Youth Media Workshop
Empowering economically diverse African-American youth from public schools to make media and social change
And the Beat Goes On: The Spirit in the Legacy of the Douglass Center Drum Corps (2006)
Urbana High School Student Filmmakers Present Video on History and Future of Douglass Park Drum Corps
Six young African-American male filmmakers from Urbana High School explained their project on radio talk shows on four different stations. They premiered their documentary to an appreciative audience at Boardman’s Art Theatre. And their documentary, And the Beat Goes On: The Spirit in the Legacy of the Douglass Center Drum Corps, aired on WILL-TV on Dec. 5, 2006. The students, participants in WILL’s Youth Media Workshop, created the video about the history of the Douglass Center Drum Corps and about efforts to revive the corps.
The comments of three student producers, Nick Green, Brian Mitchell and Jay Walker, are included. They talk about making the video about the history and future of the drum corps. The video tells the story of the drum corps during its heyday in the late 1960s and asks the question, “Who will carry on the tradition and provide this important social outlet for young black men and women today?”
Mitchell said the students hope the video will help efforts to revive the drum corps. “It’s about small town living. It’s about the history of drumming itself, the egos and pride of the drummers, the personalities of the drummers and the future of drumming,” Mitchell said.
The 25-minute video includes recollections of former drum corps leaders Jesse Ratliffe and Bud Johnson, along with former drum corps member Terry Townsend and drill team member Linda Turnbull. The video looks at recent efforts by Ratliffe and 17-year-old Lee Duncan to revive the drum corps, which in 1968 won first place in the national Elks Club competition in New York City. Townsend recalls the sense of community pride people felt in the victory. Walter Cronkite announced it on the CBS Evening News and when their bus pulled into town on their return, drum corps members discovered they were heroes, Townsend said. “When we got to Douglass Center, there was just a sea of people,” he said.
The Youth Media Workshop is a collaboration of WILL AM-FM-TV and William M. Patterson, associate director of the University of Illinois African American Cultural Center. The after-school program teaches African-American youth how to make radio and television documentaries that link the hip-hop generation to the civil rights and black power generations.
“I’m very proud of the students who worked on the drum corps video,” said Kimberlie Kranich, co-director of the workshop. “They understand their special role in documenting this history and helping preserve and keeping the legacy moving forward.” Other Urbana High students who worked on the project were Coreyawn Donald and Kwan Cobbs.
Patterson said he hopes the film encourages other young people to learn about the drum corps and community history. “They can become a part of recapturing the heartbeat of a community that has a rich legacy of great music, culture and identity,” he said.
The workshop received a grant from the Illinois Humanities Council to develop a pilot video about the history of Champaign’s Douglass Park area.
For more information contact:
Kimberlie Kranich
217-244-5072 or (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
