Liberated Youth

July 8, 1997

A new generation of social-change activists will come together for an event at Rollins College in Winter Park from July 17-22. The "Youth Liberation Conference" will include workshops, speakers and participation in an action to feed the homeless. The purpose of the event, according to a flyer, is for "kids to get together and teach each other the different things they have learned and experienced to try to make a positive change. This in turn will lead to kids sharing ideas and information so they don't feel isolated thinking that no one else feels the way they do."

Two similar conferences were held in Sarasota, with the second one attracting 150 people, says Megan Graham, an organizer of the event. She thinks attendance in Orlando could reach 100. The workshops will address many topics, such as "sex awareness," conscientious objection to military service, how to organize against Selective Service registration and how to fight racism. Speakers will include representatives from Anti-Racist Action, a Columbus, Ohio-based organization, and the National People's Democratic Uhuru Movement, a St. Petersburg-based black nationalist group.

The organizers are local youth activists, including some affiliated with Orlando's chapter of Food Not Bombs, a nationwide group. FNB, which emphasizes grassroots, decentralized efforts to feed the poor and homeless, started in Boston in 1980 and was an offshoot of the anti-nuclear movement.

In Orlando, up to 10 FNB members at a time cook and serve vegetarian meals to homeless people twice a week. "It's all young people," doing the work of "sharing" (the term they prefer) donated food with those in need, says Graham. "We do FNB just because people are hungry, and they deserve to eat."

On Wednesdays, the activists feed the homeless at a vacant lot in downtown Orlando, while on Sundays, the operation moves to Lake Eola Park. (This is where those attending the conference will participate.) According to Graham, they feed 30 to 50 people on each occasion, depending on the time of the month.

Graham's personal commitment to working for a better world motivated her to help organize the conference. "I just think that there's a lot of things that need to be changed, and I'm going to do as much as I can," says the 19-year-old Valencia Community College student. The event, she feels, will help attendees decide what to do with their lives. "If they want to become future activists, the youth conference is a just a great tool for that."

The cost to attend the conference is $10 on a sliding scale (depending on the ability to pay). This includes vegetarian meals. For more information, call Graham at 275-5152, or e-mail her.

Ben Markeson
I'm a first-generation Floridian, a second-generation American, a college drop-out and have a strong anti-authoritarian, anti-corporate bent. I edited and published two local "alternative" newspapers - The Orlando Collegian and The Orlando Spectator (three if you count The Orlando Reporter, which had one paper issue before becoming an e-zine), and also free-lanced for The Orlando Weekly. But I don't call myself a journalist because that sounds pretentious.