brooklyn & staten island, new york, usa

100CAMERAS X VOICE OF WITNESS

ABOUT THE PROGRAM

100cameras and Voice of Witness X New York Center for Interpersonal Development and M.S. 50 Community School took place during 2020-2021 in New York, New York USA. In partnership with M.S. 50 Community School located in Brooklyn and the New York Center for Interpersonal Development (NYCID) located in Staten Island.

This program is unique as it combined two local organizations just miles apart from one another in Brooklyn and Staten Island to work together through a custom curriculum created by 100cameras and Voice of Witness to help youth process and have creative outlets during the Covid-19 pandemic. The hybrid curriculum focused on creativity, empathy, personal expression, and active listening. Each class engaged in a series of virtual lessons that alternated between activities for learning the principles of storytelling and photography, and practicing the communication skills needed for oral history. Over the course of the sessions, students utilized both photo activities and the conduction of oral history interviews with each other to help them process their own stories while also connecting with those around them.

Brittany Kaiser, M.S. 50 Educator, reflects, “Our school’s population is mostly Dominican with many first or second-generation immigrant families, and our community was hit hard by the Coronavirus pandemic and the existing inequities it exacerbated. It is very meaningful for them to begin to share parts of their lives and their stories through photography and oral history. Students have said since the beginning of the program that they ‘don’t have anything to take pictures of,’ and I worry that this may be a manifestation of a deep belief that their experiences and their voices are not valuable. But, as time has gone on, students have become more comfortable in the validity of their own experiences.”

“Throughout various lessons I have noticed that students seem eager to share their past, in some cases particularly eager to share painful experiences that I wouldn’t normally ask about during class time.

It seemed almost as though they had been waiting for someone to ask them to share these experiences, and I’m grateful that they were able to share through this program.”

— Brittany Kaiser, Program Leader & Educator at M.S. 50

Together, their stories - both visual and oral - tell a heartfelt chronicle of student life in New York during a pandemic. Through documenting the sights, sounds, and stories that surround them every day, photography and oral history created an empathy-based mosaic for students to better understand and appreciate themselves, each other, and the communities they are connected to.

Emily Marks, NYCID Educator, shares, “This group of kids in particular has overcome many challenges especially in the last year. They have been moving from virtual to in person learning. They are such a strong group of kids. They are dealing with a whole different way of learning, and we are learning with them.”

“I think that it has brought our group together. As an afterschool program we strive to provide the things that day school cannot provide and this opportunity has given us the unique chance to provide them with an experience they wouldn’t get anywhere else. They are learning to see the world in a different way and hopefully a more beautiful and interesting way than they saw it before.”

— Emily Marks, Program Leader & Educator at NYCID

This program was made possible through a scholarship provided by the Charles A. Becker Foundation to support the important work that M.S.50 and NYCID are already doing in their communities and to come alongside them to uplift and educate students.

ABOUT THE PROGRAM LEADERS

Brittany Kaiser, M.S. 50 arts teacher, and Emily Marks, NYCID after-school program director, were unbelievably committed to the program. Their advocacy on behalf of their students was inspiring. During a year filled with so much uncertainty and isolation, they led the students at both sites in connecting and sharing stories with their classmates, while safely exploring their neighborhoods through photography.

“In response to various prompts in the curriculum, students have often initially responded by saying it doesn’t apply to them or that they don’t have anything to say. But, as time has gone on, students have become more comfortable in the validity of their own experiences.

When a student said he didn’t have anything to take pictures of, I asked the class to respond to him for me. Without a moment’s hesitation several students jumped in: “You can take pictures of whatever you are doing or seeing, those will be good pictures!” “Take pictures of your wall! Take pictures of your family! Take pictures of the sky outside!”

I was very pleased to see that not only had they absorbed the message that their daily experiences and surroundings are worthy of being and shared, but they were also eager to coach peers to adopt the same mindset.”

— Kaiser