Youth-Led and Future-Focused: The Movement Behind “Envisioning Our Liberation”

What does liberation look like when young people get to define it themselves? 

That's the question at the heart of “Envisioning Our Liberation,” a youth-led residency born from a simple but powerful desire: more connection, collaboration, and community. Through a partnership between StoryArk and the University of Minnesota's Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Program, high school students and college youth are coming together across neighborhoods, cultures, and identities to tell their stories, create art, and advocate for the communities they love.

Meghan Bridges, executive director of StoryArk, and Laichia Vang, StoryArk's program director of youth empowerment, spoke about how the residency came to life alongside youth participants, who shared what the program means for the young people shaping it.

Tell us about your project

Meghan: “Envisioning Our Liberation” started as an idea, a little seed. We were in the midst of planning for the future of Youth Executive Board (YEB), our after-school program, with our youth, asking, “What’s missing, what do you want to see in the future of YEB?” and the answer was clear: more connection, collaboration, and community. A seed that grew into a residency. And our residency is centered on those same principles: connection, collaboration, and community.  

In partnership with the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Program, specifically with Academic Advisor Mark Krell and MLK Student Peer Leads Brianna Jackson and Tejiri Ogbemudje, we have held three youth forums throughout the year, bringing together high school youth and college students and their affiliated youth programs or University of Minnesota multicultural student organizations. These forums have provided space for relationship building, knowledge sharing, and collective action, all using storytelling and art as tools for advocacy. Stories addressing social justice issues that impact them and their communities. Our residency project will culminate with an end-of-the-year exhibition and celebration, where youth will share their stories and celebrate the power of voice, art, and storytelling.

Astou (student): My project is a piece of artwork about culture and unity. After the ICE raids, several groups and ethnicities were targeted, and we wanted to amplify the voices of marginalized communities.

Manka (student): It's allowed me to see the issues that we face in my specific communities, and in others’ communities, and find ways to talk about them or potentially impact and change them. [For example] … discrimination against certain student bodies at the school that I attend… [This project] was [able] to talk about it and bring awareness to it, explain why it's not fair, and why each group needs to be equally represented… I've learned about issues in other communities, such as the ICE raids and protests going on in Minneapolis and around the U of M campus. 

Bih (student): I hope we can make an impact on our community with the stories that we're telling [and of] who we are. Hopefully, we can give it to our school, and they can see how we feel. I hope they [the school board] can switch up a few things.

An Khue (student): I hope to have an impact on people [and that they] listen to it… someone looks at my poster… and they learn something new… I actually had so much fun when I was creating my playlists. It reminded me [of] how powerful music can be for social justice.

Azah (student): I hope to see people continue to stand up for what they believe in.

What role will students play in this residency?

Meghan: Youth are leading this residency! From planting the seed to growing the program, it’s all done by youth. Youth leaders plan, facilitate, and evaluate each step of the way!

An Khue: Youth Facilitators from the Youth Executive Board's Facilitation Team (youth leaders who plan, facilitate, and evaluate YEB programming), as well as youth from the MLK program, work together to envision and plan how the forums will go and look! During the forums themselves, we each have different roles and responsibilities, such as who leads which session or activity. Other Youth Executive Board members also volunteer to help out as well. 

Student participants at the forum get to use strategic storytelling to inspire positive changes in a social justice issue that they care about, while also building connections with one another.

How did you get connected with the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Program?

Laichia: Let me take you back to the winter of 2025. StoryArk’s YEB voiced that they wanted to meet more young people in Minnesota. So, I wondered, how could I and we make that happen? 

At that time, I was a senior at the University of Minnesota, and I had known of the Liberal Arts Engagement Hub. And I knew that they were opening up their application cycle [for residencies] soon. So, StoryArk decided to apply with the ideas of our YEB members to envision their dreams and desires to meet more like-minded young people. In order to apply, The Hub requires a CLA partner, and I was already a part of the MLK Jr. Program, and knowing both their commitments to social justice, I thought it made sense! 

I reached out to my MLK Advisor and took a leap of bridging. And guess what, they said yes! This story is a reflection of our Community Cultural Wealth. Dr. Yosso names the different cultural capitals that we have and develop. While this was written in application to students of color entering college, it is also applicable to the various assets, capitals, and wealth that we have as individuals and collectively. The development of this partnership is especially due to Aspirational, Social, Navigational, and Linguistic Capital I and we had and fostered, using the Aspirational Capital of Youth Executive Board members and their hopes and dreams of meeting more like-minded youth, alongside my Social and Navigational Capital of being connected to StoryArk, the MLK Jr. Program, The Hub, and broadly the University of Minnesota. This culminated in a lived possibility. 

So what does this mean? University of Minnesota students play a pivotal role in connecting and developing University and community partnerships. I am an example of this. Of course, there are challenges, but imagine the possibilities if the University of Minnesota better facilitated and amplified the power of young people. So I ask this question: How might the University/community lean into Community Cultural Wealth to develop ongoing and future partnerships?

How does your residency foster cross-community collaboration?

Meghan: By intentionally bringing youth together from different schools, neighborhoods, cultural backgrounds, identities, and youth-serving programs into a shared space where they can learn with one another and from one another, not just alongside one another. Through three forums across the year, young people build relationships, exchange lived experiences, and explore shared questions around leadership, identity, justice, and community impact. 

The collaboration is not theoretical; it’s built through shared discussion and learning, group activities, creative work, and collective planning and creation that culminate in the end-of-year exhibition and celebration. Youth are not only learning from each other but also actively co-creating something together, which strengthens empathy, mutual understanding, and a sense of shared responsibility across communities.

Astou: By partnering with other organizations, we are able to create a space where students can collaborate on shared goals and share our work with each other.

Anye: The whole residency provided a space where everyone has an idea, or a sense of… [that] they feel important enough to participate in certain activities.

An Khue: By bringing together youth from across programs. Other than the Youth Executive Board and MLK Jr. Program, the Hub Residency includes various other groups, such as BSU, ComMUSICation, Girls Getting Ahead in Leadership, and MALCS. I feel like everyone I've met, they are so cool… It's cool to learn about other youth organizations like Girls Getting Ahead in Leadership… I [also] liked interacting with the MLK program, [and] it made me interested in even joining it. 

Manka: I really like connecting with people, and even after I'm done… I just hope it's still accessible to people and allows people to make these connections with other communities, and learn about what is [possible] to learn. Go deeper into what's going on around them [and] around other people. [Having] more education on what's going on in our world. 

What’s next? How can the CLA community get involved?

We are continuing to build on the momentum of this year’s residency, carrying forward the stories, relationships, and collective energy that emerged through our time together. As the world shifts, we are committed to meeting the moment: listening deeply, learning in real time, and evolving alongside our youth to ensure this residency remains responsive, relevant, and rooted in the lived experiences of our community.

Right now, our youth leaders are actively shaping what comes next: imagining new possibilities, strengthening community connections, and designing the next phase of this work with boldness and care. This residency is not a finished product; it is a growing movement, led by young people who are determined to create a more just and liberated future.

And at the heart of it all, we return to the question that guides us forward: How do you envision our liberation?