Teens paint mural for hangout

Under the guidance of a University senior, a group of area teens are spending their spring break creating a mural for their Carrboro after-school hangout.

The yet-to-be-named teen center, which opened in January at 110 W. Main St., is the result of a collaboration between Pa’lante and Youth Creating Change, area youth programs that serve Latino and black teens, respectively.

The artists hope the mural will brighten the center’s narrow hallway with its large picture of Earth surrounded by the flags of Guatemala, El Salvador, Mexico and the United States.

The design began to come together Tuesday afternoon as a group of eight Latino teens discussed ideas, traced patterns and took turns painting the mural’s bright yellow backdrop — all while chatting and joking with each other.

Susannah Miller, a UNC senior art and psychology major, oversees the creative chaos.

“It’s fun,” she said. “It’s kind of hard at first because I don’t speak Spanish.”

Miller said she took on the project for class credit.

It is expected to be complete by Friday, she said.

One of the teens who helps translate for some of the painters, 15-year-old Ezequiel Hernandez, an eighth-grader at Smith Middle School, said he developed the original ideas for the mural.

“I saw a picture on the Internet of the world,” he said. “And the flags are because everybody’s from different countries.”

Artist Yanina Chicas, 15, a freshman at Chapel Hill High School, said she is excited about helping with the project.

“I think it will be fun and make a change on the walls,” she said. “It can express what we think of here.”

Chicas said she sees the center as a positive force in the lives of many teens.

“It makes the teenagers do something that is not bad, but also you’re having some fun,” she said.

Artist and Chapel Hill High sophomore Gamaliel Torija, 16, said the center gives him an opportunity to meet new people and participate in educational field trips.

“It’s not boring,” he said.

Providing a variety of activities for teens is one of the goals Pa’lante and Youth Creating Change share, said Laura Wenzel, director of Pa’lante and co-director of the teen center.

“We both feel teenagers need to be given responsibility, and that’s how they learn,” she said.

But while the groups have conducted some joint programming in the past — including a teen mixer last May — the establishment of a mutual teen center has been an adjustment, Wenzel said.

“It’s been kind of a big move,” Wenzel said.

She said the two groups plan to decide on a name for the center by Thursday and hire a program director in May, which will help bring both Latino and black teens to the center.

Chicas said she thinks the joint center will ultimately improve relations between black and Latino teenagers.

“I think it was a good idea because African-Americans and Spanish-speaking people can help each other,” she said. “We can teach them Spanish. They can learn our culture, and we can learn theirs.”

Contact the City Editor at citydesk@unc.edu.