By Sojin Kim
Guest Curator and Producer, "Rites of Passage"
Curator, Japanese American National Museum

There are many minute and momentous transitions punctuating the journey between childhood and adulthood. This period-in particular, the teen years-contains dramatic shifts in external expectations and personal desires. It is a time when mature aspirations and responsibilities loom close; and when the urge for autonomy is pressing, but dependence on or subordination to adults is still the order of the day.

In this issue we highlight the energy and potential that accompany the inevitable passage forward from who we are to who we might become. Through the words and images of contributors who grew up in the Southland, the featured stories reflect how youth survey and challenge the boundaries that define their lives.

From the widely circulating representations of life in the 'hood, life in the barrio, life on the beach, life in the valley, life in Beverly Hills, life in the O.C., who doesn't entertain some image of what it might mean to be young in Southern California? To be sure, it means many things, including coming of age in a media- and image-conscious environment, in a place that contains astonishing disparities in wealth, in a place that is topographically and ethnically heterogeneous, where diversity is engaged and avoided, and where mobility in multiple dimensions can be difficult.

Diane Gamboa's photos and anecdotal commentary about the early '80s East L.A. punk scene provide a glimpse into a culture generated from the creative energy of young people as they extended beyond the strictures of family, school, and neighborhood, propelling a stream of people and artistic inspiration readily east and west across the L.A. River.

The Fairfax High School students in David Zeiger's "Senior Year" documentary grapple with a wide range of terrifying to typical circumstances that can accompany the final months of compulsory education. The selected video excerpts from the series are personal, poignant accounts of the countdown to graduation.

Indeed, graduation from high school is possibly the most recognized milestone of youth. This occasion is one of several iconic moments captured in the photos comprising the Los Angeles Central Library's "Shades of L.A." collection.

Copied from the albums of diverse Southern California families, the images featured here present young people at various thresholds as they face the camera, self-conscious of the fact that from here on out, they are teenagers, not twelve year olds; seniors, not underclassman; soldiers, not civilians.

It is the "duty of every male citizen" to register with the Selective Service. This distinguishes the experiences of 18-year-old males from their female counterparts, but it has had an impact on both. And it establishes the relatively young age of 18 as sufficiently mature to assume a combat role in defending the country. Today as in the past, youth from disenfranchised communities have faced unique pressures in addressing this requirement and the issue of military service in general. For young Japanese Americans during World War II, it meant grappling with the contradictions of their position in a society that denied them their civil rights; it meant debating the issue with recruiters who came to enlist them from the camps where they were unconstitutionally incarcerated.

Finally, the vastness of Los Angeles is challenging for those too young to drive or without the means to own a car. Through bus transit, walking, biking, and simply inhabiting their immediate surroundings, youth develop complex understandings of their neighborhoods and their position in the city. The personal maps of L.A. Leadership Academy students show the layers of experiences that moor them to place and that constitute the actual and perceptual boundaries defining their physical movement.

These different stories criss-cross time and terrain. They represent experiences in the Fairfax District and Exposition Park; City Terrace and Thousand Oaks; Chinatown and Gardena. They demonstrate how young people engage the social identities, culture, geography, and politics that both anchor and constrain their personal transformations and sense of possibility.

Sojin Kim is a curator at the Japanese American National Museum, where she has worked since 1998. Most recently, she organized the Big Drum: Taiko in the United States and Boyle Heights: The Power of Place exhibitions.