Jeff Duncan-Andrade

Why is success defined differently depending on your zip code? What happens to communities that define success for their young people by how far away from the community they can get? How can we redefine success so that our young people understand how important they are to the project of improving the conditions in our communities? This talk focuses on reminding young people how important they are to the pursuit of justice and freedom for all people. Drawing from Tupac Shakur’s concept of “unconditional love”, this talk challenges the double standard that is frequently used to define success in this country. It challenges poor and working class youth to redefine notions of success that encourage them to “escape” their communities, distancing themselves from the struggles of their communities while simultaneously increasing resources in communities that are already well resourced. Using a range of popular cultural frameworks, the talk presents a new definition of success for young people in our country, one connected to changing the conditions of inequality that regularly crush dreams and squander the potential of this nation to be truly democratic and socially just.