What it means to be an activist
Students Document a peaceful protest for issues important to them, remotely record a song as a learning community, and interview each other about what activism means to them.
The Eye of the Storm
Reflection and celebration of making it through a challenging year expressed through interviews, beat box, original song and dance, poetry, and animation.
Background
At PS 32, The Belmont School in the Bronx, NY, 5th grade students met 3 times a week in the spring on Google Meet with The Media Spot, and members of Truthworker, a Social Justice, Hip-hop Theater Company, to dream up and produce digital time capsules of 2020-2021.
Process
The student group opened up and built trust, and a vocabulary of movement and music through remote facilitation and theater games lead by Truthworker teaching artists, Rebecca Oliver and Juliet Rosa.
Rhys Daunic from TMS worked with Truthworker and the students to adapt poetry writing, and reflections into their media productions that feature remotely recorded* original songs, community karaoke songs, beat box, spoken word, dances, animation and found mixed media.
*using Flipgrid, Quicktime Player, Google Meet Recordings and Soundtrap
New Opportunities in Remote Learning
The experience of working remotely with this group of students multiple times a week allowed us to build a rapport that has not always been possible when visiting schools in person as teaching artists.
Throughout the informal process we uncovered student interests, and found ways for each of them to capture thoughts and feelings, record their artwork, voices and performances, and relax and have fun in the process. Moving from classroom to classroom in a traditional teaching artist schedule in a school does not always allow for this type of low-stakes, informal exploration and creativity.
Moving forward, we will be utilizing remote learning into our production process to leverage the skills and knowledge students, teachers and we have picked up during the remote learning era.
The Media Spot 