Leymah Gbowee had "a crazy dream"

This is Leymah Gbowee, a citizen of Liberia. She decided the war in her country had gotten to the point of "ridiculous." Then she had a dream about peace. In the beginning she cannot accept herself as the leader in the dream. After overcoming her denial, she began her mission to stop the war by sharing her frustration with the killing and raping, announcing that it must stop.



Abigail Disney, Walt's grandaughter, a philanthropist and filmmaker, made this documentary called Pray the Devil Back to Hell. I highly recommend watching this interview with Leymah Gbowee and Abigail Disney. Leymah Gbwoee is now the Executive Director of Women's, Peace & Security Network.

Underway

We had our first session with the kids in the Jane/Finch Neighbourhood. A lot of images were captured with the cameras that we put into the hands of the children. I'm about to download the pics and video but I thought I would share this one that I took with my iPhone during our walk around the neighbourhood.

Documenting

At our meeting last month I offered to source out some cameras for the workshops so that we could document the process of Neighbourhood Diaries. When it came out of my mouth I was thinking still cameras but it soon became clear that some of you thought that I meant video cameras.

A few more seconds of rigorous planning soon got me to the point of envisioning the making a documentary film. A film that would incorporate the video taken by the children during the workshops in addition to footage taken at our meetings, at the Harbourfront show, the parade etc. We could use this also to document the nascent beginnings of 826TO.

I have done a little research but have not identified the cameras to use nor who will pay for them. Having made the promise I will supply some equipment even if I have to pay for it myself. It would however be nice to find a sponsor who might be willing to donate or subsidize the equipment costs so that we could get more cameras into more hands.

Both Robin and I independently came up with the idea of possibly setting up a camera in each session so that participants could sit down in front of the lens and speak what they wished (like the 'speakers corner' concept). He also suggested that some of you were interested in helping with this documentary/photo project. If you want to get involved please let me know soon.

I also had a conversation with Professor Matt Ratto at the Critical Making Lab at UofT and we discussed the idea of hacking some cheap cameras so that they could be worn by the kids around there necks and programmed for example to shoot a still every 5 seconds.

For Liz's first session in October I will try to have 2 HD video cameras. One will be set on a tripod and running like a speakers corner booth. The other could be held by me or someone else who would use it to taking moving video, or it could be set as a stationary wide-angle view of the room.

I will also try to get some digital still cameras into the hands of the children so that they can take random shots of their own. I'm not sure yet what to do with all of these images but I think it could be used to create an interesting display piece.

Your thoughts and involvement are welcome.

JK

Neighbourhood Diaries recently appeared at IGNITE Toronto. I've never conveyed so much information in so little time - 5 minutes, 20 slides, 15 seconds a slide.

Ignite T.O. Robin Uchida - Neighbourhood Diaries from Ignite Toronto on Vimeo.

Thanks to Tim Yull and Nabil for recommending it. Some space was offered and others volunteered. All-in-all an interesting experience for me and a success for ND.

Robin

Do you care about the earth?

At the dinner table the father asks his children, “Who cares about the earth?” The son and the daughter announce in unison, “I do!” The father says, “What are you doing about it?” They quickly respond, “Recycling.”

The father inquires, “Do you care about the earth the way you care about other things?” At which point they begin to discuss the things they care about, the family, Blackberry the family dog, and they discovered the list was relatively short.

He persists with questions like the following, “Do you really care about the earth?”, “What is the earth?”, “Is it the magma you love?”, and finally he proposes, “I believe people say they care about the earth but really they don’t.”

The following morning as they leave for their respective daytime destinations, the father asks again, “Do you care about the earth?”
They answer in unison, “No.” As they enter their car and take their respective seats the son pauses and suggests the following from the rear, “It’s really about being grateful. If you’re grateful, then you will do something. The earth can’t care about you so how can you care about the earth. It’s not the same.”

“That's brilliant”, the father says as he reflects on how grateful he is to have children. He also realizes that he didn’t take time to acknowledge his daughter for being who she is and the father makes a point of rectifying this later the same day.

(The father makes a mental note about how the earth may in fact 'care about us'.)

Subprojects from Meeting April 28, 2009

It seems the ideas discussed during the meeting can be viewed as two distinct projects that can be complementary:
1. Creating a sustainable mentorship program between writers/artists and children to encourage the development of writing/drawing skills as an essential foundation of literacy and self-expression.
2. Using the opportunity presented by the Harbor Front resources and number of children flow-through to support writing and artistic skills.

The first project has a strategic outlook. It aims at creating a replicable model for peering writers (authors, journalists, bloggers) and artists with children over time in multiple sessions focused on developing the children’s ability to write/draw and providing them with a practical understanding of the spectrum of professional occupations and applications related to these skills.

This project requires the following critical success factors:
• A pool of writers/artists committed to the program
• A pool of interested teachers and students (children & youth)
• An approved safe environment for the interaction of children and mentors
• A light and efficient administrative support to plan and manage the program logistics
• A program design that creates incentives for parents, teachers and students to participate wholeheartedly in the program activities
• A performance index to measure success of the program

Pool of writers/artists: Initial exploration of interest seems to indicate that the Writers Guild and other organizations (Robin: please list in more detail) are interested in supporting and participating in such program. It is necessary to articulate the scope of commitments required from participating authors/artists over a defined span of time and to estimate the actual number of those willing to commit. This would define the size of pool available and determine the scope of the pilot programs implementation.

Pool of interested teachers and students: Similarly, it would be useful to quantify the support for this program among teachers, students and parents beyond individual expressions of interest. This can only be done if an outline of the program describing expected contributions, commitments and outcomes is available to that audience to base their decisions upon.

Approved safe environment: Repeated interaction between writers/artists and children in a calm non-distracting ambiance requires a safe and trusted environment as a venue. There was consensus that schools are the best venue for the activities of the program and hence partnership with schools is a critical component. Again, based on an outline of the program it would be useful to obtain the commitment (or at least written expression of interest) of 1-2 schools for a pilot implementation.

Light and efficient program administration: In order to keep the program administration as light and efficient as possible, use of existing resources and infrastructure should be maximized. Coordination with the Literacy Program and stakeholders would be an essential step in that direction. The availability of subject matter expertise (Liz and collaborators) along with approval and support of Literacy Program may also enable the recruitment of corporate sponsorships.

Program Incentives: The program needs to be designed in such a way that it is genuinely attractive to students and teachers, while providing parents with predictable schedules and expectations. It must also include incentives catering to the interests of participating writers.

Performance measures: as with any such program it is essential to be able to measure the success achieved through the program’s activities. A benchmark needs to be established at the onset of the pilot and agreement reached about a set of tangible measures and outcomes.

The second project is tactical in nature, but presents interesting opportunities to complement and promote the first project. Several ideas were discussed, but the one that seemed most feasible was framed similarly to a Literacy Summer Camp. It was agreed that:
• We needed a better understanding of the structure and programming of such camps.
• Asking writers and artists about programming ideas within the constraints of the Harbor Front context might yield innovative solutions.
This second project offers the possibility of events that can be designed around promoting the program, acknowledging achievements of the best participants, and attracting further support and replication by others.

Action items:
• Summarize outcomes of meeting and action items [Nabil]
• Draft program outline (framework, objectives, resources, methods, outcomes) [Liz]
• Approach Literacy Program to explore approval and support [Liz]
• List all contacted organizations and quantify as far as possible their support for the program [Robin]