October is Hate Crimes Awareness Month, and the city\u2019s Office for the Prevention of Hate Crimes is marking the occasion with art \u2014 and with youth voices leading the way.<\/p>\n
One of those voices belongs to 11-year-old Queens student Abigail Ramnarine, whose painting \u201cGaia\u2019s Embrace\u201d was among the winners of this year\u2019s \u201cHeARTwork Against Hate\u201d student art contest.<\/p>\n
What You Need To Know<\/p>\n
October is Hate Crimes Awareness Month<\/p>\n
The New York City Office for the Prevention of Hate Crimes is marking the month with a new Youth Ambassador Program and a multi-borough traveling student art exhibit
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The youth ambassador leadership program is made up of 8-to-18 year olds<\/p>\n
Students who are interested in applying for the Youth Ambassador Leadership Program can visit the Mayor’s Office of Criminal Justice for more information<\/p>\n
Her colorful piece, filled with bright tones and swirling shapes, carries a message well beyond her years.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are all different colors. We come from different backgrounds, and we all come from different places,\u201d she said. \u201cGaia\u2019s embrace means you support and accept one another.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cGaia,\u201d she explained, \u201cis originated from Greek mythology, and the meaning means goddess of Earth.\u201d<\/p>\n
Each student artist was asked to create a piece reflecting the theme of standing against hate, bias and discrimination. For Ramnarine, that message comes naturally.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe all should love each other for who we are,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
The contest is part of a broader initiative by the Mayor\u2019s Office for the Prevention of Hate Crimes, which is also launching a Youth Ambassador Leadership Program this month. The program empowers students between the ages of 8 and 18 to speak out against hate, bias and discrimination and to make their schools and communities safer.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf we educate them on what hate crimes are, what bias is, what discrimination is, and we give them a chance to understand the impact of those crimes, they can become more informed and maybe make different decisions as adults,\u201d said Vijay Ramjattan, who leads the office.<\/p>\n
Ramnarine is among the youth ambassadors already helping shape the program \u2014 and her words are as striking as her art.<\/p>\n
\u201cLabels are not for people, they are for food,\u201d she said. \u201cNobody should be bullying one another.\u201d<\/p>\n
Students interested in joining the Youth Ambassador Leadership Program can find more information through the Mayor\u2019s Office of Criminal Justice.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"October is Hate Crimes Awareness Month, and the city\u2019s Office for the Prevention of Hate Crimes is marking…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3195,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[2296,25,3691,231,9,24,11,10,12,27,200],"class_list":{"0":"post-3194","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-app-human-interest","9":"tag-app-top-stories","10":"tag-emma-barnett","11":"tag-human-interest","12":"tag-new-york","13":"tag-new-york-city","14":"tag-new-york-headlines","15":"tag-new-york-news","16":"tag-news","17":"tag-top-stories","18":"tag-vod"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3194","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3194"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3194\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3195"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3194"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3194"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3194"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}