In partnership with Mercy Housing, The Bay Area Video Coalition (BAVC), one of the nation’s leading nonprofit media arts centers, seeks a dynamic and experienced video maker to lead a community video production on the history of the Sunnydale community. Video Instructor will work in partnership with a coordinator from Mercy Housing to provide after-school video workshops for youth twice a week for 16 weeks, starting March 2010 and to engage community participants in an oral history project.
About the Sunnydale community: In the Visitacion Valley neighborhood, at the foot of the City’s second largest park, McLaren sits San Francisco’s largest public housing site, Sunnydale-Velasco. The 50 acre, 785 unit site is home to more than 1700 residents. Sunnydale’s 50 acres is surrounded by an ethnically diverse, family-oriented community residing largely in single family homes.
About BAVC’s Next Gen programs: Since 1999 BAVC’s Next Generation programs have offered a flexible pathway for youth who may lack parental support, school support, and the extra-curricular and leadership opportunities that can help to teach and reaffirm learning and communication skills. Our programs help young people develop their artistic talent and provide them with advanced, industry-standard training in new media while helping them develop life skills to successfully collaborate on and produce a high-quality creative product.
About Mercy Housing: Mercy Housing is one of the top not-for-profit developers of program-enriched affordable housing in the country, and has developed four family and senior properties and three community-serving facilities in Sunnydale’s vicinity. The Related Companies of California has successfully developed master planned, mixed income communities throughout California utilizing the HOPE VI program.
ESSENTIAL DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES include the following:
§ Partner with Mercy Housing staff in participant outreach, recruitment and retention.
§ Work collaboratively with BAVC staff and Mercy Housing staff in the development and delivery of the video project.
§ Provide direct instruction to youth in video production and digital storytelling, two afternoons a week and occasional weekends.
§ Provide quality instruction and safe space to youth in the program.
§ Outreach to community members to participate in workshops and interviews.
§ Assure quality of final product, including design and production of final DVD.
§ In partnership with Mercy Housing and BAVC staff, produce and end-of-program community screening and distribution plan.
Must be versed in filmmaking, storytelling and youth cultures. An individual with an understanding of the power of stories told by youth and the use of media they’ve produced for social change and education; able to appreciate their everyday experiences and use them to create inspired work.
Desired Qualifications
· Filmmaking and producing experience.
· Experience in youth programs.
· Experience working with diverse communities.
· Excellent leadership, group facilitation, written & oral communication, and organizational skills.
· Final Cut Pro, Photoshop, and DVD Studio Pro expertise a must. After Effects and Pro Tools experience is a plus.
· Spanish-speaking or second-language fluency a plus.
· Familiarity Visitacion Valley/ Sunnydale community a plus.
· Weekend and evening flexibility is a must.
Schedule and pay:
Program duration March 1 – July 1, 2010. Video Instructor will be contracted for up to 180 hours, including prep time and meetings.
Hourly rate $25- $35/ hour DOE.
APPLICATIONS MUST BE RECEIVED BY THURSDAY FEBRUARY 11.
Please submit a resume and reel/ link, with cover letter to:
Moriah Ulinskas
Director of Next Generation Programs
Bay Area Video Coalition- BAVC
2727 Mariposa Street, 2nd Floor SF, CA 94110
or moriah@bavc.org
Author: Ingrid Hu Dahl
Media that Matters Film Festival: Call for Entries!
Media That Matters 10
REMINDER: Our regular deadline is fast approaching! Complete entries must be postmarked by January 22, 2010!
ALERT: We are extending the call for entries for a late deadline. Complete submissions must be submitted online / mailed with a postmark no later than January 29, 2010.
Please be aware that there is a fee increase of $5 from midnight, January 22nd. No waivers will be granted.
Media That Matters: Screen. Act. Impact.
Arts Engine celebrates ten years of Media That Matters — the premier showcase for short films with big messages.
“We no longer have to rely on major corporations for things to be seen — we have Media that Matters to distribute new material and new voices and new points of view.”
— Tim Robbins, Actor
Submit your film for the chance to work with us in creating social change through film. If selected, your film will take become a part of Media That Matters — an international, multi-platform campaign streaming and playing to thousands of people at screenings across the globe. Media That Matters creates discussion guides and screening materials to promote conversation and encourage educators, activists and organizers alike to Take Action around these films. Join us in our TENTH year and submit your film now!
CRITERIA:
* Short films — the shorter the better—no longer than 12 minutes max, but 8 and under would be great!
* Social issues — Any and all issues will be considered. This year we are focusing on Media Literacy, Human Rights, LGBTQ & Sexual Identity, Youth Activism and International issues in particular.
* The film should encourage the audience to be engaged and take action around the issue.
* All genres — Documentary, animation, public service announcement, narrative, music video, drama, comedy. Creativity is encouraged — but your film must focus on a social issue.
* Open to all ages — Youth-produced projects encouraged!
BEFORE SUBMITTING:
* The film you are submitting must be cleared for NON EXCLUSIVE home video, educational, online, broadcast and theatrical distribution. If you have signed a contract with any other entity for this film that includes EXCLUSIVE rights to this film, please review prior to submitting to our festival. Media That Matters seeks the widest possible audiences for your film. To do this effectively, we use a non-exclusive contract, so unlike many media entities, we do not ask for exclusive rights. This flexibility helps our outreach team go further with your film, creating even more opportunity for distribution and exposure of your work.
* All footage — including music and other referenced video pieces — must have all rights cleared and secured. Please refer to the Center for Social Media’s set of Best Practices for more information on how to use licensed materials. Creative Commons is also a great resource for license-free or flexi-licensed music and media alternatives.
HOW TO SUBMIT:
Step 1: Choose submission method:
*Submit via URL
This year we will be accepting online submissions. We prefer a link to watch online. Please remember to send us a password if necessary to view private videos. You can follow guidelines on Vimeo or Youtube for this.
* Submit via DVD
Submissions must be sent to us on DVD and programmed to play as a DVD Region 0 (region free) or Region 1 (US, Canada, US Territories) Please note that the following formats will not be considered this year: PAL, VHS, mini DV or CD-R (QuickTime MOV or MPG files).
Step 2: Fill out details in the film submission form for each film.
Step 3: Process payment (see submission fees below):
Regular Deadline postmarked by: January 22nd 2010
* Individual Filmmaker: $25 / each film submission; Max: 2 submissions
* Student Filmmaker (18+): $10 w/ Student ID; Max: 2 submissions
* Youth Filmmaker (18 & under): FREE w/ proof of age; Max: 2 submissions
* Non-profit / Youth Media Organization: FREE; Max: 5 submissions
Extended Deadline postmarked by: January 29th 2010
* Individual Filmmaker: $30 / each film submission; Max: 2 submissions
* Student Filmmaker (18+): $15 w/ Student ID; Max: 2 submissions
* Youth Filmmaker (18 & under): FREE w/ proof of age; Max: 2 submissions
* Non-profit / Youth Media Organization: FREE; Max: 5 submissions
Step 4: Your submission will be complete once you receive a confirmation email including a reference number for each film and any further instructions.
Questions?
Contact festival@artsengine.net
Save the Date! 12th Allied Media Conference
The 12th Allied Media Conference will take place June 18-20 in Detroit, Michigan.
Vision of the Allied Media Conference
Participatory Media to Transform Our Selves and Our World
The Allied Media Conference advances our visions for a just and creative world. It is a laboratory for media-based solutions to the matrix of life-threatening problems we face. Since our founding in 1999, we have evolved our definition of media, and the role it can play in our lives – from zines to video-blogging to breakdancing, to communicating solidarity and creating justice. Each conference builds off the previous one and plants the seeds for the next. Ideas and relationships evolve year-round, incorporating new networks of media-makers, technologists and social justice organizers. We draw strength from our converging movements to face the challenges and opportunities of our current moment. We are ready to create, connect and transform.
Create
The AMC supports learning of all different kinds and at all different levels. The workshops are hands-on and participatory. Knowledge is passed horizontally rather than from the top down. Everyone teaches and everyone learns. At the AMC, media creation is not only about personal expression, but about transformation – of ourselves and the structures of power around us. We create media that exposes, investigates, resists, heals, builds confidence and radical hope, incites dialogue and debate. We demystify technology, not only learning how to use it, but how to take it apart, fix it and build our own. We do it ourselves and as communities, connecting across geographic and generational boundaries.
Connect
The AMC is a network of networks – youth organizations, international solidarity activists, anti-violence organizers, technologists, educators, media reform advocates, alternative economists, musicians and artists, disability activists, and many others – all using media in innovative ways. Some of these networks have sprouted from the conference, grown over the course of the year, then reconvened in Detroit larger and healthier. Others have adopted the AMC as an annual point of convergence and a space to forge new relationships. Through cycles of collaboration, question-asking and experimentation, our networks continue to grow, bringing new analysis, and new tools to the AMC every year.
Transform
The deeper our networks grow, the greater our capacity grows to take collective actions to transform our world. We recognize that transformation happens through our everyday movements. At the AMC, we develop new leaders and new forms of leadership, design new methods of problem-solving, cultivate the visions of our communities and build our power to make those visions real. Our strategies for transformation don’t begin or end with the three days of the conference. They evolve in our lives and our work throughout the year.
For more information, please visit http://alliedmediaconference.org/.
2010 Talking Pictures Festival: Call for Entries Now Open
The Talking Pictures Festival highlights independent films from around the world mixed with brand new offerings by local filmmakers. The 2010 Talking Pictures Festival will once again be jam packed with animated films, shorts, new fiction films and documentaries that promise to offer something for everybody.
The Talking Pictures Festival invites independent films and videos of any genre or length to participate in its 2010 edition. We are looking for films that are challenging, intriguing, entertaining, personal, thought-provoking, or unique in perspective. From dramatic films to hard-hitting documentaries, comedic shorts, experimental films, or music videos, we invite independent filmmakers to send us their work for consideration.
Entries must be completed works, accompanied by an entry form and fee. Selected films screen in the festival and compete for cash awards.
You can download the Entry Form and Guidelines here, or check the website for more information.
Call for Entries: Our City, My Story 2010
Calling all young NYC filmmakers!
The Tribeca Film Institute is seeking work made by NYC students (middle and high school) to screen this spring for Our City, My Story—an event that celebrates the vision, excellence and diversity of NYC youth-made work.
In honor of the NYC Department of Education’s newly produced Blueprint for the Teaching and Learning of the Arts: The Moving Image, The Tribeca Film Institute is especially proud to invite New York City students, NYC public schools and youth media organizations to submit work to our annual celebration of excellent youth-made work. In a special effort to encourage educators to use the new Moving Image Blueprint, we encourage them to download the blueprint and let us know (with your submission) how the work references the five strands of learning.
Deadline: January 20, 2010
Apply online here!
(Note: All applications of youth-made work are free of charge.)
The Fine Print:
Region: All films must be made by youth residing within the five boroughs of New York City
Age of youth producer(s): 19 or younger and a middle or high school student at the completion date of the film
Length of submission: 10 minutes or less
Submission format: DVD
Completion date: Films must have been completed after January 1, 2009.
Previously submitted films: TFI will not consider previously submitted films.
Multiple entries: Each organization or student may submit a maximum of three films. If multiple entries are submitted, each film should be submitted separately.
Youth Made: To be eligible for TFI’s youth media screening, youth must be responsible for the overwhelming majority of the work submitted (including, writing, editing direction and photography).
The deadline for Our City, My Story is January 20th, 2010. Please note that while this is a program of the Tribeca Film Institute, all entries for Our City, My Story are processed through the Tribeca Film Festival, which has an initial deadline of January 11th, 2010 for Festival submissions, this deadline does not apply to Our City, My Story submissions as selected films are not official selections of the Tribeca Film Festival. Please reach out with any questions. We look forward to watching your work!
If you have any questions about your submissions to Tribeca Film Institute, please contact youth@tribecafilminstitute.org
Our City, My Story is a youth media program produced by Tribeca Film Institute, films selected to be screened in this program are not official selections of the Tribeca Film Festival.
MNN Youth Channel Deadline Extended: Free Video Production Training Program for Youth
Youth Media Impacting Communities
Y.M.I.C is a program providing young people with high-quality training in media making and in community service. In this program, youth receive advanced media-making and media-communication training. Program participants learn media production, leadership, community outreach and media literacy skills.
Participants also get to engage with New York City grassroots, arts and cultural organizations. The students that participate in this program meet twice a week, the program starts January 27th and last till June 5.
Y.M.I.C is the Youth Channel in-house training program that directs and covers Defense Against Media Nonsense. Defense Against Media Nonsense is a show that allows young people to capture what is news to them. It is news casting that is done in documentary format, and told through the lens by youth, for youth.For more info on this show please go to www.damnyc.blogspot.com.
Deadline Extended: January 11,2010
Please Download and fill out the Application form, from our website and return it to MNN Youth Channel APPLY NOW!!
Contact:
youth@youthchannel.org or call (212) 757-2670 ext.330, 331
http://www.youthchannel.org/
Sincerely,
MNN Youth Channel
New Orleans • Volume 3 • Issue 6
Letter from the Editor
Welcome to YMR’s final issue in 2009 – New Orleans Volume 3: Issue 6. With support from Open Society Institute, these practitioners and their colleagues met on October 21 to discuss the most pressing challenges of their work.
Following this meeting, contributors wrote and revised drafts that were reviewed by a local peer, a member of YMR’s national peer review board, and AED/YMR staff, as a means to engage a youth media rich and yet underrepresented region to the field.
In this issue, you will find that New Orleans is still in the state of re-building schools, communities and neighborhoods, with several new youth media and youth-led organizations taking the lead. New Orleans has started a local collaboration of youth organizers and youth media practitioners, which you can read about in Dana Kaplan and Minh Nguyen’s interview.
A warm thanks to all nine contributors for their dedication and hard work:
• Liz Dunnebacke (New Orleans Video Access Center)
• Brandon M. Early (Innocence Project New Orleans, Students at the Center)
• Dee Dee Green and Mallory Falk (Kids Rethink New Orleans Schools)
• Dana Kaplan (Juvenile Justice Project of Louisiana)
• Jim Randels and Kalamu ya Salaam (Students at the Center)
• Minh Nguyen (Vietnamese American Young Leaders Association of New Orleans)
• Vicky Mayer (Tulane University)
A special thanks to Kelly Nuxoll, YMR’s writing coach for her stellar coaching and edits as well as to YMR’s Peer Review board for giving helpful feedback to each writer.
Many thanks to Minh Nguyen, YMR’s peer review board member, the founder and executive director of Vietnamese American Young Leaders Association of New Orleans, who was instrumental in organizing and leading the cohort.
I had the pleasure of seeing Minh in action at VAYLA-NO, where he is well loved by the community; and, I met several young people at the organization, starting with yoga and ending with deep conversations about voice, abuse, identity and sexuality.
Minh has helped foster a strong community of young people in New Orleans that welcomes all ethnic groups. He and his colleagues are dedicated to youth-led initiatives and contributing to youth-organizing collaboratives throughout the city. Like many of Minh’s youth media colleagues, youth media is a strategy that goes hand in hand with youth organizing and activism. In rebuilding New Orleans, these educators focus on young people for solutions, cleaning up much more than what Katrina took from their everyday lives.
We welcome you to join the conversation for each of these articles using YMR’s “comment” feature. You can also send feedback or comments directly to idahl@aed.org. If you are interested in posting a pod or vodcast response, please contact YMR’s media crew or email idahl@aed.org.
To reserve your copy of YMR’s annual print journal (Volume 3), you can subsrcibe and purchase via credit card or by check.
Warmly,
Ingrid Hu Dahl, Editor-in-Chief, YMR
Youth Media Reporter is managed by the Academy for Educational Development
Interview: Dana Kaplan and Minh Nguyen
Dana Kaplan is the executive director of the Juvenile Justice Project of Louisiana (JJPL) in New Orleans, Louisiana. Originally from New York City, Dana has been organizing with youth and families and working on juvenile and criminal justice reform throughout the United States for the last ten years.
Minh T. Nguyen is founder and executive director of the Vietnamese American Young Leaders Association of New Orleans (VAYLA-NO). Minh has dedicated his life to giving voice to the Asian American community in the Gulf Coast region. His long-term advocacy and organizing efforts have invigorated the political energy of the Vietnamese youth in New Orleans to unite, fight, and protect their communities from government-inflicted environmental injustices, such as negligible flood protections planning, water contamination, and the conversion of their largely African American and Vietnamese American community into a toxic dumpsite.
YMR: When was Juvenile Justice Project of Louisiana and VAYLA-NO founded and what are your roles?
Dana Kaplan: The Juvenile Justice Project of Louisiana (JJPL) was founded in 1997 as a legal and advocacy organization dedicated to transforming the juvenile justice system in Louisiana into one that builds on the strengths of communities, ensuring that children are given the greatest opportunities to grow and thrive. In 2007, I joined JJPL as the executive eirector. Shortly thereafter, I launched a youth organizing program called Young Adults Striving for Success (YASS).
Minh T. Nguyen: I am the founder and executive director of Vietnamese American Young Leaders Association (VAYLA), which is a youth-led, youth organizing and development, community-based organization dedicated to empowering Vietnamese American and underrepresented youth through services, cultural enrichment and positive social change.
YMR: Can you share with YMR readers what the context is like in New Orleans that elicits the need for youth media organizations?
Nguyen: After Hurricane Katrina, the youth of New Orleans were left out of the rebuilding process. Youth organizers in New Orleans decided that they needed to reach out to people doing similar work and form a collaborative. Youth media organizations in New Orleans do not to want to compete against each other. They want to build a youth-led movement for change.
Kaplan: There are few publicly funded opportunities for youth in New Orleans, particularly as many schools, parks and recreational centers remain shuttered almost four years after Hurricane Katrina devastated the city. The neighborhoods that youth live in are blighted and plagued by violence.
Too often the media depicts youth as the problem, rather as individuals in the community who bear the brunt of the impact of failed economic and social policies in their city. Thankfully, there is a strong community of nascent youth organizing groups, across New Orleans that raise the voices of youth in public policy debates and working to reshape the image of youth in the media as part of the solution.
YMR: What challenges have you experienced in the past 1-3 years as an educator in New Orleans?
Kaplan: Like most non-profits, JJPL has been hit by the economic recession. We struggle with wanting to serve more youth than we can in our programs. We do not have the funds for adequate staff support or even a van to help transport youth to meetings and events. While we are heartened by the huge outpouring of support that came to New Orleans from across the country, and really the world, in the wake of the Hurricane, we are worried that as the event continues to recede from the national headlines, the funding support will continue to dry up.
YMR: What are some of the successes?
Kaplan: There is a vibrant and dynamic community of organizers in New Orleans, whom JJPL is honored to work with. Collectively we have seen real change. Working with organizations like Families and Friends of Louisiana’s Incarcerated Youth (FFLIC), Fyre Youth Squad (FYS), VAYLA and Rethink New Orleans, we have seen a reduction in the funding towards school security officers, a revision of the New Orleans Recovery School District Discipline Code, improved conditions in New Orleans juvenile detention center, and other changes in public policy.
YMR: Are you part of a youth media network in New Orleans?
Kaplan: Although it is not explicitly media focused, we launched the New Orleans Youth Organizing Collaborative in 2008, which includes YASS, VAYLA, Rethink, and Fyre Youth Squad. We are working together citywide to increase educational equity and to change the future for young people across New Orleans.
Nguyen: One of the original FYS adult supporters also worked for JJPL and was instrumental in building close ties between the two organizations from the beginning. The roots of the collaborative began in the summer of 2006 when Fyre Youth Squad (FYS) and Kids Rethink New Orleans Schools (Rethink) attended the Community Open-Mic Youth Forum organized by the Downtown Neighborhoods Improvement Association (DNIA). Both FYS and Rethink support young people who want a voice in the rebuilding of New Orleans Public Schools and envision top-quality education for all New Orleans youth regardless of race, neighborhood or family income. There was a wonderful article written by Rethink members for the Neighborhood Partnership Network Newsletter about an FYS member that they became very fond of.
In February of 2008, VAYLA joined the collaboration. VAYLA, Rethink, & FYS began collaborating on a Through the Youth Lens photography project, where youth activists were viewed as agents of change. Then, in March of 2008, VAYLA and FYS were asked to be the hosting organization for the Youth Convening Conference, which welcomed youth organizations from around the country to New Orleans.
After the convening, VAYLA, FYS, JJPL, and Rethink decided to meet to form this New Orleans youth organizing collaborative. The organizations all agreed that in order for the four organizations to work successfully together, it must be an organic process. We decided that each organization will host a formal meeting and social event to give the youth they serve opportunities to build relationships. Since then, the young people we work with have been interacting and working together across programs.
Kaplan: Together we strengthen our work and learn from each other’s experiences. We represent all neighborhoods in New Orleans and work with youth with diverse racial backgrounds and a range of ages, from middle school to young people in their early twenties.
Since forming the collaborative, each organization has hosted member organizations at their meetings and at events, so that we learn our different styles and missions and therefore support one another’s campaigns and programs. Recently, the Collaborative had a weekend-long organizing training.
In January 2009, the Collaborative members are going on a retreat to plan a joint campaign, focused on Educational Equity in the city of New Orleans. Youth representatives from each organization have been planning the event for months, with the goal of identifying a common strategy to positively impact youth across the city in the coming year.
Nguyen: And recently, the collaboration has been approached by funders and agreed that each organization’s funds are distributed equitably and that consensus is reached on the question of the local organization responsible for maintaining money slated for collaboration.
YMR: Do you partner with other youth media organizations outside of the city?
Kaplan: JJPL is part of the Community Justice Network for Youth, a national network of community organizations working to “stop the rail to jail” for youth of color. While also not explicitly media focused, CJNY members work everyday to revamp how media depicts youth, particularly youth of color. We educate ourselves on media messaging and how to take control of the images and depictions of youth that shape public policy every day.
YMR: What is your personal vision/hope for young people?
Kaplan: My personal hope is that all young people can have the support to face the many obstacles to their success, including the negative depictions and imagery that they are faced with every day. If we are going to see real change happen in this country—which we have not seen yet—young people will need to be encouraged to get involved and be the leaders that will make change happen.
YMR: What can youth media educators—your peers in the field—do to help see that vision/hope to fruition?
Kaplan: We need to work together. Times are tough and our numbers are small—we have to scale up our impact across the board, reach more youth, and thrive no matter what the conditions. The Youth Organizing Collaborative is an example of trying to strengthen our programs through collaboration in New Orleans. It is imperative that all organizations look for opportunities to work together and grow.
YMR: Is there any stand-alone piece of advice that you would like to share with educators in the national youth media field?
Kaplan: Resources are so limited for organizations that do this work. We need to find ways to grow the field for all of us, rather than competing over scraps.
YMR: What was it like to spend face time with your colleagues at the YMR NOLA meeting in October?
Kaplan: It is always a blessing to take time to talk to peers in this field. Our days are hectic and crazed, so space to reflect and learn about what others are doing is invaluable.
Interview: Jim Randels and Kalamu ya Salaam
Jim Randels is the executive vice president of United Teachers of New Orleans (AFT Local 527) and is a parent, teacher, and graduate of New Orleans Public Schools. He taught at Frederick Douglass High before and after the state takeover and currently teaches at McMain and McDonogh 35 High Schools. He has authored over $5 million worth of grants to assist public education in New Orleans.
New Orleans writer, filmmaker and educator, Kalamu ya Salaam is co-director (with Jim Randels) of Students at the Center, a writing program in the New Orleans public schools. He is also moderator of Breath of Life, a Black music website. Kalamu can be reached at kalamu@aol.com.
YMR: What year was Students at the Center (SAC) founded and what was the impetus for starting the organization?
Jim Randels: SAC was founded in 1996 when students in an 11th grade English class I was teaching at McDonogh 35 decided to develop a school-based writing program to address the problem of high school English teachers working with so many students a day that students seldom received in-depth feedback on their writing. Erica DeCuir and Kenyatta Johnson, two students from that class at McDonogh 35, worked with me to design a program that would use grant money to create smaller class sizes, allowing students in SAC class to train and work as mentors in writing to younger students at the school, provide small group discussions about the younger students’ writing, and participate in school and community writing projects.
Kalamu Ya Salaam: We use story circles as a starting point. After the oral exchange of stories, students are encouraged to write from their own experiences. When we use standard curriculum texts and literature, we reinforce the validity of student lives and experiences. For example, when identifying the point of a piece of literature, we ask the students to find a similarity in their own life experiences.
YMR: What is your mission?
Randels: SAC’s mission is to improve the quality of education in public high schools in New Orleans by seeing students and their life experiences as resources to improve their schools and communities rather than as problems to be solved. Students, recent graduates who serve as staff, and classroom teachers who work with SAC comprise the leadership.
YMR: Can you share with YMR readers what the context is like in New Orleans that supports the need for youth media organizations like SAC?
Randels: SAC is really more an educational resource and a writing community. We do youth media as part of that broader context of improving schools and working as a community of writers. The current context of continuously changing school and school system leadership, continuous experimentation with public education, and revolving doors of teachers and school administrators make it especially important to have educational work grounded in students, graduates, and teachers. We need commitment to do long-term work in public education that places students, their lives, and the communities with which they identify as the main subject matter and resource for youth development and public education.
Salaam: Our emphasis is on identifying, analyzing and expressing the truths and meanings of student lives as well as understanding the truths and meanings of others, particularly as presented in standard literature and curriculum.
YMR: What challenges have you experienced in the past 1-3 years?
Randels: Probably the biggest challenge—and certainly the biggest heartbreak—is to see the state of Louisiana take over Douglass High School and push out community-based, student/family-led initiatives to improve the school. The state-run school district changed principals twice in the two years we were back at Douglass after Katrina. The second principal, with backing from the state-run district, refused to offer Advanced Placement courses to our students at Douglass and refused to implement the peer-led writing programs we had designed with school staff and community leadership as part of school improvement strategies.
In the second year, no new 9th grade students were admitted to the school. And, plans for the third year (2008-09) were to turn the school into a police, fire, and emergency medical concentration high school. Those plans have since been abandoned and the state system, which was supposed to improve the school, is now turning it over to a national charter school group, KIPP. Unfortunately, the charter school will reduce educational opportunities for the sort of students we were working with at Douglass before Katrina because it will not be neighborhood-based but city-wide.
Salaam: SAC views these changes as part of a concerted effort at privatizing the public school system. There is no longer a central public school system. There are multiple systems with an absence of coordination across the different systems. Our second challenge is the year-to-year fluctuations in funding.
YMR: And the successes?
Salaam: Our major success is survival as a program and the continued development of our program. Our staff consists of former high school SAC students who have decided to continue working with us. Another success is book publication. We have published two major projects in 2009: Men We Love, Men We Hate and Ways Of Laughing. Both books are available to read online, or as free downloads from our website. Both books are also available for purchase. Our website is www.sacnola.com. A third major success area is the development and passing on of SAC pedagogy through professional development workshops.
Randels: In addition, our biggest successes have included developing a cohort of graduates from Douglass, McMain, and McDonogh 35 High Schools who work as staff with SAC; serving as writing mentors and resource teachers in nine public schools in New Orleans; and, establishing a regular writing workshop that brings together teachers and students through our partnership with United Teachers of New Orleans (AFT Local 527) and the Andover Bread Loaf Writing Workshop.
YMR: What is your hope/vision for the organization in the future?
Randels: My hope is to nurture the projects that our staff and students are developing and widely distribute our resources/teaching materials in schools.
Salaam: To develop critical thinking among students.
YMR: Are you part of a youth media network in New Orleans?
Randels: The networks we are part of have more to do with education improvement with youth media as a component of that. Our major partners are with schools—New Orleans Public Schools and United Teachers of New Orleans (AFT Local 527).
Salaam: We are not part of any youth media networks and do not meet with youth media educators very often. We would welcome the opportunity to meet and share.
YMR: Do you partner with other youth media organizations in New Orleans or organizations outside of the city?
Salaam: It has been difficult to establish long-term partnerships in the city.
Randels: Outside of the city, we partner with a network of teachers and students, primarily from Oakland, CA and Lawrence, MA, who are part of the Bread Loaf Urban Teacher Network and the Andover Bread Loaf Writing Workshop. We also partner with writing and youth programs affiliated with the American Federation of Teachers.
YMR: What is your personal vision/hope for young people? And what is one challenge you’d like to overcome?
Randels: Our main vision/hope for young people is for them to a) have the ability to engage critically in the communities and systems in which they find themselves, and b) understand the value of social learning and collective work and responsibility. The challenge is to move the perception in education and other spheres from an emphasis on individual achievement to an emphasis on community development.
YMR: What can youth media educators—your peers—do to help see that vision/hope to fruition?
Randels: Educators can develop situations in the local context where they live to support youth as resources that can improve their communities, engaging in critical, collective dialogue.
YMR: Is there any stand-alone piece of advice that you would like to share with educators in the national youth media field?
Salaam: Yes, be honest. In the words of Amilcar Cabral, a leader of the African Liberation movement in the seventies, “Tell no lies, claim no easy victories!” Youth need the examples of adults and elders who honestly share with youth the experiences and lessons the adults and elders have learned. Rather than simply and moralistically teaching what is right, we should share the realities of what was and what is, and that in turn will be a big help to youth as they prepare to deal with what will be.
Randels: Make sure that the experiences and insights of the young people with whom you work connect to a larger political/historical context. Have critical discourses between young people and adult allies to keep the community engaged.
Report: State of the Youth Media Field
This report seeks to provide a recent snapshot of the youth media field and underscore the urgency for youth media organizations to work together, especially at a time when there is a growing need for youth media and the changes it can effect.
It is derived from conversations with youth media practitioners in the United States who attended a National Youth Media Summit in Lake Forest, IL in August 2009. In addition, it builds on many other reports and research, especially a 2004 white paper, “Developing the Youth Media Field: Perspectives from Two Practitioners,” and Open Society Institute documents capturing the state of the youth media field.
To read the complete report, please click here.