Role models on display at RAW Arts

LYNN – RAW Artworks alum Masiel Encarnación said navigating the world of paying for college as a first-generation college graduate would have been a lot easier if she had help from someone with a similar background.The Lynn native returned to RAW after graduating from University of Massachusetts at Amherst, to try to help young artists find someone to look up to. Along with co-worker Jason Cruz, she created “They Look Like Me,” a group that connects successful professionals of color to RAW students so they have role models.Cruz, who is Puerto Rican, said when he was in college he was often the only student of color in a room. He said he remembered, “not feeling welcome, and having to speak for a culture I wasn?t a part of because I?m brown.”On Wednesday night, RAW Arts invited those professionals to a networking session so they could see and hear what RAW is all about. Guest Keisha Conigliaro, who founded La Chic Mentoring Us to help local teenage girls, said she hoped to collaborate with “They Look Like Me.”The guests were invited to watch a film that showed what RAW has been doing for 25 years with at-risk youth to give them a “sacred space” to express themselves.?You could be Black, Spanish, Haitian, whatever,” said Cruz. “Art speaks across everything.”Encarnación suggested the guests become involved by giving donations to RAW, volunteering for a Career Night, or even mentoring a high school student during their college application process.Damon Best, 16, who mentors middle school-aged boys as a RAW Chief, said he wanted an example to look up to in his life. “It would give me a new point of view seeing someone with the same ethnicity and the same look as me who can provide for themselves. It gives me confidence to do the same thing.”Best said admires he Cruz, who got him interested in RAW, because he made him feel welcome and want to be a better person.?Meeting someone who looks like you isn?t the only thing,” said Cruz. “It pushes you in a direction, it makes you think something is doable. The mission is that we want the kids to reach way up. We want 10 Masiels to come back and make something happen.”Kait Taylor can be reached at [email protected].