Baakanti, by Khalid Mousa

"Baakanti"
Digital Story Writer and Editor: Walker Foster Moore (Khalid Moussa)

Part of Weaving Shared Visions
ONE DC / Organizing Neighborhood Equity
www.onedconline.org

Creative Director: Maria Firmino-Castillo

Walker Foster Moore (Khalid Moussa) muses poetically on the intersections between the personal and the political during his decades of struggle as a community organizer in Washington, DC and beyond. A visionary, philosopher - and more than anything - a lover, he puts into practice Che's famous observation that love reigns beyond strategy, courage, or objective historical conditions to bring about what some might deem impossible.

Weaving Shared Visions was ONE DC's listening and strategizing project in support of multiethnic organizing for racial and economic justice in Washington, DC. Long-time ONE DC members, most of whom are African American, engaged in story circles with participants from a variety of ethnic and racial groups.

These life stories were shared through a facilitated digital storytelling process. As part of the process, each participant produced his or her own short video that tells a story about an experience in their lives in which some form of collective-action led to a meaningful transformation.

Digital storytelling is actually a 21st century continuation of the most ancient of traditions. Like the West African djéli (or griot) — who, for thousands of years has communicated in poetic and musical form the life stories of her and his people--digital storytellers also use the spoken word and music to convey their tales. To this, we add digital media, bringing in color and moving image to create compelling chronicles that can be shared among our communities and all over the world.

Participants were guided by María Firmino-Castillo in the creation of their stories - using video, photography, music, and narration - in a series of weekly three-hour workshops, held over the course of six weeks in the spring of 2009.

María Firmino-Castillo is an anthropologist and artist who received training in Digital Story Facilitation through the Center for Digital Storytelling's workshops in Washington, DC and Copenhagen, Denmark. For more information on María Firmino-Castillo's work contact mil.marias@gmail.com

Produced by:
ONE DC
Organizing Neighborhood Equity DC
http://www.onedconline.org

Supported offered by:
Center for Digital Storytelling
http://www.storycenter.org
&
Adolescents Building Literacy Through Expression
at
The New Community for Children, Washington, DC
http://ableminds.blogspot.com

2009
This work was produced for non-commercial educational purposes and is protected under a Creative Commons license. Viewing and distribution for non-commercial uses allowed as long as the authors and producers are given full credit and the work is not modified in any way.
More information at:
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/

Category:

Nonprofits & Activism

Tags:

• Walker Foster Moore
• Khalid Moussa
• Black Land Movement
• Racial Justice
• Washington DC
• Digital Story
• Life Story
• Organizing Neighborhood Equity
• ONE DC
• Human RIghts
• RIots 1968
• Maria Firmino-Castillo