 That's Kendall Ramsoor. Thank you very much, Kendall, for setting the challenge tonight. I'm David Dower, Director of Artistic Programs at Arts Emerson. And I'm Sylvie Spears, Vice President for Diversity and Teaching here at Emerson. It's our great pleasure to host this conversation tonight. I just wanted to do a quick bit of housekeeping. We always have to talk about the exits. In the case of an emergency, please. Locate this exit here to you. You can do it in a way that you can do it. Also, this conversation is taking place in the context of the Columbinus production that opened the Arts Emerson Museum, which is running at the Black Box in Fairmont Center. And I hope you'll take advantage of that as a continued part of the conversation that you have between us already. And then on Saturday night, if you have another opportunity to take advantage of this conversation and extend it further, we're hosting a residency for the Global Arts School who are here at work on a new piece based on the Troubles in New Orleans. And their documentary film, The Coopin Translation, which is a film that they made of a play that they created based on the Coopin Recreation in South Africa that imagines the possibility of reconciliation in its documentary, The Fracture of the World. So this month, Arts Emerson is really taking this conversation in many different directions. And it's really our honor to be hosting this first event, so hopefully we'll be on the news center and I was, you know, with Dr. Pierce to describe it. First of all, let me say thank you all for gathering here this evening to talk about gun violence, especially me, though I must say, that this event, this very important event, is the first of that. That's the Illinois News Center for Civic Innovation, Learning and Research, We are most fortunate to be able to carry Emma Elmamoose's name as an alum of our Institute of Classification in New Orleans. She has, in her life, done extraordinary things in the city of Boston and around the country in case for young people to be engaged. Not just simply for altruistic endeavors in the arts, although they are wonderful, but she has purpose in many ways. And that purpose was to show young people, especially in urban areas, another path for you who have had some role in the development of the Illinois News Center and in the Civic Innovation and Research College to continue to do it. It is also my pleasure to work with and work for our President, President of the United States, who's been an extraordinary leader on this issue of gun violence and other issues that affect the lives of the people in the United States. It's my pleasure to introduce these helpers. Well, I do want to begin my gratitude to the members of the Civic Innovation and the Arts Institute for coming together with this evening. This is second to the frame of social issues and cover tragedies and inequities. This evening's forum will examine these issues, bearing the crucial role of this issue on the very things that our citizen has brought to us in riveting and compelling production of gun violence, which I would urge all of you. It's my great pleasure to introduce to you the founding director of the Illinois Center, Kelly Bates, who will moderate tonight's panel. At Emerson, Kelly will work with our campus to inspire and shape our civic engagement initiatives and campaign the name of the Lewis class of 1933. One of her arrival in Emerson was the executive director of Access Strategies from the charitable foundation that harnesses the collective power of undeserved communities to access democracy. Before that, she served as a national diversity consultant and trainer. She was a legislative advocate for the Massachusetts Law Reform Institute and the executive director of the Illinois Statewide Understanding Network. She is a regular political commentator on the GVH television radio. She's a recent recipient of the Boston EWACP Image Award in Boston University College of Law, Victor Chang, Seattle Public Service School. She graduated from SUNY Albany and a law degree in Boston University School of Law, and she has served as an adjunct professor at Tufts and Northeastern Law Schools. It is my pleasure and delight to introduce to you tonight at this inaugural event, Kelly Bates. Thank you for sharing. Thank you, President Pelton, for that wonderful introduction and for really having the bright and powerful vision to bring a Center for Civic Engagement here to Emerson College and in the name of a phenomenal arts educator, Elma Lewis, who, as I have been told, was a force to be reckoned with, was a great activist and would be very proud that we all have gathered here this evening with our guests. Some of you may know that Elma Lewis had great courage and great conviction. I feel like our president exemplifies her legacy as well. He has taken very important and big stands against gun violence in our community, rallied college presidents all over the nation on this issue and is really leading the way for us here in Emerson and in the broader community to say we want an end to violence and we will do our part as artists, as cultural makers and cultural brokers to say that we will be responsible in our reporting, we will be creative in our arts for healing, and we will be a part of the solution. I want to thank some people who have been such a great part of this event. First, I want to thank all of you for coming out this evening to our beautiful Majestic Theater. It is so wonderful to see you choose to be here with us this evening. I know you won't be disappointed in the power of this conversation. I want to thank Arts Emerson for initiating this panel and collaborating with the Elma Lewis Center. This is our first event, and we're doing it jointly with them. I want to thank David Dower, who assembled this fantastic panel that you will have the privilege of being in a conversation with. And I want to thank Kevin Becerra and Akiba Acavalindo for handling all the outreach and logistics. It's just been an amazing team to work with. This panel, as some of you may know, is produced in conjunction with the Arts Emerson presentation of Columbinus. I know David mentioned that. I hope you get a chance and an opportunity to see it. I've heard it's very profound and very powerful. I also wish to thank Sylvia Spears, who you met, our Vice President for Diversity and Inclusion, Elaine Fiore and Suzanne Hinton, who also have been a great support to this event and to help launching the Center. But I also want to thank those of us, many of you in the audience, who have been working so hard to put a spotlight locally on the issues of violence. There are many of you in this room, and I also want to particularly thank Kim Odom, Tina Cherry, Sarah Ann Shaw and Jamal Crawford and many others in this audience who really are experts themselves, unfortunately, either because they've lost loved ones to violence or because they have fought so vigorously to put a spotlight on the issue of violence, especially gun violence in our communities and also held the media and all of us accountable to have this debate in a way that sheds the light on every angle of this issue. And I want to really appreciate HowlRoundTV for live streaming this event, so people who can't be with us can join us. And if you have friends or know people who couldn't come, right after this program, they'll be able to hear the reporting, which is just terrific. So that's really, really exciting. Just a little context before we begin. As we all have discussed, you know, the shootings in D.C. remind us of the importance of this issue, not only that we need to get it right about gun control and mental health policy and economic security, but in fostering a society of peace because that's, after all, what we're after. But I also think this week really reminds us of the profound role that race and class play in our perceptions of violence and the threat of violence. Some of you may have heard recently about a gentleman in North Carolina who was in a car accident and he went to knock on the door of someone that he hoped would help him. And when he went to that door, the woman behind it thought that he was trying to intrude in her home. She called the police, the police came, and as he cried for help, they shot him 12 times. This is a very, very significant issue. Our perceptions around race, who are victims, who are perpetrators, how we as the media, as the public shape this debate, what stories don't get told, we have to give voice to that. And so part of what this evening is all about is giving a voice to forgotten stories and forgotten angles that need to be lifted up. I was reminded by my friend Jamal, there have been 138 shootings in Boston since the marathon, but you wouldn't know it if you followed the mainstream media. So tonight's event, we're gonna look deeper, we're gonna look harder at these issues, and we're gonna figure out how, as a community together, all of us, Emerson, social justice organization, students, staff, faculty, alumni, the world, how do we come together to put an end to this crisis? This is happening too often right here in our homes, right in Boston and in the nation. And we are in a unique position at Emerson, because we are teachers and students of the media, we're the one shaping public opinion, we're the artists that provide outlets and healing, and we have to be responsible with our knowledge and our power and our influence around these conversations. It's not about everybody else, it's about us. What are we gonna do differently after tonight's panel? We are joined by five panelists that will give insight into this question, particularly of race and class dynamics with gun violence, and I think it's just gonna be such a powerful, powerful evening. The way it's gonna work is we're gonna bring our panelists into the conversation first, but then after they're done, we're going to have mics at each end, actually, we'll see them there, and we invite you to be a part of the conversation, to ask questions, but also just to share your thoughts in your own perspectives. We'll have some comments and questions via Twitter, which will come in, and we'll have them dialogue in the conversation, and I'm sure some of us will be willing to stay a little bit later and talk with you. And so really, I'm glad you're here, this won't just be talking heads, we'll all be together on this journey, and I wanna start by introducing our panelists, and this is the first time I've ever had a panelist on a monitor. This gives a new name to Talking Heads. So you can't see him, but he is gonna be on the screen in a moment. I wanna first have you recognize Philip Martin, who's just about to fill the screen. Philip Martin has been a part of WGBH, and he's been reporting on human trafficking in southern New England, police training and race, the Occupy Movement, many other topics. He's a regular panelist for Basic Black, and an occasional panelist for Beat the Press, and he's the producer for Lifted Veils, which is a non-profit public radio journalism project dedicated to exploring the issues that divide the United Society. He was NPR's first and only national race relations correspondent from 1998 to 2001. What you need to know about Philip is he's covered issues of violence very extensively. He covered the tragic shooting of Sandy Hook students and adults in Newtown, Connecticut. He's in D.C. right now in memorials given what is happening in the current news. So he's just gonna be with us for 40 minutes on screen, but we're just so glad to have you, Philip. I'm so glad you could join us via Skype. Can you hear us okay? Thank you, Kelly. I can indeed. I can indeed. All right, we may have a little delay on feedback, but we'll get that set up while I introduce the other panelists. To Philip's left, I want to introduce you to Betty Scholes, who I spent an hour with yesterday and changed my life. She is a powerful advocate and activist based out of Denver working with children in schools and in neighborhoods. But her story is one that's very profound. Her nephew, Isaiah Scholes, was killed in the tragedy at Columbine High School, and that really forced her in some ways to become a spokesperson for her family, speaking out against violence, bullying, and questionable practices in the media. She appeared in the documentary 13 Families, a film about how families and the 13 victims of the Columbine shootings cope with their loss. She is an inspiration. She is very powerful, and I know she's making her nephew very, very proud. To her left, we have Kourtney Gray, who's become a fast friend. Kourtney has been recognized for his work with victims of trauma and for his role as founder of Columbo Novo, a community of children and adults who use the Afro-Brazilian martial art called Capoeira Angola, I hope I said that correctly, which is working to reduce violence and promote healing. He's also the director of trauma services at the Boston Public Health Commission. He's dealing with working with families every day, and he provides so much assistance to them through the Commission's Office of Violence Prevention. He's a board member of Citizens for Safety, which is working to reduce the presence of a legal trafficking of guns. To his left is Taisha Bacon, who has also become a friend. Taisha is an activist. She's a Boston resident. She became a young mother at the age of 14, but as she says, she has all obstacles put in her way at such a young age. She's a product of a young teen mom, a victim of domestic violence, and a mother that lost her son and too many family members to gun violence. She has become a force for change, to end violence, and an inspiration to many. She's certainly an inspiration to me. I know she will be for you too. To her left is Michael Patrick McDonald, who's the author of the New York Times bestselling memoir All Souls, the Southie, and the more recently acclaimed Easter Rising, a memoir of roots and rebellion. He's an activist who's focused on multicultural coalition building to reduce violence, and he's really worked on a grassroots level to gain more leadership from the community around the issues of gun violence. You may have heard of him. He's the founder of the Gun Vivac Program and local support groups, which give voice to young people around issues of poverty, violence, and the drug trade. He's a student at Northeastern University's Honors Program. He teaches writing and social justice issues, and does a curriculum on conflict and peace with justice which focuses on the north of Ireland. Please, please welcome them to Emerson College. I'm just going to jump right in. We're going to start having a conversation and I'll ask some questions, and then we hope to get to you, the audience. So please think about what you are concerned about, what questions you have, and if you get a chance to enter in the conversation. I want to start with the question. You know, we talked a lot about what we wanted the focus of this evening to be. We've done a lot here at Emerson around gun violence. We're very committed to ending it. The community has worked on this issue for way too long, but we wanted to look at the race and class dynamics, and I wanted to ask our panelists, what do you see as sort of the key disparities in how the media and society view violence, especially when you look at white communities and communities of color, suburbia, and urban. What is your experience? And I'm going to start with Phillip and then go to Portney, but then I really want to focus on hearing from the families who have been affected examples of how your family was treated. I think it's important for the audience for us to understand what happens when violence occurs and how issues are treated, especially around race and around people's perceptions of race. Phillip, let's start with you. I think you have a lot of experience in the media on GVH. You've covered Sandy Hook. What do you see? Kelly, I think we have, first of all, I'm not sure how bad this echo is. I'm hearing it quite a bit. But I'm quite good at it. When you think of something like Sandy and violence, and I'm sorry to cut you off, Phillip. So we're having some technical difficulties, but in the meantime, we'll have Portney address this question and we'll come right back to you, Phillip. Thank you. All right, so I think the most important thing I notice is that people are feeling, residents, those that are directly affected by this incident, are feeling that when there's an act of violence, it's almost normalized that certain populations are exposed to violence and will die or be victims of violence. And sometimes it's the perception that even as a provider might be less surprised if a non-black person was shot because of the prevalence. And what we find is that when media discusses it, there might be a different story might be told. And I want to stop here for a second and say, I'm telling the stories of others because I'm not a direct victim myself, but some people like Taisya here, I've only met through doing the work. So I'm really speaking about what I've sensed from them when incidents happen, when they're in a situation of their life. Imagine never being in a paper before and then seeing your family's life in a paper told with whatever's only been gathered in a short amount of time about the life of this person passed away. And often we will talk from a deficit standpoint. We will talk about what things led to that, what crime or what kind of behavior led to that incident. As opposed to saying that person was also an honorable student, that person was just gotten into college, that person wasn't a prolific dancer so it's sort of like I'll be telling the whole story of someone's life as we present it in the newspaper or tell it. Thank you, Phillip. I think we've got you back online. Let's try it again. Okay, let's see. I'm not sure. Maybe if I talk a little bit? No? I think it's really an audio problem. I'm so sorry, Phillip. We'll see what we can do. I appreciate it. We'll come back to you and we'll figure it out. Thank you. Could you share with us from your own personal vantage point what your experience was and give us a sense of your nephew what it was like before Columbine for him, what it was like during and after math, especially with regard to race and the treatment of race in that issue? Um, Isaiah was a lovable person. He was a victim of bullying in school. He was the only black child at Columbine high school. Uh, the name calling the shedding, the hitting was ignored even when reported. Isaiah endured because he was taught that to stand and to pray for the best. Isaiah was a spiritual child and he believed there is good in everybody and that love could solve the problems. If he would treat everybody as he wanted to be treated that they would change. And in most cases it happened, you know, he was like, he joked all the time and compensated for the hurt. Um, the adults, the educators in the school ignored these signs for many years. They ignored the signs of the trouble with the other kids and with Isaiah. Um, when we reported that the bullying was going on in France, uh, the quote was from the principal we do not have this school. So to further his education, we endured it. I regret I didn't step up as I do now and fight for Isaiah. I would tell him the same thing I told him in the past when he first announced to me that the troubles he was having no matter what you do you're going to continue to love and we are commanded to love our neighbors as we do ourselves. So first of all, I think we need to step up and tell the truth when the truth is there for you to be seen instead of hiding in corners and telling the stories as you want society to hear. Uh, the story of Isaiah is just now getting out because society do not want to hear that his actually being good kids, good students and there's still problems there's still the racial bias in our society today. We have to face the problem and adjust to that. We cannot keep ignoring it are we going to continue to have this violence in our country it has gotten to the point that I have visited nearly every tragedy in prayer that's what I take with me it's prayer and love and I think that would be the change. Betty you shared with me yesterday about that day you want to say more about what you know about that and what the media didn't report what you want us to know about that day? That day I said first of all I had trouble getting into the school because of my race I was held back I had to initially fight my way in that day Isaiah was killed his was coming to us telling us that he was targeted and before he died he was called a nigger he was targeted and he was found and there is that nigger because it was intentionally that they went in to find him and the last words he had heard in his life was nigger let's kill that nigger we found that nigger so could you imagine saying bye to your loved one with that on your mind and my truth is to stop never having another kid in school be taunted like that and be killed useless and we need to stop glorifying these killings in my opinion and trying to give society what it wants to hear instead of telling the truth and focus on the real victims Thank you Betty Taitia your story if you'd be willing to share he was 17 he was married I usually that one particular son I usually keep with me all the time and for one moment my son finally and my eyes matured it was able to be on his phone in less than 10 minutes of me leaving my son I got a phone call that he he was married it was a tough time because not only was one of my sons murdered it affected my other children it um and the way that it was handled was maybe disturbing his brother was arrested like the suspect they dropped my son off in front of my house with no shoes, no pants the police used to tell me that I was a bad mother I was raising kids that were out of order and I was just tormented I had to move off my street after my son was murdered they broadcasted all my information on news reports my address which I felt as though endangered my other two children it's so much I'm trying not to cry and suddenly remember I told you it's okay and I think the way that my son was labeled it's like in the African American culture the communities you can move on the street with the black male son and they're already labeled as being a gang member from that area you can't walk anywhere without this stereotype on these black young men out here where they are, where they go they're always labeled as a gang member because you know how they dress and that's how they looked at my son he was well known to the police as they labeled him they failed to say that he came from a loving family that he was very important so he played a very important position in my life that he was still somebody's child and it's just it's just a lot I still deal with it to this day with my other son so it's an ongoing situation it wasn't stopped when my son was murdered I still have to deal with my other son being labeled I have to deal with the pressure from the streets Michael? I became an activist in 1990 and community organizer throughout the 90s but that year when I first became an activist that was a year when Boston saw its highest number of homicides in the city and coming from south Boston housing projects family of 11 kids I lost 4 siblings to the effects of poverty 3 of them violently 2 of them were involved in the streets my mother was shot while washing dishes one night from a stray bullet that came through the window and a lot of neighbors in those years were dying throughout the 80s especially in the 90s a lot of that was quieted down by the time that we had in the earlier 80s but in this period 80s 90s and well into the 2000s up until very recently south Boston held the country's highest concentration of white poverty and growing up in this neighborhood and having lost so many siblings and seeing so many neighbors dying and nobody talking about it whether inside the community or the world outside the community never being reported on either I knew that I needed to work on this stuff that I need to talk about this stuff and so in Roxbury Dorchester amount of pan in Boston's black and Latino neighborhoods there was a strong tradition of activism and so once in a while you would see especially after the Charles Stewart case you saw a lot of people on television saying all the words that we couldn't say in our neighborhood the words that we couldn't say whether it was crime violence, drugs, guns or even just to talk about poverty so I knew I had to go over I knew I had to cross the bridge and go across town and in the following years I met some of the best friends of my life and worked with a lot of survivors who were activated and involved in the movement against violence in the streets and one of our first efforts getting to know people across town there was so much in common and that was the thing I just saw so many things in common that we were never really allowed to realize we had in common all those years the kind of reporting like South Yole got reported about if there was racism if there was a racist incident that happened there but any of the victims of the drug trade or violence throughout the years we recently heard about through the white apology years were never reported on we had some of the same situation where the victims' lives their true stories who they really were was never really being reported on what would be reported on in the black and Latino communities would be this whole notion of the super predator so this stuff would be reported on when we could talk about the black perpetrator but not when we talk about the black victim but never reported on we would never talk about who these young people were that were dying in those communities mostly in South Yole we wouldn't hear about the victims of any of the stuff that was happening people for the most part throughout the city of Boston didn't really know about this stuff happening in places like South Yole and Charlestown another poor Irish-American community with the country's highest rate of unsolved murders in this time at that time so you really didn't hear about any of that stuff what was always really what angered me a lot was here we would it was more than willing to talk about the black super predator some 15 year old kid usually is what they were referring to and we had white embalger and nobody was talking about that super predator so it was actually to our detriment that that wasn't being talked about at all in the media and not being reported on as well because we had a real super predator an adult and not just him but it's all of his networks all the people that worked with him at all levels of law enforcement were praying upon young people in an incredibly poor vulnerable population of single parent female headed households in the lower end of South Boston 75% single parent female headed households and none of that was ever being reported on it took this many years for all of it to come out after all souls it started to come out more and more and then culminating this summer with the trial of white embalger so it's just there's a lot of nuance here and a lot of different ways that it's reported about in different communities there's definitely the class element these days we see a disproportionate amount of heroin and oxycontin overdoses in places like South Boston even though southeast half gentrified at this point half yuppified you still have very very disproportionate percentage of overdoses and that's always those kids are kind of written off too and that's not really reported on of course suicide is another issue but people have to be careful about that so there's a lot of nuance with this that I think involves race and class but what's particularly evident is that when this stuff happens in the black community we are more than willing to depict in the media on television news movies and so forth the black perpetrator and not really exactly what you said Teresha about your son like who was this child who he really was who he was in the home what he meant to us one of the first efforts we did before the gun buyback program in Boston we were trying to promote the leadership from the survivor community and to bring together a survivor community that was black, white, Latino, Asian at the forefront mothers from Charlestown and South as well as Roxbury Dorches from Matapan this was the first time Tina Cherry came out who was the mother of Louis D Brown we held a we did an exhibit that we were going to put right in the lobby of city hall we got the approval of city hall to put an exhibit where we enlarged all the faces of these young people throughout the city who had died from gun violence and then a little bit about who they were we got from their families the kind of things you just said about your son who he was in the family and so when you walked into city hall there were kids that nobody's ever really paid attention to grown up bigger than life and a little bit about who they were what was amazing about that was that it was a beginning of a survivor movement and I have to say that that's one of the biggest difference I've seen too is the victims whose names we know often times it's because the survivors won't let us forget their names and that's a good thing I think most people in Boston a lot of young people in Boston public schools is and that's because of the work of Tina Cherry and so many survivors like the people on the panel here have that power thank you Michael Philip you've been so patient I hope you work out this time can you say a few words for us I hope it works too is there I think there's still an echo okay let's try it again if I can say and I'm gonna talk about Super regardless I think there's a high arc of how we violence without question sorry I apologize well no thank you I know but we will make sure we figure out a way to bring you back here and get your perspective I appreciate it and so to the panel that's the audience can we thank Philip we thank you for your time Philip and please keep doing the good work that you're doing let me ask specifically I heard a little bit from each of you but if you could have lifted a little more how the media treated you there's some examples about a little bit more examples about how reporters treated you what your experience was like with them or what you've seen with other families do you feel like we treated any differently than maybe others for example or what you see on TV in suburban communities did it feel different for you Titian did you want to weigh in on that I feel that being black you get treated definitely different from the white communities the day after my son was murdered I had the media banging down my door they wouldn't take no for an answer I found that to be very inconsiderate disrespectful I remember them asking me can we get a story about your son but because of what was already written out there in the media I refused it and they were persistent they kept asking for a picture I literally had to kick them off of my property I feel like the way that they were our kids in the media is discouraging usually in the media you would think that they would encourage people to come forward which I know they do at times but the way that they label these kids and describe these kids in the paper like they did with my son to me felt like because they said he was well known to the police or he was a bad child or whatever the case may be that was discouraging to some people that may have had answers it kind of labeled him as being a problem child and I think that changes the points of view or the opinions of others reading the articles I think that they well I don't even think I know that they label the people in our community all the time as being less than or it kind of makes the seem like we're not worthy either because of our color or because of our financial situation that we don't get the same privileges or the same resources as white communities I've often heard people say you know we were already victimized and then the media victimized us again so it's like a double victimization one layer on top of the other Betty I see you trying to convince me my cell was raised in a suburb in a better neighborhoods because my brother and me myself had decided that we would send our kids to the better schools I don't know about here but in Colorado the school systems are supposed to be the same but in the suburbs the schools has better lunches, the better teachers the better snacks they provided with snacks soft drinks and everything the school books and courses they have college courses in high school so our kids was always sent to school in the suburbs so when this happened I moved to another suburb which I sent my grandkids and they are treated as if they lived in the inner city so the different areas do not count it could be inner city the suburbs or whatever all black kids are being treated disrespectful of the scourge so they don't graduate high school so I saw the treatment my grandkids had out there in the suburbs in the newer neighborhood I took them there my grandsons two of my grandsons was hit by a driver that ran a red light the officer tried to ticket my grandson so at that point I said I refuse they have easy access to my children in the suburbs so we moved back in the inner city so they could have a better chance even if they were targeted as a black child because of the area it don't matter it don't matter they are going to be treated differently the media is going to carry it any way they want to they are going to victimize the victim and glorify the sale and this is the problem now because as I see that's what's happening now with all the tragedies they seek affection and attention and the media gives them that so they continue to kill and with the black youths it's the same thing they want to hear the bad part so they give the audience what they want so that's the problem right now and that's why they don't look at your child's life and that's probably I have had several years experience I'm out here, I'm walking in schools I'm fighting in schools every day on a daily basis because I walk in a school and with me walking in some of the schools in Colorado it's unbearable kids are being called names, kids are being pushed, educators are sitting there looking at it nobody's speaking up the problem with us right now we're not speaking up there's different angles we can go to do everything we can we gotta stop this, we gotta stop that my kids are not graduating high school because they see no future we sit around here and we complain and we have to do something we have to get up and fight and all of us together I mean it's ridiculous that we're separating race it shouldn't even be that it shouldn't if you have love in your heart it shouldn't even be that you shouldn't even pass one child and see that they're hurting without stopping and seeing what you can do it takes a whole nation and until we do that we're not gonna succeed we're not gonna graduate the kids we're not gonna have the success for life we expected as Americans I'm sorry to say but that's how I truly feel one of the things Betty shared with me yesterday we were talking about the mistreatment of these issues in the media the lack of coverage and when it is covered victim coverage right you did talk about though one person in the media though that you felt did hear you and did share part of the story I think it would be really helpful for us to hear about that what was it about that particular person that interaction that you think is a model especially for those of us who are in journalism tell us about that person and what that person meant to you and how they were supported today the next day after Isaiah was killed there was hundreds of reporters on the line I mean all up in the windows everywhere so I walked outside because my heart I was taking snacks out and that's the way I am I was taking snacks out drinks, sodas and Nate was rushing trying to get stories you know rushing up and just getting me all excited and upset and it was one lady walked up to me and said how your family is doing so I said everybody leave I said you come with me and so I took her in the hot house and she became my friend because it was hard felt that she cared about the way I was feeling and my family so I kept her in the house all day she got the whole insight stories everywhere I went I took her with me because I felt comfortable with her and she was true to heart the first impression you make on a person is that everlasting impression you're going to have to go full hearted to that person if you want the story and want it come correctly you can't approach a person and they know you're going to be a phony from the beginning to the end you're not going to give the real story you're going to give a story that the world wants to hear and Isael's instance the story wasn't told until my friend I'm not going to give her name because she's not here it's not privileged but she knows who she is she was able to get a real story because she was a real person you have to be yourselves and give your heart if you want the inside story of any story Courtney and Michael would you like to weigh in and hear your support for that well I'm really glad we ended on this point because sitting up here I kept thinking okay when we say the media we're talking about an institution but they're humans in that institution and they're not homogeneous in fact Phil is a journalist so there's different roles and different people so I've had examples where people were very heartfelt where they did the appropriate thing and even helped situations like became human beings and helped on the scene not just the bombing not just when we had people from Katrina at Otis Air Force Base but also in micro incidents of homicide and suicide so it's interesting that we should think about like how they really played things out but I also want to pull back and say I'm actually stunned that Emerson is holding this conversation today as somebody who's been doing this work with folks and with victims I'm very pleased that an arts institution is having a complicated and almost a real I actually think it's worth a moment of applause that are y'all going to give a round of applause and some of us that try to protect and serve people that are affected by negative things we've been waiting almost for the arts institutions and other institutions and Emerson is also an educational institution so a new voice, a new force with a new intention and a new paradigm for looking at things so I'm really appreciative of this conversation so I'm contemplating many things one is like who tells our story like who's actually going to be the one to tell the story if it's media that's one thing and if it's not investigative media like Phillip does if it's just telling the story of the moment we might get the story told with a slant but fortunately enough people are telling their own stories sometimes through arts and there's also a culture of journalists that are saying for themselves that they want to change the way people report on trauma report on violence, report on sudden death it's led by journalists so hopefully before the talk is over we might talk about things we can do as arts as artists and people in the arts community that will ship this but I do have a story to tell about an example of me gathering a lot of stories it was when I was doing research for Boston Medical Center with the National Institute of Mental Health Grant and I have to say being a black man I think I learned how to be a black man through this study or learn more about how to be one because I was interviewing and studying people who were admitted to the hospital sometimes hours after they were admitted or within a week or so and then following them for three months with some very extensive interviews with some very probing questions and I was shocked with what I heard I heard about, we're really talking about racism as well as media and whether or not there's structural racism whether or not someone treats me in a racist way or not is the system set up in a negative place so why are there more poor people in certain neighborhoods why are more some races affected negatively by health conditions and that's our work at the commission so with 130 men that follow over three years three months apiece we heard stories of what they're carrying and also how they were treated at the moment that they were almost like your nephew's experience being hit by cars and it's odd because I had an opinion of who got shot in America and what they looked like and what their lives were like and MIT students might have been shot or college students who you know when we did the interview we knew exactly they were getting really great grades they were studying really hard but they went to a party like I went to many parties when I was in college in a certain neighborhood and something happened in that neighborhood and I got injured by a stray bullet yet the system would speak to me as if I were somebody who knew what kind of gun I was shot with questions that I would never even conceive even asking myself while I'm injured I don't think I have the best resources to stay alive yet I'm asking questions being asked questions about like what kind of gun you know I was shot with because they think I'm a gang member and these are people who I think in their own minds believe they're doing the right thing and think that they're great folks so the question is how does the media help us tell a complete story and is there that intention and I think another question that has just brought to bear is and what again what we can do to help others who have gone through the worst thing in their life have to muster up additional energy to advocate for themselves at the commission we say we arrive to support people in their worst moments so if 121 people what have been the number since the bombing if that many people died of HIV or died of hepatitis or diabetes we would show up and say what are we going to do about this how are we going to serve it it would be a story in the paper in itself in a particular situation Michael do you have a perspective in answering that question what do you think can be done and you know I know you have actually done some multi-racial cross coalition work have you seen positive instances where the media has done a good job or where the arts community has played a powerful role in shaping the message in ways that are complete in the full story have you seen that, have we gotten there and if we haven't what can we do I mean this is a group of people who wants it to be different I I'm glad that Phillip is the least hearing spirit I know for everybody who doesn't know he's an incredible person first journalist second he's a great journalist but he's just an incredible empathic person that's what you were getting at with the reporter that you connected with she had empathy she's in touch with her own humanity and therefore in touch with yours that's how it works and I think that's the key across all of the supposed boundaries of race and class and all that we have to have empathy we all care about the people who are killed in mass murders we care about the Boston Marathon victims and this has to happen in all directions the idea that all of these children are all of our children in all directions so I think that is an empathy that really comes from being in touch with your own your own pain and your own humanity Phillip was I was at the Whitey Bulger Trials all summer Phillip was one of the very few journalists in the media room I was in the media room and Phillip wrote about the stuff that had happened in my community in a way that nobody else really did because he was the one person that I noticed who didn't write about that stuff in the kind of gratuitous, titillating gangster pornographic way that a lot of people do he didn't use words like he didn't talk about people getting whacked like that and thinking that's cute trying to be gritty for the sake of being gritty Phillip writes from the heart so not just because well he's not even here so I can say this behind his back he's the example of what we need more of but it's not just about it's not just about the journalists telling our stories I think that's key what Courtney said is how are we going to tell our stories and I was very fortunate to go that direction with the memoir a lot of times when I was working as an activist a lot of the media wanted to tell my family's story and we would use that as activists we would hold a press conference for the gun buy back we all got up there as survivors we told our stories for a greater good and but you could only tell so much and then they could do they can cut it up in ways that they cut it up and that's when I decided you know I need to tell this story and be totally in control of it of my truth and how I see this whole and really the story for me wasn't about what happened to us it's about the bigger picture of race and class and that's what I wanted to get to because the media wasn't going to talk about that stuff do you all think social media has changed this I mean you know I think in the situation of Trayvon that was such an example of people controlling the message and just everybody getting involved in that conversation it makes me wonder if social media wasn't here would that have that fierce support would that have happened I love social media but it has to happen in more than 42 characters this telling of our stories has to happen in more than 42 characters it's the new soundbite you know and not just in writing as Courtney said in dance and performance and theater there's so many ways that we have to tell our stories and it's amazing as he said also this conversation has happened at an arts organization I think that's where we can bring this I have something to say when Isaiah was killed nobody at the school knew anything about Isaiah only his friends a couple of friends he had they went for months on top of months without saying his activities what he loved anything about his life then finally I stepped up and one reporter asked me and that was my friend what did Isaiah like what was he like what did he enjoy doing and it was so hurtful because in a school that large even his teachers didn't know anything about him all they knew about him was he was that black kid so to say our kids are ignored we have to stop and do something about getting attention to those children because they deserve to be known they deserve to have their achievements known and to be built up within them society has labeled the kids as failures the media has labeled our kids when I look at a group of kids I see scientists I see doctors I see lawyers when I step up to a principal at a school I see failures I see a potential gang member is what they tell me so until we can feel the pain and continue on with the fight and to get the diversity out it's going to continue there the media is going to go whatever sounds good and that's not right we have to get to the heart of the problem get to know the victims and get to know that there's victims that actually are victim kids as a trade-on there are kids that's been murdered every day that's insane and get out to the world these kids are loved by someone there's someone's children and as I was labeled one day and they continued to try to label me because I'm the troublemaker I was stepping to a school board meeting I was step up to the administration I was step up until I get some improvement done I'm in a fight now with public schools in Colorado but until somebody take a stand it was will continue to fill the system and then there it goes the killers and whatever you want to label them but the media has a lot to do with that you have to stop glorifying the crime and that's the bottom line that's my problem and each one of the tragedies I have stepped into that person who did the killing wanted attention wanted love if I decide to start giving them attention start reporting the wrongs and I believe they're coming it's not going to end with us sitting here and not doing anything report that people is going without medical help they need to go see a psychiatrist report when you see that report that the school is mistreating the kids report when you see a police officer you know that's what you're supposed to do as a citizen you're not supposed to sit up and be quiet and see trouble you're not supposed to report what the world wants to report what your job is the truth as a citizen I expect the media to give me the truth that's what you expect from the reporters and the newspapers I want to know the truth of the story I don't want the feel good version of the story and that's the media in my opinion strayed every incident to what they want to believe and it's not supposed to be a personal item let me just shift this for a moment last question because I really want to leave time for us to interact with the audience let's talk we talk a lot about the media I want to talk about the role of the arts the role of artists in shaping this issue or in helping with healing I wonder if any of you can point to examples where the artist community the cultural community has played a role in helping to put a spotlight on this issue in ways that have been helpful are there examples things that you remember whether it was performance or music or poetry or in that case there was an exhibit Michael you talked about that you really felt changed the way people saw the issue what have you seen and what would you say to us both as an artistic community as activists what role can we play sometimes you feel like well what if I don't know the issue well or also you don't want to exploit families I heard from many of you what happens to families I got a great idea let me come do this sometimes that's not what you need so does anybody want to speak to that the role that artists can play role the arts have played in your lives or in the healing process or in changing this issue what's the play that's going on I have three quick examples one happened on this stage when Fala Musical was here there's a scene where there's about the main characters death a pretty big death that affected the whole community and they were coming through the aisles with many caskets here and later run of the show they started adding names of the caskets and they would stack them up on stage as part of the procession and then after just adding the concepts like justice, peace, forgiveness like some of the peace institutes mantras they started putting the names of victims and in one run of the show they put the word Trevon and literally as they see the names the audience is roaring with applause and heart and when they put Trevon in one of the runs of the show which wasn't on this stage Trevon's mom was in the audience where the art is being related to real life another scenario is there was a dancer a really good urban dancer a well known who was injured fatally and at the re-pass instead of it being sort of just completely solemn there were about 15 dance performances and people were celebrating so these people identified themselves as artists so artists were claiming how they made meaning of death ritual and then another funeral which was a very hard one I don't want to say names because there might be people in the audience after the re-pass and people were back in front of the house I watched five young men interpret their feelings so they didn't speak to anyone the whole time but on the street corner I saw them go through about two hours worth of exchanged interpretive dance where they were communicating with one another so one of the things I always ask for the arts community to do is help us get access to becoming artists again we come from cultures where every single person is considered an artist and it's the making of the art that we need to look at in addition to the presentation of the art so give me poetry give me spoken word give me theater so I can express myself tell my own story to myself when I'm alone by myself the last one is an actual news outlet helped hold an exhibit similar to the one at city hall which was called anonymous Boston and they weren't just talking about the media it was a media related exhibit they were talking about the media but the culture of the people who are in that paradigm for that particular news outlet and so they had articles of people who were shot and the comments the anonymous comments that people were making were hurtful like one less welfare baby to feed these really harsh comments that people would see so this exhibit put up different stories stories told by the family members very huge exhibits as well and portraits of all the victims and dialogue with artists with media in particular as well about the issue of violence and the roles we can play so these are just various examples but it's really about just becoming a citizen of the city you are in and engaging people in arts in all those different ways we'll take one more comment and we're bringing it to the audience but I'm going to have you all add in as we go so this is not the end of the conversation at all Tikesha did you want to add anything specific? well I'm going to go off talk but I aren't entertainment good because that's what this generation is really focused on they look at videos, they're watching everything on TV, be glorified the drugs, the killing it's one thing for all of us to be in here collectively to try to do something about the situation but I think the core of the problem is getting this particular population in a building and getting to them because these are the these are the children that are committing these crimes these are the children that are angry and I think getting to the bottom of their anger and why they are so angry and what is the cause of them acting out in this way is important I can speak to you I can speak to Courtney but I think hands on with the actual perpetrators out here in these streets is what's really important to me I don't go, this is my first time publicly speaking on this but I don't go to a lot of meetings and what I do is that particular population that we consider the gang bangers of the violent people I embrace them and I notice that a lot of them are angry because they have they have no father figure in their life a lot of it is financial situations single mother struggling and these kids are angry and they're going to do anything to either provide for their family or to take their anger out in some way and I just think we need to get them in this audience and let them have a visual of how they're affecting us, their parents and everybody else that's involved with the crimes it's not just me that's hurting I have friends that are my support system that I'm like a strain on them they support me as well as having to deal with their own families not me that's the victim it's the people around me as well and I just think get into the bottom of the situation you really have to get into these people's and what's going on with them before we go to the audience before we go to the audience we just applause and thank them for their comments and perspectives so far I'd like us to do now is bring you up into the conversation and the way I'd like to do that is very shortly I'll ask people to feel comfortable and come down to the mics don't be shy so if you're feeling the need to comment or questions start making your way but at this moment at this break I just want to acknowledge if we have folks in the room who have been fighting hard in the community to end gun violence no matter at what level either you've been a family that's affected by sexual justice groups or artists that have played a role in this issue would you just please stand so we could acknowledge your advocacy and your commitment to these issues don't be shy please stand up and we please give down to the audience so let's go we're going to bounce around let's start over here say your name and feel free to say whatever you need to say you don't have to pose a question by the way I sometimes find that very frustrating you really want to say something my name is Cindy Diggs and I'm the founder of Peace Boston which is a hip hop peace movement that was started eight years ago by members of the hip hop community and we find that we have played a major role we should turn that mic or facing the audience because you know what it's not about us it's about us they want to see you eight years ago we started this peace movement which we thought was going to be a one day event when four young men were killed in the studio in Dorchester and I worked with a hip hop clothing designer to create the start peace t-shirt and the movement just went from there we went on to produce a peace in the streets album the start peace t-shirt and we donated money from those different projects towards either youth activities or to a burial fund and we have had several groups working with us that we created the recording artists for peace the greeks for peace, stylists for peace and DJs for peace and now we're working with bakers to do a fundraiser we've formed an alliance with all of the people that do peace work and social justice work and anti-violence work and arts we put on a lot of shows and in the middle of the event we'll stop the event and talk about peace because we have a captive audience of young people to spread that message to them so the arts is very important and to tell you Emerson school color is purple and that's the color of peace so I'm glad that you are onboard with us and we will definitely be reaching out to you to collaborate with you I know Akiba very well from when she was a young person she was in a theater we're all in this together and we've, like I said, just started this peace collaborative with a number of the people that you mentioned that helped you to organize this so Peace Boston is definitely wanting to help you and Peace Courtney, my hip hop brother great, thank you let's jump over here turn the mic around let's see you join everybody Hi, my name is Sheba I'm a major here at Emerson yay, there are other ones this is so exciting what I wanted to say is I actually I'm from Boston, I'm from Dorchester and I've always had to deal with wanting to have birthday parties at my house I know I'm a weird 18 year old who I'm still like I want a birthday party but I went to private school in Cambridge and a lot of my friends who lived in northern, like up in Cambridge and those areas, more like upper middle class families their parents would never let them come to my house because of where I live so I wouldn't be able to have my friends over and celebrate my birthday so that was always really difficult but basically and then actually only on Tuesday I was in a class and my professor was talking about how he was trying to find something for some for a prop for a show and he was saying that like oh I had to find wine bottles and weirdly enough I found them in Dorchester, I know that's such an oxymoron and I was just like I'm sorry, what does that exactly mean that it's hard like that wine that's like has a like classification connotation of like this classy thing why is that so weird to find in a place that I call my home and place that I've lived for my entire life I don't understand that so I do actually have a question my question is how can I help to dispel those sort of connotations about my community because I know that my community has all of these wonderful things about it but that's never what gets recognized it's always the random like the acts of violence or the poverty that's what always gets focused on in Dorchester so I want to know ways that I can possibly try to help people understand that there are better and more important things in our community let's have one person answer that then we'll go back over here because you may have answers to that question too who would like to answer the question you don't have to I mean I think you're doing it for one thing you're already doing it I mean just obviously you're able to speak to this crowd you're able to tell you a story and that's an important story that whole story about the wine that's totally something that I relate to myself just in terms of the stereotypes of neighborhoods but I also want to say that I think we have to tell all of the stories too I know there was a lot of like backlash when the Boston Globe recently did a spotlight series on Bowdoin Geneva neighborhood and there were certain things about that spotlight series that I thought were just really good and that it was about time people were focusing on some of this stuff and I know that a lot of the victims families want some attention for what's some of the affliction that's going on there but we have to balance it also with the fact that people in Dorchester live in wonderful lives too I mean Dorchester, I hate to not to betray myself and you but I love Dorchester so much and I'm always actually that's where I stay when I'm in Boston all the time and you hear people arguing for both in Dorchester people are saying there's more attention to the violence going on in the streets than other people saying well that's all we ever hear about is the violence in the streets so we need to tell all of it we need to tell all of our stories it's great thank you over here hi my name is Nancy Robinson I run an organization called Citizens for Safety I'm proud to say that Courtney Gray is on our board and Michael hello I think you helped to found the organization that I now oversee I want to address this to the journalism professors and students in the room I see some of the students with their little journalism notepad so I know you're here and I want to make my comment by telling a story about 10 years ago a young man was playing basketball with his father in his on the court at home that he had and someone came up and shot him in the leg this was Buffalo New York and he survived but the bullet ended his basketball playing career the Buffalo news which is the leading newspaper did a very interesting and unorthodox thing they reported on the shooting they reported on the arrest that was made of the young man his last name was Bostick and he had several felony convictions and then they went a step further and they actually did a three part series on the source of the gun they asked where does a five time felon get a hold of a handgun and traced it all the way back to a gun dealer notorious gun dealer who was in cahoots with the gun manufacturer and had sold thousands of cheaply made handguns to girlfriends of these guys who then went on to sell the guns on the street it's not an unusual case in that this happens on the streets of US cities every day what is unusual about it is that this enterprising journalist asked where did that gun come from and so I implore all of you students all of you teachers it's something very proactive we can do to remind viewers that these guns aren't falling from the sky they're not these kids aren't born with these guns in their hands somebody is providing it to them and we need to go right back to the source Courtney you can speak somewhat to this it's a very important question that's not being asked by media and it needs to be asked right over here come join us Hi my name is Celia I'm a junior theater education major here at Emerson and I have an interest in working with juvenile offenders so what Tayisha said about being the audience we need in these places was really personal I have a question I have it kind of my thoughts assembled here hold on one second technology this is for the panel bringing it back to social media during the Boston Marathon bombings and the events that transpired there was this mass call for people not to post tweets or Facebook statuses about what they heard on public police scanners there was a lot of misinformation on social media but the majority of the misinformation seemed to be coming from major news sources I mean there are obviously drawbacks to the immediacy of reporting when it comes to social media but there's also a big grassroots aspect for getting lesser known stories and things that the major media may not report on sort of out into the world so what's your opinion on social media as a reporting tool for those kind of things in light of recent tragedies is there one person that would like to take that I love the social media I get the voice a lot of opinions like I an example about selective journalism or reporting they had me reading the names of the victims so I decided one day there were so many kids killed that day not only at Columbine I wanted to include other kids and make the world aware that there's other victims and we should give them the same attention as we was giving the victims at Columbine so I start to read out a list of other children you know that had been killed that same day or that same week and that was never televised because they selected not those children was more important than the children in the inner city schools so social media I went to them and I posted the children's names and I do that you know when they come up and select who they want to report there's other families that's hurt there's other innocent victims that's been lost and so we get everybody the same attention that maybe we can let the world know there's innocent victims every day and might as being lost because of ignorance but I love the social media because I get to post every day I did thank you thank you for that very important question I think it's an important part of it but I just um like it can add to what we do in organizing I think a few years ago some people were thinking that it might take the place of that face to face organizing that we need to do but it can never do that there's nothing like in person face to face community organizing grassroots level it can help it maybe but it should never sometimes people will be part of an awareness raising campaign on social media awareness raising is important but sometimes people if they post a ribbon that's a certain color for like breast cancer awareness month or something you think but we need to get out there we need to be in the streets we need to be talking to each other in person great all right I'm going to jump over here and ask folks to keep your comments you're doing great actually keep them short and concise so I can bounce back and forth this has been great ladies and gentlemen hi my name is Tushani I'm actually a journalism student here and I'm from Dorchester as well I think one of the reasons there's a disparity in the media when it comes to urban communities as far as violence is concerned is because the newsrooms are not as diverse as the communities that they cover I think that's a really big issue I want to say Michael I'm excited you here I'm glad you guys are all here but I actually just finished your book a couple of weeks ago and one of the things I loved about your book and Courtney you actually mentioned this how violence in the urban community is more publicized than anywhere else and what I loved about your book Michael was that you kind of uncovered that it was like the same things that happened in the urban community from violence people living in the projects where it's 10 of them in a two bedroom apartment you made it realistic and you made it known that it wasn't just a color thing it was more so of a class so thank you can I ask a favor though it's about her okay there's an introduction for you well I guess just before this lady speaks could you guys just give her a big round of applause this young lady right here say that violence is bad for the world and I would just want to ask that how can all the kids help change the world and make the world a better place are you going to tell them who your mommy is Samadi what do you think I think we should I think we should like try to tell people that violence is bad and they shouldn't do it again that's great thank you it's a great question Kelly that's her daughter Tisha is that your daughter that's my daughter yes she's incredible I think she's asking a very serious question what is the world that young people can play what do you think what are some things that she and her friends and the rest of young people can be doing I know a lot of you work with young people on this issue I can give an example a story when we were doing the gun buy back programs in Boston one of the things that a group of young people your age in Gallivan on Gallivan Boulevard what's the development there called Gallivan up on Gallivan group of young people your age in Dorchester they wanted to hold they didn't want to be left out of this citywide discussion this conversation about getting guns off the streets so they decided to hold a toy gun turn in and they organized this all on their own they got local businesses to donate peaceful non-violent toys and things that they could give to kids your age who would turn in their toy guns we know toy guns don't kill people but it's making a powerful statement that we don't need to be we don't need to promote the culture of violence so the young people organized this whole thing and they all stood up as leaders what you're doing now is standing up as a leader and it's about that it's about our leadership coming from the people who are most impacted by this stuff and that's all of us I want to say one more thing we just shouldn't just use guns because it's a bad it's a bad thing to do and it's not helping our world thank you so much thank you I think I'm going to remember that but the rest smell it hello okay my name is Marcel I'm originally from Cameroon which is in West Africa but I grew up in Maine which is the state that's five hours away from here I've never really experienced hatred or racism until I entered my freshman year of college which was a long time ago I'm a graduate student right now first year and it was awesome and it really made me question my identity and it was actually a black female who was from Boston I went up to her and I said hi my name is Marcel it's a pleasure to meet you and she said you ain't black so we talk about the media depicting black people being bad and worthless and what not but then you have to wonder where is this really coming from this young woman looking at me saying that I'm not black when clearly I am probably darker than she is so my question really is what does it mean to be black I think it means beauty in my opinion black means pride black means pride black means togetherness that's what black means good evening everyone my name is Teala Grimes I'm actually a first and foremost thank you for having this conversation this is something I've always dreamed about things I've done since 16 years old I've actually my background is in a youth media literacy program so for me at 16 media being taught to me at that age around race and sex because at the time it was at the YWCA Boston and they focused around eliminating racism and sexism so to have a youth program catered to young people 13 to 19 years old and educating them about the media I learned a lot about myself at a very young age which led me to be at Leslie University now working towards my masters in media literacy education in urban youth development specifically media in urban youth I say all this because this whole conversation is important and like the young lady addressed earlier today I really do wish it was more young people who are living in these urban communities in a room like this they don't know what a room like this looked like they don't be invited to a room like this they might not even come because of the area that it's located in but all of that stems from certain things that media may perpetrate in the media as far as certain races go here, certain people go here this is an area you're not supposed to so you're not even open to going somewhere else to explore and to learn another culture another way, another being because of certain things that are stemmed on the media I work for a GED program with dropout students 16 to 24 years old I've lost students I've lost a student who was murdered last in 2011 so I deal with young people who have dropped out of school still left out, still dealing with issues and trying to obtain their education they don't want to college but still in the midst of dealing with funerals left and right losing friends losing family members burying family members in the midst of trying to build themselves up but then turn on television and turn around and have your whole community including yourself broken down it makes it seem like it's an isolated issue media as much as I love it it has it's good and it's bad you can use it to empower and you can use it to disempower when looking at urban communities of color most likely sometimes it's usually to disempower a community and then like the young lady said earlier today my friends don't want to come to the neighborhood that I live on or live in because of the violence or the way that it's perpetuated thank you for having this conversation but it also makes me think about a college where on the other side of ruggles it's considered Roxbury but on the other side of ruggles it's also considered Boston but it's right across the street so it makes me think about some of the things some of the institutions and some of the how we are structured and how can we then incorporate more people that look like me into that conversation without making it feel like they're being tokenized I need to lower the microphone just like your daughter did you know hi I'm Suzy I'm a senior theater education major at Emerson and first off I want to say thank you for inspiring me to do better for my future students I right now promise to do my best to make sure that none of my students are ever called any word close to that in my classroom none of my students ever call someone that in my classroom I want to talk about like how so often when this the answer to like how do we solve this gun violence how do we solve this epidemic the answer is often that people say is increase policing and more police and I just don't think that's right as a queer woman it's so often that police are the ones who perpetrate violence against people of color and queer people and poor folks and I want to know how to dispel that myth that increased policing means increased safety you know and I hope I would do something a little out of the box here I actually think the next person is about to come speak might have an opinion on that and also can offer his opinion is that okay I bet you have some of Jamal Crawford and then if anybody else wants to answer please everybody my name is Jamal Crawford from the Blackstone Inn from Roxburgh so on policing yeah it's definitely an untruism that recent report by the Malcolm X grassroots movement when I first got it it was every 40 hours a black or brown person is hurt killed assaulted by a police officer then about a week later it was every 38 hours and it was 36 now it's down to like I think 22 is where it's at now so just to put that in perspective that there is a nationwide epidemic and I was just mentioning this is somebody that I know today you know people would say well you know policing a big city is difficult has anybody in here heard of the little innocent white guy who accidentally got shot by the police I mean it just doesn't happen that often and then also too have you ever heard of the group of black officers who mistakenly shot a white kid just doesn't seem to happen have you heard of the Asian officers and a black kid no that doesn't happen have you heard of the group of female officers that no that doesn't happen either so basically what you have is a problem with white male officers with everybody else and they're from the age of rookie to retirement so it is a problems epidemic it's not something we believe here and in Boston we've seen that because when they've increased police and increased police budget much too as these people will tell you while cutting youth employment summer programs closing down community centers closing schools and all this that and in Roxbury where we got that brand new Spiffy police station that cost $14 million to build so I could go on and on on that but it's a load alright my point was I don't know if you guys have seen the work of the Blackstone where the people who kind of came up with that comparison of the marathon to what happens in our communities every day so the whole thing and the thought behind that was something that I think is important for students of media whether that is print, broadcast or what have you was just something to keep in the back of your mind which is the devaluation of black and brown life where just black and brown life just ain't worth what white life is and we can see it if you say well I don't know that doesn't sound right it might be a little pocket there well let's evidence it so let's look at natural disaster that happens to white people hurricane tornado flood to white people and it's a big to do black people you're going to have to tread water until we get there and we're a little busy so you have the Katrina all the other tragedies that have happened that have been responded too quickly then you have the incident of missing children little white Heather Sue she goes missing stop the presses world stops spinning on its axis and it has to be an instantaneous national response little little Tyrone goes missing not so much and then we look at the violence where in instances of violence whether it's these mass shootings that occurs with the auroras the Columbines the new towns which are clearly tragic and didn't only just have white victims by the way but that even shows you even more so if a group of 30 people get shot and a couple of them are black wasn't that a tragedy what happened to these people here so they even pluck out the victims who are the most sexy if you will for the media to use and the black like does anybody remember the black kid who got killed from Columbine right but see a lot of us are focused on this one thing so I just say that to say that in the back of our mind we have to recognize the devaluation of black and brown life and the real reason that I believe that it doesn't get the same attention is because we haven't had a national conversation about this race thing that basically says that black life is here right and white life is here much like different cuts of meat different brands of juice you can get the dollar juice so you can get the $3.50 juice we're devalued and it's a problem and I leave with this the other thing I say as an activist working in it often times what strikes me and I'm outside I'm not a non-profit I don't have a job I'm a community guy from H block by the way so in our conversations talking to the police what is often so puzzling to me is how the ones who say that they care the most and are supposed to be the ones who are trying to stop the violence often times when you have a proposal or a plan or an agenda they're the number one people in the way so that it is my belief the conclusion that I've come to here is that Boston police commissioner Ed Davis this is my opinion many in this room will not agree Mayor Thomas M. Menino do not care and do not wish to stop the violence and in fact that continuation of the violence actually is what makes money and there's a lot of other people who are in that the non-profits and whatnot who suck up that little sorrow dollar right off of pain and misery so there's money to be made off of death and destruction and once again if you look at the medical industry do they want to cure you or do they want to sell you a pill that you can be on forever and by the way you might get diarrhea and runny nose thank you for allowing us to come to our conclusion over here this is very tall and I'm tall good evening everyone my name is Farai I am the street theater artistic director for project hip hop Rocksbury, Massachusetts hip hop stands for highways into the past in history organizing and power I also do work in my own DBA I was moved to come up here because it was a question that was asked this idea of blackness blackness is a social political position it is not the color of your skin it is not just defined by the color of your skin and I'm sure she was referring to cultural competence and we could have a deeper conversation about that I'm sure that she was dealing with some internalized depression and I do theater of the oppressed work so I know quite a bit about internalized depression I would also raise that I'm pretty sure that that is not the only time that Cameroon or a Cameroonian has suffered racism the mere fact that it was named Cameroon right so we're here talking about the media and I just want to raise that albeit the media must be really looked at in terms of how they frame things but I would ask us to look deeper how are we framing things because at the source of the media as people have alluded to are human beings those human beings were raised by other human beings there is a mass culture in this world that we all are a part of and I would say that we need to look at how we are framing things what do those of you who call yourself journalists or media people think about the responsibility of the masses to frame and shape your own stories I'm a storyteller I use theater a jelly-fama jelly-fama which some French person call the griot we tell our own stories so I do hold the media responsible for the framing that they do but I hold us responsible as well and I would just ask that that's something that we consider and that's all sure hi you guys thank you very much my name is Laura Oñenajo and I'm also a graduate student here at Emerson College in the journalism program my comrade also my African because I'm Nigerian too so I would like to bounce off your daughter because I live in Lowell, Massachusetts and I do a lot of youth service work for the Lowell Community Health Center as well as the Boys and Girls Club of Greater Lowell and the United Teens Education Equality Center so we do this thing called Dance for Peace where we bring our youth together on the stage and bring local talents to the area too and we have a theme of non-violence and we have singers, dancers actors and everybody come together to just spread the word in our community about keeping the peace we do provide scholarship at the end of the program to as an initiative for students who are seniors in high school to go to college it's not a lot but it's something that would give them that push a lot of our youth that I've worked with are highly participant in their civic engagement that's what we want to promote for our youth and we want them to do that respectively and not in a rowdy behavior because I know how passionate they are and to bounce off your daughter what can our youth do in terms of civic engagement civic participation with our city government because eventually it is a community issue I believe in things working from the bottom up but eventually you're going to have to work up there with people who do create laws so what can we do to work with our city government and it's going to go up national so President Obama what do you see us happening thus far in terms of legislation for it city government up starting with our youth one person would like to address that they see me all the time I live in Boston what could happen is and I'm quite active with the political parties you are the people you are the voter the government in other words it's a start, you start writing letters making those telephone calls to your representatives I guarantee you they will do something it might not be the end result what you want but they will make a call to somebody else and action will get started so you have to start at the bottom and go all the way to the top and be persistent and always get things done it might not be what I want but it's better than it was yeah so be persistent make sure you write the newspapers get some attention get other people put it on your Facebook but do something more matter they get they lose they have a hotline that you can call to use your representatives just give them the district they need to learn that too they learned so much about the national government who is your mayor of Lowell you don't have a hotline the winehouse you call the winehouse I guarantee it's going to be listened to and they going to call your congressman or your old state representative and investigation going so there's two numbers I wish I had them with me but if it's that serious if someone you can call there are hotlines on every level of the government and actually that's a perfect said way to closing out this evening I want to share a few actual things that one can do from this perch we've heard a lot about issues tonight around the race and class parties around and in gun violence just four things because hopefully the role of the Alamo Lewis Center and also community people to come together and help us be better advocates on these issues the first is many of you may know at the state house right now they are debating and deciding to put together legislation that would control the flow of guns that would address questions around jobs and education it's important I think for people to be informed about those issues and be involved Tuesday is what? Tuesday is election day and in the city of Boston in particular and in other jurisdictions all around the state there are big races for mayor and I think one of the most important things one can do is research the positions of the mayors to be on their positions on this issue and I'm sure there are different websites and different ways to find that out call those up call their offices and ask the question yourself also I want to point you to a couple of other opportunities the president and many of you know President Pelton has made this issue a critical issue for our entire college and he's taken a lot of leadership on it if you go to our website at Emerson College he's actually created a gun violence resource center not only for our benefit as a community but for other academic institutions to look at so whether you're a part of the Emerson community or another institution we hope that you will share that information the other opportunity for more discussion is tomorrow at 6 p.m. there's going to be a restorative justice mixer held at the bright family screening room lobby which is at the paramount center on Washington street not the theater I've been told at the center and there will be people dedicated to trauma response and conflict resolution there talking and coming together and arts Emerson has that information on their Facebook if you're interested also stay in touch with Amalua center we want to know who you are do you want to stay engaged with these issues I have cards on the table here if you want to come up at the end and introduce yourself so we can be in touch with you but I really think that if it is something I think you all said this well it's not about just the media or you know just all of us have a role to play in addressing these issues I want to also take a moment before we close this is an event that's part of a series of incredible theater as you know Columbinus is being shown here and I want to just acknowledge because they are putting a spotlight on this question of gun violence the artists who have been associated with that would you please stand up and be recognized the artists who have been a part of that production or people of health with that production can we just acknowledge them thank them also at Art Somerson's website and social media you can find out more about this production it's very powerful I heard it's very intense and what's very interesting and unique about it is you'll hear what's there's a rendition of what the families are going through right now I want to first thank our panelists and have people acknowledge you thank you so much you are powerful activists you are powerful women and men we thank you so much for sharing the stories it's not very easy to talk about these issues I really really thank you and appreciate what you were willing to share I want to also thank you our audience for coming out and sharing some very very important comments and things that I know may not have been easy to say and the majestic theater with all these people it can be quite intimidating but beautiful in here and I want to just end on a quote the center the Emma Lewis center is named after Emma Lewis and she said something that I take to heart and she said her hope was when I leave here the body of my work will be all these wonderful people out there in the world doing great things and I really believe that we can do these kind of great things together this audience the Emerson community our panelists all of us in Boston around the world the arts culture and communication community we can shape the hearts and minds of people on this issue we alone as individuals we as a collective we as future and current responsible and ethical journalists and as people who care about dignity and humanity because we can achieve peace it's not a hopeless endeavor it's a human endeavor and I just want to thank everybody for coming out and being a part of this conversation that you will take action I hope that you will talk to each other and we'll around stay in touch with the center and also converse with some of our panelists as we stay here this evening can you please give a round of applause and thank yourself for coming out please have a wonderful wonderful evening stay around a little bit and we hope to see you soon thank you