Allied Media Conference

Presenters: Facilitators from the Palestine Education Project; Students from Bushwick Community High School

Using a mixture of demonstration and discussion, this workshop will share the Palestine /Israek Education Project's (PEP) work using media in teaching about about Israel/Palestine. We will explore ways to raise awareness about the Palestinian struggle while developing ways for youth in the US to articulate and address their own connections to colonialism, racism, and militarism. Educators and students will co-facilitate, using Palestinian hip hop videos and lyrics, digital stories made by Palestinian youth in refugee camps, radio and video pieces created by youth in Brooklyn, and clips from the documentary “Slingshot Hip Hop” to jumpstart conversations around racism, occupation, and resistance. This workshop will provide concrete activity suggestions, hand-outs, and audio-visual materials.

Presenters: Amy Bach, Heavyn-Leigh American and Habibah Ahmad of Manhattan Neighborhood Network

What is youth-centered participatory action research and how can it be used to advance the field of youth media? Come hear about a collaborative research project that the Manhattan Neighborhood Network's Youth Channel (YC) is doing to involve young people in the development of a cable tv channel dedicated to media made by youth for youth. Called "YC All-City", it will be the nation's first channel to work with teams of young people to shape, produce, and promote youth programming. The workshop will offer participants an opportunity to explore some of the challenges, possibilities, and strategies for supporting organizational work that allows the community to take an active role in the process of research.

Presenters: Ryan Pinion, Stacy Milbern, Isabel Macdonald

When was the last time you heard or saw people with disabilities represented in the media? Part 1 of this session will break down the most common frames of discussion when it comes to disability in the media: sickness, medicine and charity. We will then present alternative representations of disability not commonly portrayed in the media and share current and historical information about the Disability Rights Movement in this country. During Part 2 of this session, the group FAIR (Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting) will share concrete tools for monitoring the media, documenting unfair and inaccurate coverage, and using this documentation as part of campaigns to achieve more accountable coverage. Participants will have the chance to practice these tools on recent media reports involving harmful representations of disability in the media, and ultimately will walk away with tools that they can apply to any campaign for social justice. You will also receive concrete tools for addressing ableism and inaccessibility issues within your own organization!

Presenters: Sacajawea Hall, Radio Rootz (New York City); Alexis Neider, PS 155 William Paca School (New York City); Tim Dorsey, Youth Media Learning Network (New York City)

This workshop is geared towards an audience of youth media-educators, working in a variety of media types (audio, video, print, web or other) and settings (community-based organizations, afterschool programs, schools, media arts centers, and more). We will look closely at samples of youth-produced media, viewing footage of young people engaged in media-making, then conduct role plays for educators as learners. All will be invited to reflect upon their teaching practices, to approach their work as learners, and to consider how they might support one another and other colleagues moving forward as educators teaching youth media.

Presenters: Puck Lo, Critical Resistance-Oakland, National Radio Project, Free Speech Radio News; Jaggi Singh, No One Is Illegal-Montreal and Solidarity Across Borders; Rachel Herzing, Creative Interventions, "Left Turn," "The Abolitionist"; Alan Grieg, Generation 5

Moderator: Sahee Kil

Business and corporate media inundate us with sensational tales of "crime." These stories consistently side with police and the State, heavily relying upon stereotypes that pathologize poor people and those who work in informal and illegal sectors. In this panel, we'll hear from independent journalists who are telling the "real" story behind crime and the ever-expanding prison, punishment and surveillance industries. But how can media go beyond truth-telling? What role can our media play in building a world without prisons? We'll hear from people who make media to create justice in their communities and share ideas to take home.