So you read the post by Omari talking about his experience at the Youth Bike Summit. Up next is Ian. I spoke with Ian after he sent in his writing and he expressed that the Sunday visioning session to end the summit was the part that left the biggest impact on him (after meeting all of his new friends that is).
Just like with Omari, I (jason) did some light editing and added some links and emphasis of things I found important. Without further ado, check out what Ian has to say.
Youth Bike Summit 2014
Parsons New School of Design: New York City
On the morning of Friday February 13th I was picked up from my apartment building on Trumbull by Jason and Heather from Back Alley Bikes, along with Duane, Omari and Shamar, my fellow Mechanics in Training from last summer. We were on our way to New York.
The ride there was about 12 hours. We listened to music and talked on the way, mostly about what we expected and what we would do at the summit. We arrived in Manhattan around 8 at night and checked in to the convention at The New School. We talked shortly with people from other shops and then went to the hostel where we were staying. It was an amazing place to stay, in a gorgeous building full of enthusiastic backpackers and vacationers from all over the world. I talked and played pool with people from more than a dozen countries.
Ian at the pool table – photo by Omari Norman
Saturday morning we went back to New School for the first day of the summit. There was free breakfast before three keynote speakers. The first two speakers were young men who both worked with non profit organizations, one of whom; a 16 year old New Yorker, had started his own. The third speaker was a world record winning cyclist and racer. They all had very influential and moving speeches.
After the speaking we were led down several city blocks by a small marching band to New School’s other building. Once there we went upstairs and to individual classrooms with different speakers on topics that were listed in the pamphlet we received at check in. I went to a room on the tenth floor where past and current bicycle messengers were telling stories and sharing ideas about courier work. The oldest one of them; turned racer, now a family man, was talking about his experience working on the film Premium Rush; an action movie about bicycle couriers in New York.
Around noon that day, everybody gathered back together in a big room on a design floor, to talk and mingle before separating into more separate workshops and programs. I spent most of the day in a DIY workshop trying to make clothes, and talking to the new friends I had made from West Town Bikes in Chicago and Phoenix Bikes in Virginia. Later there was a fashion show featuring the things people had made.
At seven or 8 we went back to the hostel. Getting back I saw that the people from Bikes Not Bombs in Boston were staying there with us. I was up late again, talking to people from France, Italy, Korea and Brazil. Around two in the morning I caught up with Modesto and Dubie from Boston in the cafe. We played dominos and talked about our cities and our shops; Bikes Not Bombs repairs and stores hundreds of bikes a year until they have enough to fill up a freight car and send to Africa.
The next morning we got back on the subway for the last day of the summit. We made it there around 9. People were gathered; sitting and standing on the design floor, having breakfast. I found my new friends and sat down, we exchanged slang from our respective cities. The woman leading the summit came out, got everyone’s attention and started thanking people for how well the summit had turned out. She told us how it had started and where it was going. Then she started collecting ideas, by show of hands. She wrote them down and put them up on a wall, then told us to split up and find people to work with on things that we were passionate about and wanted to see happen. Ulana, a girl from West Town Bikes; who organize group rides and programs in Chicago, including ones for kids, girls, women and more, she suggested working together on finding a way to get more girls and young women on bikes. I’ve notice an extreme lacking of female cyclists in Detroit, so I went with this group. A boy I’d met, Bryan, from Phoenix Bikes, had suggest a website or blog as a way to share and spread do it yourself ideas over the internet, I found this awesome. At the end of an hour or two, someone from each group was selected to present what we had came up with, we sent Ulana up with another girl from West Town’.
Sunday Visioning Session – photo from YBS facebook page. (Ian was in this group somewhere)
Before we left, everyone filled out surveys about there experiences at the summit. We said goodbye to the friends we made. We took pictures and exchanged business cards and hugs. Then it was over. I keep in touch with the people I met from Chicago, and I plan to keep contact with the people from Bikes Not Bombs as well.
After we left, Jason went to visit friends, Duane went back to the hostel and Shamar and Omari went to explore. Heather and I went to the Museum of Natural History in Roosevelt Park and looked at dead things and statues, I’d never seen dinosaur skeletons.
Over all I had a great time at the Youth Bike Summit. I met people with whom to share interests and ideas from all over the country and the world. New York isn’t my favorite place, but it’s extremely interesting, and exploding with culture. I’d love to go to the Youth Bike Summit next year.
