Youth Media Workshop
Empowering economically diverse African-American youth from public schools to make media and social change
Inspiration Radio: Relationships That Sustain Youth
Students from Urbana High and Edison Middle School in Champaign spent the last school year interviewing the people closest to them, including siblings, teachers and parents. They edited those interviews into the series.
For Urbana High School student Jason Knight, the act of recording an interview was the inspiration to find out more about someone he’d known for years – his saxophone teacher.
“Media. That’s what it took to really get me to ask questions and get to really know other people and what they’re all about,” said Knight, whose interview is included in a the series.
Keri Carpenter, a journalism major at the University of Illinois who worked closely all year with the students, said the project gave the students permission to talk to adults in their community in new ways. “Jason interviewed his saxophone teacher and normally he just goes there to have his lesson for a half hour or an hour,” Carpenter said. “Asking teachers about their personal lives, and what they are doing and how they got to be where they are, lets young people connect with teachers they see every day.”
Teacher Mevanee Parmer and YMW intern Morgan Martin directed the project at Edison Middle School, and teacher Mark Foley and YMW intern Carpenter directed the project at Urbana High School.
The Youth Media Workshop started in 2000 as a program of the Street Media Center, an indigenously inspired, youth development drop-in center developed by Dr. William Patterson, a professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign who engages young people of Hip Hop generations to use media to make social change in their communities.
Radio Stories:
Honesty Smith talks with her brother, Envision. She says she picked him because he’s older and she looks up to him. He’s also funny and expressive.
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Clorisa Mainor interviews her mother, Sandra Mitchell, who, in master storyteller form, tells her daughter when she accepted the Lord.
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Keenen Jones loves his mother, Towanda. The two are close and openly affectionate towards one another. In a candid conversation between the two of them, Keenen learns the source of his mother’s strength.
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Jason Knight interviews his saxophone teacher, Ed Greene, whom he has known a long time and has admired. Jason wanted to know how Mr. Greene is so dedicated to his instrument.
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Molly Blazier interviews her older sister, Mary, a busy college student. Sitting down together for an interview gave Molly some much appreciated one-on-one time with her sister and helped her appreciate the little things in life.
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Singing, especially gospel singing, has been part of Carolyn Hunter’s life since she was little. It’s opened many doors for her. She spoke about this with Sandra Hnoung, her former student.
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Monandi Ogega wants to be on TV as an actor or behind the camera as a director. To find out more about what that takes, he interviewed his high school drama teacher, Greg Chew.
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When Elijah Grant interviewed his grandmother, Evelyn Underwood, about her childhood memories, he learned that access to education wasn’t something she took for granted growing up in the South.
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Mervilline Afata talks with her father about growing up in Africa and immigrating to the U.S.
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Rommell Smith interviewed Mark Foley. Mr. Foley has been Rommell’s teacher in middle school and high school and mentored him in the Youth Media Workshop. Rommell learned that Mr. Foley was considered an at-risk student.
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Arielle Britton interview her mother, Sharon Davis, about her childhood and is thoroughly entertained.
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