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Jean Carter Hill is trying to do good in her hood. She lives in Englewood, Chicago. She is a retired school teacher working with kids who live in a poor community blighted by violence, drugs and crime. I met her today.
She runs a project called Imagine Englewood If …
Jean is helping me set up a citizen journalism project among young people in Chicago.
She introduced me to these three photographed here. They are all teenagers in the Chicago public school system. From left to right they are Johnnie, Michelle and Marcus.
I have given them recorders and some advice on interviewing, although they have already done some radio work before with Chicago public radio.
Michelle says she’s interested in doing something on HIV/AIDS in her community. Johnnie might do something on the high levels of lead in the soil and in the window paint in many homes in Englewood which can cause children to have learning difficulties. see more research on this here.
Marcus talked about how his school is going through alot of upheaval – twice now the local authority in Chicago have been replacing the teaching staff at his school in an attempt to improve standards. See more about turnaround schools here.
There are lots of issues for them to explore. I found this blog which gives some idea of the kinds of issues going on in the chicgo public school system.
Looking forward to getting their material – expected first week of March, we’re doing a test piece on the expectations of Obama’s presidency among Chicago public school students.
I have been looking into whether Detroit’s music scene is helped by the struggles that it is currently facing. Do the problems in the local economy actually help creativity? Does it focus the mind? Does it fuel an ambition and drive that may not exist somewhere else – where there exists plenty and where there are no worries? Is torture and struggle in an artist necessary for success?
My guides to help answer these questions are the newly wed Augie and Korin who belong to the band The Hard Lessons. Pictured here, in front of their tour minivan which they have travelled many miles in, to perform in over 500 shows.
They have one song called “Made to Last” – an excerpt of which is below. It is looking into this idea that maybe things are not built to last – in Detroit this is certainly the case, we visited half demolished baseball stadiums, boarded up houses and a disused train station.
See the photos on flickr here.
Music is often a product of its surroundings, that does not mean that Detroit’s music is all sad and melancholic and depressing. If you are surrounded by anxiety and cold and darkness, then feelings of happiness and light are all the more poignant and perhaps this can be felt with greater intensity.
I’m just putting together the feature on this now which will be broadcast on BBC World Service next week.
Wrting this blog post from Detroit where the snow is thick and heavy on the ground. Have just written the newsletter for BBC World Service Newshour programme - which is about the different views I have come across following on from my trip to Obama’s inauguration in Washington.
You can read the Newshour Newsletter here.
I have been driving around Detroit with Joe M. who is pictured here on his driveway with his family’s four cars. Joe works for GM motors as a forklift truck driver but has been laid off for the past six weeks, he is hoping to return to work next month but is uncertain about whether this will happen.
He drove me around the suburbs of Detroit, showed me the shops that stand empty and the hospital that has shut down and the local school which is also closing.
The loyalty that people have for their car industries is not surprising given the historical and financial domination the huge car companies – Ford, GM, Chrysler have here. This loyalty mixes with a sense of patriotism for American cars. They are a huge part of every day life, if you are not directly employed then you are indirectly.
I talked to young people about whether they thought they would be staying around here to live in the future one hoped to get an auto job but the others said they would go where the jobs were and if they were outside Detroit then so be it.
If they decide to leave, Detroit will get even more empty.
I am going this afternoon to interview a local band called the Hard Lessons to find out if good music comes out of hard times. There has to be some light that comes from a bleak economic outlook doesn’t there?
The day started at 4am as this is when the first metro train was scheduled to run to the national mall. The trains were full and the barriers had already shut with big signs saying that the area was full. Luckily I bypassed the fence and got to where I had to be – which was at the BBC media point.
The BBC’s Ros Atkins has just finished broadcasting a three hour special programme which included contributions from Your Story citizen journalists.
To see some photos of the day – have a look on the flickr site.
Your Story has been hearing from jackandjillpolitics.com bloggers Cheryl and Baratunde. they have been posting flipcam footage of their weekend on vimeo.
Richard Ivory and Tiffany Shorter from hiphoprepublican.com have been Your Story’s guest bloggers for inauguration weekend. see their previous blog posts here.
These are their personal views and do not represent the views of the BBC.
Supporting My President For A Better America : A Black Republican Perspective
By Tiffany Shorter
Barack Obama‘s inaugural speech inspired a united America . As a black Republican, I along with other blacks, whites, Latinos, liberals and conservatives, am ready to take the journey with the new president to fulfill our national aspirations.
Today Barack Obama became the first African American president of the United States of America , and months ago I supported Senator John McCain for president. Today President Obama addressed the nation to clearly state his vision and goals that he can move our nation forward, and months ago I was skeptical of vague policy positions. Today President Barack Obama won my support because his work, determination and fortitude months ago, earned him the Oval Office.
I am an American before I am a Republican, so today I have put aside partisan differences to be proud of my nation and my president. He has earned my vote of confidence that America is on its journey to becoming an even better country. Tomorrow, I can continue my civil duties of promoting self – empowerment and limited government to contribute to America ‘s prosperity.
In the meanwhile, I am grateful to witness the dream of a Republican civil rights leader named Martin Luther King realized. God Bless America .
Change has come to America…For Now!
By Richard Ivory
The year was 1990 and “change” had come to the southern state of Virginia , a State steeped in a history of racial division. It had come in the form of a charismatic young black lawyer named Lawrence Douglas Wilder. I was a child at the time, but nevertheless understood the importance of the racial barrier that had just been broken. There was a deep sense of pride and amazement within the entire black community. Similarly as I saw President Obama speak at his historic inaugural, those feelings of overwhelming pride and joy came back to me.
Martin Luther King when speaking of change said, “it does not roll in on the wheels of inevitability, but comes through continuous struggle”. The President correctly outlined the many struggles we as a nation face. He hinted to our economic woes and our problems internationally. He spoke of our shared destiny and wanting to protect Liberty for our children. He spoke of our nations great immigrant past and present diversity and how despite our past problems we always manage to do great things. He used language geared to bring unity over partisanship and practicality over dogma. In his speech it seemed to me as if he were saying that if change is to come, it must first come from the people.
Despite being Republican, I concede that many of the things mentioned in his speech were right and it is indeed a wonderful vision of where the new President wants to take this nation. The problem of course is whether or not the nation is ready to take such a journey. The French explorer Alexis de Tocqueville once observed that America ‘s greatness lie not in being more enlightened than any other nation, but rather in her ability to repair her faults. If we are to change as a nation, then we must come together and seek ways to begin to fix many of our nations ailing problems.
Real change is only as good as it is going in the right direction. Real change will mean fixing the crisis in Social Security; a system that in only a few years time will began to pay more out in benefits than it actually collects in revenues. Real Change will mean finding consumer driven alternatives to health care not simply letting a federal bureaucracy run it. Real Change also means continuing the reforms of the 1996 Welfare Reform Act and seeking ways to fix the system while empowering its recipients. Real Change will mean providing real and effective Immigration Reform that respects the dignity of undocumented workers while providing security at our boarders. And finally but not least change means confronting the failures in our educational systems. The school systems that Obama spoke of in his speech that fail our children should not be given annual bailouts for failing our kids but reform mechanism to show that they are learning and thriving. While seemingly insurmountable these things are not impossible the responsibility of all of us is to leave this nation better than we found it. Despite the ideological differences I have with the new President- and they are many- I wish him much success. In other words, I would love to be “wrong” about you Mr. President.
Good luck President Obama!
I am writing this blog post quickly before heading to Heathrow airport for my flight to Washington DC for the Your Story coverage of Barack Obama’s inauguration.
To see a full line up of what we are doing please have a look at the Your Story Obama webpage.
To kick things off, here are some guest blog posts which come from the editor in chief and publisher of Hip Hop Republican.com.
Richard Ivory is the publisher who is reported to have said that his heart is with Obama but his brain is with Mccain.
If he defines himself as a lover of hip hop music then there is no one more on a similar wave length than obama – as this video interview of Obama illustrates.
But this is Richard’s blog post for Your Story (these are his own personal views and in no way reflect the views of the BBC)
Unforeseen Occurrences Befall Us All: even a President
By Richard Ivory
Life is often filled with conundrums and contradictions. Life is filled nevertheless, even more so, with the unexpected. When President George W. Bush won election in 2000, he ran on a campaign of change and reform. He rallied against the wastefulness of big government spending and scolded the previous administration’s “nation building” efforts. Despite all of this, in eight years, President Bush inevitably became a fierce defender of both causes; that is, excessive spending and full scale nation building. I only mention this to say that history has a strange way of playing tricks on new charismatic leaders. Far from changing the direction of a nation, it is they themselves who have been changed by their experiences. A president who inherited an eerily similar situation as today was Franklin Roosevelt who came into office seeking to reform the economic and banking systems only to be defined by the Second World War. And who can forget Richard Nixon’s successes in the area of foreign policy only to be defined years later by a domestic investigation.
The truth is, just as other Presidents have sought to bring change to America, the newly elected President will encounter unforeseen events that will challenge him. Managing international demands and national domestic needs will not be dealt with in eight years no matter how skilled President elect Obama may be. The enormous tasks we face as a nation and as a world are tumultuous indeed. They range from Education Reform to the Economic Recovery Plan. It reaches into the delicate policy debate concerning Global Warming and new solutions regarding alternative energy. The unforeseeable task of solving global hot spots like the Israeli and the Palestinian conflict can take a toll on any President no matter how young or how hard he tries.
Nevertheless, these are the issues. With that acknowledgement, we must realize that such turbulent matters can unexpectedly change the direction of history; may even define a president. These issues cause many Presidents sleepless nights; but the only productive measures they can truly take are to wait, prepare and respond. I pray that the new President can catch the curve balls that politics will toss him and will respond with the wisdom of Lincoln, the energy of Teddy Roosevelt and the humility of Dwight Eisenhower. As the new President takes the reign of power I say “good luck to the man, God knows he’ll need it.”
Two Warring Souls Reconciled: In the Age of Obama
By Richard Ivory
At the beginning of the 20th-century the Black Sociologist, W.E.B. Du Bois in his classic work The Souls of Black Folk sought to summarize the state of affairs for people of color at the time. He captured the dual reality of the tainted loyalty and rage which many blacks felt towards a nation that embodied the land of dreams, but which treated them as less than human. Du bois wrote “One feels his twoness,—an American, a Negro; two souls, two thoughts, two unreconciled strivings; two warring ideals in one dark body, whose dogged strength alone keeps it from being torn asunder”. As I wait in anticipation for this historic inauguration, I strongly believe Barack Obama’s ascendency to America’s highest office reconciles these two warring souls. In so many ways Barack Obama has shown black children in America and the world that never again will race pose as an obstacle to political ambition.
However, as a black Republican I do feel torn between my own political party and the historic nature of this election in seeing “Barack Obama do” what “Barack Obama has done”. I, like so many other black Republicans believe strongly in our beliefs of smaller, non-intrusive government and individual choice and liberty. Nevertheless, we would not be telling the truth were we to deny a sense of envy and shame that the “Party of Lincoln” did not bring forth the nation’s first Black President. Despite my emotions and ideological differences with the new President, I am extremely proud of him; but even more so, I am proud, proud to be an American.
The second guest blog post comes from Tiffany Shorter – editor at Hip Hop Republican.
These are her personal views and do not reflectthe views of the BBC
A Black Republican view on Obama as a World Example
Tiffany Shorter
Even as a black Republican, it is not surprising to find that many black Americans from both sides of the political spectrum are excited about January 20, 2009. On this day Barack Obama becomes the 44th president, the first black president, and the first American president whose father is of direct African ancestry. I may view the President-elect, as a likable politician whose strategies I disagree with, but people around the world see Obama as an inspiration because of his achievements despite his skin color.
As an American who has lived aboard, it is astonishing to find that Obama’s African heritage has become a source of personal victory for other minority groups abroad.
While many black Americans are confident that this nation has become a place of equality, black minority groups in Latin America and Europe are hoping that change will come to their communities. Race relations in other parts of the world unfortunately do not mirror American beliefs and practices of tolerance and empowerment. This is not to say that U.S. race relations are perfect with our wide salary and education disparities between blacks and whites; however, in the last ten years African Americans are successfully moving into higher political positions with greater authority. Colin Powell, Condoleezza Rice and David Patterson are some of the few black politicians that have broken the color barrier. Since November 4th, when Obama won the election, I have read British , French and Brazilian publications that question if their countries can too produce a black head of state. Race relations in America and the rest of the world greatly differs as racial politics fails to be on the political agenda abroad- at least until now. In Brazil, there are seven black political candidates claiming that they are the “Barack Obama” of their towns. I am sure that on January 20, all Americans and the global community will cheer for this historical moment, but after the celebrations are over I hope that blacks abroad will be encouraged to political action so they may accomplish the milestone we have reached. Meanwhile I am grateful to live in a country where I can have a sense of pride in my future president and disagree with him at the same time without fearing that I am pushing back race relations to the time of segregation.
Michelle Obama Black Family Role Model
Tiffany Shorter
I look forward to Michelle Obama becoming the new First Lady in only a few days because she and her family represents not only the ideal American family, but also the ideal black American family. Historically, African American families have been weaken due to slavery making it possible for families members to be sold separately to different plantations. Although slavery and segregation has ended, the African American community continues to struggle with building strong families ties. Over 40% of black men and women have never married and about 70 percent of children are born out of wedlock. Many black Republicans want to promote family values in Washington regardless that 2009 will bring a Democrat administration. Black Republicans and the black community at large can benefit from the constant example of Michelle Obama who has successful balanced the demands of politics with the needs of her husband and children. She can be the image that young black girls can aspire to other than becoming a teenage mom, which is a sad reality in our community. Although there are many successful black women such as Oprah Winfrey, Condoleezza Rice, Serena Williams and Mellody Hobson, none of them are married nor have children. Michelle Obama, regardless of partisanship, will be an exciting and motivating role model for black women and girls seeking to have stronger families.
You may have heard me going on about trying to record a promo to explain what the Your Story project is about – well, finally, here it is!! Your thoughts – good and bad are welcome.
more about "What is Your Story? ", posted with vodpod
I have sent one of the Your Story digital recorders into the region with one of my BBC colleagues who has flown there.
He will try to find someone who will take it and record their stories from inside Gaza.
We don’t know whether he will be able to do this at this point. We need to find someone to take it who has access to a computer and preferably an English speaker and we have to logistically try to get it in there. I’ll let you know if we have any luck.
In the meantime we have been talking to some of the bloggers from the region on their mobile phones. It has sometimes been difficult to get through to them, as the idea was to get to know one blogger and get regular updates from him/her but this has not been possible as the phone lines have been sporadic and not always possible to get through.
We heard from Sameh Habeeb this week who writes this blog from inside Gaza City. He spoke live to the BBC’s Roger Hearing on the Jan 3rd Newshour programme. Listen to the interview here (2 mins 20 secs).
And The World Today programme has been broadcasting an audio diary from Liza Rosenberg, an Israeli writer and mother, her blog is called Something Something.
Listen to her thoughts and opinion on life for her in Israel here (2 mins 19 secs).
I got a message from Iain in Canada who is worried that science as a subject is suffering due to the over vigilance of police in cracking down on people with chemistry labs in their homes. It is after an 18 year old boy got arrested under suspicion for manufacturing methamphetamine, the charges were dropped and police have admitted their mistake. See full details on that story here.
Iain says ..
Report in Saskatoon newspaper says chemistry student arrested by police for having his own lab in his parent’s garage. Initially claiming it to be a meth lab, they then admitted the lad wasn’t making crystal meth but explosives. From what I can see, he seems to have been arrested simply because he has laboratory equipment. Is Canada going the way of the US and becoming “anti-science”?
I replied to Iain ..
Hi Iain
I got your message about the chemistry lab student, and I read about the story here
From the article it seems that the police are genuinely just playing it safe in the pursuit of persons who may be manufacturing meth (an increasing problem nowadays) and the issue about whether science graduates are being discouraged I’m not sure I agree with .
Any thoughts to add?
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