What does our Barbados YouthLAB think of this video? What Bajan identity is being sold here? How do you feel about it?

The original version shot and edited in one day.

This is from a poet that I really like, I think its a good video poem and can give us techniques to use for our own video poems.

Seemi made this video for Collective Intelligence day to explain her involvement with IMAN (Inner City Muslim Action Network)

A video made by Marisol’s sister about their community. Marisol will show this on our Collective Intelligence Day and talk about her work with Little Village Environmental Justice Organization to fight environmental racism.

How does one respond to oppression and racism? Malcolm X struggled with this question. Early in his career he divided the choices into two very distinct positions - assimiliation and accomodation versus resistance or opposition. Later in his life, he retracted from this stance. What do you think of Malcolm X’s speech? Do you ever struggle between the choice to be accomodating or resistant?

This is a shot of Bridgetown taken in July 07 which we will mashup somehow with shots of Chicago as well in YouthLAB.

This mockumentary was conceived by a diverse group of teenagers that worked with Mindy in 2000. They were asked to respond to questions as if they were a race/ethnicity other than their own. Some responded as white, African-American, Afro-Caribbean, or Latino. What reveals and makes fun of stereotypes and which depictions seem less like exaggerations and more real? As youth are you offended by any of these comments? What ethnic racial groups are not depicted or rendered invisible?

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An example of participatory media or commons-based peer production, this is a fan-made music video. Each person in the video shot and uploaded their video to motionbox.com. They gave all the footage to a couple of editors who combined it into this! We want to try to do something like this - constructing a video poem that we collaboratively shoot and edit together in virtual space.

Gil Scott Heron wrote and performed this in the mid seventies at a time before the internet, youtube consumer video and participatory culture existed. We had an interpretive discussion that began with this question: What does Heron mean when he says the revolution will not be televised and would he say the same thing today as he did in the 1970s? This is a genuine question that concerned the entire group but contained ambiguity. There are possible differences in interpretation depending on what each student brings to the discussion based on their own perceptions and experiences.

Our rules for discussion:

1) You must cite the line of the text to back up your opinions and arguments.
2) Everyone must contribute, no one should monopolize.
3) Must be an active and deep listener.

Some of the clarifying subquestions we discussed.

What was happening in the 1970s - what was the political context of the times?
Who is Heron referencing and why?
What does Heron mean by revolution?
Is Heron saying that the revolution will not be televised because TV would censor it? What does he mean when he says the revolution will not be televised?
What is Heron saying about the act of watching television in the first stanza?

A video made by 16 year old Karen Lum of The Factory (Bay Area Video Coalition) inspires us to think about the complexities of ethnicity, gender and identity.

Our first video made from our Tag Cloud of hate words and negative labels. It is no secret that haters and hate speech are a part of the web. The question is how do we respond? Do you try to argue back? Do you block them out? Do you combat it with your own speech? Do you think that hate speech is just part of an everyday messy, but essentially necessary, element of democratic debate? If we are to talk to each other on line - what groundrules do we think are important for constructive dialogue and listening to occur. Each team from Chicago and Barbados made a video.