MNN El Barrio Firehouse Community Media Center Hosts City Lore Storytelling Workshop

“When you produce…you’re in charge of curating a culture or genre to the world.”

These were the high-flying words used by internationally renowned radio host Nick Spitzer in opening his presentation on storytelling through media at the MNN El Barrio Firehouse Community Media Center earlier this month. The talk, hosted by El Barrio Firehouse and presented by City Lore, a nonprofit that fosters and protects New York’s living cultural heritage, explored how production elements like soundtracks and segues communicate big ideas about the world.

El Barrio Firehouse organizes and hosts community dialogues and collaborations that bring together activists, 
artists, producers and neighborhood residents to discuss the modern media landscape and contemporary social justice issues.

The special guest for the El Barrio Firehouse-City Lore-sponsored event, Nick Spitzer, is the creator, producer and host of "American Routes,” a nationally syndicated public radio show that explores the melodic, rhythmic and cultural threads shared by musical genres in the U.S. The central question: How does the mood of a song or genre influence—or react to—what’s going on in the world?

Take Hurricane Katrina.

As the El Barrio Firehouse studio audience smiled, laughed and tapped along, Spitzer played clips from “After the Storm,” a series he produced for New Orleans-based “American Routes” during the months and years that followed Katrina’s devastation. For his first post-storm show, he used a minor-key, slowed down version of Allen Toussaint’s New Orleans classic “Tipitina.” Culture, Spitzer explained, is news. Use the power of art to “signal to listeners that something is different.”

Spitzer’s way of telling the story struck a chord with the country—his show added 25 stations after Katrina—and with the El Barrio Firehouse studio audience, students of the first annual City Lore Documentary Institute.

“I’m interested in not just the packaging of messages, but going out and finding stories and helping tell them,” says Marshall Bright, 24, a Harlem resident and Institute participant. “Who’s out there, and whose messages are not coming out?”

The City Lore Documentary Institute is a three-week intensive workshop that explores storytelling through radio, TV and multimedia/photography. This year’s 28 students hailed from several states and countries, including Canada, Brazil and Chile. Those who chose the TV track of the program used El Barrio Firehouse’s studios and iMacs to learn production and editing.

Some of the students have an interest in community media—for example, Catalina Jaramillo, 37, is creating a community arts center and radio station in Chile—making El Barrio Firehouse a perfect fit for the program’s mission.

The Institute focuses not just on practical production and storytelling skills, but also on finding money to fund your work.

We had speakers talk about raising money from individuals and through Kickstarter,” says Steve Zeitlin, Ph.D., City Lore’s director and cofounder. Zeitlin is a folklorist, author and commentator who has taught at prestigious universities and contributed to media outlets like NPR, The New York Times and Newsday. “It’s a combination of the fundraising, the hands-on skills and the cultural background.”

But it always comes back to the story.

Once New Orleans was on the rebound, Spitzer, says, “After the Storm” turned to funk—“the muscle side of New Orleans music.” Allen Toussaint was on hand with a powerful, upbeat rendition of The Pointer Sisters’ “Yes We Can Can” (for which he wrote the lyrics). New Orleans was back, and then some.

Be sure to check El Barrio Firehouse’s events lineup for more fascinating and educational community forums!