UPDATES AND REFLECTIONS FROM THE WIDE ANGLE CREW
This spring Wide Angle’s Design Studio had the pleasure of working with Healing City Baltimore and Baltimore Neighbors Network. Healing City Baltimore strives to bring communities together via discourse, urging people to embrace their neighbors regardless of their differences. One of their initiatives is Baltimore Neighbors Network, which was created during COVID to connect senior Baltimore residents to resources and community.
Read MoreHello Everyone, my name is Tony. I'm in 9th grade and this is my first year at Wide Angle. I was enrolled in the Moving Image course where we learned how to make music videos and short films from Mr. Mace Lester. Before I learned about Wide Angle, I was editing montages for friends of mine then eventually friends of friends and friends of their friends. So when my mom found Wide Angle I instantly hopped on it. Through the Wide Angle programs I've learned further in depth about making short films and music videos.
Read MoreThe Healing City Summit is an annual event hosted by Healing City Baltimore that includes five days of virtual unity, community building, and healing. This year, Wide Angle’s Design Studio was invited to present a session during the Bmore With Youth day on Wednesday, February 3rd, 2021.
Read MoreIt has been one year since the start of COVID-19. We've experienced a global pandemic, seen thousands of people rise up after the death of George Floyd, elected the first female and first African American/Asian American vice president through record voter turnout, lived through a (largely) white nationalist insurrectionist attack on government, and witnessed a sharp uptick in Anti-AAPI racism. Derek Chauvin's trial started last month and this week Daunte Wright, another Black man, was killed by the police. This is a unique, painful and complex moment in our history, where social progress and regression simultaneously push and pull at one another.
Read MoreWide Angle Youth Media fosters an environment where students think critically about how our world is changing and emphasizes the crucial role youth have in creating change. It’s hard to find any text that represents what our students are doing now better than Amanda Gorman’s “The Hill We Climb.” Wide Angle’s virtual event student planners have been hard at work creating everything that’s in store for Wide Angle’s Prom: A Dance Through the Decades.
Read MoreWhen the year 2020 ended I decided that I wanted to kickstart my freelance career as a graphic designer, and luckily for me a project just happened to pop up. I was suggested to a client, Wide Angle Marketing and Communications Committee member Sarah Lohnes, who needed collateral made for a podcast she was starting called, Who Deserves a Monument. The podcast is about what should be the qualifications for a person to get a monument made in their honor. My job as a graphic designer was to create a brand identity and advertisements for the podcast in the form of a cover for Apple Podcast, a banner for Facebook, and social media templates.
Read MoreA couple of nights ago I was watching a cartoon on Netflix called The Midnight Gospel. The Midnight Gospel is an animated podcast, the interviews are based on real conversations with people from all spiritual backgrounds. The particular episode I watched was called “Annihilation of Joy”; where Duncan Trussell interviews Jason Louv. Jason Louv is an artist who writes about the outer fringes of human consciousness. During this episode, the discussion of certain Hindu and Buddhist perspectives reminded me of something I’ve been seeing in the people around me (including myself) all quarantine.
Read MoreOur inclusive #WAYMiesInColor 20th Celebration embraced the #OscarsSoWhite call to recognize diverse voices and uplift new perspectives in media. We shared 7 tests that measure films and TV shows for gender equality, diversity and representation. We reflected on how our favorite films and shows measured up to these tests. While these tests are by no means a foolproof indicator of equality and representation in media, they are one tool to thinking more critically about the media we consume.
Read MoreThere was a need 20 years ago to give a platform for youth voice and the need is just as urgent today. As we commemorate 20 years, our alumni are here to celebrate with us. Here’s what they have to say:
Read MoreShewana Skinner - she/her pronouns - is a Wide Angle Board Member and Chair of the Business Advisory Committee, with an interesting Covid-19 experience that connects to her passion for supporting Wide Angle. She is an Intellectual Property lawyer in Washington DC specializing in Patent Law and Founder of SDOT Solutions LLC a management consulting firm providing Service, Delivery, Operations and Technology solutions to small businesses. Shewana is a graduate of Howard University School of Law in Washington D.C., and holds a B.S. in Industrial Engineering from North Carolina Agricultural & Technical State University in Greensboro, N.C. And she has a 7 year old fur baby named Prince Rogers Nelson (named after her favorite artist).
Read MoreBeth Holladay - she/her pronouns - is a Baltimore-based artist and teacher with over a decade of experience with community arts programs, art education, and freelance photography. After receiving her MA in Art Education from the University of Louisville, she led a public high school art program by initiating community partnerships, diversifying the curriculum, and creating avenues for student work to be exhibited in local galleries. She uses her experience and expertise in graphic design and photography to engage students and community members in art projects focused on inclusion and social justice. She maintains an independent art practice of hand-cut collage.
Read MoreThe question of what art is, remains a commonly debated intellectual argument. One thing that is inarguable however, is that art is a platform for communicating and sharing information. Whether its content inspired from the soul or from a textbook, we create to share. Art exists to communicate and connect, ultimately forming community; and the communities which art creates are integral for our existence as a species. As social, visceral yet intellectual creatures, art becomes fundamental.
Read MoreA great song can carry us through, take us away, and remind us of the extraordinary things discovered within the human spirit. Some of my favorite memories are tied to the music that was playing when those moments occurred. Tunes like The Climb by Miley Cyrus, the song my class sang at high school graduation and The London by J. Cole, a song that was coincidentally released the same day that I arrived in London for my senior class trip have become elemental in the soundtrack of my life. Anytime I hear Nonstop by Drake I flashback to when I heard the song playing in my neighborhood of Charles Village. My mother, driving in her car behind me with her windows rolled down and radio turned up, honked her horn the whole way to ensure everyone knew that it was a special night, senior prom.
Read MoreThe Kirwan Commission is named after the chairman Dr. Brit Kirwan. The purpose of the Kirwan Commission is to recommend policies that enable Maryland schools to reach the levels of the best performing school system in the country. The Commission also recommended changes to current funding formulas for schools in the state of Maryland. What they recommended became the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future.
Read MoreChris Holloway - he/his pronouns - specializes in editing, 2D and 3D visual effects, and graphic design for film, commercial, tv, and games. He recently returned to Baltimore after training at Full Sail University and a year of working on visual effects for feature films (like Catz!) in Montreal. Chris was first introduced to media making in Wide Angle’s Baltimore Speaks Out (BSO) program at Cherry Hill when he was 12 years old. Before Covid-19 hit the US, he was working for Outlook VFX, a new startup visual effects studio started by Trevor Price, a retired Baltimore Ravens and Denver Broncos linebacker. Outlook VFX is working to put Maryland on the map for visual effects.
Read MoreOne Love Foundation is a national organization that educates young people about healthy and unhealthy relationships, helping them to identify and avoid abuse and learn how to love better. One Love was founded in honor of Yeardley Love: A young woman who tragically lost her life at 22. Her death was completely preventable. Their mission is to make sure that it doesn’t happen to others.
Read MoreThis winter, our Design Apprentices took on Wide Angle as a client to create custom temporary tattoos for our annual Valentine’s Day mailing. We use this opportunity to say ‘thank you’ to the supporters in our community. If you received a tattoo in the mail, snap a pic, post on social media and tag Wide Angle! We’d LOVE to see them out in the world : )
Learn about the creative process and design inspiration for each one below.
Read MoreIn mid-August, members of Wide Angle Productions had the opportunity to visit Video Production Consulting, Inc. (VPC, Inc.) in Reisterstown, Maryland. VPC is a production company that specializes in content creation, live event production, digital signage, and A/V systems integration. This was VPC’s second summer hosting WAP for a Job Shadow day, and our team had the pleasure of meeting many members of their incredible staff!
Read MoreThis summer, Wide Angle Productions Producer, Tahir, completed a summer externship with Exelon’s Creative Media department. This was a 40 hour/week paid position that runs from June through August as part of Exelon’s summer intern program. Tahir, a Senior at Morgan State, has been with Wide Angle Youth Media since 2013. This post includes reflections from Tahir and Mark Colegrove, Video Producer at Exelon who worked with Tahir this summer.
Read MoreThis year Wide Angle launched its first Student Planning Committee aimed to share more ownership of the annual screening and exhibition with students - after all this event is about sharing their voice! The group met bi-weekly for four weeks over the summer. They used human-centered design, a creative process dedicated to understanding people’s needs and designing interventions that better serve people’s needs. This included interviewing different event stakeholders (parents/caregivers, students, teachers, etc.), finding themes in the research, identifying opportunity areas, brainstorming ideas, and testing them with prototypes. Student Planning Committee member Bryce spoke with us about his experience.
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