In this chapter response, the author revisits young men and women whose voluntary writing and visual literacy practices helped teachers, teacher educators, and literacy researchers rethink the "funds of knowledge" urban youth bring to classroom communities. She examines transformations of everyday spaces into teaching and learning…

Using the framework of social literacies studies, this article illustrates the central role of pleasure as both the motivation for and result of rap composition. Drawing on ethnographic research conducted with four young adults who are part of a rap collective, the author identifies three key sources of pleasure in composition: (1) Discourse…

Discusses the lives and feelings of homeless youth living in the streets of America's cities. Includes a photo essay on street youth expressing their desperation and alienation in graffiti. (KH)

This manual is a comprehensive guide to identifiers of gang activities and memberships. The "People" and "Folks" concepts it uses represent the two main divisions of street gang affiliation. Gangs that belong to the "People" nation use the left side as an identifier, use a five-pointed star as an emblem, and claim…

This paper describes the Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF), the principal source of federal funding for child care subsidies for low income families and the principal source of federal funding for initiatives to improve the quality of child care in the states. Each state qualifies to receive an amount of federal funds under the CCDF each year…

Two Akron, Ohio programs which serve urban disadvantaged students are described. Areas examined are curriculum, support services, and staffing. (CT)

Attempts to place the study of anti-Asian violence into a context that recognizes the patterns of antagonism and violence ingrained within the process of class formation and the construction of systematic forms of racism. Suggests that patterned forms of anti-Asian violence have been the product of reactionary social movements supported or…

This teacher always thought that it was the loudest voices that got heard, but she was wrong. In this document, a teacher shares the greatest tool she has discovered in teaching inner city youth, her quiet voice.

This article examines the poetry, prose, and rap lyrics written by nine low-income, African American and Latino urban youths. The study is based on a 3-year research project using ethnographic methods including field observations, informal interviews, and collection of written artifacts. Part of a larger study of these youths' writing practices,…

Findings are presented from an ecologically grounded, longitudinal study of 206 urban, ethnic minority adolescents that used hierarchical linear modeling to examine: (1) individual trajectories of change in adolescents' perceptions of general and closest same-sex friendship quality from middle to late adolescence; (2) the effects of gender and…

This report provides a detailed picture of how youth aged 12 to 20 in three American neighborhoods--Austin (Texas), St. Petersburg (Florida), and Savannah (Georgia)--spend their nonschool time and the amount and level of the basic "vitamins" of support from adults and institutions that they receive. The three neighborhoods are the…

This review examines trends in marijuana use through a study employed to track the progress of the recent epidemic among arrestees at 23 locations across the nation. It identifies nationwide drug use trends within the mainstream population on the basis of self-reports of past-month use, a measure parallel to the length of time in which marijuana…

These papers share perspectives on crime and justice. The following lectures are included: (1) "Crime Control, the Police, and Culture Wars: Broken Windows and Cultural Pluralism" (George L. Kelling); (2) "Race, the Police, and 'Reasonable Suspicion'" (Randall Kennedy); (3) "The American Experience with Stimulants and Opiates" (David F. Musto);…

The widening disparity between wealth and poverty is the major obstacle to racial conciliation in the United States. Organized labor is the most important vehicle for challenging the widening gap between rich and poor to work for racial and economic justice. (SLD)

Describes intergenerational programs, usually in cities, that bring older adults into the schools and afterschool programs. These programs show senior citizens the many good qualities of children today and demonstrate for children that older adults still have much to contribute. (SLD)