Baltimore Community Fellowships
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© Open Society Institute
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Baltimore, Maryland
2009
In West African societies, griots are revered storytellers who use song, poetry and history to perpetuate the oral traditions and celebrate the people.
Tresubira Whitlow's fellowship, The Griot's Eye, will draw inspiration from that ancient role, but with a few modern twists. In his program, the revered storytellers will be from Baltimore—although some will travel to Africa—and the mode of communication will be through video.
Whitlow will establish a community-based video production training program with two focuses: young people and community development. The goal is to teach video production skills that can be used to create positive change.
Working at the Baltimore Civitas School and KIPP Academy, Whitlow will help young people learn to create videos that address important social issues, such as gang violence, teen pregnancy and drug abuse. When the school year ends, Whitlow will partner with HABESHA Inc. (Helping Africa by Establishing Schools at Home and Abroad) to take a select group of the newly-trained videographers to Ghana.
"They will show their work in Africa," Whitlow says. "They will also be able to interview African youth about their lives. And when they return, they will create a finished product that documents their year-long experience, including their visit to Africa."
Whitlow, who has been working with young people on video production for five years, already has seen success. Some former students produced a documentary called "Black to Our Roots" that was featured on CNN.
Whitlow says he has always been inspired by the way media works in society. "In the African American community, we're just not seeing enough positive imagery. I'm trying to really use media in a way that is more culturally-affirming as well as educational," Whitlow, who has been a teacher in Baltimore schools, says. "Most imagery of young black youth is self-destructive and educationally insufficient. I want to change the way youth think about themselves and see themselves."
During his fellowship, Whitlow also will provide video production training for organizations and associations that work with former prisoners, teenage mothers and senior citizens.
"The idea is that they will produce one major piece that will support their cause," Whitlow says. "So, for example, with ex-offenders, we'll show the challenges they're going through and then send it out to a larger audience to get support for their program."
Whitlow caught the bug for video production when living in various African nations, where he noticed that Africans developed stereotypes about African Americans by watching rap videos. In turn, African Americans believed they knew everything about Africans from seeing "starving children" on infomercials. "Since then, I've been working toward this, and it's all coming together," he says.
