Youth Channel News

Story and Photo by: Don Rojas

It was an evening filled with youthful exuberance, hope, and promise. Fifteen excited young people from around the City of New York had gathered on mid-summer's eve at MNN’s new, cutting-edge Firehouse media center in the heart of Spanish Harlem on 104th Street.

With friends and family in the audience, they celebrated the first-ever screening of youth produced mini documentaries at the media center, also known as the ‘Old Firehouse’.

“This training program helped us to develop our skills as media makers and critical thinkers,” said 18-year-old Batala Aristide, one of the young participants. “We learned to use media like a hammer, shaping what we want our future to be, sharing our stories and making them accessible to members of our communities.”

They had been recruited into MNN’s summer training program for young filmmakers from Catholic Charities, and the Global Action Project, both of which had partnered with MNN in an initiative to empower youth through the creation of media.

The youth had been organized into three working groups to create short videos on compelling and even controversial themes such as homophobia in communities of color, sexism...