“For when a people no longer have the space to construct homeplace, we cannot build a meaningful community of resistance.”- bell hooks
Sept 22 - nov 19
MONdays + WEDNESDAY, 3:30pm - 7:00pm
Ages 13+
For 2025, SJLA youth have been exploring the concept of home. This spring, they examined housing justice through documentary storytelling. This summer, they looked at nature's role in creating a sense of home. This fall, SJLA youth will explore community's crucial role in fostering a sense of home, asking what part they can play in supporting this sense of home for their fellow community members. This will involve hands-on art making, field trips, and workshops led by local artists and makers.
We invite youth ages 13-19 to join us join us for a Fall of liberation, arts, embodiment, healing and community! Youth are encouraged to apply as either as a SJLA participant or a SJLA Youth Staff Fellow*. In order to be eligible for the SJLA Fellowship Program youth must be age 16+ with valid working papers.
*Youth staff are required to attend a full day Sat. training (date/time TBD in mid September)
Free transportation may be available depending on your location. Email hello@kitesnest.org to learn more about this program and how we can support your child to attend.
MORE ABOUT HOW to apply:
Interested in attending SJLA as youth participant in Fall 2025?
For youth ages 13-19.
All youth must complete an application to be accepted to participate in the program. We prioritize the majority of our program spots for BIPOC youth and youth from Hudson. However, everyone is encouraged to apply! The program is free for all participants.
Space is limited so get your applications in soon! We will follow up about your acceptance notification.
Applications are due now: apply here today.
Interested in working as a SJLA Youth Staff in Fall 2025?
Youth staff help run program during SJLA program days.
Orientation for youth staff is a required multi-day training and team-building experience before all participants join SJLA. Orientation is mandatory for all Senior Fellows. Training will take place in Sept. (exact date TBD).
Youth staff are paid hourly. Work includes: helping to design and lead activities; providing mentorship to their younger peers; helping to cook meals; setting up, cleaning up, and maintaining the space; and engaging in daily reflections.
All youth staff (ages 14-19 with current working card) must complete an application to be hired as staff for the program, as well as an in-person interview. Fellows are also encouraged to apply for a position through the NY Summer Youth Employment Program of Columbia Greene Workforce.
There are limited paid positions and priority goes to youth who have been participants in the program and those in the NY Summer Youth Employment Program. If you’d like to apply for a paid position next year, it’s helpful to be an unpaid participant in the program first, so consider joining us this summer!
Youth staff positions are limited. Please fill out an application here to be considered.
Email hello@kitesnest.org or call 518-241-3540 with any questions.
MORE ABOUT SJLA
ART, MEDIA & CREATIVE EXPRESSION
Throughout the year we use art to express and explore ideas, to ask questions, to reflect, to share, and to transform ourselves and each other. We collaborate with professional music producers, photographers, media-makers and poets to write and record songs, make visual art, screenprint t-shirts, shoot photography projects and films, write and perform poetry, choreograph dances, create public art, etc. Art supports us to take control of our own narratives: share and reflect on our lived experiences; develop our radical imaginations; mobilize our communities for action; and celebrate our joyful and creative selves.
TRANSFORMATION & HEALING
SJLA is a safe and loving space for youth to engage in the transformative work of self-discovery, identity development, and community care. In employing teens and supporting youth leaders, we intentionally work to disrupt patterns of toxicity and burnout within community activism and work — instead always centering joy and creativity, and holding space for land-based ceremony. Youth develop the skills to support the mental health of themselves and their loved ones, connect with the healing traditions of their own communities and lineages, tap into the healing potential already within us, and explore the intersections of collective healing, wellness, and justice.
POLITICAL EDUCATION
Through hands-on workshops and deep discussions, we develop our critical awareness and understanding of systems of power, privilege, and oppression. We learn about issues impacting our lives & communities, exploring policing, food insecurity, housing displacement and gentrification, incarceration, deportation, educational injustice, colonialism, gender and sexuality, and more. We learn about movements for liberation, and together we develop our visions for making our own community a more just, safe, and liberatory place.
YOUTH-LED ORGANIZING
We organize for action! We learn about the roles that people play in movements, and consider each of our own skills and passions. Are you an artist, a warrior, a builder, a healer, a storyteller? What kind of power do you bring to your community? We learn skills and strategies for making change, research issues in our community and design our own creative actions and campaigns. At the end of the summer session we plan and host an epic public event for our families and neighbors, inviting them into our growing movement, as we prepare for building our campaigns throughout the year.
BUILDING THE MOVEMENT
The relationships we develop during SJLA are long-lasting: together we build a culture and community of openness and acceptance, trust and mutual support. Every week we also connect with inspiring organizers, activists and artists in our city and beyond. We travel to meet other youth groups in the Hudson Valley, Albany, and New York City, sharing our songs and art, learning about other youth organizing efforts and media projects, and building relationships for future collaborations. SJLA is a family. Our partners include the Columbia County Sanctuary Movement, Wildseed, Hudson Muslim Youth, Youth FX, Found Sound Nation, Wild Gather, Soul Fire Farm, Brotherhood Sister Sol, and more…
HOW YOU CAN SUPPORT THIS PROGRAM
Every summer, we provide meaningful employment and job training to youth leaders (ages 14-19) to help facilitate and run this program, and to serve as mentors to their younger peers (ages 12-16). By employing teen staff, we make participation in the program possible for youth from low-income families. Learn more about tiers of sponsorship and make a commitment below.
LEARN MORE ABOUT SJLA
Want to look through the magic we’ve created with SJLA over the past 10 years? Visit our SJLA archives, where you can find photos, reflections, videos, songs, and more. This archive is an important artifact of the work and impact our young people and staff build and put forth in our community. We hope you find meaning and inspiration as you walk through our past programs and experience the joy and power that happens when we come together in community.
Kite’s Nest programs are made possible in part by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.