POPPYN Summer 2011!

This summer UCCP’s home-grown news show POPPYN (Presenting Our Perspective on Philly Youth News) welcomed a new cohort of young members to its team, representing many Philadelphia neighborhoods and schools: Kensington/ Kensington Culinary Academy, Olney/ Science Leadership Academy, Center City/ Mastery Charter School, South Philly/ Horace Furness High School, North Philly/ Tacony Academy, Brewerytown/ Constitution High. Students were trained by UCCP’s veteran V-Media producers Saeed Briscoe and Taesha White on media production and literacy, with support of Temple University intern Lynsey Graeff.

The new crew learned the mission of POPPYN and what it takes to produce an episode by jumping right into the process, assuming the jobs of researchers, anchors, reporters, camera people and editors in the production of POPPYN #5! Episode 5 focused on food in Philadelphia, highlighting the efforts of youth-led urban nutrition and gardening programs like Urban Nutrition Initiative and Teens 4 Good. Also featured were interviews and facts about teens’ favorite foods, a deconstruction of ethnic food stereotypes and a report from a National youth-run community-agriculture conference called Rooted in Community. You can see all these stories as well as more creative interpretations of the theme on POPPYN’s website: http://whatspoppyn.blogspot.com

Additionaly, four of the young POPPYN crew member had an opportunity to participate in the National Association for Media Literacy Education conference this July in Philadelphia. Our participants worked with youth from all over the country as part of the M3 (Modern Media Makers) camp, dedicating over 48 hours of their weekend to collaborative production of 5 short genre-specific film pieces that creatively interpret the definition of media literacy. See their amazing, hilarious and inspired work at the NAMLE M3 blog: http://namle.net/2011/08/18/modern-media-makers-m3-archive-project-philly-2011/

A big thank you to Mosi Blaylock, a UCCP Leaders Corps member who accompanied and supported the youth at M3 through the entire camp.

Youth Action Scholars take "Reality Check" to Free Minds Free People!

Youth Action Scholars Taneka Price and Jabari Jackson, with the leadership of Kenny Williams-Medley and Alie Huxta presented a powerful interactive workshop to an audience of more than 30 youth and adults at the Free Minds Free People conference in Providence, RI. Workshop attendees got a "Reality Check" on the relationships between media ownership and representation and school funding and leadership. Content for the workshop has been developed by Youth Action Scholar participants in the "Education" and "Race, Culture & Mass Media" groups over the course of 2010-2011 program year. Thank you FMFP for the amazing opportunity to share and network with likeminded social justice educators!

What was POPPYN about 2010 (and how can it keep POPPYN in 2011?)

Did you know that only 1% of youth-related stories in the mainstream media focus on "good deeds?" Privileged to be working with Philadelphia youth, we are better informed about the huge the contribution young people make to our city. So this Fall at the UCCP we launched a new initiative called POPPYN, which stands for Presenting Our Perspective onPhilly Youth News. It's a youth-produced news show about issues and events in Philadelphia that so often get ignored or misrepresented by the mainstream media. Our pilot episode is in the last stages of post-production and will be coming out - and coming to your e-mail box - very soon!

Inspired by our own co-opting of the adjective poppin' (which means both "cool" and "happening"), we asked the UCCP Leaders Corps and staff what was POPPYN for them in 2010. We also borrowed an idea from the "If I Had a Trillion Dollars" contest (we used it in our after school program to explore how the money spent on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan could be better distributed to help our community) and asked the LC what they would buy the UCCP if they had a Trillion Dollars. Hey - it's fun to dream!

Check out their answers in the video below:

Um, so.. our slightly more REALISTIC Wishlist includes getting our own lounge at Temple University, updating our cramped offices with new technology, investing in new state-of-the art media equipment to make initiatives like POPPYN even more, well, poppyn!... But also the little things that an organization working with youth never stops needing:Tokens, Pizza, Snacks, Board Games, Gift Cards, tickets to cool events,a Button Maker and of course Cold Hard Cash so we can take our participants to national conferences, support them traveling to other countries through Experiment in International Living, and paying the salaries of our staff and Leaders Corps. At the end of the day, it's all those little things that help us together create a city culture where youth feel supported, encouraged and represented.

You are a big part of what makes UCCP so POPPYN.

Please buy us something. The little stuff really adds up.

Happy Holidays.

<3

The UCCP

Send cold hard cash (in check form) to:
UCCP-Temple University
4th Floor Gladfelter Hall, 1115 W. Berks St
Philadelphia, PA 19122

Young Gun Victims on Violence

Point Blank is the name of a 10 minute documentary created this summer with help of two youth victims of gun violence. Khadij Davis and Darnell Monroe came to our program looking for a summer job and were surprised to find that their project involved learning filmmaking skills and narrating their own stories. Our two wonderful Leaders Corps members and seasoned media makers, Aaron Kennedy and Earla Joseph, facilitated the training, planning and shooting of the film. Although challenged by the needs of the youth they worked with and the delicate subject at hand, they were able to bring to life a project that delivers a piercing portrayal of violence in Philadelphia, especially among African American young men.

The UCCP has a deep commitment to helping young people address the topic of youth violence, an issue that affects many of our participants and Leaders Corps members. In the past we have hosted a forum for youth organizations to brainstorm ideas on forming a citywide peace campaign, supported a group of participants named Youth Action 4 Peace in creating a scholarship as a way to promote positive opportunities for inner city youth, run a series of workshops that culminated in a youth-led Peace Mini Conference and produced numerous media projects including PSAs, narrative films and documentaries exploring the issue. This was our first time working with gun shot victims. The project was possible with the ideas and support of Scott Charles from Temple University Hospital and Professor Maria Kefalas of St. Joseph’s University.

For screening requests, please contact Natalia at nsmirnov@temple.edu.

Students Produce Media for Senior Projects at UCCP

Clockwise from left: seniors Khalia Brooks, Lori Burton, Malcolm Walton, Gregory Coney and Daveer Fincher.

Inspired by last year's success of two media-powered senior projects created with the support of UCCP, this year we partnered with Pennsylvania Higher Education Network for Neighborhood Development (PHENND) to provide a series of workshops for high school seniors focusing their projects on media, music or culture. As part of the series, from March 4 to April 15th, UCCP worked with 5 students from Parkway Northwest, South Philly, Parkway West and Simon Gratz High Schools whose senior project topics ranged from Hip-Hop to reality TV to media's influence on anorexia.

The students came to Temple University once a week for 6 weeks and learned concepts of media literacy and representation, talked about the challenges of making a documentary with Madea Gboyah and Ted Lacey - last year's UCCP Senior Project stars (now freshmen at Temple), developed skills in video production, went to a documentary screening at University of Pennsylvania, and collectively planned, shot and edited their own short film called "Making of a Video Vixen" that ties together the media critiques of everyone in the group.

In addition to fulfilling the required 15 hours of senior project fieldwork, all of the participants said that the UCCP workshops were "really helpful and relevant" to their topics, and each student was able to take away something from the experience, whether "how to convert YouTube videos" or how to view advertisements and movies with a more critical eye. The workshops were facilitated by Natalia Smirnov, UCCP's Media Productions and Communications Coordinator with support of Fritz Lubin, UCCP Leaders Corps member.

For more information, contact Natalia Smirnov at nsmirnov@temple.edu.

First Person Documentary Screening

On Thursday, September 25th, the UCCP welcomed over 150 people to a screening and discussion of FIRST PERSON, the award winning film directed by Ben Herold that documents the lives of six Philadelphia public high school students who aspire to attend college. Following the film, several members of the Leaders Corps joined Malikka Saeed, one of the six students featured in FIRST PERSON, and State Representative Curtis Thomas for a lively panel discussion of the factors that work against Philadelphia youth striving to realize their dreams of higher education. For more information on the film, please visit http://www.firstpersondocumentary.org.