Alex San Kopano Resource Centre was packed with Alex youth on 16 June when Alex Arts Academy collaborated with The National Poet Laureate Hub and South African Music Education Trust to celebrate Youth Day.
The theme of the day was Vuka Uzenzele [do it for yourself] to enlighten Alex youth about the June 16, 1976, Soweto Youth Uprising, and how art had developed.
Linda Ngele, creative director at The National Poet Laureate Hub said the event aimed to encourage the youth to start making changes for themselves using the resources they have.
“We want to install the idea of Vuka Uzenzele into the brains of the youth. They should learn that with the very little resources they have, they can still make a change for themselves and society,” Ngele added.
“Freedom is in our hands, it is not going to come from the government.”
The event featured guest speakers Refilwe Pieterse, Professor Mongane Wally Serote and Sobhuza Nkosi, According to Ngele, the guest speakers were a force to be reckoned with when it comes to motivating the youth.
Head of the theatre department and education officer at Alex Arts Academy, Masiza Mbali said Youth Day should be celebrated because it reminded people where they came from and what they were capable of.
Speaking to Alex News Mbali said, ”The youth that we want to grow here is the youth that will form an opinion in society, that will drive the conversation, that will tell us that it is not the economy that we need to be fighting for but the dignity of youth.”
Ngele and Mbali encouraged the youth to promote their skills and talent on social media as it played a huge role in growing art.
