“That’s the last time anyone in this class apologizes for their English!” commands Brigid McAuliffe, director and co-founder of Picture Me Here on the first day of a photo workshop within the English-as-a-second-language program at Denver’s Emily Griffith Technical College. “We know you are learning and are very impressed with your English skills.”
McAuliffe jumped in after a student from Brazil grew frustrated, trying to explain the experimental nature of her photography.
Asking about their immigrant experience, McAuliffe displays photos from a Bhutan refugee camp in Nepal and reads a former student’s essay about the shock of landing at Los Angeles International Airport, waving her hands beneath a spout and finding water flowing magically into her palms. The students from Chad, Nigeria, Mexico, Kazakstan, Brazil, Iran, Poland and Venezuela pay rapt attention.
“Through photography you can get as personal as you want, or not,” McAuliffe instructs. “It’s all up to you.”
Same goes for the poetry, dance, video, audio and other creative expressions chronicled by Denver’s CPT12, in workshops financed by Channel 12, all bringing seldom-heard voices to the airwaves.
Colorado Public Television (KBDI-Channel 12) has been working with Denver Public Schools’ GED+ students as part of the American Graduate initiative by a collection of public TV stations nationally.
The effort, funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, is an example of nonprofit television connecting with local communities to promote education, putting technology to good use and finding creative results.
Storytelling workshops have been offered in numerous forms and using various technologies with the goal of engaging youth voices “to better inform Colorado about the issues, struggles, potential and promise of Colorado’s at-risk population.”
“So far we’ve done two spoken word/slam poetry workshops, a Youth on Record Basic Audio Engineering workshop and a digital/video storytelling workshop,” said Pam Parker, CPT12’s Director of Communications & Social Impact. The station is taping the sessions and doing student interviews. A number of these mini-film projects are currently airing on Channel 12; more are due to roll out in coming months.
The effort will culminate in a “power of storytelling” full-length documentary to air in early 2016.
“There is so much material,” said producer Heather Domko. The stories range from heart-rending to hopeful, the tone from shy to bold. “We’ve really tried to up the production value,” she said. Domko, who brings a background in commercial work to the nonprofit Channel 12, has been “wheeling and dealing,” getting video cameras donated so there are two on every shoot.
One of her favorite shoots was with Karen Gonzalez Tapia, a shy student with a bright smile, who was bullied and made to feel “different” in high school.
The first poem Tapia wrote was about her depression. In her five-minute video now on CPT12, the 17-year-old explains, “I would literally sleep the whole day.” She dropped out in ninth grade but later pursued a GED+ class where, she said, she made many more friends.
In the video, she talks about finding her way in the “Minor Disturbance” class. “I’m the first person in my family to go to college,” she says. “I want people to know that simply because you have a GED diploma does not mean you are less than somebody who has a high school diploma.”
Speaking at a Five Points coffee shop last week, between her job and classes, Tapia said, “Art and writing stuff makes you open up.” She is concurrently enrolled in GED and college classes and, with money from her job, bought a laptop for school. She hopes to study film.
The workshops and storytelling documentary projects came about through a $210,000 grant last summer from CPB. Funding runs out in the spring.
It’s a win-win for the public broadcaster: “For us,” CPT’s Parker said, “it’s original content development and social impact work in one initiative.”
The goal is “to inform our audience about student struggles to stay engaged in school and inspire people to reach out to help.” CPT12 covers expenses, covering the cameras loaned to students, for instance, from the CPB American Graduate grant and additional funds the public broadcaster is raising.
Four workshops have been completed to date — Digital Storytelling – Center for Digital Storytelling; Spoken Word Poetry – Art from Ashes; Spoken Word Poetry – Minor Disturbance; and Basic Audio Engineering – Youth on Record.
In addition to Picture Me Here, another digital storytelling workshop is slated for early September, and an improv theater workshop with Buntport Theater is planned at a date to be announced.
“This is why we exist. We’re public service media,” Parker said. “It’s when it makes an impact that it matters.”
Joanne Ostrow: 303-954-1830 or jostrow@denverpost.com
