skateboarding classes, students learn and are able to demonstrate safe behavior while using a
skateboard. This includes the proper way to wear and care for the equipment, the safe way to fall and get up,
and how to distinguish between safe and unsafe skateboarding behavior. All of the skills learned will include
the proper and safe way to execute each maneuver, with discussion of the possible consequences of not
executing the maneuvers safely. Students learn safe ways to assist someone who has fallen, to avoid bumping
into other skateboarders, and to respectfully alert other skaters who may not be aware of their proximity.