Saint Louis Story Stitchers Artists Collective has released a collaborative music video performance of “Pick the City UP” with the Lewis Prize for Music as part of a series titled Accelerating Change: Creative Youth Development Across the United States. The video is one of many in the series, which also includes videos from similar organizations around the nation including Hyde Square Task Force, Mosaic Youth Theatre of Detroit, and Beyond the Bars.
Saint Louis Story Stitchers is a non-profit organization dedicated to youth violence prevention. Its main focus centers around allowing young people in the city to explore artistic outlets such as visual art, music, dance, and writing as forms of expression and escapism from potentially harmful situations. President of Saint Louis Story Stitchers Susan Colangelo says the organization employs the idea of Creative Youth Development, which “uses the arts to lift young people up in many ways.”
Colangelo cites the Saint Louis Story Stitchers podcast, StitchCast Studio, as one way of implementing this idea. The idea is also shown throughout the other art programs facilitated by the organization. These programs encourage young people to pursue activities that are beneficial to them while also providing a space for creativity and social engagement. Within the first month, she says participants begin learning and utilizing a plethora of important life skills such as listening, communication, teamwork, interviewing, recording arts, technology, and more.
In addition to the podcast and workshops, the organization puts a focus on one specific, universal thing that has the power to bring people together. “It’s easier to pull in a young person who’s feeling lost, or disconnected, or depressed through the one art form that almost universally draws young people: music.”
Courtesy of Saint Louis Story Stitchers.
Story Stitchers brought a group of participants together with varying artistic talents—rappers, dancers, a videographer, and a director—to create the video for “Pick the City UP,” which acts as a call to action for youth to join efforts to restore and bring peace to the city through art.
Emeara Burns, 25, joined Saint Louis Story Stitchers about nine years ago after attending school with some of the members and performing spoken-word poetry in talent shows. Burns is one of the participants in the video, performing a section of the rap, which she also helped to write. A new generation of youth becoming involved in the program called for an updated version of the previously written song, which still communicates the same overall message.
“We had some of the mentors and adult artists come in and help us,” says Burns. “Our audio engineer actually made the beat, so everything was in-house, and we just kind of got to bounce off of each other.”
Burns says the video was planned to showcase efforts of young people to “pick up” other talented youth from various spots around the city. She says the intended message to viewers is that young people should channel their energy into artistic methods and continue to lift up their community through their talents rather than turning to violence.
“To be here and remember the days when we were envisioning the organization being at this place is really rewarding, and it kind of gives you a zeal and motivation to keep going forward, because you see what it’s done for you,” she says. “I’ve seen what it has done for me, and I can only imagine what it will do for other youth within our city.”
Quinsonta Boyd, 28, a local videographer hired to film the video, did not have prior experience with the organization before working on the project. He says he was very affected by the message and the combination of both heart and talent the participants brought to the shoot.
“Everything they were doing was touching,” he says. “A lot of this youth, it seems like they’ve had the same type of upbringing that I had. Seeing the different sides was life-changing.”
Ribbon cutting at The Center. Courtesy of Saint Louis Story Stitchers.
The director of the video and youth council co-chair, Branden Lewis, 24, has been a member of the organization for six years. He says the video concept was built around the Lewis Prize for Music grant’s request for them to put together a video “developing how the grant was helping to push the organization forward, what we were doing as an organization, how we were making an impact on youth through arts.”
The grant also coincided with plans to open a new space, The Center, where young people can engage in numerous artistic activities in a safe, comfortable environment. The recently opened facility is equipped with a mental health room, game rooms, recording spaces, instruments, writing center, visual arts workspace, dance floor, and more.
Llord Brown, 26, participated as a dancer in the video. He says he wants to help encourage youth to “be yourself” through the organization while taking steps to make the city a better place.
“I wanted to have an impact on the youth,” he says. “Since I was already doing great things, I wanted to help the youth to do great things like me.”
Colangelo says the video and the organization have one common goal: “Young people need to invest in the city in order for it to be what it truly could be.”
“Pick the City UP” can be viewed on YouTube, Vimeo, or on the Lewis Prize for Music’s website.
