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.
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.
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.
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.
The 2020 Youth Media Network Advisory Group
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.
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.
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.
