About Us
People's Production House is a comprehensive media justice organization serving New York City, Washington DC, and the Gulf Coast. Our work combines media creation, media education and media activism, building a new generation of journalists that can both create and demand a media that works in their interest. Through our unique mix of community organizing, education on media policy, and intensive journalism trainings, PPH is transforming the face of the press corps and the media landscape.
We believe a diverse, ethical, and independent media is an essential element of social change and we believe that historically excluded communities must be protagonists in media democracy.
PPH has three major projects: Radio Rootz, which works in public schools and the Community News Production Institute (CNPI), which partners with community organizing groups, and the Digital Expansion Initiative, which works to educate and mobilize New Yorkers about broadband issues. All PPH projects work to build media organizers: media literate people who can create and demand a media that works in their interests.
PPH has just returned from the the 10th Annual Allied Media Conference in Detroit, Michigan. The AMC is a national gathering of activists who use media based strategies for social change. The conference was amazing, and we'll be posting a report-back soon.
We bowled, we sung karaoke, oh, and participated in some workshops. The video team from City-As-School, DEI member Felix Ortiz, and DEI staffers Kris Rios and Josh Breitbart led a session called "The Internet, Part 1: What Is It?" And PPH Co-Director Kat Aaron is participated in a workshop called "Youth Media to What End?", exploring youth media beyond youth telling stories. Grace Lee Boggs gave an incredible keynote, youth from Brooklyn, Detroit, and Chicago had a video conference with youth in Palestine, and so much more.
People's Production House participated in several workshops at the National Conference for Media Reform, which took place in Minneapolis in June 2008. Our workshops included Shaping the Internet the Fun and Easy Way, Media Reform and Social Change, and When Media Is the Second Issue: Connecting with Social Justice Organizations. Click through for more details on the workshop content and times. Thanks to Free Press for all its work on this important gathering.
PPH and its various programs are regularly featured at conferences, and we're often featured in news articles. Check out some recent highlights!
Women, Action, and Media! 2008
PPH Co-Director Deepa Fernandes and CNPI Member Debra Cole of Domestic Workers United presented at the recent Women, Action, and Media in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The panel, titled "Raising Women’s Voices/Building Women’s Power: Collaborative Approaches to Strategic Communications for Social Justice" also featured Ellen Braune of the Ms. Foundation for Women, and Makani Themba-Nixon of the Praxis Project. Deepa and Debra talked about the collaboration between PPH's Community News Production Institute and Domestic Workers United, and how DWU is using media and radio journalism to support their struggle for a Domestic Workers Bill of Rights.
Left Forum
Kat Aaron and Abdulai Bah of PPH joined Lisa Rudman of the radio show Making Contact and Nijmie Dzurinko of the Media Mobilizing Project for a session at the Left Forum. Titled
"Unembedded from Corporate Journalism at Home - Grassroots Media-Making", the session tackled how groups in Philly and New York are using the media to support organizing work, without sacrificing creativity and artistry.
NYC Grassroots Media Conference 2008
Radio Rootz held a "Media Pop Justice" workshop at the GMC presented by Radio Rootz veterans, Kyra Joseph, Navi Sandhu, Mihai Malciu, Arturo Contreras, and Kristal Graham. Our workshop included how to produce a vox pop (a man-on-the-street, short montage of interviews) and the creation of two vox pop’s for the GMC’s use; What Does Media Justice Mean to You? and Reflections on the GMC. This hands on approach to creating media also supported the workshop’s discussion around how media, specifically the vox pop format, can promote media justice.
Meanwhile, CNPI presented a great workshop on how workers can use media to support their organizing campaigns. Members of Domestic Workers United, Families for Freedom, and Nah We Yone played excerpts of their radio work, and broke participants into small groups to learn how to use recording equipment. Participants interviewed each other, asking "What is the hardest job you have ever done."
And PPH Co-Director Kat Aaron participated in a panel discussion on funding the media justice movement, along with Hye-Jung Park of the Media Justice Fund, Sophia Silao of North Star, Courtney Young of Chica Luna, and Jaewon Chung of the Social Sciences Research Council.
Coming up, you can catch PPH staff and members at:
The Allied Media Conference, June 20-22 in Detroit, Michigan
The National Conference for Media Reform, June 5-8 in Minneapolis, Minnesota
