By Grace Pateras
[email protected]

I am unknown. I will overcome my harmful addiction. I’m afraid of going to Hell. I’m afraid no one will love me for who I am.

These words are part of I Am, I Will, I’m Afraid, a project brought to 12 high-school kids involved in the United Action for Youth organization more than a year ago by Traci Molloy, an artist and social activist based in Brooklyn. The piece, meant as a way for the student to express themselves, will soon be displayed on a tapestry banner in the Wesley Center, 120 N. Dubuque St., beginning 5 p.m. Friday.

“It’s not my piece, it’s our piece,” Molloy said. “The piece does not exist without the kids’ voices and without their content on all aspects of it.”

Molloy began the project with a get-to-know-you discussion, asking the youths questions about themselves and offering them the opportunity to share a piece of their story. The kids then expressed their feelings on paper. Following that, the group walked around downtown Iowa City, found a spot where each youth stood alone, and Molloy took their photos.

Those photos were overlaid into one image, handwritten words from the workshop over top.

“I could tell she had experience working with young people before because she got how important it was for them to have ownership over any kind of collaborative process, for them to have a voice in what they were doing,” said Mickey Hampton, a United Action arts coordinator. 

Because Molloy travels to work on projects, she likes to get to know the youths to try to understand where they’re coming from, she said, which is important to invite kids to open up.

“You need to establish trust in order for this project to work,” Molloy said. “The kids from [United Action] clearly trust Mickey and feel safe in that space, and because of that, they were willing to work with me and approach the project very earnestly and very seriously.”

In the I Am, I Will, I’m Afraid series, Molloy has traveled the country speaking with various young people, advocating for the same expression by creating portraits of adolescence. The language is often raw, uncensored, and unfiltered; the questions are difficult prompts for anyone to answer, Molloy said, and honest answers can be intense. 

This series of portraits displayed as one is to express how different adolescents feel in varying areas.

Molloy works on many projects focused on youth. Sometimes, the collaborations are with underrepresented or underserved youth, other times with kids who have gone through extreme trauma, such as losing their parents on 9/11.

“Part of the reason I work with kids is because they’re willing to go into that space and communicate through that language when they feel like they’re not being heard using the language they have access to, which is their words,” she said. “When people aren’t listening to them, they feel dismissed or ignored, but sometimes, you can get people to pay attention if you use a different form of communication.”

The Iowa City youth represented in this project come from a variety of types, Hampton said.

In the picture, there is an A-student, a child on the spectrum who struggles to make friends, and some who are making “bad” decisions. But Hampton said just showing up to an art workshop is a good choice, something to celebrate.

“We always focus on strengths and support kids where they’re at, and [let them] know everyone has struggles whether you’re an A-student or have no support at home,” she said. “Every youth has some kind of struggle, and we’re here to provide that support.”

Olivia Kellicut, a 16-year-old participant, said the experience helped her find herself.

“I thought it was really special that we had somebody from New York come all the way to Iowa to talk to just this specific group,” she said. “Having her input some of her artistic skills into what we were doing was really neat.

“She asked us those questions that you wouldn’t usually ask yourself. Things you don’t normally think about when it comes to talking about yourself, things like ‘what are the types of people you like to hang out with?’ Those types of deeper questions.”

Though this project was unique, Hampton said, the organization often focuses on art and music to connect with kids.

“It’s a great tool to help people talk about complicated issues or explore their identity or who they are or want to be in a creative way that’s not always talk talk talk,” she said. “If we did this kind of workshop every day, it would exhaust our kids. Not everybody wants to focus on these sort of heavier topics all the time. In fact, as it turns out, a lot of teenagers just want to have fun and relax.”

At the showing, each participant will get a print copy of the piece from Molloy as a thanks for being part of this project. 

“You see a lot of growth in these young people,” Hampton said. “I’m not going to suggest that art is the only way to achieve that impact or see that transformation in a young person, but it is a powerful example of how art can actually help someone change.”

ART
I Am, I Will, I’m Afraid
When: 5 p.m. Friday
Where: Wesley Center, 120 N. Dubuque
Admission: Free