If you follow Wide Angle Youth Media’s blog, you might have seen our recent spotlight on Middle School students in our Baltimore Speaks Out (BSO) program. While reading the personal stories of Peymaan, Natalie and Sue, you might have reflected on your own formative middle school experiences.

I recall my own middle school years as a significantly impactful time of forming identity and belonging. As a 6th grader, my family relocated from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to Birmingham, Alabama. As many middle schoolers do, I navigated this time with a heightened awareness of ways I was different, and ways I could try to fit in.

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Not too long ago, the current design apprentices and myself were assigned a task, aptly titled ‘Where Are the Black Designers?’ Our goal was to research a Black designer and do a 10 minute presentation on them. It was a project that was two parts inspiration and two parts intersectionality; it was beyond empowering to see designers that look and identify themselves the way that I do.

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This fall, we’re shining a spotlight on our younger students through our First Exposure campaign to support 72 middle school students in our Baltimore Speaks Out (BSO) program. In this blog post, we’re hitting rewind with three staff members to learn how they discovered media in middle school and where it’s taken them.

Get to know Susan Malone (Executive Director) and our two newest program staff, Peymaan Motevalli-Aliabadi (Administrative & Operations Manager) and Natalie Thomas (BSO Assistant Media Instructor) as they take a walk down memory lane.

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Charday Hall - she/her pronouns - is a Wide Angle Board member, Parent Representative, and former Wide Angle participant, teacher and staff member. She has been an advocate for Baltimore's youth for more than nineteen years. She brings more than twenty years of non-profit experience as an Event Coordinator, Public Speaker, Grant Writer, and Media Instructor. She is a Healthcare Provider for Johns Hopkins Hospital, Entrepreneur, and Mother to one amazing son.

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Hello! We hope you learned a little about us interns from our social media intern introductory post. We’re excited to share various topics and happenings with you while remaining fun and engaging. Our main goal is to inspire young people to do what they enjoy and to share their thoughts freely without judgement and fear.

This past month we have been hard at work creating content for some of October’s holidays and important events. These included Indigenous Peoples’ Day, National Coming Out Day, and the National Workers Strike. Read on to learn about our process creating these posts.

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With covid-19 among us and classes becoming virtual, students find themselves trapped at home causing them to lose access to school meals. Some are afraid to admit it, but there are students who rely on school breakfast and lunch to have enough to eat everyday. I myself was one of those students. Alongside Baltimore City Public Schools (BCPS) we created something that would destigmatize and increase participation and flexibility for school meal operations. Wide Angle’s Design Apprentice team partnered with BCPS to design a logo, vehicle wrap, and social media advertising for a food truck. My job specifically was to design their logo. I began on paper taking the name ideas we had and basing the designs around them.

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Not a lot of people are aware of what Black August is and why we celebrate it. If you’re one of those people allow us to introduce you. Black August originated in the California penal system to honor fallen Freedom Fighters, who we now know as the San Quentin Six, who were accused of participating in an August 21, 1971 escape attempt that left six people dead, including George Jackson, a co-founder of the Black Guerrilla Family.

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This spring Wide Angle’s Design Studio had the pleasure of working with Healing City Baltimore and Baltimore Neighbors Network. Healing City Baltimore strives to bring communities together via discourse, urging people to embrace their neighbors regardless of their differences. One of their initiatives is Baltimore Neighbors Network, which was created during COVID to connect senior Baltimore residents to resources and community.

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Hello Everyone, my name is Tony. I'm in 9th grade and this is my first year at Wide Angle. I was enrolled in the Moving Image course where we learned how to make music videos and short films from Mr. Mace Lester. Before I learned about Wide Angle, I was editing montages for friends of mine then eventually friends of friends and friends of their friends. So when my mom found Wide Angle I instantly hopped on it. Through the Wide Angle programs I've learned further in depth about making short films and music videos.

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The Healing City Summit is an annual event hosted by Healing City Baltimore that includes five days of virtual unity, community building, and healing. This year, Wide Angle’s Design Studio was invited to present a session during the Bmore With Youth day on Wednesday, February 3rd, 2021.

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It has been one year since the start of COVID-19. We've experienced a global pandemic, seen thousands of people rise up after the death of George Floyd, elected the first female and first African American/Asian American vice president through record voter turnout, lived through a (largely) white nationalist insurrectionist attack on government, and witnessed a sharp uptick in Anti-AAPI racism. Derek Chauvin's trial started last month and this week Daunte Wright, another Black man, was killed by the police. This is a unique, painful and complex moment in our history, where social progress and regression simultaneously push and pull at one another.

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Wide Angle Youth Media fosters an environment where students think critically about how our world is changing and emphasizes the crucial role youth have in creating change. It’s hard to find any text that represents what our students are doing now better than Amanda Gorman’s “The Hill We Climb.” Wide Angle’s virtual event student planners have been hard at work creating everything that’s in store for Wide Angle’s Prom: A Dance Through the Decades.

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When the year 2020 ended I decided that I wanted to kickstart my freelance career as a graphic designer, and luckily for me a project just happened to pop up. I was suggested to a client, Wide Angle Marketing and Communications Committee member Sarah Lohnes, who needed collateral made for a podcast she was starting called, Who Deserves a Monument. The podcast is about what should be the qualifications for a person to get a monument made in their honor. My job as a graphic designer was to create a brand identity and advertisements for the podcast in the form of a cover for Apple Podcast, a banner for Facebook, and social media templates.

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A couple of nights ago I was watching a cartoon on Netflix called The Midnight Gospel. The Midnight Gospel is an animated podcast, the interviews are based on real conversations with people from all spiritual backgrounds. The particular episode I watched was called “Annihilation of Joy”; where Duncan Trussell interviews Jason Louv. Jason Louv is an artist who writes about the outer fringes of human consciousness. During this episode, the discussion of certain Hindu and Buddhist perspectives reminded me of something I’ve been seeing in the people around me (including myself) all quarantine.

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Our inclusive #WAYMiesInColor 20th Celebration embraced the #OscarsSoWhite call to recognize diverse voices and uplift new perspectives in media. We shared 7 tests that measure films and TV shows for gender equality, diversity and representation. We reflected on how our favorite films and shows measured up to these tests. While these tests are by no means a foolproof indicator of equality and representation in media, they are one tool to thinking more critically about the media we consume.

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There was a need 20 years ago to give a platform for youth voice and the need is just as urgent today. As we commemorate 20 years, our alumni are here to celebrate with us. Here’s what they have to say:

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Shewana Skinner - she/her pronouns - is a Wide Angle Board Member and Chair of the Business Advisory Committee, with an interesting Covid-19 experience that connects to her passion for supporting Wide Angle. She is an Intellectual Property lawyer in Washington DC specializing in Patent Law and Founder of SDOT Solutions LLC a management consulting firm providing Service, Delivery, Operations and Technology solutions to small businesses. Shewana is a graduate of Howard University School of Law in Washington D.C., and holds a B.S. in Industrial Engineering from North Carolina Agricultural & Technical State University in Greensboro, N.C. And she has a 7 year old fur baby named Prince Rogers Nelson (named after her favorite artist).

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Beth Holladay - she/her pronouns - is a Baltimore-based artist and teacher with over a decade of experience with community arts programs, art education, and freelance photography. After receiving her MA in Art Education from the University of Louisville, she led a public high school art program by initiating community partnerships, diversifying the curriculum, and creating avenues for student work to be exhibited in local galleries. She uses her experience and expertise in graphic design and photography to engage students and community members in art projects focused on inclusion and social justice. She maintains an independent art practice of hand-cut collage.

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The question of what art is, remains a commonly debated intellectual argument. One thing that is inarguable however, is that art is a platform for communicating and sharing information. Whether its content inspired from the soul or from a textbook, we create to share. Art exists to communicate and connect, ultimately forming community; and the communities which art creates are integral for our existence as a species. As social, visceral yet intellectual creatures, art becomes fundamental.

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A great song can carry us through, take us away, and remind us of the extraordinary things discovered within the human spirit. Some of my favorite memories are tied to the music that was playing when those moments occurred. Tunes like The Climb by Miley Cyrus, the song my class sang at high school graduation and The London by J. Cole, a song that was coincidentally released the same day that I arrived in London for my senior class trip have become elemental in the soundtrack of my life. Anytime I hear Nonstop by Drake I flashback to when I heard the song playing in my neighborhood of Charles Village. My mother, driving in her car behind me with her windows rolled down and radio turned up, honked her horn the whole way to ensure everyone knew that it was a special night, senior prom.

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