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COMMUNITY

The People's Organic Grocer
Malaika Edwards, 27
Oakland, California
Looking around her neighborhood in West Oakland last fall, Malaika Edwards saw plenty of stores selling canned goods and liquor but no place to buy an organic tomato or a fresh loaf of bread. Spurred on by the throng of unemployed kids hanging out in the street, the former executive director of Youth for Environmental Sanity! helped organize the People's Grocery, a community-owned organic grocery store run exclusively by youth.

Currently operating out of the back of a biodiesel truck 'with a phat sound system,' the market is set to open next year as a storefront. The grocery sponsors an urban garden and farm field trips to educate young people about access to 'affordable, nutritious, culturally appropriate food,' Edwards says. 'West Oakland has very little self-sufficiency in terms of the local economy. The People's Grocery tackles issues of racism and globalization on a grassroots level.'
-Anjula Razdan

Inner-City Youth Organizer
Luis Sánchez, 27
Los Angeles, California
Luis Sánchez was just 17 when he joined community action programs in Los Angeles. He quickly learned that he had a talent for motivating young people-and that he lived in a society that seemed more eager to lock up marginalized youth, or steer them into the military, than to educate them. 'Schools are the last public space where people of different backgrounds mix,' says Sánchez. Now he's been working to mobilize the schoolkids of East L.A., whom he sees as a vast untapped resource for social change.

Sánchez and others saw their efforts pay off in March 2000, when California students took to the streets to protest Proposition 21, a new state law that toughens the juvenile crime codes. The protest was part of a wider dissatisfaction among California students arising from the fact that new police and prison facilities get a lot more money than their run-down schools.

To better prepare students to think critically about their options, Sánchez helped found Youth Organizing Communities in Los Angeles (www.schoolsnotjails.com); they offer training on such topics as 'Students Not Soldiers' and 'Fighting Patriarchy and Heterosexism.'

Currently associate director of InnerCity Struggle, a community organization fighting for economic justice in East L.A., Sánchez also co-edited an anthology of progressive writings about 9/ll called Another World Is Possible (Subway & Elevated Press, 2001).
-Erin Anderson

Improv Community Builder
Tad Hargrave, 26
Edmonton, Alberta
It wasn't just any waffle brunch. The casual weekly gathering hosted by the late environmental legend David Brower at his Bay Area home was, in the eyes of teenage attendee Tad Hargrave, a shining example of how to build community. That notion stuck with Hargrave as he matured as an activist and found himself attending conferences around the continent. He realized that the most stimulating moments were the short breaks between sessions, when people could connect without any pressure to craft the grand manifesto that would change the world. So after attending a Youth for Environmental Sanity! camp in 1999, Hargrave began Youth Jams (www.yesworld.org/jam/index.html), annual gatherings to counter the isolation and burnout that young activists often feel. These entirely unstructured weeklong hangout sessions-akin to musical jams-bring together 30 accomplished young activists to network, rejuvenate, and cultivate visions and friendships. 'Covert activism,' Hargrave calls it.
-Abbie Jarman

Borderland Ambassador
José Cruz, 19
Edcouch, Texas
While José Cruz and his classmates were still in high school, they came to see their community's reliance on the Spanish language-the Edcouch-Elsa school district is 99 percent Hispanic-as something more than a deficit that makes life difficult in America. They founded the Spanish Immersion Institute (www.llanogrande.org), where visitors from around the country live with a local host family, attend classes, and might even go to a quinceñera celebration marking a young woman's 15th birthday. Run by local youth (most of the program's tutors are teenagers, while many of the students are adults), the four-week program aims to promote cross-cultural understanding. Currently a pre-med sophomore at Yale, Cruz hopes to become a doctor to serve the Rio Grande Valley.
-Maria Opitz

Indigenous Youth Leader
Clayton Thomas-Muller, 24
Oakland, California
When Canadian-born Cree activist Clayton Thomas-Muller performs a ceremony, the effect is both electrifying and grounding. This accomplished drummer, singer, and traditional pipe carrier, who now lives in Oakland, has appeared at numerous international forums, hoping to inspire indigenous youth to take part in governing their communities. He has co-founded a number of organizations, including the Indigenous and Non-Indigenous Youth Alliance and the National First Nations Youth Council of Canada. Through a joint effort between Project Underground (www.moles.org) and the Indigenous Environmental Network (www.ienearth.org), Thomas-Muller now supports North American indigenous communities whose environmental and human rights are threatened by the oil industry.
-Rebecca Wienbar

Nonprofit Landlord
Dawn Peebles, 25
Chapel Hill, North Carolina
After years of renting a house together, Dawn Peebles and her five housemates realized that they'd forked over $50,000 to their landlord and had nothing much to show for it. After doing a little research, they formed the Hillsborough Road Co-operative and soon bought two houses, one of which has a large gathering space for community concerts and events. 'Our approach to cooperative ownership has been to turn private property into affordable, community-controlled living space,' says Peebles. While co-op residents do not accrue equity in their homes, they enjoy reasonable rent because the houses are owned by a nonprofit trust-a long-term sustainable form of affordable housing. Peebles and her housemates formed a group called Objective: Collective and now travel nationwide conducting workshops on this cooperative model of housing, which has relevance not only for young people like themselves, but also for squatters and retired folks.
-Julie Madsen

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