Digital Storytelling in and with Communities of Color

http://www.mediathatmattersfest.org/4/index.php?id=9

In my Global Politics class a few weeks ago, we discussed habeas corpus and the ways in which the government has been bending many of its rules since 9/11. I had been pretty ignorant to all of this because as Americans, we are hardly exposed to the truth.

(If you want to learn more about habeas corpus and what is going on at Guantanamo Bay, visit this site.)
(http://www.thisamericanlife.org/Radio_Episode.aspx?episode=331)

As I was browsing through the Media That Matters Film Festival website, I came across this video about the ways in which Arab Americans, Muslims, and South Asians are being discriminated against because of the War on Terror. People assume that they have some sort of connection with the attacks or assume that they are terrorists themselves. This is ridiculous and unfair and these people want to educate others about the prevention of anti-Arab discrimination. This resonates with a few different themes from this class because we now understand what a story really is and how we can effectively communicate our message using creativity and technology.

The makers of this video drew a connection between the internment of the Japanese Americans during WWII and the secret detentions of Arabs and Muslims in the US today. The Day of Remembrance is an event held annually in cities around the US which observes the anniversary of the passage of Executive Order 9066, which led to to the internment of 120,000 people of Japanese ancestry. The video focuses on raising awareness of the unfortunate civil rights violations that are currently occurring in many US Arab and Muslim communities.

When we think of people of color, we often don’t think of Arab or Muslim Americans. Digital storytelling is a tool which allows people to reach many other people in sending a message which matters to them. This short digital story, or documentary, features the story of Nadin Hamoui, a 19-year old girl who was detained for 9 months because of her ethnic background. She is telling her heart-wrenching story because she hopes the world will understand that how she was treated was wrong and unfair. She is calling out for unity and vigilance and is able to do so because of technology.
I want to conclude with this video; it is a short comedy about what people might say when they hear that you are from the Middle East. It is funny, yet sad, and yet it is still a “story� with a message that some Middle Eastern Americans want us to know about them.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W_1hYyV7tes

Posted by Jen Smith at 1:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

(This film shows part 1 of the 3 parts on youtube)

While this film is dated in 1992 (almost more than 16 years ago), I still never knew of Black presence in Nova Scotia. In this video documentary "Speak It! From the Heart of Black Nova Scotia" I learn of a different population of the African diaspora that share similar experiences that I do hear in America.

Continue reading "Black Prescence in Nova Scotia" »

Posted by Sophi at 11:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I visited a website that’s dedicated to training individuals and groups about how to make stories that reflected themselves and their communities. They do this through the power of words and images, their main tools for making these stories being writing or photography. The site is called What’s Your Story? Check them out at www.storiesmatter.org

Continue reading "The Dream’s Online Media Analysis" »

Posted by The Dream at 8:16 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

USDA2DAY is a new online networking website for Jeezy fans that honestly focuses more on highlighting articles on individuals in the Black American community specifically. The site is not without it's flaws as it hosts some images and applications that are clearly tools of objectification and exploitation of women of color. What the site does besides that is allows for networking among those Hip Hop enthusiasts of the next generation.

Reminiscent of Realraptalk.com in combination with MySpace.com USDA2DAY.com allows for more web interaction and it has a stronger focus on the people in the community rather than the artistry and the artwork.

If used appropriately "The Official Media Source for the Hood" as the sub title claims is a powerful tool to get important information disseminated out this particular community of people so that each is updated on the latest news and issues. A potential problem for this site that I can already see coming into fruition is that it might become used primarily as the official smut/porn source for the hood where girls go to learn how to dance as provocative as possible with out being kicked out of the club.

I appreciate the site for what it wants to be, I just hope it can achieve and maintain that status with the lack of censorship on the site.

Continue reading "USDA 2day" »

Posted by Ernest at 5:24 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

This video is the winner of Tropfest 2008, The worlds largest short film festival.
"Tropfest originated at the well-known Tropicana Café in Sydney in 1993. Over the past fifteen years, it has evolved into the “Olympics of Short Film� and into an Australian cultural phenomenon with the festival screening live via satellite to over 150,000 people in eight cities across the continent." from www.tropfest.com

Here is a bit about the video and production from the same website
"Mankind Is No Island uses found signage on the streets of New York and Sydney to tell a touching story from the very heart of two cities and was shot entirely on a cell phone. The entire budget for the film was $57."

Wow, Wow I am amazed by this video and also the story of the guys who made it. This video speaks volumes about the advancement of technologe. It gives hope to anyone with an idea to follow though with it regardless of funds, or equipment. It also provides a broad link of community and accesse across countries with where the filming took place and across the distribution methods of the film festival.

The language this video uses is simple and precise. The many street signs used gives the feeling of travel, uniquness. The words structure and move the story. I was so drawn to this film because the words are so honest, they are things I have asked my self. I feel that the first part of this video is trying to make people feel a sense of community. That it is our New York, our Sydney. That people will think about any community they are apart of anywhere not just a big city. The story centers on people who are homeless and their place in society. The images again are universal in that people get hurt and mistreated all over the country. What do they need, or deserve? Is it a communitys responsibility to take care of their people? What kind of a message are we sending out when people are so willing to walk past, ignore, disregard other people? What sense of community and pride does that address? These are just some of the questions this video made me think about.

The power of this video being made on a cell phone is huge. It makes the possibility of making a movie seem so much more acessable and possible as long as you have a vision or passion.

Posted by Sophia at 2:05 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Housing costs continue to rise in the Twin Cities, but wages don't. This is the story of many Americans. To tell this story MPR interviewed Gwen Hollins and used her story of struggle to pay rent. The cause and effect of the housing issue is the fact that there's less vacancies available due to home foreclosures. The story ends with Hollins saying that she's still optimistic for her future and that she's applies for Section 8, but she doesn't know yet if she's on the waiting list. In fact the waiting list for Section 8 can be up to 10 years! As I'm sure everyone's either known someone or heard a story about someone who's abusing the system and complaining about paying a $43 monthly rent. Housing is taking up for some people more than 50 percent of their income. It raises the question of how can we pay a rental increase after a year, if we don't get a raise?

The fact is Hollins' issue of not being able to afford rent, is an issue that is triggered by other parts of society: housing, employment, class, and race. The story helps provide a face for what a lot of people are experiencing, but what is the goal of the story? Are they going to get Hollins in touch with the resources to get her a higher paying job? Affordable housing? The fact that Hollins didn't have access to the Internet is another sign of the digital divide between people of color and technology. Although the majority if not all libraries have the Internet, what good is it if people don't know how to use it? Although the story mentions a few local nonprofits that gave commentary it didn't sound like it was offering those places for people in need.

Read the story online:
http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2008/09/18/rent_foreclosures/

Posted by Tameka at 12:44 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

"When you lose parents to a disease that nobody wants to hear about, the whole world collapses."

Continue reading "Tsinu's Online media analysis" »

Posted by Tsinu Heramo at 12:35 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

In my American History class right now, we are studying World War II. This last week, because class on Tuesday was canceled, we were assigned videos to watch, regarding the participation of different groups in the American War effort. One video glorified the enlistment of young men, though the only images it gives are young white men. One talked about the participation of women, yet still it ignores racial issues. The final video (and the one I embedded below), speaks about the involvement in the war effort of Black Americans--how they would sit unused in army units, and how eventually some made it into the marines. It speaks of the efforts by some to integrate the armed forces. They argued that an efficient fighting force could not be segregated.

I thought that it would be nice to combine these two classes by using this digital media. It seems to me that we never were taught the racial issues within the war in grade school. We were never taught that the armed forces were segregated, that blacks were not allowed to be marines, or that some leaders in the military (like George Patton) were against such regulations. I feel that this is an often ignored part of the history of the war, and that this short piece of media contains a lot of information.

It is useful to have these types of videos online, because they are key to our history and record keeping. Without them, the roles of different groups of people in key historical moments could be forgotten entirely. We are taught that we fought in World War II to protect democracy against fascism, but what is it called when an entire group of people are prohibited from protecting their country because of the color of their skin?

Posted by jaymaaarrrt at 11:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Recently I wrote a profile story on a public radio storytelling class for high school-aged youth at Gordon Parks High School in St. Paul. While researching and gathering additional information on the program, I came across an article written by Will Wright, one of the facilitators of this project who works alongside with journalism Professor Catherine Squires.

Reading Wright’s article and reflecting on my experience in the classroom with the students, I know that many themes in this project resonate with themes that our class has discussed this semester.

This project began when Paul Creager, a teacher at Gordon Parks High and local filmmaker, contacted Squires and Wright to create a class for students interested in media making. Gordon Parks High is an alternative learning center for students who’ve dropped out of the “traditional� area high schools, and are deemed “at risk� by uninformed administrators.

The students have learned how to work with audio recording equipment and have learned useful skills such as editing, and interviewing techniques. They have produced stories on topics such as immigration and race, and the influence of rap in politics.

For me, one of the central themes in this class revolves around the idea of empowerment through technology, especially for communities of color and all other underrepresented groups. Most of the time, communities of color have no voice in the mainstream media and are therefore underrepresented, misrepresented, or simply forgotten or ignored. We’ve explored various scholarly articles that touch on the (unfortunate) historical relationship that African Americans (people of color in general) have with technology, and how technology has been used over the centuries against underrepresented groups basically making “us� afraid to utilize a tool that can finally project our voices and bring forth change. This makes me think back to some of the young African American girls in the class who, prior to this class, never considered going to college, never considered working in the communications field, and who never thought they had a voice. To see them transform, blossom has inspired me to continue my own journey in digital media storytelling.

Posted by Jessica at 8:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

For this assignment you are to browse the Internet (feel free to use many of the suggested sites like CurrentTV, radio stories, media that matters film festival, and other sites linked on this blog in previous weeks... just scroll down!), and look for stories (and/or photos, creative work) that resonant with themes from this class (read: stories and representations of race, gender, class, technology, countering of stereotypes, marginalized / oppressed peoples, and other key categories and concepts discussed in class and course readings).

To recap a bit, this term we've discussed how the telling of stories in communities build identities, construct meaning, and makes connections amongst communities and the world. Use this assignment to investigate these modes and dimensions of digital media & storytelling, analyze the role of digitized media as a method of individual healing, and examine media as tools for community organizing and development. Use this assignment to explore, examine, and reflect on the gendered, racialized, and classed dimensions of digital media and storytelling.

For this assignment browse news sites, creative online spaces, community websites, online media festivals, and any web-based sites, spaces and places are using digital media and storytelling to:

- preserve memory with/in communities of color
- write histories of communities of color
- learn about people and communities of color
- entertain within communities of color or about communities of color
- organize communities of color
- community healing with/in and beyond communities of color

Write a short 150 - 300 word reflective analysis of a particular story or a site that centers digital media, storytelling that happens in or with communities of color.

Make sure to LINK us to your source and embed an image (if it's a visual piece of media like photographs, essays, or video).

Posted by Rae at 12:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)