Tara Crichlow
Liberty Program 1989 - 1994
Tara was in the first graduating class of the Liberty Program. She attended Bronx Science for high school and received her undergraduate degree in May 1998 from the Eugene Lang New School. The focus of her thesis was hip-hop and its relationship to black culture.
At Risk
That's like all the people who live in the ghetto...everybody in Harlem, everybody in East Harlem, everybody in my neighborhood, everyone who doesn't have a lot of money, everyone who's a person of color...because of the existence of oppression and a lack of opportunities and things like that.
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Culturally Deprived
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Culturally deprived. That sounds like most people of color too...Most people of color don't know that much about their own cultures.....Like they know about European culture, American culture...but it's not like it's part of their own culture, as part of their own agency, is just sort of something that happened around them. Or happened to them. They really don't have a culture of their own. I didn't get to learn about my culture till I was in college. When they're talking about Americans they're talking about George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, Andrew Jackson and people like that. The only time that black people and native Americans, Mexicans are mentioned is like during the Alamo or when slavery occurred or during segregation. They're like culturally deprived because their culture doesn't get any recognition. Unless they're lucky enough to have someone teach them about it.
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Minority
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I don't know. That's like an oxymoron, a contradiction because people of color make up most of New York, I mean most of the world. So technically we're really not a minority. So I don't even use that word anymore. I say people of color now.
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Hope
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There's hope ...if you find your voice ...everyone has something that's their voice. For me its dancing. Helping my family.... Things that you do you feel good about are constructive, .....a little piece
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Future
Future. Wow. When I think of the future I'm always... kind of worried because I'm not sure what's going to happen in the future ....Being in college I come across all these different theories of what's goin on: Some people: there's going to be a revolution. Some people: like there's going to be a big holy war. Some people: we're all gonna end up integrated become one peach colored person. Did you see that on the cover of Newsweek ?
I don't know what the future holds...I'm hoping that it's good, but I don't feel secure that it's going to be good. I still see struggle.... The future, it has potential but I can see that so much work is going to need to be done.
Community
Community is like a wonderful thing in essence, but it's a difficult thing to maintain....
In order to have a community everybody has to be willing to cooperate, be open-minded & understanding, be realistic, and not have too much pride.
In order to have an effective community everybody has to be...so flexible. That's it.
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Knowledge
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Knowledge is a funny thing. This is my theory of knowledge just based on what I have thought about in terms of religion. Each person thinks that they know. And knowledge is knowing. But in reality it's just their own interpretation of what has happened or might have happened....There is nothing that is definitely...exact. Plato might have thought math....Math and physics. That's the only things that are like that. But with everything else, it's subject to your own interpretation because you're bringing your baggage from your life, and your experiences, plus what you read is somebody else's baggage so it gets so complex. So that knowledge, I think, is, I don't know, is something that's kind of contingent....
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To Learn
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Learning is a cool thing. It's just people have to be humble. I've come across people who feel ashamed to ask questions, or who think they are too good to ask questions. Or who are close-minded and don't want to learn.
The only way you're going to survive is if you continue to learn throughout your whole life.... Since knowledge is never totally solid. New things happen. New knowledge, new discoveries...things people thought were impossible but are happening. You have to continue to learn or you will become obsolete. You won't know what's goin on. Things are going to be happening around you and it's gonna feel like you have no control over the world. And I think that's often what happens to people of color. Especially kids because they're just thrown into the world . And it's like "Okay now you gotta go to school you gotta learn this this this. This is what happened, that's it." But if they're taught that they had no impact on the world then they're gonna feel like that they're not meant to have an impact.....but just function in it. A cog within the bigger machine of life.
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Mistakes
Mistakes are a good thing. Cause you learn from them. I try not to make too many, that's why I'm indecisive a lot. Mistakes, they're bound to happen. So the real key is learning to learn from them and getting over it and moving on and making sure it doesn't happen in the future.
Mindfulness
That's a good word. I try to be mindful. I think that's real important. When I think of mindfulness I think of being sensitive, being sensitive to other people. I think the world would be a much better place if people were mindful of other people's situations....Instead of thinking of the bigger picture as a whole.
If we could all just give everybody food, give everybody a house, if we didn't have to have some people at the top of the pyramid and some on the bottom, who are never going to be able to come out of the bottom. Everyone deserves just basic human rights, like to have some place to live, have food to eat....If people would just be mindful that we are all on this one planet together. We're not going anywhere any time soon. We should try to treat each other as we want to be treated..... There wouldn't be those factory workers, or slave labor like in the Caribbean, brothels for the military in Korea...things like that. I feel like people are being oblivious intentionally....
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To educate
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It's really difficult these days, within New York... public schools...it's difficult because the resources available are just so scarce....so insufficient. So I give my utmost respect to good teachers not like bad teachers, who come in grumpy and don't show any kind of love or compassion for their students. To educate is such an important job because teachers are going to be shaping the thoughts and beliefs of their students....Of course ...there are parents and even television and media. Teachers....are the known source of knowledge. They have such a big job. That it's so important that they do it right.