Be Your Authentic Self
Told by Edna Garcia-Dipini
Written by Laurie Grobman
Edna Garcia-Dipini, originally from Brooklyn, NY, moved with her husband, older son, and soon-to-be-born younger son to Reading in 2005. Quickly, she noticed the stigma on Reading youth. She also learned that art classes were being cut from the schools. Edna knew she had to do something, and it would involve art: “As cliche as it may sound, and I say this over and over again, the arts saved my life.” Growing up in Brooklyn, violence surrounded her. She could have succumbed to life on the streets, but she resisted: “I wanted to be the change.”
With love and support from her grandparents, mentors, and teachers, Edna tapped into her innate artistic and creative power. She began singing with her mother before she could even speak. She joined Glee Club in first grade and loved every minute of it. She was in school plays, doing photography, and trying the many different programs and classes offered by the school.
Based on her artistic and academic accomplishments, Edna was accepted into the Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art & Performing Arts beginning in ninth grade. There, right across the street from The Lincoln Center, Edna was introduced to opera and many other forms of art: “The fact that I was able to go to a performing arts school out of my neighborhood, out of my comfort zone, around all different types of people, was so powerful.” She began making music videos during senior year in high school at the first TV station where they broadcast hip hop. She interned and then worked for Video Music Box and remains deeply appreciative of that time in her life: “Ralph McDaniels and the team at Video Music Box literally took me under their wing and kept me busy in the world that I loved, which was the arts.”
New to Reading, Edna involved family and friends in volunteer and leadership work. She has photos of her kids on the Penn Street Bridge protesting and just joining in all types of
activities: “I know they look at me like, ‘Mom, you put us through the ringer.’ But they have a good sense of what it is to volunteer and care for their community today.”
Edna believes that in many ways,
“the root foundation of violence is from not being able to express yourself, not being heard, not being understood, not having anyone to talk to about your problems and your social environment. Having those 50 minutes, 90 minutes, to release those bottled-up thoughts and emotions is priceless. When youth and young adults are given the power to create, it changes their mindsets.”
Edna began bringing together art and youth antiviolence efforts in her new city of Reading. She knew about the GoggleWorks Center for the Arts, and she knew she wanted to be there. She met with Executive Director Diane LaBelle and Events Director Margaret Murphy and proposed renting a room to start a program teaching kids to create videos using Final Cut Pro, given her background in film production. Diane and Margaret “saw the vision. They believed in what I was doing.” That included bringing Brown and Black youth into the GoggleWorks building. These were the children Edna wanted to serve. And she knew she wouldn’t be able to charge a fee for them to come and participate: “But I had a vision, and I knew what I wanted to accomplish.”
Soon the kids were creating Public Service Announcements (PSAs) for local organizations. The RIZE Program was born. RIZE is a youth arts non-profit organization that fosters the arts to promote a healthy lifestyle, striving to unite our culturally diverse communities by strengthening families for social change and to create art programs and policy initiatives that support families and youth. Programs are deeply rooted in and reflective of the African American, Latinx, and Hispanic (ALANAH) perspectives in Reading, Pennsylvania.
When another organization started doing PSA workshops around 2015, RIZE transitioned from film production to hip hop dance. Hip hop is Edna’s culture: “It’s who I am. It’s where I come from. It’s what I identify with.”
For eight years and counting, RIZE’s hip hop classes are free of charge for all youth. Edna is always on the lookout for opportunities for RIZE youth to dance in public. Edna takes great pleasure watching the kids and teens grow and develop– as dancers, yes, but also as more confident and motivated young people: “I see with these kids, teens, and young adults that dance gives them will, hope, inspiration. Our instructors, James and Ashanique, I’ve known
them since they were juniors in high school. I’ve seen them become parents. I’ve seen them go through lots of things in life. And their perseverance and their resilience has taught me a lot as well in being part of RIZE.”
RIZE is family oriented. Edna feels “a deep love and affection for those families and instructors who are part of the organization.” RIZE welcomes parents and parental figures to watch their children dance and learn. Edna has recognized how important it is to have a
family atmosphere, a safe space for parents to network, talk to each other, and offer one another support: “I think we need to get back to the basics as a community and being there to support one another and what community really means. We’ve gone away from being good neighbors, knowing our neighbors, understanding that there are all types of people in our life.”
Building on that social support, RIZE recently began offering free “Parent Circles,” infusing informal conversations with mental health awareness, while the children and teens are in their dance classes. Hosted by a licensed therapist, the parent circles get around the stigma of talking about mental health issues: “In my urban Latino culture, we are taught to be tough from a very young age. And when you’re taught that, what’s the next thing after that? Not to talk about things.” And that’s unhealthy for everyone. The parent circles are one important step toward getting parents the resources and tools that they need: “If we educate parents and support their needs, we’re going to help our children to make better choices. It’s going to create a better environment. And it comes back full circle.”
Edna harnesses her creative power to make change in the community in other ways. She is a strong advocate and leader in youth violence prevention, inspired by her childhood and teen mentors and her love for the arts. Monthly or quarterly, young dancers receive programming for violence prevention through the RIZE Above Bars program, which takes many forms. These workshops bring together various types of artists and art – photography, videography, poetry, fine arts, ceramics, storytelling, and more – while teaching RIZE members about topics such as gender and violence. Solidarity Camp in the summer enables youth to be immersed in various creative arts while also working toward solidarity within the community. Edna is the Executive Director of the Berks Community Television (BCTV) program “R City,” a production developed through Solidarity Camp, and she mentors the teens who host it.
Edna also provides opportunities for RIZE youth to become involved in violence prevention in other ways, encouraging them to do community service and learn to care about their environment. Edna helped to organize the Berks Youth Violence Prevention Roundtable, which led to Berks 4 Peace, a violence prevention campaign that takes place yearly during National Youth Violence Prevention Week. RIZE youth get involved in service projects and artistic endeavors throughout that week to promote nonviolence.
Edna’s passion for youth violence intervention and prevention led her to partner with two faculty at Penn State Berks to develop a program called Not One More: A Peace and Justice Project, which serves youth and young adults ages 14-24 using an evidence-based, public health approach to reducing violence. Long involved with antiviolence efforts, Edna sees this program as the “hands-on piece” – “the one-on-one with our community, the extra step going in and identifying one-on-one issues with individuals, with youth that need the help, from individuals who have had those experiences.” Edna was instrumental in launching the Peacemaker program, led and coordinated the Safe Corridors program at Northwest Middle School, and continues to lead the Berks Youth Antiviolence Coalition.
Bringing together RIZE, Berks4Peace, and Not One More, Edna led the development of the Berks Youth Summit, a gathering of local youth who are leading and developing as leaders in violence prevention and building a safer community. Due to the program’s success, Pennsylvania Representative Johanny Cepeda-Freytiz invited Edna to lead a one-day Youth Advocacy for Violence Prevention Rally at the State Capitol on April 30, 2025.
Edna is deeply committed to Reading’s youth. She wants children and teens to trust themselves. Edna advises teens to “Be your authentic self. There is no one else like you in this world. You were born with a purpose. Look deep within yourself and you’ll find that purpose.”
Edna named RIZE after Maya Angelou’s poem, “I Rise,” a poem Edna’s mother read aloud to her when Edna was young. Edna changed the S to a Z because she adds a creative flair to most everything she does. “I Rise” also speaks to Edna as an individual. Edna has found her purpose, and she lives it with commitment and passion every day.