JustMedia | media literacy for community justice

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Mission

JustMedia is an open access lens based archive designed to support advocacy efforts for systemic reform through the art of storytelling. JustMedia focuses on challenging the criminal legal system by organizing, amplifying, and sharing existing films and videos that tell a variety of stories. This intentional act serves as a media literacy tool for the movement to end mass incarceration and achieve abolition.

WE ARE: CREATORS | ADVOCATES | STORYTELLERS | ARCHIVISTS

What We Do

Access

Cost free membership to an extensive multimedia database of content related to systemic violence and incarceration.

Network

Vibrant community of storytellers, who create and maintain partnerships with leading social justice groups.

Support

Consult with lesson planning, amplifying, networking for storytellers, leaders and organizers.

Inspire

Stories of/by families and communities directly impacted by the system.

RESOURCES

JustMedia x Black Nerd Problems: Essays

Staff

Mahogany L. Browne
Executive Director
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This position is informed by her career as a writer, organizer, & educator. Browne has received fellowships from Art for Justice Fund, Air Serenbe, Cave Canem, Poets House, Mellon Research & Rauschenberg. She is the author of recent works: Chlorine Sky, Woke: A Young Poets Call to Justice, Woke Baby, & Black Girl Magic. As the founder of the diverse lit initiative, Woke Baby Book Fair.
Rico Frederick
Creative Director
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Award winning graphic designer with a graduate degree from Pratt Institute. Industry experience ranges from major imprints to global fashion brands as well as advertising agencies. Over ten years successfully delivering dynamic projects which activate emotion and intellect to transform creativity into unbound commercial and cultural campaigns.
Caroline Rothstein
Project Manager of Curriculum
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Caroline Rothstein is an internationally touring writer, poet, performer, and educator. Her work has appeared in Cosmopolitan, Marie Claire, The Guardian, BuzzFeed, NYLON, Narratively, The Forward, Hey Alma, and elsewhere. She tours year-round performing poetry, public
speaking, facilitating workshops and teaching at colleges, schools, performance venues, summer camps, and community organizations worldwide and virtually.
Courtney Cummings
Operations Manager
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Courtney (Cummings) is an imaginative, forward-thinking communicator that brings a combination of creative and analytical skills to every project. She is an essayist and features culture writer that is dedicated to deadlines with due regard for detail. As a copywriter, Courtney develops and edits compelling copy for clients that ensure consumer engagement and conversion.
Jive Poetic
Curriculum Development Consultant
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Jive Poetic is a writer, organizer, and educator based in Brooklyn, New York. He received his BA in Media Studies from the State University of New York at Buffalo, and his MFA in Writing and Activism from Pratt Institute. In 2017 Jive was the first recipient of the John Morning Award for Art and Service. Currently, Jive is the Friday night poetry slam curator and host at the Nuyorican Poet’s Café. When he is not on tour, he teaches poetry and hip – hop workshops to at risk youth in New York City and the surrounding area.
Nikki Blak
Curriculum Development Consultant
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Nikki Blak is a writer, educator, and womanist, whose art, thought leadership, and radical education work interrogates oppressive social constructs and affirms Blackness. She works to make her ancestors proud and leave a just, equitable society for her descendants.
Lanisha LeBlanc
Digital Media Librarian Consultant
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A Brooklyn native born to two Caribbean immigrants, I became interested in studying the diasporic differences and culture shocks which shaped my childhood. Inspired by personal experiences, I dedicated my academic career to studying the exploitation as well as celebrations of marginalized and underrepresented groups.
Barbara Fant
Project Manager of Community Outreach & Programs
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Barbara Fant has been writing and performing for over 15 years and has over a decade of experience in nonprofit administration and management. For over 10 years, she had led healing-informed poetry workshops for both youth and adults who are incarcerated, those in community, adults in recovery, and survivors of human trafficking and domestic violence. She has competed in 9 National Poetry Slam competitions, and she is a World Poetry Slam finalist.
Shanna Schlossberg
Curriculum Development Consultant
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Shanna is a certified educator, writer, and social justice advocate. With a BA in political science and graduate degrees in public administration and education, her experience in education spans more than a decade. In addition to teaching, Shanna’s background includes education policy, curriculum development, alternative education, and academic advising.

Board

Ayana E. S. Walker
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Experienced Digital Marketing and SVOD Operations professional with extensive background in product management and online marketing in the entertainment sector.
Passionate humanitarian balancing professional career with commitment to making a positive societal impact.
HBO Total Duration 18 years as Title Director of Product Management, Marketing & Operations. Walker serves as mentors through several community organizations including Girls Write Now, Harlem Children’s Zone, and is on the board of Urban Word NYC.
Camonghne Felix
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is a poet, a writer, speaker, & political strategist. She received an M.A. in Arts Politics from NYU, an MFA from Bard College, & has received Fellowships from Cave Canem, Callaloo & Poets House. Formerly the Director of Surrogates & Strategic Communications at Elizabeth Warren for President, Camonghne is the Head of Strategic Communications at Blue State.
Catherine Gund
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Founder and Director of Aubin Pictures, Catherine Gund is an Emmy-nominated producer, director, writer, and activist. Her media work focuses on strategic and sustainable social transformation, racial justice, arts and culture, HIV/AIDS and reproductive justice, and the environment. Her films have screened around the world in festivals, theaters, museums, and schools; on PBS, the Discovery Channel, Sundance Channel, Netflix, and Amazon Prime. Her films include: Aggie (Sundance, Doc Fortnight), Dispatches From Cleveland (CIFF, MSPIFF), and Chavela (Berlinale, Hot Docs, Ambulante).
John Lee
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Lee is a writer, director, hacker, investor, radical creative futurist also known as, John Threat is a Director and Crypton, Blockchain Investor, Content Production and a Digital Consultant, John has created content for MTV!, Starz! , Various Music Labels and Ad Agencies and more.
Scott Hechinger
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Former public defender in Brooklyn, Scott represented people charged with crimes who couldn’t afford an attorney, but also long shared his perspective as a public defender outside of court in a variety of media to shift the narrative and drive systemic change. After years serving as Director of Policy at Brooklyn Defender Services, Scott is now focusing all of his time directing Zealous.
Tyra Patterson
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used her time in prison constructively to educate herself. A sixth grade dropout, Tyra eventually earn her GED, obtained a steam engineer’s license, became a certified tutor and completed a paralegal training program. On Christmas Day, 2017, Tyra was released from prison. She joined the OJPC staff full-time only weeks later.

Highlights

JustMedia Presents:

Still in Prison | A Virtual Event

JustMedia invites you to join us for a collective conversation, short-film screening, followed by a discussion on storytelling and community awareness featuring Crystal Maloney & Greg McKelvey of Zealous. Guest Poet: Tongo Eisen-Martin

Screen STILL IN PRISON HERE

What a world without prisons could look like

Ted Talk: Deanna Van Buren

Deanna Van Buren designs restorative justice centers that, instead of taking the punitive approach used by a system focused on mass incarceration, treat crime as a breach of relationships and justice as a process where all stakeholders come together to repair that breach.

SEE OUR CURRICULUM

Librarian's Corner

Zora Neale Hurston

Claiming a Space

An in-depth biography of the influential author whose groundbreaking anthropological work would challenge assumptions about race, gender and cultural superiority that had long defined the field in the 19th century.