Youth Media Network

The Alliance′s Youth Media Network programs convene, connect, nurture and sustain strategic development in the Youth Media field.

The Alliance Youth Media Network convenes, connects, nurtures and sustains strategic development in the Youth Media field. We support innovative and emerging models of practice within the fields of youth media, creative youth development, and media literacy. We do this through the collaborative production of a youth media magazine, ongoing Collective Action work, hosting national Video Roundtable conversations, designing and producing youth media conference content with global partners, and through the leadership of an international network of youth media organizations. All of the programs of our Youth Media Network use an intergenerational, co-creative approach as a means to demonstrate the possibilities and impact of a range of youth and elders working collaboratively and inclusively, interrogating power and privilege across program areas. Check out our FAQ here.

OUR CORE VALUES

The core values of the Alliance for Media Arts + Culture are: community, creativity, equality, accountability, and inclusion. We creates and convene our Youth Media programs centered in these core values. We strive to integrate these values into the work we do, the stories we tell, and the relationships we nurture. We support artists, storytellers, and practitioners as they speak truth to power and light the candles in dark times.

THE ALLIANCE YOUTH MEDIA NETWORK 2020 PROGRAMMING

Alliance Youth Media Network programming serves a growing core group of Alliance members, a global network of vibrant youth media organizations artists, and practitioners. We work collaboratively to strengthen these organizations and individuals and build capacity through access to learning and leadership resources, intergenerational training tools, industry relationships, new media technology, innovative ideas, emerging practices and new models of mentorship. Grounded in shared values, we also share a foundation of collective action, working together to co-create a responsive, visionary framework for the future of Youth Media training and creative youth development.

Network programming in 2020 is co-created by Lead Producer Jason Wyman, with six Youth Media Fellows, and a Youth Media Advisory Group. The focus for the work in 2020 centers on Intergenerational Power, Race and Equity, and Open Archives. These areas of focus will be explored in a set of activities designed to create a shared understanding of some of the most pressing issues facing our communities, illuminate social practice, raise up youth voice in a creative, intergenerational learning context, and provide models that participating media arts organizations and individuals can replicate and adapt in their communities.

VIDEO ROUNDTABLES: using the Zoom platform, our Youth Media Network convenes ongoing issue-oriented conversations with the field, supporting relationship-building, artist development, content-sharing, peer mentorship and co-creation.

2nd ANNUAL YOUTH MEDIA VIRTUAL SUMMIT: a two-month long virtual conference will be produced from mid-May to mid-July 2020. The goal is to bring together youth artists, youth media practitioners, nonprofit leaders, independent artists, creative workers, cultural producers, and activists for inquiry and exchange on intergenerational power, race + equity, and open archives. The Summit will include eight video roundtables, eight youth + young adult artist interviews live streamed via YouTube, and a national, interactive online screening of youth media using OVEE in July 2020.

THE YOUTH MEDIA EDIT LAB: we will be co-designing a community edit lab for young people based at Youth F/X in Albany, NY to help youth refine their editing skills for multiple platforms, build their own creative portfolios, and amplify the work and stories emerging from their communities.

NATIONAL DAY OF STORYTELLING + SYMPOSIUM: In 2020, The Alliance for Media Arts + Culture celebrates 40 years, and will be gathering in Atlanta Georgia for a National Day of Storytelling and a one-day arts & culture Symposium. The Youth Media Network Fellows and partner organizations will be actively co-curating these industry events.

STORYTELLING MATTERS BLOG: Youth Media Fellows will be producing 8 articles for the Alliance Storytelling Matters blog, focusing on insights discovered from their work on Open Archives, Race and Equity and Intergenerational Power.

The 2020 Youth Media Fellows

Six Youth Media Fellows, selected from Alliance members and member organizations, are participating in a one-year intergenerational fellowship program that supports their personal, creative, and professional development. The Fellows reflect the breadth and diversity (i.e. practice / discipline, age, geographic location, urban / rural / suburban, economics, sexuality, gender, ability, indigeneity) of the Youth Media Network writ large. They will work with Alliance Senior Producer Jason Wyman + our members throughout the year to produce a series of virtual and in-person events dedicated to harnessing intergenerational power, deepening our collective understanding of race and equity, and contributing to an open archive.

Aden Suchak

Youth Media Fellow

Aden Suchak is a Director, Photographer and Writer based in Upstate New York. He is part of the Youth FX film organization in Albany where he works as a film producer and Director of Education. He is a Media Fellow of the Alliance for Media + Culture Youth Media Network Initiative.

Kapi’olani (Pio) Lee

Youth Media Fellow

Kapi’olani (Pio) Lee is a visual artist and seasoned arts educator. A graduate of the MFA Cinema program at San Francisco State University, she developed her arts education practice as a digital storytelling and media literacy instructor in the Bay Area. Through her partnerships with a diverse array of nonprofit and youth-outreach programs dedicated to social justice and cultural equity, she has helped create and support youth-centered curriculum and arts programming that value inclusion, accessibility, ownership, and intergenerational collaboration.

Kafi-Ayanna Allah

Youth Media Fellow

Kafi-Ayanna Allah is a professional librarian working for Orange County Public Library in Hillsborough, North Carolina as the Adult and Teen Program Coordinator. She works to create and facilitate programming for patrons from middle school age to elders. Much of her work with youth is centered on the Teen Advisory Board, a group of young people who act as liaisons between the teens in the community and Library staff to ensure that it is a welcoming, nonjudgmental space for teens and teen expression as well as a resource for information of particular interest to teens.

Mamadou Cellou Diallo

Youth Media Fellow

I am a conceptual artist/entrepreneur. My entrepreneurial work consists of creating custom apparel, improvements to existing products, & a few inventions already made and some I am working on. I just began my journey into the artistic world & I have a lot of fun with conceptual art. I love having a deeper meaning to things & believe every inch of a piece can tell a story.

Montero Morton

Youth Media Fellow

My name is Montero Morton and I am who I am, no excuses. I’m part of YouthForce NOLA LAUNCH here in New Orleans, and we get business training and take business course classes online at Southern New Hampshire University. I am currently twenty years old and I identify as an African American, homosexual and a person who stutters. My passion/dream in life is to be a successful published writer and actor. My goal in life is to reach that one boy or girl to let them know they’re not alone, and that everything will be okay. That will be enough for me. To motivate and inspired others in my craft.

Triana Patel

Youth Media Fellow

Triana Patel is an arts and museum educator with 10 years of experience focusing on arts education for youth and families in museums and public school settings. She is a passionate advocate for youth development and opportunity within the arts, museums and alternative learning environments. In 2016, Triana received her MA in Museum Studies and MBA with a focus on education and interpretation from John F. Kennedy University. She wrote her master's thesis on engaging teens in social justice through art and programming in museums.

The 2020 Youth Media Network Advisory Group

Yolanda Gamble

William Cavada

Willa Johnson

YOUTH MEDIA NETWORK

Willa Johnson is the daughter of a retired middle school teacher and coal truck driver, Willa Johnson grew up and has returned to her home community in Letcher County. She has served as an Appalachian Transition Fellow, is a co-founder of the Stay Together Appalachian Youth Project (STAY), and is a licensed foster parent. Willa recently worked for the Kentucky Valley Educational Cooperative (KVEC) Community Engagement team where she created FIREshare, a program designed in collaboration with The Holler to train teachers and students to use multimedia tools to tell their own stories about their schools and communities.

Triana Patel

Youth Media Fellow

Tony Streit

Tony Streit is a Managing Project Director at Education Development Center, Inc. (EDC) with expertise in youth development, media education, out-of-school time, and informal STEM learning. Streit and his team provide professional development, program materials, research, evaluation, and technical assistance to organizations and educators in both formal and non-formal settings. Currently, Streit leads the National Center on Afterschool and Summer Enrichment (NCASE), providing materials and training on high-quality out-of-school experiences that promote the development and academic achievement of school-age children.

The Butterfly Effect: Migration Is Beautiful (Kaia + Lily)

The Butterfly Effect: Migration is Beautiful art project is led by youth activists in the Bay Area who are creating a visual representation of the migrant children in detention in order to raise awareness and inspire action to end child detention. The youth started with a goal of creating 15,000 butterflies. Butterflies symbolize that migration is beautiful, and they are all different and beautiful in their own way, just like people. The butterflies are a symbol of support and friendship to all of the migrant children affected by US immigration policies.

Tara Malik

Since 2001, Tara Malik has worked with community-based arts organizations that center racial justice and youth power in Rochester, New Orleans, Chicago, Washington, D.C., San Francisco, and Richmond, CA. She is passionate about supporting young people in exploring their identities and roots, constructing and sharing their own narratives, and advocating for the issues that matter to them most. In 2006, she co-founded One Bird, a nonprofit organization that collaborates with local communities to build media arts programs for children. One Bird projects have developed in partnership with community-based organizations in New Orleans, LA; Dharamsala, India; and Carrefour, Haiti.

Wendy Levy

Executive Director

Wendy is the Executive Director of the Alliance for Media Arts And Culture. She is also the founder and director of New Arts Axis and a Senior Consultant with the Sundance Institute Documentary Film Program.

Olivia Evans

Youth Media Fellow

Olivia Evans is a Multidisciplinary Visual artist based in Spokane, WA, working in video, photography, drawing, and film. She is an Associate Producer with The Alliance, working on exhibition programs in the Pacific Northwest. A recent graduate of EWU with a BFA in Studio Art, Olivia was selected to participate in Saturate 2017, a competitive, city-wide collaborative exhibition in Spokane for artists of color, galleries and local businesses.

Montero Morton

Youth Media Fellow

Mona Chitkara

Mamadou Cellou Diallo

Youth Media Fellow

Mahkia Greene

Lucy Eagleson

Born and raised in Escondido, California, Lucy spent about 3 years living and volunteering at an orphanage in Bosnia-Herzegovina. It was during that time that she found herself in the midst of unique stories as she came to know the wise individuals behind those journeys. That wisdom, paired with a deep appreciation for the power...

Liz Schulte

COLLECTIVE ACTION

Liz began her artistic career in the tangible arts; oil painting, metal sculpture, prosthetic makeup for zombies. Her love of art evolved to the digital media arts. Liz attended Salt Lake Community College (Associate of Applied Science, Visual Arts and Design Emphasis, Associate of Applied Arts, Animation Specialist, Certificate of Proficiency, Web Graphic Design and Certificate of Proficiency, Motion Graphics) and Utah Valley University (Bachelor of Applied Science, Digital Media Emphasis). Liz continues to combine traditional art and digital media art.

JALENA KEANE-LEE

COLLECTIVE ACTION

Jalena Keane-Lee is a director, dp, producer and the co-founder of Breaktide Productions, an all women of color video production company that has earned awards and recognition from Sundance, the Aspen Institute, the Washington Post, SXSW, ITVS, Cannes Lions, and TEDx. Jalena’s short film PERIOD GIRL, follows Nadya Okamoto a young menstrual activist, premiered at CAAM and is now being adapted into a docuseries co-produced by Stick Figure Productions.

Kapi’olani (Pio) Lee

Youth Media Fellow

Kafi-Ayanna Allah

Youth Media Fellow

Julia Berghammer

A Southerner, salsa lover, type enthusiast, traveller, and perfectionist, Julia manages NOVAC’s Born Digital Youth Media Program. Operating at the intersection of design and programming to create new learning experiences for young people and adults alike, the Born Digital Youth Media Program develops young future creatives, ages 8 to 24, from diverse background in South...

John Gwinn

After moving to Minneapolis in the 1990s, John co-founded the Phillips Community Television (PCTV) youth media program. PCTV engaged thousands of Minneapolis young people in both in-school and out-of-school time media production, before merging with Intermedia Arts in 2009. The youth-produced television magazine program, Our Turn, was cablecast in the Twin Cities for over 15...

Jocelyn Arem

Jocelyn Arem is a GRAMMY, ASCAP, and Library of Congress Award-nominated archival storytelling producer and consultant. Her work has been featured in The New York Times, Rolling Stone, NPR, PBS and during GRAMMY Week in Los Angeles.

Jeremy Chatelain

Jason Wyman

Jason Wyman is many things. They are an artist that uses all the tools available -- photography, video, interviews, social media, sound, design, illustration, mobile media -- to create visual works that reveal layers, connections, and perspectives. They are a writer examining truths and myths through fables, poetry, and parallel observations.They are a performer crafting multi-media experiences that dance between light and dark, despair and hope, reality and possibility. They are a curator filling white walls and empty spaces with the voices and visions of community, emerging, and established artists. They are an educator cultivating environments of peer exchange rooted in creative inquiry and multi-sensory pedagogies.

Indi McCasey

Gemikia Henderson

Producer for the Youth Media Video Roundtables

Gemikia has garnered national acclaim for her RYSE music videos using powerful imagery and storytelling to bring to life the music of her peers. Her first video, Street Literature, which she made in response to the murder of Oscar Grant, received an honorable mention for “Best Video Linking to Social Change & Public Health”. Street Literature,...

Fadeelah Muhyee

Elisa Marusak Thomson

Elisa received her B.A. from the University of California, Santa Barbara and continued her education at Art Center Pasadena and The Brooks Institute of Photography. She traveled extensively as a photojournalist and worked as a photo editor for ABC-Clio/Exegy. Her teaching is also informed by her many years as a commercial photographer for clients such...

Carly Short

COLLECTIVE ACTION

Carly Short is a filmmaker and artist. Her work meshes personal and collective histories through the exploration of portraiture and cultural landscape. In addition to teaching at Venice Arts, Carly has taught at the Massachusetts College of Art and Design in Boston and at the Otis College of Art and Design in Los Angeles.

Aylee Shomali

THE ISSUE

Aylee Shomali is a teen digital artist and filmmaker and a member of the advisory group for The Issue. She was a content contributor and a Youth Engagement Specialist for The Issue #2. Based in Portland, Oregon, Aylee was a teaching assistant, intern, content creator, and a participant of the Echo AiR program at Open Signal PDX. While being an intern at Open Signal, Aylee helped to prepare submissions for The Issue #2.

Ariel Taylor

Ariel Taylor, Digital Media Specialist and Youth Media Educator with 12 years experience in youth development, media literacy, and curriculum creation. As an Adobe Youth Voices lead educator her students have learned to analyze and dissect media by producing thought-provoking work that reveals and supports youth perspective using 21st-century skills. Her student’s work has been...

THE 2019 YOUTH MEDIA FELLOWS

The Alliance Youth Media Programs are co-developed and co-lead by a cohort of four Youth Media Fellows in collaboration with Senior Consulting Producer Jason Wyman. One Fellow works specifically on The Issue, one supports the Youth Media Network, and two Fellows collaborate on the Collective Action program.

The 2019 Fellows were selected based on a range criteria: geography, age, length-of-time practicing youth media, identities, and engagement with The Alliance Youth Media Network. The Alliance is committed to intergenerational, co-creation, and we wanted our Fellows to be geographically diverse as well.

Olivia Evans

Youth Media Fellow

Kapi’olani (Pio) Lee

Youth Media Fellow

Gemikia Henderson

Youth Media Fellow

Gemikia Henderson has garnered national acclaim for her RYSE music videos using powerful imagery and storytelling to bring to life the music of her peers. Her award-winning first video, Street Literature, was made in response to the murder of Oscar Grant, and along with her other videos, Ryse Up and Change Gon’ Come, have screened at film festivals in New York, LA, New Orleans and Philadelphia.

Aden Suchak

Youth Media Fellow

THE 2019 ADVISORY GROUPS

Each Youth Media Program also has a volunteer Advisory Group that provides support to the Fellows, helps shape our programs, and assures relevance to the field and for our members. The Advisory Groups are composed of representatives from Alliance member organizations and independent youth media practitioners who have been involved in our programs, including Video Roundtables, The Issue, The 50-State Dinner Party Project and the Chicago Youth Media Summit.

If you would like to join an Advisory Group, please contact Senior Consulting Producer Jason Wyman at jason@thealliance.media.

Kafi-Ayanna Allah

Youth Media Fellow

Elisa Barrios

COLLECTIVE ACTION

As an Oregon local, I have dedicated my career path to working with various community organizations. I consider myself to be a passionate and artistically inclined individual, who shares alike the vision for creating and facilitating unique opportunities for youth and adults to use media arts as a means of expression. As the Head of...

Julia Berghammer

COLLECTIVE ACTION

Crystal Cavalier-Keck

THE ISSUE

Crystal Cavalier-Keck is the Optical Communications Global Information Security Officer at Corning, Inc, in Hickory, NC. Crystal is a water advocate and activist, motivational speaker, the founder of Saponi Stickball Association and showing youth the importance of the preservation of their ancestral lands and traditions. Crystal graduated with a Master's in Public Administration with a concentration in Emergency Services from UNC-Pembroke in May 2011.

Lee Edwards

THE ISSUE

Lee Edwards is a multimedia/digital journalist who recently became the program manager of The Real Chi, an experimental "learning newsroom" based in Chicago's North Lawndale neighborhood for enterprising young adult journalists.Prior to joining the Free Spirit Media, Lee spent the last six years as a digital journalist covering a wide spectrum of news beats across the Chicagoland region as a former reporter with Block Club Chicago, The Chicago Defender, Austin Weekly News, and Times Republic.

Aimee Espiritu

YOUTH MEDIA NETWORK

Aimee Espiritu, M. Ed launched Espiritu Consulting in October 2017 based on her 10 years of experience providing Management in the Arts as well as Strategic Planning and Partnerships, for non-profit organizations and school districts. Prior to this, Aimee was an Arts Educator and Administrator for 14 years with a primary focus of engaging young people in classrooms, museums and arts programs through creative youth development, curriculum design, exhibit development, and peer-to-peer training.

JALENA KEANE-LEE

COLLECTIVE ACTION

Kate Fowler

COLLECTIVE ACTION

Kate Elizabeth Fowler is a photographer and filmmaker from Richmond, Virginia. She is currently working on a project entitled Confederates in the Attic: A Revisitation, an exploration of Southern & Confederate rhetoric in 2015. Kate holds a BFA in Photography & Filmmaking from Virginia Commonwealth University and was the director of the Appalachian Media Institute, a project of Appalshop in Whitesburg, Kentucky. Recently, Kate worked as the program coordinator of Magnum Foundation's Photography, Expanded initiative, which investigates documentary practice at the intersection of social justice and technology. She co-curated and produced their 2015 Photography, Expanded symposium at Parsons The New School for Design.

Seth Gadsen

YOUTH MEDIA NETWORK

Seth Gadsden is an artist, filmmaker, and the current director of Indie Grits Labs in Columbia, SC. Focusing on public art, documentary filmmaking, and media installations, Seth has exhibited his personal work across the US and has completed murals and outdoor sculptures in places like Mexico, North Dakota, Boston, Houston and his hometown of Clover, SC. His work has been featured in Vimeo Staff Picks, the Tribeca Film Festival, Indie Memphis Film Festival, Oxford Film Festival, Atlanta Film Festival, and the Blackstar Film Festival amongst others. Through Indie Grits Labs, Seth has curated a range of projects and produced works with over 80 artists including documentary films and new media projects over the past five years.

Yolanda Gamble

COLLECTIVE ACTION

Yolanda Gamble is the Youth Media Specialist for the Austin Film Society. She specifically oversees all youth programs including AFS Film Club After School and Summer @ Austin Public camp . Previous to joining AFS, she was a Program Manager for a nonprofit organization in San Antonio, Texas, overseeing their afterschool and summer camp programs located inside a city-owned community center. She holds an Bachelor of Arts in Communications from Prairie View A&M University and a Master of Public Administration from the University of Texas at San Antonio.

Willa Johnson

YOUTH MEDIA NETWORK

Darrel Swan

COLLECTIVE ACTION

After getting his BA at Boston College, Darrel studied screenwriting at New York Film Academy. If memory serves, his screenplays included a lot of music from The Cure and Radiohead. Darrel’s perfect movie would be a musical coming-of-age story where a con artist forms a band and if he ever had to air guitar for his life, he would perform The Eagles’ One of These Nights (though he otherwise doesn’t love The Eagles.) He enjoys the links and the slopes but can always just curl up with a good audiobook.

Tara Malik

Noah Martin

COLLECTIVE ACTION

Noah Martin is a teaching artist, director, and theatre maker based in Austin, Texas. His work with youth and adults is focused on collaborative theatre-making processes and arts experiences that build community and foster meaningful social dialogue. He is Director of Teen Programs at Creative Action and the Artistic Director of Changing Lives Youth Theatre Ensemble, a creative youth development program that brings together teens from around Austin to create and tour original shows about violence prevention and healthy relationships.

Myah Overstreet

THE ISSUE

Myah was a co-producer of The Alliance Youth Media Initiative and the Editor-inChief of The Issue. She currently works for the California Sunday Magazine.

Triana Patel

COLLECTIVE ACTION

Triana Patel is an arts and museum educator with 10 years of experience focusing on informal arts education for youth and families in museums. She is a passionate advocate for youth development and opportunity within the arts, museums and alternative learning environments. In 2016, Triana received her MA in Museum Studies and MBA with a focus on Education and Interpretation from John F. Kennedy University. She wrote her master’s thesis on engaging teens in social justice through art and programming in museums. She is currently the Educator for Youth and Family Public Programs at the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco where she manages the museum's paid teen internship, Art Speak.

Matt Rios

COLLECTIVE ACTION

Matt Rios began interning with the Austin Film Society in May of 2018 and as of September became involved in the education department as a part of its after school Film Club. Still with the Film Club Program, Matt has worked at 5 different schools in AISD teaching film to students from 8-12 years old. He also leads Summer @ Austin Public camps and teen workshops. In addition to his work with youth and education at AFS, he is a studio tech at the Austin Public location. Prior to his involvement with AFS, Matt attended St. Edward's University, where he studied psychology.

Liz Schulte

COLLECTIVE ACTION

Aylee Shomali

THE ISSUE

Carly Short

COLLECTIVE ACTION

Larissa Stephens

COLLECTIVE ACTION

Larissa is an illustrator, muralist, and educator from Galveston, TX. She is currently an Artistic Associate at Creative Action, and Assistant Director of Color Squad where she co-facilitates the public and community art teen program. Larissa studied Advertising and Graphic Design at the School of Visual Arts in NYC, and received her BS in Communication Studies from The University of Texas at Austin. She continues to dedicate much of her time honing her craft, building relationships with artists and community members, organizing arts events, and painting murals.

THE ALLIANCE YOUTH MEDIA NETWORK 2016-2018

From 2016 to 2018, The Alliance Youth Media Initiative was co-led by Jason Wyman and Myah Overstreet, an intergenerational producing team. Together, they created and implemented a range of youth media programming for The Alliance, including The 50 State Dinner Party Project , which brought youth, adults, and elders together around shared meals to talk about their desired futures, and Video Roundtables, where a national network of Youth Media organizations and independent practitioners gather online for facilitated conversations to explore their practice and connect with one another. Myah and Jason also co-created and co-produced the first and second issues of THE ISSUE, the Alliance for Media Arts + Culture’s intergenerational youth media magazine.

THE ISSUE: An Intergenerational Youth Media Magazine
The Issue is a model of intergenerational collaboration and mutual reciprocity, where diverse voices are artfully represented and joyfully celebrated — an arts + culture magazine, designed to inspire a creative future where we all belong. The Issue Magazine is available as a beautiful book, for libraries, youth media centers and personal gifting. Purchase The Issue here.

See Issue #1 here.
See Issue #2 here.