UBUNTU: EXPLORING PERSONAL IDENTITY & FAMILY HISTORY THROUGH DIGITAL STORYTELLING
Ages 16-24
Summer 2020, Online
“Ubuntu: I am because we are.” In this distance learning workshop, student fellows will be challenged to explore important themes in their history and personal identity, the “we” and the “I” of their families and themselves. Through interviews, oral histories, and a review of photographs, documents, and other memorabilia, fellows will engage with their family stories, then translate them into short films or photographic essays, using symbolic imagery, staged dramatizations, and basic compositing. Students will learn both technical and aesthetic aspects of photography and cinematography, as well the principles of storytelling. Fellows will be required to connect with the instructor and the group at least twice per week, with one meeting focused on instruction of technical production skills such as composition, nonfiction story development, cinematography, audio recording, and editing; and the second meeting providing an opportunity for general discussion, and for feedback on fellow work from both instructors and other fellows. Meetings will be live-interactive discussions via Zoom, and will be supplemented by prerecorded instructional videos on specific production skills. Fellows should expect to spend at least four hours per week on this workshop. Their still and moving images will be shared on the program website and through a virtual exhibition. Limited to 15 student fellows.
Ubuntu: Exploring Personal Identity & Family History Through Digital Storytelling is a co-production of Baltimore Youth Film Arts and Griot Works, a program of Afrikan Youth Alchemy.
Ras Tre Subira is Founding Director of Griot's Eye and Afrikan Youth Alchemy.
Babatunde E. Salaam is a filmmaker, instructor, and program director with Griot’s Eye, a media program in Baltimore serving the cultural and creative needs of urban youth. He has produced shorts exploring narratives of youth entrepreneurship, education, and the prison industrial complex.
Sultana Abdul-Kareem is an African American Muslim woman who likes to share her culture, religion, and art, and to document the world around her through poetry and photography. She is an honor student and a competing member of MIST (Muslim Inter Scholastic Tournament).
Korey Booker is a Baltimore native who specializes in videography. A returning student in Griot Works, he takes inspiration from his own and others’ experiences. Skills gained in Griot Works have helped him start a career in cinematography.
Cydni Purdie, author of #AfroHistory and historical photojournalist, is a Baltimore native and graduate of Coppin State University. An activist with a passion for African culture, she strives to unite her community through spirituality, unapologetic Black culture, and the creative arts.
Jha'Neal "Blue" Stoute is a multimedia content creator with a B.S. in Mass Communication and Theatre from Frostburg State University. She is an international slam poetry champion and an aspiring screenwriter, and works as a teaching artist for Baltimore City Public Schools.
Ashia Vaughan is a media production specialist with a passion for capturing simple moments and making them timeless. She has been practicing her craft for ten years, three years professionally, and hopes to establish her own production company to create content geared towards advancing the black community.
