My digital artwork collage, Faces of Youth during COVID-19,is a reflection on the stories told through the lived experiences of Diverse Canadian Youth during the pandemic. My creative work portrays ACB (African, Caribbean, Black) youth with flowers and other elements to highlight their beauty, uniqueness, diversity, joy, and resilience amidst great adversity. By displaying some of the hashtags alongside the portraits, I aim to show how youth connected with social issues that affected them and others during the pandemic through digital activism. It’s important to me that marginalized youth in Canada can develop their voices, build their confidence, and connect with movements that help them make a positive impact on their communities.

The first year of the COVID-19 pandemic was the worst year of my life. I graduated university from my small one-bedroom apartment, unemployed, anxious, isolated, scared and angry. The connections to climate change, capitalism and colonialism were clear — all these crises were interconnected and hitting us all at once. I didn’t know what my future looked like, economically, socially or ecologically – but I knew somehow that I needed to take responsibility for how it panned out.

A heart-wrenching move across the country, four remote jobs, a COVID-19 quarantine, and multiple deaths in the family later, I found myself returning to university as a graduate student. Again I feel anxious and scared, but mostly awkward and inadequate. How can I help others when I don’t even know how to help myself?

After all that I’ve been through, that the entire world has been through, I should be hopeful for a better future. And still I worry that the worst is yet to come.
And I will spend the rest of my life fighting.

WAITING FOR A LIGHT THAT NEVER COMES