Mission Resistance Workshop: Intern Notes

Intersection for the Arts, the Mission Community Council and The Civic Life Project collaborates with POOR Magazine on Mission Resistance, a media arts and access project of the Race, Poverty and Media Justice Institute at POOR Magazine. This free workshop for low and no-income youth, families and individuals will provide training on how to be a radio, TV, and print journalist. Enabling participants to tell their own stories and providing them with opportunities to be heard, participants will focus on community issues such as poverty, homelessness, racism, disability, and/or art and poetry. Below is the reflection from a POOR Magazine Intern about the workshop:

"I arrived 20 minutes early, making sure not to be late. I usually
strive to be a punctual person as to respect other people's time and
space. I took a deep breath and climbed up three flights of stairs,
swirled with feelings of excitement, eagerness, curiosity, and
nervousness. With each step, getting closer and closer to #301, I
walked into the doors and noticed Tiny speaking to a group in the
room. Another meeting was probably going on before our meeting began.
I was greeted by two other past interns who introduced themselves and
lightly chatted about their lives, about what they were doing this
weekend. They seemed friendly and they looked around my age. I was
comforted to see peers, as I had just moved to the city in December
and did not know many people in the area. Another new intern was there
as well, and another arrived a few minutes later. We conversed about
whether or not we were still in school, where we were from, what part
of the city we lived in, just getting acquainted and trying to make it
less awkward as beginnings sometimes can be. The past interns asked us
if we had any questions. I asked what is the most challenging part of
the internship? Both of them replied how quickly things moved, how
that was apart of how it was. I understood, as this is a news media
group and one had to keep up with events and cover them as quickly as
they came. Shortly after, a few people arrived with trays of food, and
my first meeting began.

     Tiny announced that there may not be enough chairs for everyone that
POOR practiced eldership and we may have to sit on the ground. I did
not mind, as honoring elders is a common Chinese practice that I was
used to (elders eat first, elders are greeted first,…). I found a
little nook in the corner next to Irene, one of the other new interns,
and we chitchatted about how we found the program, what are we doing
in life right now. I still did not know what to expect as more and
more people filled the room of all colors, ages, classes,
sexualities….. My curiosity was increasingly heightened by the
diversity of people; it was refreshing like opening the window of a
stuffy room to a crisp breeze and it strangely put me at ease. The
meeting was called the Community Newsroom, where people came from the
community to present current pressing issues that needed to be
addressed and then covered for a story. I could feel that there was a
sense of urgency that the public needed to know these issues. They
called everyone poverty scholars, a term I have never heard before,
and defined it as we as poor people are all scholars of our lives and
our experiences. What a great way to define it, I thought.

  But first, we went around the room and were each given 60 seconds
to share our bio-News. I guess I was not the only one who did not know
other people in the room. I would not have guessed it by the energy in
the room; everyone definitely felt like on the same page about things.
As people began speaking, I was blown away by the variety of
backgrounds and stories people had to share. There were folks from the
streets, from el Salvador, from Mexico, ex-addicts, ex-convicts,
homeless, abuelas, abuelos, mothers, fathers, daughters, sons,
sisters, brothers, children, teenagers, adults, elders. I loved it; it
was like my heart was floating with everyone. Just being in that room,
one could feel the overflowing energy and desire to fight for change
in this greedy, corporate, capitalistic, white male dominated world
where peoples of color, poor people, migrant peoples, disabled peoples
are invisible and have little or no agency. It was empowering and it
was humbling. Before it came my turn to tell my bio-News, I was so
nervous that I replayed over and over in my head what I was going to
say. But when the time came for my turn I said something completely
different than what I rehearsed. In a shaky voice, I talked about how
I came from an immigrant family, how my parents came from Burma so I
could have the opportunity and freedom to get an education, how they
struggled so that I would not have to struggle. I said I was
privileged to have gone to higher education and how I want to use my
education and privilege to give back to my family and my community as
a writer, as a poet, as a performer, as an activist. I suppose I just
let my heart talk. It was amazing and inspiring to see all these folks
joined together as equals trying to fight for their rights and voice
their stories.

  It also definitely checked me. Who am I to say anything? What
right do I have to be here, to tell their stories? Especially when I
look like a spoiled, educated brat colonizing their space? But I
reminded myself that I too am a queer womyn body of color, and that in
our differences we can be united and we all have a lot to learn from
each other. It was that openness and humbleness that I think was going
to be important to remember in this process if we are to succeed.

  I am blessed to have this opportunity to work with POOR
Magazine/PNN. I am excited to meet new people, learn from others, hear
and fight for their struggles, give voice to the silenced, make a
difference. I want to challenge myself and grow to be a better person.
As people were leaving the room, I remember their faces as they
stopped to shake my hand and say goodbye. I remember the people I
spoke to about what stories they were working on and their history
with POOR. We were all allies together for a similiar struggle. This
was something I have been looking for. My gut told me this is a good
thing and I usually listen to my gut. I am at a good place. Bring it
on."

-Wendy