Learning how to capture a complicated life on stage was only one of the lessons IVOH Thought Leader in Journalism Margaret Engel and her twin sister received when tackling their first play, Red Hot Patriot.
A major part of Rising Voices' mission to support and nurture underrepresented communities so that they can begin to take full advantage of participatory digital media tools has been our micro grants for citizen media outreach projects. Since 2007, these small grants provide an opportunity for individuals, grassroots groups, networks, and other organizations without significant access to larger funding to be able to pass along knowledge by teaching others in their community in the use of these tools, as well as to provide ongoing support.
A recent IVOH gathering in San Francisco brought together a dozen artists in a conversation entitled "Artists and Social Crisis." Mindful that we were meeting one day before September 11th, the group focused on how we can respond as artists to upheavals and traumas in the world around us. Chicago convened its first IVOH artist conversation on September 12th, drawing artists, journalists and singers to discuss "Artists and Social Crisis."
In a quiet, serene town in the Catskills, on a brisk fall evening, people, strangers for now, gathered in the expansive hall of Peace Village for the 2011 Images & Voices of Hope Summit. After Executive Director Judy Rodgers' welcome, the microphone was passed around the room as introductions began -
In troubling times, the journalist's most-trusted tool for covering a crisis is the question. What happened? How did it get this way? How can it be fixed? But what happens when the journalists themselves are the troubled? Who steps in on their behalf to pose the wise questions and offer a way forward?
