Digital Arts Service Corps - digest

Article for PTD Digest

Colleen Kelly — Wed, 18 Oct 2006 20:20:07 +0000

Erin Taylor asked me to write a little something for the upcoming VISTA digest... here is what I submitted (a sneak preview!):

You would think creating a new media literacy series would be easy enough. There are enough of them out there. Thus, when I was asked as a brand new VISTA to create a new media literacy curriculum for Project: Think Different, I figured I would just quote some Noam Chomsky and maybe throw in some media statistics and get something at least presentable together. The task seemed simple.

But, (there is always a “but”) I needed to make the curriculum accessible to teens. Boston teens. Boston teens living in the neighborhoods in which teenage death rates are the highest, in which an attraction to hip-hop music and commercial materialism are identifying aspects of the youth culture, and in which young people are most likely to be portrayed in the news media in relation to situations of crime and violence. Clearly these are the teens in the greatest need of media literacy awareness, but how in the world was a white, relatively affluent, punk, college-graduate female from Austin, Texas ever going to create something that actually works for these kids? Seeing as my first days in Boston included getting severely confused by public transportation, being shocked at how many people lacked innate kindness, and staring in disbelief at how the seemingly numerous Dunkin’ Donuts actually all had customers, the task seemed slightly daunting at best. How could I ever relate?

A lot has changed since that first week. I live amongst the people I work with. I listen to the music they listen to. I shop at the places they shop. I see the things they see. I travel the way they travel. I even use food stamps. It is amazing how much you can learn by immersion. Immersing yourself in the culture is what every foreign language instructor will advise when one is trying to acquire a second language. My project was no different.

Now that I have immersed myself in the community in which I work, being the Youth Media Coordinator for Project: Think Different has gone extremely well. Project: Think Different’s mission is to create a renaissance in music, film and video media education in order to engage people in civic dialogue and action among disenfranchised communities to ensure equity and fairness. We use the media arts as an organizing tool to reach disenfranchised young people and enable them to “think differently” and think big about their ability to create positive change in their lives, communities, and society at large.

After a whole lot of work with our Media Watch Team (a group of ten teens that work part time at Project: Think Different and came up with the outlines for the workshops in the curriculum), fairly high stress levels, and maybe a small skirmish or two with my co-developer Cara Powers, the Media Action Series is complete. It is an interactive multi-session training, co-facilitated by the youth of the Media Watch Team. The new curriculum addresses the media’s role in creating a culture of violence, racism, sexism, and commercialism while educating, empowering and organizing youth to take action on the subjects of media literacy, accountability, access and policy. The Series will look at the various forms of media with a focus on entertainment media, popular culture, and Hip Hop media specifically, that youth consume as entertainment and informants of their socio-political perspectives and social behaviors.

Our objective through the Media Action Series is to create a culture in which young people believe in their power to create change in the media and beyond, and to provide youth the education and access to resources to become well informed, socially responsible, and participatory citizens of society.

The Media Action Series launches the first week of November, 2006. We hope to examine how the media’s portrayal of youth and minority communities affects their own senses of worth and value to society, how our behavior, language, and attitude is affected by the media industry, and likewise, how other people’s perceptions of our behavior are affected by the media’s perpetuation and proliferation of stereotypes. We also hope to address the negative aspects of today’s commercial Hip Hop and popular culture with solution-oriented approaches, inspiring young people to become more conscious consumers of music, video, television, radio, and news media, enabling them to recognize the alternatives available that offer more empowering and positive experiences; thus cultivating a culture of young people who believe in their own ability to demand and create those alternatives.

By keeping the curriculum centered on a hip hop culture, I feel the Media Action Series has a unique potential to engage Boston’s youth and inspire them to take part in positive social change. All in all, I am happy with the finished product. By learning my second language, the language of a Boston teen, I have become part of something so much bigger than myself. I can only hope some of Boston’s youth can learn a fraction of everything that I have.

Three weeks in

Erin Taylor — Mon, 02 Oct 2006 16:26:02 +0000

Well, I've finally moved into my own place. After three weeks of bags and boxes, I was able (with much appreciated help from Danielle and Ben) to move my stuff into this great house in Arlington. Great except that it was completely unfurnished and entirely empty, so my first night I made a bed of blankets on the hardwood floor; of course, I'd had the foresight to buy an air mattress it was just the batteries I needed to inflate it that I'd forgotten, so hardwood floor it was. My roommates have since moved in, and I have a bed on the way, so things are now looking up.

On the subject of roommates, this has been my first experience living with people who I don't know going into the situation. It has proven to be a good one, and I'm hopeful that it will continue to be so. My roommates (2 guys, 1 girl) have been slowly moving in this past week, and it's been fun to see who brings what to the house. I walked in one day after work to a unicycle leaning against the refrigerator, and after questioning my roommate about her unique contribution to the kitchen, was informed that she also breathes fire, walks a tight rope, and juggles (although not at the same time). So, my roommates have interesting hobbies; they're also laid back, fun, clean, and pretty great so far.

As far as work is concerned, I'm getting into the swing of things, slowly but surely. I'm helping Danielle with the Digest (if you're interested in writing an article, send me a note) and also developing a fundraising plan with Peter. The rest of my time seems to be spent getting familiar with the non profit sector, ackronyms, and computer language. All this is taking a little longer than I'd like, but I have great people around me that are really helping with the process, and I'm looking forward to adding more substantial value soon. Anyway, hope everyone is doing well; I love reading about what you're all up too. Have a great week!

Leading by example...sort of

danielle martin — Fri, 29 Sep 2006 21:34:19 +0000

After a spent the week trying to catch up with all the VISTAs under my care, encouraging them all to blog and read the blogs, I realized I haven't really blogged myself. What AM I working on? Well the first three weeks as an official VISTA leader has been a lot about finding a balance between two new roles.

Role 1 : VISTA Leader at CTC VISTA Project at UMass Boston

This role was a little easier to figure out, since I've got the Project pretty much figured out by now. In fact, most of these first three weeks have been about helping the Project HQ staff get on the same page and think strategically about where the Project wants to go. I hosted a little strategic planning retreat at my new apartment in Medford, where we compared assumptions, knowledge of the Project and whittled it all down into some concrete goals and actions for the Project. Most of the fall will be consumed with populating the new CTC VISTA resource portal and putting the Digest together with Erin.

Role 2: Program Coordinator at massIMPACT

[I just got that title today, mostly because we had to figure out something to put on my new business cards.] Now, working with massIMPACT is all new. massIMPACT is a non-profit housed at MassHousing that works to provide support to technology in housing developments accross MA. So far, it's done work in digital storytelling train-the-trainer projects and partnered with Northeastern University among other things.

The first three weeks were mostly shadowing my supervisor, Thaddeus Miles, and being amazed at the amount of people he interacts with and is able to remember all their names and stories. Meeting everyone and figuring out the housing development environment has been fascinating for me because I know a lot about non-profits in Boston but not much about this group. The funniest part is how amazed folks are that I want to take the T to these meetings - I think it's a combo of fearing for the "white girl" in the Roxbury/Dorchester and not liking to walk on their part.

The other sub-role I have at massIMPACT is project managing the development of a collaboration portal for community digital storytelling facilitators at StoriesforChange.net. I've been reading as much as I can of emails from all the volunteers who want to build this site for sharing resources, curriculum, and lessons learned while providing place to publish stories as well. I'm excited because this site is truly a project fueled by the users (and not by a funder or higher power) and I get to work with new VISTA Jessica McCoy at the Center for Digital Storytelling.

On a personal note, I spent a good amount of free time these past couple weeks seriously thinking and researching my graduate school possibilities. I highly enjoyed the session at the Comparative Media Studies Program at MIT, especially because I connected with another prospective student (Ms. Audobon, who moblogs and with whom I had way too much in common with for Fate not to be involved) and a few of the current grad students. Imagine, Danielle at MIT....

The Digest Fall '06 : the CTC VISTA Project Newsletter

danielle martin — Wed, 20 Sep 2006 21:06:33 +0000

As the air gets colder in Boston, it's that time once again...the Digest is coming, the Digest is coming. Here's some details:

History:

The Digest, as the newsletter is known, is a Project specific publication based on the content we used to produce in the professional journal, the Community Technology Review (which is now on hiatus indefinitely). CTR was filled with contributions from all volunteer authors as well but had much longer pieces and was printed. There also used to be a tiny newsletter produced by VISTA leaders.

The Digest is the next generation of news about the Project. It has the goal of highlighting the work of the VISTAs and accomplishments of our participating organizations. As Peter stated in the intro to the first issue of the Digest in May of 2006 :

"Developed using Drupal content management system tools, the Digest allows us to present the kind of substantial content the Project has provided in the past via the Community Technology Review—organized from a limitless number of perspectives, and we have chosen here themes of news, trends and reports in our focus area work, and blogs—with special takes on those focus areas: community networking, TA to NPOs , community organizing, and digital media for youth (for more categories, check out the tag cloud)."

The last issue of the Digest is at < http://www. cpcs . umb . edu /vista/digest/ >.

Articles:

All the content of the Digest is original to the Project, whether it is new articles or excerpts from VISTA blogs. In the past we've aimed for articles of 600-800 words (but sometime longer) on topics specific to the work the VISTAs are doing in their organizations. Articles fall into sections such as:

News - Articles written by VISTAs, Project HQ staff, and supervisors about news about the Project itself and events at our participating organizations (especially highlighting the work of VISTAs)
Trends & Reports - articles by outside experts, friends of the Project about trends/topics related to work of the VISTAs, primarily in the four priority areas. also includes updates based on mid-year and end of year reports.
From the blogs - excerpts of entries by VISTAs in their CTC VISTA blogs, including photos
Wall of Video - links to videos made by, related to, or were a result of VISTA's programs

Deadlines for Fall 2006:

Rough Draft deadline: 10/13
Final Draft deadline: 10/20
Production week: 10/23-27
Full issue out online - out around 10/30

Call for authors:

ANYONE can be a writer for the Digest - new & current VISTAs, supervisors, alumni VISTAs, and even friends of the Project. Please contact Danielle or Erin at Project HQ if you're interested. It's a great chance to get published and get the word out about your organizations.