We Are Animals, A Children’s Strike as Part of Who Owns the World? PCC Conference at The New School 2019

Summary

We Are Animals, A Children’s Strike at Who Owns the World Conference, convened by the Platform Cooperativism Consortium at The New School in November 2019.

The artist Gabo Camnitzer and The Sixth Street Community Center (SSCC) are collaborating to facilitate children in developing alternative modes of protesting for climate justice. Engaging with the radical history of children’s strikes of the past 200 years, children at SSCC are developing their own forms of protest, ones which might point beyond the confines of sanctioned forms of demonstration. We are proud to offer our conference as the site of this performative intervention.

Gabo Camnitzer is an interdisciplinary artist and educator working at the intersection of experimental pedagogy and sculpture. Through installations and workshops which place emphasis on embodied learning processes, Camnitzer develops sites for experimentation with alternative forms of meaning-making. Drawing on his experience working in early childhood education, Camnitzer often works collaboratively with children to examine the interplay of agency and social structure in subject formation.

Sixth Street Youth Program is a dynamic after school program that offers New York City youth (ages 5 and up!) quality after school workshops in an intimate class setting. With a limited enrollment of up to 30 students per day and an average staff to student ratio of 1:5, each child receives thoughtful guidance and support that is needed to foster their individual and creative growth. Our program is committed to developing strong community,  expressive creative skills, mindfulness, and social and environmental awareness and activism among our youth. Our mission is to cultivate a warm and inclusive atmosphere that honors each student’s unique strengths. Sixth Street Youth Program has quality enrichment in the arts, urban gardening, urban sustainability, and community activism.