As public health guidelines limited social gatherings and encouraged social distancing, arts education and social justice programs needed to reconsider their traditional in-person activities—creating a collaborative activist mural, for example, or performing an original play—for the safety of their communities. How did they bring together young people in meaningful, socially engaged arts experiences without being together physically?

I had the opportunity to speak with representatives from three organizations who have fearlessly navigated the complicated world of re-envisioning onstage performances, keeping students of various ages engaged over Zoom, and creating a sense of community among young people who may have never met in person. In their interviews, each leader explained how their organization has adapted and reimagined programs to engage youth in arts and social justice virtually and offered insight on how your community can do the same.

Youth Justice Program at The Possibility Project

Based in New York City, The Possibility Project’s Youth Justice Program (YJP) brings together young people entangled in the NYC justice system to create art and theater that empowers them to be leaders, activists, and change-makers. In an ordinary year, the program guides around 15 teenagers in creating an original musical show over the course of six months, culminating in a premiere at a professional theater. Along with basing musicals around relevant social/political issues chosen by the participants, the YJP also contains a community action component in which youth undertake a three- to four-week activism project.

When one of the Possibility Project’s other performance programs first confronted the pandemic in March, they quickly pivoted to adapt their final production from a musical to a radio show. But for the upcoming season of YJP, artistic director Alex Batres envisions something else entirely. “Since we now have this virtual world and these digital capabilities, we decided we wanted to leave [the final production] up to the cast,” says Batres, who mentioned a short film, an animation video, or a musical album as possible outcomes. “Since we are not tied to doing a theater piece anymore, we have a lot more room to do other things.”

While the program’s output may be completely reimagined, many other tenets of YJP will continue virtually. Batres has reached out to experts in virtual teambuilding, who will help participants form the sense of community that is critical to the program experience. He has researched digital platforms in order to translate activities more effectively to Zoom; for example, using a Google program called Jamboard to replicate an in-person exercise involving chart paper. Perhaps most importantly, YJP will continue to provide an outlet for youth to process, discuss, and respond to the issues surrounding them. “I know that young people everywhere are looking at our country and thinking ‘it’s all over the place’ because it is,” says Batres. “But we have to continue to be a light for them, that space for them to come together and create something beautiful that they can share with the world.”

Baltimore Speaks Out at Wide Angle Youth Media

An ongoing collaboration between the Enoch Pratt Free Library and Wide Angle Youth Media, Baltimore Speaks Out (BSO) is an 8-week program that teaches young people aged 10 to 15 the tools they need to create and produce digital media about community concerns. Led by collage artist Beth Holladay, BSO’s most recent session, conducted entirely online, guided each student in creating a zine-style short-form story based on their imagination. “In giving students the leeway to imagine, I don’t think there’s a way to exclude their experience from seeping in,” says Holladay. “It became an interesting tool to talk about our collective anxieties, fears, and questions.”

BSO utilized a weekly schedule where students received guided worksheets on Monday, live illustration workshops on Wednesday, and group discussions on Friday, with individualized attention available via phone or email throughout the week. Anticipating inevitable student absences, Holladay assigned each week an individual “focus point” that connected to the larger product, such as setting, conflict, storyboarding, or layout. In addition to formal teambuilding exercises within live sessions, the participants quickly developed ways to interact on their own terms. “I was charmed by the middle school students who utilized the chat space,” recalls Holladay. “I think there were some really lovely inclinations to creating a positive environment in this virtual space that wasn’t yet coded with all the ways that students typically interact with each other.”

While some students have chosen to keep their zines private, others will be shared over the Wide Angle blog and Instagram, a choice that Holladay hopes will help students “make sense of what is happening, have a voice, and transmit that voice in a meaningful way.” She advises other organizations that hope to engage in similar virtual efforts not to get caught up in the technicalities. “It’s more important for students to have access to your organization right now than anything else,” she says. “Give people a way in and then listen to the needs of those who are showing up.”

Voices for Social Justice at the San Francisco Opera Guild

For the past 9 years, the Voices for Social Justice Program (VSJ) at the San Francisco Opera Guild has given thousands of elementary and middle school students the opportunity to synthesize music and storytelling to “change the hearts and minds of people around them,” according to Education Director Caroline Altman. Over the course of a 12-week classroom residency, students work with teaching artists to identify an issue facing their community, develop a plot based upon that issue, compose lyrics and melodies, learn singing and projection techniques, and publicize and perform an original musical. Aiming to help youth create music that “conveys deep conviction,” as Altman puts it, past VSJ productions have dealt with themes such as racial discrimination, electronic addiction, and deportation.

Rather than the typical live performance, each of the nine classrooms participating in the inaugural virtual version of VSJ this spring produced a show that combined pre-recorded choral tracks with dialogue read live over Zoom, a format the upcoming fall program will continue. Additionally, some schools reconsidered the themes of their musicals as the pandemic began, with one classroom refining their original theme of immigration to highlight elements of isolation within the immigrant experience.

Based on her experiences, Altman advises similar programs looking to go virtual to find staff who are inventive entertainers as well as strong educators. She also suggests choosing activities that allow students to move around and interact with their individual environments. Finally, like Batres, she stresses the particular importance of consciously creating a virtual environment where students feel safe to use their voices. “Singing is so courageous,” says Altman. “It comes from within and it is not reliant on any instrument. You have to be compassionate and establish a situation where everyone feels at ease.”

While YJP, BSO, and VSJ all involve different age groups and artistic mediums in their respective programs, the common principles that emerged when discussing each program’s approach to arts and social justice virtual programming are widely applicable. Emphasize process over product, understanding that young people, like everyone else, may require some extra flexibility during this time. Think about who has access to virtual programming and, when possible, provide resources like borrowed laptops or subsidized WiFi to fill in the gaps. Finally, even though connecting students with their communities remains an overarching goal, start small by focusing on connecting students with each other. For if we want young people to create art that promotes social change, we must create a virtual space with enough continuity and community that they feel comfortable speaking up in the first place.