More Than Words
More Than Words is a collaborative youth media group and podcast produced and reported by Baltimore City Public School students. Young people in Baltimore have incredible insight and sensitivity about their city, its institutions and the issues and concerns confronting their neighborhoods, schools, and families. The show hands over the microphone to youth so they can tell personal stories they feel journalists sometimes neglect or get wrong.
For the 2016-2017 school year, we partnered with Frederick Douglass High School’s Recording Arts, Media and Production (RAMP) in West Baltimore to teach radio journalism and how storytelling has the power to shift perspectives about issues confronting communities of color. I edited and directed the show with Jamyla Krempel, the station’s digital producer. The stories strive to show that media is transformative for both the maker and listener.
Walking in My Many Shoes
Chanel produced and narrated a radio diary about her identity as a gender non-conformist. Chanel, who also goes by Cory, is committed to dispelling stereotypes about gender identity and expression. (Chanel recorded all the of the material in the radio diary below. I edited the piece, working with Chanel to create the final form.)
The Connection Between Writing And Activism
Xavier started out interested in how activists in Baltimore see their work in the city as connected to and inspired by Civil Rights struggles of the past. As he researched and conducted interviews for this piece, he found writing to be an overlooked form of activism and decided to sit down with one of his favorite authors, D. Watkins.
Xavier read The Beast Side in an English course and met Watkins at a Baltimore City Public Schools event.
How Adults View Youth
A discussion about adults’ perceptions of youth, the students' experiences being stereotyped and how they feel adults could be more understanding and helpful to young people.