Welcome to YMR’s first issue in 2010, documenting the Greater Boston Area “Investigating Youth Media Practice,” with support from Open Society Institute.
Practitioners in the Boston area are a fantastic group. Many are part of RYMAEC, a consortium of youth media educators, which you can read more about in this issue.
About 25 people gathered at the Institute for Contemporary Art (ICA) on January 8, 2010–thanks to Joe Douillette, YMR’s newest Peer Review Board member–to talk about the challenges, experiences and insights to youth media happening in Boston. Because so many attended and aim to participate, the Greater Boston Area will be split in Part I and Part II (out April 15).
In this issue, you will find that Boston youth media have an interesting landscape to navigate. In particular, race issues; bridging the divide between Universities and local community members; mediating between different neighborhoods and stereotypes; partnering with health providers to make local change; using different mediums like graphic design; and, balancing the process of creating media with the demands of a youth-led film festival.
A warm thanks to all nine contributors for their dedication and hard work:
• Wendy Blom (Somerville Community Access Television, Next Generation Producers)
• Angelica Brisk and Maura Tighe Gattuso (Arts Bridge, My Allston Brighton)
• Joe Douillette (RYMAEC/ICA)
• Eryn Johnson and Melina O’Grady (Do It Your Damn Self!! National Youth Video and Film Festival)
• Alison Kotin (The Urbano Project, Teen Graphic Design Curators)
• Joanna Marinova (Press Pass TV)
• Susan Owusu (Youth Voices Collaborative/Wheelock College)
A special thanks to Christine Newkirk, senior program associate at AED who edited and coached writers in this issue. Many thanks to YMR’s Peer Review board for giving helpful feedback to each writer.
And, applause and thanks to Joe Douillette, the director of the Fast Forward program at ICA and founder of RYMAEC, who was instrumental in organizing and leading the cohort.
We welcome you to join the conversation for each of these articles using YMR’s “comment” feature. You can also send feedback or comments directly to idahl@aed.org. If you are interested in posting a pod or vodcast response, please contact YMR’s media crew or email idahl@aed.org.
To reserve your copy of YMR’s up-and-coming release of the annual print journal (Volume 3), you can subsrcibe and purchase via credit card or by check.
Warmly,
Ingrid Hu Dahl, Editor-in-Chief, YMR
Youth Media Reporter is managed by the Academy for Educational Development
