Voices of Youth

Our mission

After voicing her desire to help the youth community fulfill their specific needs, Anacheliz Ortiz, the daughter of NML’s founder Ana Ortiz, formed Voices of Youth, a subgroup of NML. Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, Anacheliz saw how her friends and family of similar age struggled in different ways. At first, she decided that organizing covid-safe movie nights would be a great way to foster engagement and help alleviate the isolation many felt from necessary quarantine. But after talking with NML’s network of supporters, Voices of Youth was created and would extend itself into planning additional youth-oriented programs.

To support the Hispanic/LatinX community and cultural exchange, NML and its subdivision, Voices of Youth, held summer art workshops in a Hispanic/LatinX context for Ithaca youth. Artwork created in these sessions and from our open-call to submissions will be showcased through NML’s weekly food distributions during national Hispanic/ LatinX Heritage Month.

Sponsors

Voices of Youth is partially supported by the Rural Humanities Initiative from an award by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, Cornell Department of Comparative Literature, and the Cornell Latina/o Studies Program. 

Summer Arts Program

Take a look at the projects made this summer during our 8-week workshops! Workshops included painting, Mojigangas construction, clay hand-building tutorials, Mariachi, jewelry, and more.