Tag: activism

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Community Programs Media Projects

Sudden Flowers – Ethopia

 Sudden Flowers project in Ethopia

stories and videos from 2007.

I was reminded of this project today when I was looking at the work of co-founder Eric Gottesman. On his site is a more recent mobile portrait studio project he did with Sudden Flowers in 2011. Other projects with Sudden Flowers are on his site and I was especially intrigued with the touring 2006 project Abul Thona Baraka throughout Ethopia. Members of Sudden Flowers accompanied the exhibition in its travels and engaged audience members in dialog inspired by their photographs > look at the slide show.  Many more links to Sudden Flowers in the photographs and installations section of Eric’s site.

Categories
Community Programs Resources

Teen Empowerment & Employment through the Arts

Artist for Humanity (AFH) is a unique and innovative arts organization that provides empowerment and employment for teens through the arts (painting, photography, sculpture, screen printing and digital media).  Located in Boston, MA since 1991, AFH’s mission “is to bridge economic, racial and social divisions by providing under-resourced youth with the keys to self-sufficiency through paid-employment in the arts.”

AFH partners professional artists/mentors with youth to design, produce and market art products from various media.  Growing up in Boston, I have always been a fan of AFH’s work and certainly hope to work with them one day.

Be sure to check out their blog too!

                                                            photo from AFH

Categories
Media Projects

Gordon Parks and the power of photography

What Became of Harlem’s Fontenelle Family? – NYTimes lens blog

Gordon Parks’s Harlem Family Revisited
By JOHN EDWIN MASON and JESSE NEWMAN

In March 1968, Gordon Parks published a portrait of an African-American child with disheveled clothes in Life magazine. His lips were swollen and cracked from eating plaster, in a futile attempt to ward off hunger. His eyes were plaintive and haunting.

Richard Fontenelle was too young to understand, but he and his family became the faces of urban poverty for millions of Americans. The photo essay Mr. Parks produced — “A Harlem Family,” which is now on exhibit at the Studio Museum in Harlem — changed Mr. Fontenelle’s life, and the lives of every member of his family, forever. It sparked in him a desire to succeed, and a lifelong friendship with Mr. Parks. read more 

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You can view the original layout in the online version of LIFE magazine, March 8, 1968. It is quite powerful to see the original context in the magazine with the layout, other articles, other photographs, and advertising.

Categories
Resources

How to be an Ally

Another great post from SPARK  a Movement– grassroots mobilizing around the clear and present danger that sexualization poses to girls and young women. They work directly with girls 13-22 to train them to be media activists and leaders in the fight against sexualization. 

How to be an Ally: A Guide for Teachers & Other Adults | SPARK a Movement.

by Alice Wilder

Once upon a time, my friends and I had to deal with a male teacher who liked to tell girls what to do with their bodies. One of my friends got a “talking to” about her dress, even though she was within the dress code, because–and this is a direct quote–“teenage boys have thoughts.” Another time, the whole class had to listen to a speech from him on the importance of girls “protecting” their virginity. And here’s what happened: when I walked past his class every day, I felt pangs of fear in my chest. Actually going to class felt like going into battle. read more

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 More great posts on their blog

Categories
Education

Art as inspiration to Academic Success

 

Chuck Close Uses Art to Inspire Students to Academic Success - NYTimes.com

Chuck Close Uses Art to Inspire Students to Academic Success – NYTimes.com.

Let’s hope this program catches on.

Categories
Education

Rockaways Teen Documents Life Post-Sandy

Rockaways Teen Documents Life Post-Sandy for School

See Images and Video by Brandon McClain ITHS CISCO Academy and edited by Jazmin Johnson ITHS Video Production Academy on Information Technology High School

Categories
Media Projects

Through Positive Eyes, a Participatory Photojournalism Project

 

Through Positive Eyes, a Participatory Photojournalism Project 

from the NYTimes lens blog:

The South African photojournalist Gideon Mendel spent more than a decade documenting H.I.V./AIDS in Africa. But despite his commitment and passion for the subject, he found he could not continue.“The time has come to hand over the camera,” Mr. Mendel said. “Me photographing H.I.V. positive people is just not appropriate anymore.”So Mr. Mendel, along with David Gere, a professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, created a participatory photography project that encourages people who are H.I.V. positive to tell their stories. Over the last four years, they have put cameras in the hands of 72 people living with H.I.V. in six cities across the globe. The project, called Through Positive Eyes and largely financed by the Herb Ritts Foundation and the Ford Foundation, operates in conjunction with the U.C.L.A. Art and Global Health Center, which Mr. Gere leads. It aims to dismantle stigma associated with H.I.V. using an unconventional form of photojournalism. read more

Categories
Media Projects

Leaving Abuse Behind – Donna Ferrato

Leaving Abuse Behind – Lens Blog – NYTimes

After 30 years on the front lines, Donna Ferrato is ready to write the final chapter of her crusade against domestic abuse.SHOWCASEDonna Ferrato on LensDonna Ferrato on photography: “I’m just seeing it as it fossilizes. A photograph is a fossil. That’s what a camera does.”Helping Beyond the Pain »TriBeCa Chiaroscuro »Ms. Ferrato has been making raw, intimate photos of domestic violence since 1981. She has also been organizing, speaking publicly, counseling and even offering victims shelter at her New York City apartment.The photographs in her book “Living With the Enemy” helped make the problem brutally real. The images helped create and strengthen laws against domestic violence and raised public awareness of the issue. But domestic violence is still rampant, and women continue to return to their abusers. >> read more

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Donna Ferrato’s work speaks to the power of photography to enact social change. more at donnaferrato.com

Categories
Media Projects

Miss Representation Blog & Keep It Real Challenge

Miss Representation » Blog The Keep It Real Challenge: Day Three.

The Keep It Real challenge was all about showing the media what real beauty looks like – without the photoshop. After using Twitter to ask magazines to print one unphotoshopped picture per issue on Day One, and writing a flurry of blogs yesterday explaining just how important and serious the issue is, today we used our own creativity and self-expression to challenge society’s limiting beauty standards! more

Read report on day two

Read report on day one

The Keep It Real Challenge is a collaboration between SPARK Movement, Miss Representation, LoveSocial, Endangered Bodies, and I Am That Girl. They are all doing amazing work – check them out.

 

Categories
Education Resources

Creative Practice towards Civic Change

Just learned about this Canadian organization, Broken City Lab, via FB where a friend posted a link a great bibliography they have put together:
50 TITLES / 50 PERSPECTIVES: A READER’S GUIDE TO ART & SOCIAL PRACTICE

Looking forward to exploring more – esp the research blog and projects.

Broken City Lab is an artist-led interdisciplinary creative research collective and non-profit organization working to explore and unfold curiosities around locality, infrastructures, and creative practice leading towards civic change.

They work in Windsor, Ontario, Canada and abroad.