LISMORE Library will bring together a panel of local speakers during Youth Week to show young people there are many ways to create change through community, creativity, law and music.<\/p>\n
Titled How to Be a Change Maker: Creating Change Through Culture, Community and Action, the discussion is designed for people aged 16 to 24 and seeks to inspire youth to turn their ideas, passions and lived experiences into action.<\/p>\n
Librarian Kimberley Layton said the event brings together four local speakers with different backgrounds and approaches to making a difference in their community.<\/p>\n
“Each has a different area of passion that they can share with the audience,” she said.<\/p>\n
“The idea is that each one of these speakers will give their insight into how to make a difference and how to do it effectively.”<\/p>\n
The panel includes Lismore’s environmentalist of the year Ina Engermann, visual communicator and designer Kate Stroud, barrister Jason Buckland, and acclaimed Indigenous rap artist and producer Mr Rhodes.<\/p>\n
Layton said each speaker brings a distinct perspective, from legal and community pathways to creative expression and engagement.<\/p>\n
“Jason went to school here, and he’s now the local barrister, Kate is embedded in the community, Ina has been making really big differences, and Mr Rhodes has been turning his experiences into music and doing workshops and creating change that way,” she said.<\/p>\n
Mr Rhodes said creative expression plays a key role in how he engages with activism, and hopes to share that perspective with young audiences during the discussion session.<\/p>\n
“I think in today’s age when censorship is so proactively trying to silence people, the ability to express yourself freely is part of activism and what we do as humans,” the Bundjalung hip hop artist said.<\/p>\n
Alongside making music and touring nationally, Mr Rhodes also runs the First Nations program at Northern Rivers Conservatorium and said he remains very much connected to his hometown of Lismore.<\/p>\n
“I’m a Lismore boy through and through,” he said.<\/p>\n
“With the influences that go into my music being so eclectic, I think it is a reflection of Lismore and the Northern Rivers as a whole, because there’s diversity in sounds and people and we get a bit of everything around here.”<\/p>\n
For Mr Rhodes, hip hop is a culture that embraces that eclectic approach, an experience which he describes as “freeing”.<\/p>\n
“Hip hop is a culture in itself,” he said.<\/p>\n
“The music is rap, but hip hop is the culture of it.<\/p>\n
“It draws from everywhere so you can make it whatever you want it to be, and it gives me so much space to be able to express what I want.<\/p>\n
“Whether I’m angry, whether I’m proactively protesting or making statements, or whether I’m just trying to tell my story, I think it’s such an open landscape that it gives me that ability.”<\/p>\n
Mr Rhodes said the event at Lismore Library, which aims to encourage young audiences to channel creativity into meaningful action, reflects Lismore’s strong activist heritage, a characteristic he said is relatively unique compared with many other regional Australian areas.<\/p>\n
“We’re very lucky in that we’ve got such an active community,” he said.<\/p>\n
“It’s a privilege of where we are on the East Coast.<\/p>\n
“You go to other regional areas, and communities are not as actively engaged.”<\/p>\n
Mr Rhodes said he understands the value mentors hold for youth in the local community.<\/p>\n
“Kids can’t really dream to be something if they don’t see it,” he said.<\/p>\n
“I think the more we model these more positive experiences and show our faces the better.”<\/p>\n
The Lismore Library Youth Week panel will be held on 23 April from 4pm to 5.30pm in the Lismore Library youth area.<\/p>\n
It is a free event, and bookings can be made online.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
LISMORE Library will bring together a panel of local speakers during Youth Week to show young people there are many ways to create change through community, creativity, law and music. Titled How to Be a Change Maker: Creating Change Through Culture, Community and Action, the discussion is designed for people aged 16 to 24 and […]<\/p>\n