Bab al-Markaz: New Year, Old Faces

AAAN Singer, Videographer Aaisha Durr Remembers Her First Day at AAAN

I came looking for the AAAN office, address in hand. I saw the sign, opened the door, and was shocked to see the stairs. I felt like I was going into an apartment. There was a broken step, and I tripped on it, as everyone did their first few times they came here. I knocked on the door (this was before we got the buzzer) and another teenage hijabi girl answered. 'Are you here for the interview?' she asked. I didn't know about any interview but I said 'ok.' I sat down near some other youth who were filling out papers. Sarwat and Zeid (former youth organizers) came out and started calling people up to talk to them. I was sitting there, looking at the paper, thinking 'Oh my gosh, I don't even know what kind of job this is.' I was 16 or 17 at the time. I had been involved with IMAN for five years or so, but they didn't have any paid jobs for youth, so my mentor there had suggested I check out AAAN.

'Why do you want to join?' they asked when it was my turn.

'Honestly, I don't know,' I told them. 'Can you tell me what this job is about?'

They told me it was the AAAN's first-ever creative writing program, and it was spoken word and hip-hop. I was thinking, 'this is great,' because I used to do poetry and sing, but I hadn't in a while. After the interview, they said they would call. It turned out Zeid and Sarwat knew my mentor, so I figured I was in. Zeid called and said I got the job. I could swear he said it started the next week.

A week later, he called. 'Aaisha, where are you?' he said. 'You missed a week already.' I was thinking, 'why didn't you call me the first day?' So I went in and had my first day of program.

We learned all kinds of different poetry and spoken word techniques. We did group and individual pieces. We went on different field trips and performed in different places. It got me out of my bubble; it brought out my personality. And I got a social life. I was home schooled at the time, and mostly spent time with people in their 20s and 30s, so it was great to be around people my own age.

Then Sarwat left, and Gihad came. We had a semester of all girls, so we formed AYWA (the Alliance of Young Women Activists.) We did field trips. We played games. We talked about secrets. We laughed a lot.

Then we started YLT (Youth Leadership Team). It was me and 4 or 5 others. Gihad and Zeid thought it would be good for us to take control of the program; it would bring out our personalities, and boost skills. We started phone banking and going to different trainings on things like organizing. Then came Research and Organizing.

I was also doing a project for IMAN with Aaisha Mohamed on youth in the neighborhood and gang violence. We decided to do a music video with poetry, and we took a camera out to 63^rd street. We formed a music group together called Indigo, and we started getting paid gigs. Now we're making some new songs and working on a cd.

The AAAN is great because it's so relaxed and people are free to talk. Here you can wear what you want. I learned political things here too, like about Palestine. I learned to be more talkative. I feel like I have more opinions, and feel freer to say them.

This is going to sound clichéd, but I think the most important thing for youth is education. It's the root of everything, and it's what the AAAN does. It makes you question and wonder-not a lot of places do that. Here they give you all the different sides and you have to figure out what you believe. You want to get information from good sources. You can get it from good TV stations (there aren't many of those) and from good community leaders. If you see people doing good work, then you know you can trust what they say and teach too.

Watch Aaisha D's video about the Youth Organizing Program

Watch Aaisha perform "Have You Ever"

Listen to Aaisha sing "Pretend"