AV俱乐部

Humans are amazing creatures, able to thrive under seemingly impossible conditions. An individual鈥檚 success is related to resilience and this is a quality researchers around the world want to better understand.

Enter Michael Ungar 鈥� principal researcher with AV俱乐部鈥檚 Resilience Research Centre (RRC) 鈥� who believes resilience is more than a person鈥檚 capacity to overcome problems. 鈥淚t鈥檚 also all the things a person needs to make it more likely they will overcome the odds stacked against them,鈥� says Dr. Ungar.

Members of The Polling for Justice Project present a day in the life a New York City teen.聽 (Photo Bruce Bottomley)

The RRC鈥檚 second international conference Pathways to Resilience opened with public performances by The Polling for Justice Project and Concrete Roots 鈥� two groups animating what young people today need to succeed.

Polling for Justice consists of five teens and colleagues from New York City who share research far and wide 鈥� but not in typical fashion.

鈥淛ust projecting charts and stuff is so boring,鈥� says Maybelline聽Santos of the Polling for Justice Project. 鈥淲ho鈥檚 going to take part in a meeting where they鈥檙e bored all the time?鈥� This group needs the attention of audience members to help spread their message of teens and social injustice in New York City. Polling for Justice provides a call to action for youth and young adults around the world, sharing the injustices faced by teens and seeking to understand ways to make a better tomorrow.

A combination of theatre, dance and improvisation is used to share information from more than 1,000 surveyed youth in areas of education, public health and criminal justice. 鈥淲e decided that we wanted to show them in a way that used our bodies,鈥� says group member Jaquana Pearson. 鈥淏asically, we鈥檙e trying to embody (our data) so (people) have a better understanding of what鈥檚 going on.鈥�

鈥淲e want to tell everybody what it鈥檚 like to be an urban teen, or a teen in New York City, because it鈥檚 not all as exciting as it sounds 鈥� it鈥檚 difficult,鈥� says Darius Francis of Polling for Justice.

Michelle Fine teaches at the City University of New York and a member of the Participatory Action Research Collective. Upon being invited to present at the resilience conference she gathered performers from Polling for Justice, which she helped to develop in 2008.

鈥淲e sought to understand what young people desire, and the ways in which state, national and global policies are dispossessing them,鈥� says Dr. Fine. 鈥淭hat is, taking away their very human rights to education, health care, housing, and what we might sincerely call human security: the ability to believe that tomorrow will be better than today.鈥� The evening鈥檚 opening act 鈥� Concrete Roots 鈥� is an example of teenagers who have taken another approach, which has already improved their quality of life.

Concrete Roots show what they are made of. (Photo Bruce Bottomley)

Halifax-Based Concrete Roots teaches 鈥渂-boying,鈥� a rhythm-based display of dance andacrobatics. The six teenage 鈥渂-boys鈥� who call themselves Eastern Bloc have聽 certainly found a creative form of expression that is going to help them in life. Perhaps more commonly called breakdancing, the crew prefers the more specific name, 鈥渂-boying.鈥�

鈥淏reak dancing is a misconception,鈥� says Drew Moore, who co-founded Concrete Roots in 2008. Mr. Moore鈥檚 b-boy name is Daroo. 鈥淚f you鈥檙e a 鈥榖reakdancer鈥� it means you鈥檙e someone who doesn鈥檛 fully understand the culture.鈥�

And there is quite a culture to understand. In fact, b-boys and b-girls live an entire lifestyle. For example, 鈥溾�� we wear bright shoes because it draws attention to our feet for our footwork,鈥� says Mr. Moore. 鈥淭hey don鈥檛 just become b-boys when they鈥檙e on the dance floor, they鈥檙e b-boys all the time. That means if you鈥檙e confident in the circle, you have to be confident all the time.鈥�

This confidence shows. Several members of Eastern Bloc didn鈥檛 speak English when they joined just over a year ago but during the conference鈥檚 special event, each dancer took the microphone to recount his experience as a b-boy.

鈥淵ou don鈥檛 even want to go out and make trouble anymore if you鈥檙e a trouble maker,鈥� says George Gregoryan a.k.a. Spike Nice. 鈥淵ou would want to go into the studio and be with your friends because it鈥檚 that energy when you practice that keeps you out of the streets and out of trouble.鈥�

Next month, Concrete Roots is going to the Yukon. 鈥淲e got invited to go to Cypher for Change, a national forum for youth to learn how they can enact positive change in their communities,鈥� says Mr. Moore.

Resilience is an element shared between the Polling for Justice Project and Concrete Roots; both groups strive toward success for young people, perfectly embodying the goal of the Pathways to Resilience conference.