A new club has emerged from Ashland High School’s student force: “Truth to Power” takes on our most critical social issues, seeking to uplift diverse voices and offer a teen point of view. Founded by Ashland High Sophomores Isadora Millay and Anya Moore, and mentored by faculty advisor Shane Abrams, the club makes regular podcasts from interviews with local citizens and hosts events around volatile issues of our tumultuous times.
Their current podcast release is Seeing Homeless. The podcast features interviews with Ashland’s chief of police Tighe O’Meara, and prominent local housing activists Joe Gibson and Derek Pyle, along with several local unhoused citizens.
In December, the club hosted “Dear White Folks” and attracted more than 80 participants on zoom to talk about racism following the tragic events that took Aidan Ellison’s life. While “Truth to Power” works on a new podcast about these events, the club is hosting 3 more civic discourse events around the topic of racism. First up is a Zoom showing of “13th.” This is followed by a Zoom discussion led by “Partnership for Safety and Justice,” which will take place on January 25 at 5 pm. Contact Truth to Power to join in at truthtopowerclub@gmail.com.
A repeat for those who missed “Dear White Folks, Let’s Talk About Racism,” will run on Zoom January 30 at 11 am, and “Dear White Folks II, How to be an Anti-Racist,” will premiere on February 7 at 11 am. These events are part of “Truth to Power’s” Our Promise To Aidan, which commits local teens to combating racism in Ashland. Click here to register for
either/ both FREE workshops, and click here to download a printable flyer with details in PDF format.
In 2019, club students submitted a podcast for NPR’s annual student competition, and thus seeded “Truth to Power.” They received “Honorable Mention” for their first podcast about teen anxiety in the context of two school lockdowns, climate stress and the shut down in the face of the pandemic. After the racial protests across the nation and the Almeda Fire capped a summer of quarantine, the group formalized themselves by committing to work on a daunting series of local issues including the shooting of Aidan Ellison, local teen suicides, homelessness in Ashland, and a three-part series on the Almeda Fires from multiple viewpoints: police and fire personnel, single mothers who lost their homes, the activists organizing community to help fire victims, and the teen experience of the fire evacuation.
“Truth to Power” is Ashland’s local incarnation of the wave of youth organizing power sweeping the country. As events are increasingly intense for today’s teens, they are organizing themselves and lending their energy, passion, and intelligence to forward inclusive conversations that can materialize positive changes for our local community.
Who we are:
Isadora Millay/ Club Founder:
Isadora Millay has an insatiable thirst for creation and knowledge. She immerses herself within the world, experiencing as much as she can to learn, grow, and initiate meaningful projects. One of Isadora’s most beloved creative outlets is dance: she most recently performed in a MAP funded dance-theatre work, The (w)Hole, and is currently using dance to get out all her energy after sitting in front of a computer screen for school all day. On the topic of school, Isadora loves her classes and teachers at AHS, and has found much enjoyment in joining various clubs and teams to broaden her outreach and experience. Last year, Isadora worked with a group of friends to submit an entry into NPR’s student podcast challenge. She was inspired by her prior work in Cave Junction, where she was a co-creator and producer of 30 live radio shows for the teen led Empower Hour, including her original podcast series Change for a Change. Isa and her friends won Honorable Mention from the NPR challenge, and the outcome produced something much more valuable. With the help of her friend, Anya Moore, Isadora set to work creating Ashland High School’s very first podcast and social justice club: Truth to Power. The club, still in its early stages, has flourished under the leadership of Isa, Anya, and Shane’s awesome mentorship. Filled with incredibly passionate individuals, Truth to Power hopes to create real change within the community, and raise the voices of those who are far less heard.
Anya Moore/ Club Founder:
Anya has always had a passion for social justice issues and leadership, finding creative ways to combine the two. As a founding member of Rogue Climate Action Team, a youth group working together for climate justice in Southern Oregon, Anya has led multiple student body protests to increase climate change awareness, planned ongoing campaigns against the Jordan Cove pipeline, and provided aid to families who lost their homes in the recent Almeda fires. Now a sophomore at AHS, Anya has co-created Ashland High School’s Truth to Power club with Isadora Millay with the intention of increasing awareness and facilitating compassionate debate around social justice issues in Southern Oregon. Throughout middle school and high school, Anya has been a part of school Leadership and is currently Treasurer of AHS. Anya also loves to dance and, in addition to attending classes regularly, she has performed in Danceworks’ annual showcase for seven years running. When Anya is not busy with all of the aforementioned pursuits, she is happily hanging out with her friends, hiking on the trails, or preparing for her drivers license test and trying to not give her mother a heart attack while doing so.
Shane Abrams/ Faculty Advisor:
Shane Abrams is a classroom teacher at Ashland High School. After cutting his teeth at a high school for at-risk youth in Colorado, he taught literature & composition at Portland State University and Portland Community College for four years and authored a writing textbook before moving to Ashland. He is grateful for the community he’s discovered in the Rogue Valley, but is also eager to confront the systems of oppression woven through Southern Oregon’s history and present.
Do not hesitate to contact Gina Angelique by clicking on her name to send an email, or call 541-415-8117 for more information, interviews, photos, audio passages and video clips!