The bureau's first event was a series of press conferences held in Boston, New York City, and San Francisco in September 2002 that protested the use of Internet filters in public schools. At the event in New York City, Emma Rood -- a college sophomore who served as the plaintiff in a suit against a law trying to install filtering software in public libraries and schools -- spoke about the tendency of gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender youth to turn to the Internet for information about their sexuality, and how blocking software often frustrates their research. Danya Steele, a college freshman, talked about the difficulty she faced in high school researching everything from STDs to teen suicide to school shootings, and how her classmates with home AOL accounts simply circumvented the filters by downloading the Internet Service Provider and logging in with their own passwords. This, she noted, created a "digital divide" in which students of more limited resources had a hard time competing academically with those who had their own AOL accounts or personal computers. The event received substantial press coverage, including stories in El Diario, New Youth Connections, E-School News Online, Internet News, CCTV, and the Student Press Law Center Web site.

In February 2003, the Speaker's Bureau presented a panel entitled: "Schoolhouse Reality: How Internet Policies Affect Students" at the Consortium for School Networking's 8th Annual K-12 School Networking Conference in Arlington, Virginia. Kehinde Togun, a freshman at Rutger's University, spoke about the many useful sexual health sites that are blocked by filtering software, including the teen-produced newsletter he once worked with -- SEX, Etc. Moya Bailey, a sophomore at Spelman College, talked about the ramifications of the digital divide at her high school in Lafayette, Arkansas, and Rood gave a GLBT perspective on filtering.

YFEN's biggest speaking event was a June 19, 2003 panel at the National PTA Convention in Charlotte, North Carolina. Approximately 200 attendees came to hear three YFEN panelists present "Straight From The Source: Youth Express Concerns About Media Violence, Sexuality Education, and Free Expression." Beth Covington, the winner of SPLC's 2000 Courage in Student Journalism Award, spoke about her high school principal's attempt to censor articles about oral sex and interracial dating in their school newspaper, and how the editors fought back. Tiffany Cutrone, an 18-year-old lesbian activist, discussed her principal's suppression of the gay/straight alliance she attempted to start at her own school as well as the difficulties GLBT youth face in finding basic sexual health information, due to Internet filters and abstinence-only sexuality education. Bailey then talked about the lack of representation of people of color in the media and the positive role hip-hop music plays in urban communities.

On July 1, 2003 YFEN presented at the National Media Education Conference in Baltimore, Maryland on the topic: "The Link Between Free Expression and Media Literacy: Students Debate Alternatives to Censorship." This panel included Rood (Internet filters/GLBT youth) and K-Swift and Tahani Salah of Urban Word NYC. Salah, a 16-year-old Palestinian-American, talked about self-censorship in the Muslim community after September 11 and the obstacles she has faced as a political poet. K-Swift shared how Urban Word has handled attempts by teachers and principals to censor their young poets.

To protest the second anniversary of the USA Patriot Act, YFEN teamed up with the New York City Bill of Rights Defense Campaign (NYCBORDC) and the New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU) to throw a "Patriot Act Un-Birthday Bash" at Judson Memorial Church on October 24, 2003. Workshops included an overview of the Patriot Act and discussions of its impact on immigrant groups and the arts. The following youth and activist organizations tabled the event: the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, Bluestockings Bookstore, Coalition for the Human Rights of Immigrants, Global Kids, The Loyal Nine, New Immigrant Community Empowerment, Not In Our Name, Refuse and Resist, Stop the Disappearances Campaign, United for Peace and Justice, and the Ya-Ya Network. YFEN speaker Tahani Salah performed some guerrilla poetry, along with a few friends from Urban Word, NYC.

YFEN joined the burgeoning media democracy movement by presenting two panels on campus and youth activism at the National Media Reform Conference in Madison, Wisconsin on November 8, 2003. Mizgon Zahir, the 20-year-old executive editor of the Afghana Journal, discussed the importance of youth and ethnic media in the movement and Elizondo Griest moderated. Joining YFEN on the panel were Ben Manski of the Green Party and Rishi Awatramani of the Youth Media Council. Read more about the conference here.

YFEN kicked off 2004 with a panel on youth and voting issues at the NYC Grassroots Media Conference held at the New School University on February 28. Speakers included Christopher Coes of the National Youth Rights Association, Naina Khanna of the League of Independent Voters, activist Justin Krebs, and journalists from Childrens PressLine. On June 28, 2004 Maya Imani Williams and Gisely Colon from Harlem Live joined forces with YFEN and presented workshops on censorship, journalism, and activism at the Hugh N. Boyd Minorities Journalism Workshop at Monmouth University in New Jersey.

On November 16, 2004 the winners of YFEN/NCAC's Free Speech & Democracy Film Contest flew out to New York City to participate in NCAC's 30th anniversary gala at the Rubin Museum. Some 200 NCAC supporters viewed the winning films, and plans are underway to hold additional screenings. Three days later, YFEN speakers Danya Steele and Halcyon Person flew out to Indianapolis, Indiana and conducted a youth and censorship panel at the National Council of Teachers of English Conference. Topics discussed included abstinence-only sex education, Internet filters, Gay/Straight Alliances, and media violence.

Projects in 2005 included a workshop at the Community School for Social Justice in the South Bronx; participation in "Media By Young America: The First National Expo of Ethnic Media" at Columbia University on June 9; a presentation at Rockland Coalition for Democracy on June 14; and a youth and censorship panel at the National Council of Teachers of English Conference in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in November.

Meet Past Speakers!

Speakers' Biographies

Moya Bailey is a women's studies/pre-med major at Spelman College, where she was named an Outstanding Freshman in 2002. The president of her local Feminist Majority Leadership Alliance, she writes for WireTap, a project of AlterNet and the Independent Media Institute, and Fierce. She presented at YFEN's 2002 Youth and Censorship colloquium, COSN, and the National PTA Convention.

Beth Covington is a biology/religion major at William & Mary, where she coordinates a child custody exchange program at a domestic abuse shelter. She was named a "Courage in Student Journalism Award" winner by SPLC in 2000 for her role in combatting censorship of her high school news magazine, The Chatterbox, in Danville, Virginia. She presented at YFEN's colloquium and the National PTA Convention.

Tiffany Cutrone is a sophomore at the State University of New York at Stony Brook and a peer educator at Long Island Gay and Lesbian Youth. She is currently working as a research assistant to a study on rates of homophobia among parents and a book of her own "coming out" experiences. She presented at YFEN's colloquium and the National PTA Convention.

K-Swift is the project coordinator of Urban Word NYC, a diverse community of poets, rappers, lyricists, and spoken word artists age 13-19. An accomplished poet, K-Swift served on the 2001 New York City Teen Poetry Slam Team and coached the 2002 team. He presented at NMEC.

Emma Rood is a linguistics major at Simon's Rock College in Great Barrington, MA. She served as a plaintiff in the American Library Association and American Civil Liberties Union's lawsuit against the library provisions of the Children's Internet Protection Act (CIPA). She presented at YFEN's Internet Protest Day, COSN, and NMEC.

Tahani Salah is a 16-year-old Palestinian-American poet, activist, and spoken word artist who performs at schools and clubs throughout New York City and New Jersey. She serves on Urban Word's youth board and presented at NMEC and performed at the Patriot Act Un-Birthday Bash.

Kehinde Togun was the editor of his high school paper and served on the board of SEX Etc., a teen-written newsletter distributed by the Network for Family Life Education at Rutgers University. He currently attends Rutgers, and presented for YFEN at the 2002 colloquium and COSN.

Mizgon Zahir is a student at Cal State University Hayward. She began writing for an online magazine at the age of 13 and founded a Farsi language radio program named Ayenda soon thereafter. In late 2001, Mizgon founded Afghan Journal, an intergenerational Afghan-American quarterly magazine, and is also a staff writer for YO! Youth Outlook magazine. She presented at YFEN's 2002 colloquium and the National Media Reform Conference.

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