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At the first meeting, the teens and elders partnered up and told each other the stories of their names. who were they named after and why, whether they have a nickname and how they got it, and any other stories that came up. Each person then told the entire group the story of his or her partner's name in his or her own words. At the end of the day, artist Steve Farley took a digital photograph of the whole group.

At the next meeting, Steve brought that portrait back, cut up into 25 small pieces. Each teen and elder was given a piece and given some tips on how to enlarge that picture piece using pencil and crayon onto a 9x12 inch sheet of drawing paper.

The whole group worked together side by side, interpreting each photo chip using their own personal artistic style and vision.

The room took on an energy of its own, as the generations were bridged over boxes of crayons. Focused silence alternated with traded jokes. Steve as part of his instruction suggested that a good way to engage your drawing skills was to avoid naming the things you draw; instead, you should just think of them as a collection of lines, shapes and curves to be copied. Melvin, one of the elders, called out at that point, "I know a good set of curves when I see one!" and the room dissolved into laughter.

As they began finishing, the teenagers began mentoring some of the elders who asked for some advice on how to approach the drawing. There was tremendous power in putting two of the most ostracized groups in America today together in one room and setting them to a collaborative task. Magic was in the air.

At the end of the day, there were hugs and long goodbyes around the room, and a new enthusiasm for the ongoing project as both teenagers and elders knew they would be spending a lot of time together every week until May.

Back at Intermedia, the teens worked to tape together all the 25 pieces to create a five-foot-wide self-portrait mural which depicted both the whole group and their individual creative visions at the same time. This mural (pictured below paired with the original group photo) will be part of the May exhibition at Intermedia.