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The Child and its Enemies
mk: Hello and welcome to The Child and Its Enemies, a podcast for and about queer and neurodivergent kids and teens living out anarchy and youth liberation. Here at The Child and Its Enemies, we believe that youth autonomy is the key. me is not only crucial to queer and trans liberation, but to anarchy itself.
Governance is inherently based on projecting linear narratives of time and development and gender onto our necessarily asynchronous and atemporal queer lives. And kids, teens, and everyone else affected by anti child ageism are at the center of this form of oppression. Our goal with the podcast is to create a space by and for kids and teens that challenges all forms of control, and inspires us to create neuroqueer, feral, ageless networks of care.
I’m your host, MK Zariel, my pronouns are they them, I’m 15 years old, and I’m the youth correspondent at the anarchist review of books, author of the blog debate me bruh, and organizer of some all ages queer spaces in my city and online. With me today is our first ever guest, Sky Gia Garcia, who is a community organizer and freedom fighter.
Hello, Sky.
Skye: I am so stoked to be your first guest. As MK said, my name is Skyjia Garcia, my pronouns are she, her, hers, and my business in Madison is primarily centered around my work with Outreach LGBTQ Community Center, along with my personal advocacy work that continues no matter where I live and who I am affiliated with.
mk: So you work with Dane County Youth Action Board for a project led by queer, trans, and unhoused young people, correct?
Skye: Yes, I am employed by Outreach LGBTQ Plus Community Center here in Madison. I was hired to work for a program that’s now called EverStrong, and at one point it was called YHDP, which stands for Youth Homelessness Demonstration Project.
EverStrong is a program that has been designed and led by Dane County’s Youth Action Board, and the Youth Action Board is made up of youth between the ages of 13 and 24 who have lived experience of housing insecurity, and some of them just so happen to be queer as well. I think that one of the most amazing things about this Program that the Youth Action Board has spearheaded is that it is designed to be incredibly inclusive to people that are most marginalized, including the LGBTQ community.
mk: That is so cool. I would love to learn more about that. But before we get into all that, I am so curious about how you organized when you were a younger person, did you have access to spaces like the youth action board or was there other organizing or just other ways of experiencing and creating anarchy that were meaningful for you?
Skye: Honestly, I wish that I had access to the spaces like the Youth Action Board. No, there was nothing for me to access like the Youth Action Board in my hometown of Rockford, Illinois. I believe that every city should have a Youth Action Board and that we should continue to be led by radical youth who wish to break the molds that bind us.
The best ways I was able to create anarchy was by defying gender norms that existed. I would purposely position myself to be put in a space that was historically not meant for me, and at times this would create chaos because due to the support I would have from my peers, we would successfully overthrow the status quo and authority rooted in heteronormativity and patriarchy.
mk: Honestly, I love that. It would be so beautiful to live in a world where every city had youth liberationist spaces that anarchist teens could find when we need belonging and care. So, on that note, why don’t you tell me about the Youth Action Board? What kind of cool projects do you support these queer kids in?
Skye: Well, My favorite way to support the Youth Action Board is by creating a space for their autonomy to flourish respectively. Um, I’ve made sure to show up in meetings with other adults who may not understand the importance of their leadership due to the indoctrination. And I continuously center our compass on the truth that this project is to be led by the Youth Action Board.
And without their leadership, we simply wouldn’t have it. There is so much adultism that exists in the world that it really attempts to delegitimize the ways that the youth’s lived experience can create revolution. And if we didn’t have this program, Dane County, it would be a shame. Uh, this program is designed to be like no other social service offered in the area.
So, we’re able to provide necessary support in ways that hasn’t been possible, all in an effort to end youth homelessness.
mk: I love that moment of accompliceship, that showing up to not only educate other adults, but to help them advocate for youth liberation in the way you have. So on that note, um, what would you say your experience as an adult human facilitating YAB have taught you about youth liberation?
And more broadly, what would you say that youth liberation means to you?
Skye: So this is actually one of my first times ever Working on a program that was not led by all adults. Um, and so for that reason, my experience with the Youth Action Board, it’s reminded me of the success that comes from having no hierarchy of leadership.
You know, the Youth Action Board, they’re very horizontal and they’re organizing and I think that that is so valuable because a lot of the institutions that are perpetuating the violence and, uh, they. Are structured in this hierarchical way that is responsible for the oppression that we are seeing. And to me, youth liberation means listening to the voices of the youth and allowing those voices to overpower our own so long as it is rooted in expanding consciousness.
And liberation of all oppressed people.
mk: That is really interesting about how the more adult dominated spaces you’ve been in also tend to be hierarchically organized because I would say hierarchy almost originates with the HSM we all face as kids and teens with compulsory education and being grouped by age in a system that’s mostly about compliance.
And it makes so much sense and it’s so meaningful that a radical youth space would be so IC and horizontally organized. And, um, on that. On that note, what would you say your relationship to anarchy is like as a trans liberationist and youth liberationist organizer?
Skye: You know, my relationship to anarchy looks like being a part of a multitude of different horizontal projects and constantly sacrificing any type of privilege that I could hold by refusing to stay silent.
Instead, I put myself on the front lines and assure that the institutions who wish to uphold the patriarchy that is responsible for this mess know who I am and who I stand with.
mk: So Skye, how would you say that your. How does your work with Youth Action Board interfaces with the other radical spaces in so called medicine, Wisconsin?
Skye: Well, I think that the way that the project that the Youth Action Board has designed is in solidarity with other radical spaces is that it’s really done a great job at legitimizing these practices.
Because This is a program that is federally funded. It’s partnered with the city of Madison. So, I think that provides this opportunity for these new approaches, and I only say new as in Being actively practice and embrace in such a capacity, but for them to be legitimized in a way that the radical communities, especially the grassroot radical communities that don’t have the backing of a federal funded program, you know, these practices are ones that.
Radical communities have continued to attempt to implement and have continuously been destabilized and delegitimized and criminalized. So I think that it’s really beautiful watching the ways that we are really shattering the illusion that these solutions won’t work because. The proof is in the results.
You know, we are reaching so many youth who are homeless within our community of Dayton County and due to the approach, the individualized approach, the unique approach to having. Each community member design the ways in which their circumstances are barriers and how to overcome how to overcome them and providing housing 1st is the data that we have needed and being a part of that is.
Extremely liberating. I love it.
mk: What advice would you have for youth and teens who want to get into community organizing and, you know, being on the front lines in that way you describe? Or youth and teens who just want to liberate themselves and find more autonomy and care despite the ageism they face?
Or what would have been useful for you when you were younger?
Skye: Honestly, something that would have been really useful was More of the support that I shouldn’t be so quick to doubt myself. I think that that is a big problem within our society today, especially in raising youth is that youth are commonly tested of whether or not they know what they’re talking about, especially when they’re talking about themselves.
So the. Words that I have for any youth out there that are listening, I would love for you to accept whatever fear you have and go ahead and work with that fear, allow that fear to guide you and identifying barriers because. It can work in your favor. You know, while fear is heavily corrupted and influenced by external factors, fear can serve a purpose that is productive.
It’s a human experience. And I would say, the more I have healed my relationship with fear, the more it has served to protect me. So, to anyone who’s listening out there, if you want to get into community organizing because you recognize the ways that it will liberate you and your community, start your own collective.
And don’t allow the fact that you may only start with a few people to deter you. Remember to value the contribution and power that just one person has to offer, even if that one person is just you. Believe in yourself. I believe in you. And if you ever forget, find me. I will remind you.
mk: That idea of starting a collective as a teenager is so meaningful.
When I was bullied in middle school for being gay, I started a queer liberationist collective at my middle school, which, you know, middle school anarchist group. While it sounds like a sitcom, it was really liberatory at the time, and I think that so many teenagers would love that experience of finding their people and organizing and providing care.
So, if you could say anything to a teen out there struggling with something in their life and looking for community and connection, what would that be? Wow.
Skye: Well, before I get into that, I just have to say, MK, that is really, really, really cool. Thank you so much. I love it. Yeah, you are very inspiring. So when it comes to teens that are struggling with something going on in their life and looking for community or connection, I, I’d love to let you know that if you find yourself disappointed and uninterested in the status quo of mainstream society, and you want something different for yourself, because you just Don’t relate.
Please don’t give up. Listen to my voice when I say this. Please don’t give up. Another world is possible. Another world is happening at the exact same time actually. I see it and I live it with my eyes and my soul every day. Allow my voice to support you in shattering the illusion that your community isn’t trying to find you.
Shatter the illusion that your community doesn’t exist. We are here. We are looking for you, and we believe that we will win.
mk: I love that so much. And if teenagers are trying to find community with you, would you please share your shameless plugs?
Skye: Oh, yeah. So, if you’d like to connect with me, you can find me on Instagram.
Uh, my at name on Instagram is Sky Binary. That’s S K Y E B I N A R Y. And you can also find me on Facebook at Sky Gia Garcia. I’ve got a few Facebook accounts floating around, so make sure you add my most recent one.
mk: Amazing. Well, thank you so much for being our first ever guest on The Child and Its Enemies.
This was so cool. And thank you so much for all the work you do for youth liberation. Any last words you’d like to close out the podcast on?
Skye: I think I would just like to say thank you so much for having me. And I really look I look forward to the ways that this will support the progress of the liberationist work that I’m dedicated my life to.
https://sabotmedia.noblogs.org/skye-gia-garcia-outreach-lgbtq-community-center/
