[IPSM] (Montreal) Speak for Ourselves Media Training

[Devin Butler]

[SPEAK FOR OURSELVES]

Media training by and for people of colour
July 1 to August 15

SPEAK FOR OURSELVES is currently seeking applicants for a six-week radio
training program for people of colour.

SPEAK FOR OURSELVES is an introduction to the best in radical radio
production. Media activists Terna Gyuse & Dexter X will lead workshops
covering technical, analytical and creative aspects of advocacy journalism
on the radio.

We have included a description of the program below, and an easy
application with contact information at the very bottom.

You can help us today by:

1) Contacting us with the names of individuals or organizations who may be
interested, and

2) Forwarding this message to potential applicants, other organizations,
and listservs.

Thanks in advance for your interest and support.

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[SPEAK FOR OURSELVES]
Advocacy journalism and radio production training for people of colour

WHY

Media is inextricably tied to social justice, power, and equity. People of
colour, indigenous, immigrant and refugee communities are largely excluded
from the process of information sharing and interpretation by the media.
As a result vital perspectives are missing from the debates that shape the
most critical issues in our society.

Vulnerable communities face a double challenge: 1) mainstream and
alternative media organizations, newsmakers and news coverage don't
adequately reflect Montreal's diversity, and 2) communications training,
strategies and resources are inaccessible.

Each Speak For Ourselves participant will leave the program with a command
of analysis, strategies, and tactics of media campaigning. They will also
gain a greater understanding of Montreal's media landscape and be better
able to raise their communities' voices and concerns in the public arena.


WHAT

Speak for Ourselves program is an intensive 6-week training program that
will bring people of colour, indigenous, immigrant and refugees
(prioritizing women and youth), into the field of media campaigning and
radio production. The program is intended to remedy discrimination and
contribute toward achieving justice and equality for those who have been
underrepresented in media.

Through the Speak for Ourselves program, members of historically
disadvantaged or oppressed communities will have the opportunity to learn
radio production and media campaigning skills from experienced, committed
and passionate media activists of colour.


WHO

Our recruitment for participants prioritizes individuals (preferably women
and youth) who have community support and are already engaged in organized
struggle. We aim to help equip media activists with training, ready
reference guides and basic equipment that they need to be effective.

Speak for Ourselves coordinators and trainers are experienced activists
and media practitioners:

Terna Gyuse,  was born in Canada and raised in Nigeria. He is a former
Production and Community News coordinator at CKUT 90.3 fm; as well as a
former host and co-producer of CKUT's Amandla and Radio Canada
International's African Eyes. He is a long-time member of the Groupe de
recherche et d'initiatives pour la liberation d'Afrique (GRILA) and was
active in the Shell boycott with the Nigeria Action Network. Terna has
extensive experience training diverse constituencies as coordinator and
counselor at Hayden Marks camp for at-risk youth in New York, as a
graduate-level TA for History & Activism students at the University of
Minnesota and as a pioneering coordinator at CKUT.

Dexter X, Sri Lankan-Canadian, is an activist DJ, broadcaster, media
trainer and former Program Director at CKUT 90.3FM.  Dexter spent last
summer teaching radio production to activists and refugees at the People's
Centre for Progressive Media in the  Southern Tagalog region of the
Philippines. Dexter has been involved in numerous grassroots community,
pirate and web radio initiatives including Enemy Combatant Radio (SF),
Rock-the-WTO-Radio, CKUT's Homelessness Marathons, and Radio
Basse-Ville-CKLN's Summit of the Americas broadcasts from Quebec City.
Dexter is also a media trainer and has conducted media workshops at the
World Social Forum in Brazil, at an anti-FTAA action camp in Florida and
elsewhere. As a low-income, working class, person of colour Dexter has
survived and fought back against racist police violence, heterosexist and
racist housing discrimination, and everyday oppression and has been
arrested and/or beaten numerous times.


HOW

The Speak for Ourselves training program will include all aspects of radio
production integrated with a progressive media analysis curriculum. Over
the six-week training period participants will assemble a comprehensive
demo tape and participate in regular coverage of local news events.

Dates: July 1 to August 15. (The workshop schedule will require 6 hours a
week - a weekly two-hour session with all participants, and four more
hours of individualized work. Exactly which days & times will be worked
out according to participants' schedules.)

Applications must be received by 25 June. Successful applicants will be
notified by the 28th.

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APPLICATION

Please answer the questions below and forward them to us by email to
tutuola at hotmail.com or by mail to SPEAK FOR OURSELVES, QPIRG-McGill, 3647
University, Montreal QC H2A 2B3

1) Name, address, phone, email
2) Organizational affiliation and position
3) Race/ethnicity and gender
4) Age
5) Languages spoken

& more

1) What type of work/issues do you want to put on the air and why?
2) Describe your current and past involvement with community,
religious/spiritual, political, social welfare and other groups.
3 )Please describe your family/personal life experience and how it has
influenced your views of social change.
4) What do you hope to gain by participating in this training program?


For more information, contact Terna at 514.277.6698 or tutuola at hotmail.com

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