NZ WINTER FUND DRIVE

At Neutral Zone, we are grateful to provide youth with a place to authentically be themselves, to belong, and be celebrated.

At a gathering last year, we were honored when an NZ teen told us we were doing just that. ASR, a youth who wrote and directed a play on family roots, shared this reflection with us.

ASR gave us permission to share this excerpt to highlight the NZ experience.

I’d like to say a few words about my experience here.

When I first arrived, I was more afraid than I was aware. If you're a minority, you recognize the subconscious fear when you enter new places, knowing you will be analyzed. In turn, you analyze, and adjust how much of yourself you need to hide to reach a compromise between the majority and the minority.

What I noticed first at Neutral Zone was the artistry culture. This was the first place I entered, where I saw that artists come first. It was like a school for artists, for those who were denied the path they wanted.

Thank you for the opportunity to do what I wanted. A whole book of blueprints, drawn and stored, and for the first time since you started, someone lends you their shed. It's jarring, because you never believe that your ideas and fantasy would be more than pencil marks on paper.

I keep thinking about how different things would be if this place wasn’t here, not just for me, but for those who thought there was no solution. Here are the help and the tools to act on the aspiration that hasn't left you alone since you can remember. Many thanks to those here for offering a ladder to the door up high, the one many have looked at since they were young. It was a delight to write and direct my own play.

This is the second place I have encountered in my life where breathing came easy, and the space here was shared with me as an equal; not rented off and treated as an unwelcomed tourist.

I'll tell you what I love most. Here, there's no need to assimilate. Being able to talk freely, a place where air comes easy, and space isn’t fought for, it lifts the weight of living in the United States, in a society that constantly reminds me that I wasn’t made for it. I speak for everyone when I say, in all sincerity, thank you for letting me take up space, as much space as everyone else.

Thank you for the lesson that this world belongs to me too.

Already this school year, more than 300 teens have registered for programs at the Neutral Zone. From visual arts and music and performing to writing, leadership and activism, teens are feeling connected, digging into their passions and learning just how much they can accomplish.

We are so grateful for our community’s past support of Neutral Zone. We hope you will make a new or renewing gift this year. Whether your donor level is $5 or $5,000 every gift here matters and will be part of what makes the Neutral Zone possible.

In solidarity and deepest gratitude,

Lori Roddy
Executive Director