Workshop Discussion: Paradise, Jasiri X, Tani Ikeda (facilitators) SESSION One 10:30 AM
Topic:
Interests: Jasiri X/Tani’s meeting of the minds, interest in music, interests in elections, interests in different forms of media, interest in educating youth on media and how to use it, interest in bringing different communities together and bridging the gap in terms of accessing information in different communities, interest in linking youth together through media.
Intros:
Denise: Hill district, Pittsboro, Oral History Project, young people recording the history that they are getting from interviews with the elders. Training kids to be oral historians, from grade school-senior high, paired with professionals for technical guidance. Community outreach capturing history over the summer months, that can be continued, and building connections from generation to generation.
Paradise & Jasiri:
Three events: movement, harry Belafonte “the gathering for justice”, hip hop political conference. 2005-2006. How to use this inspiration for the community. Called youth together to talk about reshaping the community: “One Hood”. P: one thing Pittsboro suffers from is hoodism. Violence between hoods. Wanted young people to relate, through hip-hop. Homewood: 6 people were shot in 24 hours, including young girls. Realize the people they need to engaged people who don’t go to conferences. They got 40 men and walked down the street. Women sent their men out to join them. Telling the youth that they care about their lives, and changing it for the better.
A police officer pointed a gun at a 7 yr old girl, they wanted to organize around this. The mother was charged with disturbing the peace and disorderly contact for screaming out Jesus when she thought her daughter was going to be killed. Out of this came media that they began to produce.
Gena 6—wrote a song about it and got it published at all hip-hop.com Michael Basemen show wanted to talk to him. Became the theme song of the movement.
Paradise was in the black spades, mighty zulu nation. Entertainment director of the latin quarter. Gave many artists their first shows. He documented with pictures. Joined Professor X, and eventually formed the X Clan.
When they first joined they were solely activists, and took until the Gena 6 for them to start using music at a tool.
Sean Bell: shot 51 times by the police: people wanted Jasiri to do a rap about this event. “Enough’s enough”. He didn’t see big name artists stepping up, so he did.
Through meidia he realized he could change peoples way of thinking.
Jasiri “this week with Jasiri X” rapping the news every week. Inspiration: FOX News. Putting a different spin/telling the truth about situations that aren’t getting coverage from every side. Political videos
Show: this week with jasiri x episode 5
- shaping and framing the issues
- showing people who weren’t engaged in the news
- educating and entertaining at the same time
Mentor young people
-wiz & mac miller
“the real Huey Newton” video
– giving leaders of tomorrow: love compassion intelligence instead of judgment.
Protests in Madison Wisconsin: “American workers vs multi-billionaires”
- on the way to a university
- stopped in on the protest and filmed the video
- 30,000 people Friday 70,000 people Saturday
Creating media in innovative new creative ways—how do we bring everyone together, how do we gain viewership and respect.
Paradise: “media literacy”
Understanding the message, who is behind it
Teaching young people to use critical thinking when they are consuming the media
Tani: immediate justice
A lot of times with think of news and history s dead, as opposed to something that we can have a hand in changing.
Train girls in queer sex ed and video production. They come up with their own ads.
Creating a movement of wholeness, this can come from telling your own story and knowing that your story can create change.
Documentary: Mariposa
Documenting quincinera and coming out
Espie Hernandez
Human rights watch film festival: screening
Want films to reach young people
Made pixilation animations 30 seconds for online platforms and being pitched to mtv and other platforms.
Finding solutions
Videos:
My impossible dream
Where does my desire take me
My body is a site of
Speak truth to power
Michelle: where do you see balance between this storytelling, and ways in which me can facilitate getting video out there in a public way.
J: timing is a factor. We would stay up all night. There is a deadline, if that meant staying up all night we did that. Awe started to predict discussions before they happened, so some of the songs were already done. When issues become in the media, we have a video and song already ready. Example: persecution of Muslims in the country. When the Muslim radicalization hearings can we released it. The more people you have working, the faster you can produce.
T: Seeing the 30 second product of a long process. We created body maps, wrote about out experiences inside our bodies, there were discussions and revelations that happened throughout the program. There is an evolution to the way the girls started to revision their bodies and what they could be. These projects were shot in 4 hours, which is a really short turn around. We stress going with the flow, we want to do as much as we can, but if the process isn’t full and beautiful we adjust.
J: we don’t just produce videos, we blog. Blogs have gone viral. There is a space for all media, we need to figure out how to tie them all together.
T: that I our approach too, create by any mean necessary. It’s trying to figure out all the ways that we can conceptualize media.
Play-ground rules:
- step up step back (take a different route than your usual)
- break it down
- listen and hear
- invite the unusual
Media:
- TV
- Radio
- Print (books, magazine, newspapers)
- Word of mouth
- Video games
- T-shirts
- The internet (web sites, blogs, twitter Facebook)
- Graffiti
- Art
What is radical people of color media?
- understanding digital advocacy (taking on the system: rules for radical change in a digital era)
- Graf
- Mix Tapes
- Documentary
- Hip- Hop Beyond Beats and Rhymes
- Appropriated art
- Logo’s and branding
- Fahamu Pecou
- Blogs
- Electronic Diary
- Hair style
- Shoes
- Tattoos
- The Tipping Point
- What is blackness in TV?
o Cosby show
o Jeffersons
o House wives of Atlanta
- Positive portrayal
- Debunk myths in media (media literacy)
- Photojournalism
- E-book
- Formalizing a network as a way of sharing
- Media consortium
Debunking myths:
- rick ross: he was a football player and a corrections officer in real life, his image is false
- in the World Trade Center movie a hero in real life was black, but in the movie is white
A message depends on its leaders and first followers. When people catch on to something they can make it go viral.
Progressive outlets:
- minimal voices of color
- white community is portrayed more
Idea: Online Gallery Curator
- look for commonalities
- cross pollinate conversations
- connect the dots
- create relationships
- collaboration
How does this radical media reconceive time & space?
– search engine optimal vertical
o home for related content
o harvest content
o hype machine
- suppressed stories
- curator/gallery
- a way to feature a series of work to gain exposure
Intersections between issues
- race
- class
- gender
- sexuality
- class
- Information – core
Information
- The core
- break lines
- break boundaries
- get INFORMATION out there
- what causes barriers, and how do we make it more inclusive
- how does information travel
o organizations
o people
o online
- identify with people, relate
- class war vs. human beings
Identification
- ID war
- How do you define yourself
- What is your identity
- Real people vs. labels
- Portrayals in media vs. portrayal in reality
How do you deal with identity?
- your own story
- the identity that you give yourself
- the identity that the world/people gives you
- how do you relate
