This is the first Work In Progress for our group multimedia project/ 9.29.20
Group members: Marco Postigo Storel, Alexandria Wells, Leanne Tippett Mosby
Topic: children of the racial justice protests
After our class discussion indicating our original idea of incorporating stills with video would be too much, we have scaled our project down to trying to find three children of varying ages to conduct a video interview.
We have obtained permission from one parent, Kelsey Smythe, to interview her son Cormack, 6, (pictured below) and stepdaughter, Bella, 10. We are still in the process of trying to find a date and meeting place to conduct the interviews.
We have also reached out 1.) by email to The People’s Defense, which is the group that protested nightly over the summer and recently held their 100th protest (which was covered by the Missourian); and, 2.) to one of the founders of the People’s Defense, Roy Lovelady. These contacts have not yet produced a response.
We are also attempting to contact a 14-year old who spoke at a protest in Jefferson City, and later at the Quad. We have asked one of the organizers of the Jefferson City protest, Kiessance
Bassett, who said she does not have her contact information, but would try to obtain it from others. We have also reached out to the WE Project, who also did not have her information.
We will make further attempts this week to make contacts. If these contacts continue to prove unfruitful, we may consider pivoting to a new project. We are considering doing something similar, but instead of younger protesters, seek out older protesters – i.e., long time Columbia, Missouri activists, and ask them their perspectives on if and how these protests have been different than in the past. Examples include Jeff Stack (Fellowship of Reconciliation), Mark Haim (Peaceworks), and Mary Ratliff (President of CoMo NAACP and former state president); and C.W. Dawson, minister/activist.