Kicking Off 2009: Community Media Style!

As we launch into 2009, we would like to take a moment and reflect back on our 2008 accomplishments in our Community Outreach & Media Department.

First off, congratulations to Ivettza Sanchez, one of our senior staffers in the Dept who gave birth to a baby girl on October 18th, 2008 and has been on parental leave!    We want to give a special shout out Mario Najera, a former Community Media staffer who stepped in for 3 months while she was away.  Lastly we want to bid a fond farewell to Clara Ibarra who spent a few months with us in our East Harlem spot, doing trainings and overseeing the office.

The Department wrapped up our 2008 monthly Community Media Workshop Series designed for groups who are interested in strengthening their production skills as well as incorporating video into their organizing, outreach and advocacy efforts.  Some of the highlights from this series includes our “Grassroots Fundraising for Community Media” workshop held in March that featured funders like The Funding Exchange who talked about their media support resources to grassroots organizations; our “Distribution 101 -- Grassroots Outlets and Film Festivals & Distribution 102 – The Internet” workshop which spotlighted Witness’s “The Hub” project- their web portal for human rights media.  We were also honored to have Nan Rubin, a MNN board member and long time community media advocate present at our “Video Archiving 101” workshop, where she discussed her work with WNET’s Preserving Digital Television Project and ways that MNN community producers can start to integrate archiving practices into their productions.

This year marked the 15th anniversary of the Community Media Grant Program.  Early this year, MNN announced that 20 community-based groups would receive around $170,000 for the curation of special programming, hands-on training, and equipment to support the production of public access television programming. Please go to http://www.mnn.org/en/grantees for a full list of organizations that were funded this year.  All twenty organizations represent a wide array of cultural, youth, community-based, media arts, immigrant, social service and social justice groups in Manhattan.  By February 2009, we’ll be wrapping up our 2008 Grant program.  We are really proud of the diverse body of video work that these groups have produced this past year.  To see some excerpts of work produced by our grant groups you can check out our Blip.tv channel at: http://mnncommunitymedia.blip.tv/
Stay tuned for an update on the 2009 Community Media Grant Program that is currently being postponed due to a delay in the cable franchise renewal process.

In other news, we are saddened to announce that we'll be closing our Uptown storefront space in East Harlem (1699 Lexington Avenue) as of Feb. 1st. During our two years at the space, we  increased our trainings and forged new partnerships with dozens of East Harlem based organizations, offering camera and editing training & an open editing lab for community groups.  However the Firehouse project on 104th street is still underway!

We are embarking on our 7th year of partnering with Downtown Community Television (DCTV) our downtown satellite space!  We are continuing to hold screenings,  workshops and facilitated productions with such groups as Neighborhood Economic Development Advocacy Project, National Mobilization Against Sweatshops, Chinese Staff & Workers’ Association, Women’s HIV Collaborative, Queers for Economic Justice, NYS Tenants and Neighbors and many more organizations.  The space has been a great hub for a cross section of activities and movement building in NYC.

Overall, as usual our Community Media Department is stepping up our outreach and media work with community groups through trainings, facilitated productions, events, screenings, special events and other partnerships at all three locations- 59th Street, East Harlem and in Downtown Manhattan.

The “Community Visions” programming blocks continue to fuse new and old community media programming from the last 15 years.  Tune in to TWC 34/RCN 82  Wednesdays 8pm-11pm and Sundays 7pm-11pm to see unique programming that feature social justice and media justice themes from groups like Esperanza Del Barrio, Families for Freedom, People’s Production House, Act Up Oral History Project  & independent films from such groups as Sprout Film Festival, Rooftop Films, and the Urban Visionaries Film Festival.  Also this past year we have been curating special blocked programming, special programs and promos to mark special occasions, such as LGBT Pride Month, Immigrant Heritage Week, May Day and World AIDS Day.  We’re excited to continue this important programming in 2009!

Lastly, the Community Media Department has made tremendous headway in our “Community Media Archiving Project”, preserving 15 years of dynamic programming made by the hundreds of social justice, media/arts, cultural and other civic organizations throughout Manhattan.  Big kudos and thanks to our interns, Egle Rimkute, Elizabeth Guarino, and Gregory Tavormina. who worked so hard to preserve and archive the NYC’s rich community media.

 
For more info on Community Media’s services to non-profit community based organizations, you can go to: http://mnn.org/en/com. If you work with a non-profit based in Manhattan and would like to find out what training and services are available through MNN's Community Media department, please call 212-757-2670 x 352 or email cm@mnn.org.