Most teenagers ask for gifts on their birthday. Mariah Smith is giving one instead.
For her 15th birthday, the Gary teen is hosting a carnival and movie night for local youth in hopes of creating something she says many teens in the city are missing: a place to gather, have fun, and build community.
“I wanted to give back to the community,” Mariah Smith said.
On July 3 at Flourish Church, Smith will host Screen and Play: A Youth Experience in Gary, a youth carnival and movie night for teens ages 12 to 17. The event will feature carnival games, music, food from local vendors, prizes, and opportunities for young people to connect before ending with a movie under the stars that is open to all ages.
The idea began when Smith’s mother asked how she wanted to celebrate her birthday this year.
The family initially planned to spend the day at her grandfather’s home in Chicago. But after considering the logistics of getting friends and other teens there, Smith proposed a different idea.
“How about we do a community-wide event where we could get the youth together to play games and then watch a movie?” Mariah asked her mother, Jamika Smith, while planning the event.
Jamika Smith said her daughter quickly took ownership of the idea.
“She made a decision that this is what she wanted to do, and she took the initiative, and she hit the ground running,” Jamika Smith said.
The event also serves as a counter to the stereotypes that have arisen from the social media phenomenon of “teen takeovers.” These gatherings develop when teens coordinate on social media to show up in large groups at the same place at the same time. While they are intended as meeting places for young people, they can sometimes take a turn for the worse.
In Michigan City, four people were arrested after showing up at Washington Park Beach with firearms. In Chicago, several events caused traffic backups and crowding when police tried to disperse the gatherings. In several places, such as Whiting and Chicago, officials are increasing police presence to prevent these takeovers from becoming larger incidents and curfews at popular beach destinations.
Indiana law prohibits most teens ages 15 to 17 from being in public places after 11 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and between 1 a.m. and 5 a.m. on weekends, with exceptions for those accompanied by a parent or another responsible adult.
But for Mariah, there is just an outcry from her peers for something they all need: community and something to do.
“These teen takeovers are just visual representations of how we feel inside,” she said. “We want something fun to do, and so we took matters into our own hands, because there weren’t many options. If you actually think about it, if they had other things to do, they wouldn’t be doing these teen takeovers.”
Mariah said not all teens are bad, and the portrayal of these teen takeovers in the media is what makes these events seem worse than they actually are — especially when many of these takeovers show Black and brown faces at the forefront, and the stigma that comes along with large groups of Black people.
“When you see a lot of Black people in a specific area, you kind of get a little defensive. People start questioning, ‘What’s going on? Why are they all together? Are they going to do something bad?’” she said. “People just don’t have a good mindset on the youth.”
For Jamika, she’s proud of what Mariah has planned for this event.
While she gave her daughter full responsibility for planning this event – including going door to door to ask for donations, reaching out to vendors and organizing activities – Jamika connected her with people in the community who could lend a helping hand in reaching the goal of $2,500 for the event.
She remembers a time when there were more places for young people to gather, from clubs and reunions to festivals.
“The question is: How can we create an opportunity like our opportunities back in the day, where there is order and there is structure towards it, as opposed to being like this random thing?” Jamika asked. She pointed out that when adults congregate in a similar space, it’s just a takeover or a holiday, but with teens, there’s a negative connotation.
They hope that by hosting the event, they will encourage other community organizations to create more teen-centered events and programs.
“There are organizations that are doing great things in the community with the young people, but I think one of the issues is that they’re all doing it in their own little pockets,” Jamika said. She knows that much of that can be due to a lack of capacity, funding, transportation, and marketing. “How can we link them [teens] to these organizations?”
For parents who want to register their child, visit the event sign-up page or contact Jamika Smith at teenaslegacy@gmail.com.
