mentor
Soks "Save Our Kids"
Posted July 19th, 2007 by GretjenProduced by Princeton Atelier and Scribe Video Center
Louis Massiah, Charlene Gilbert and Carlton Jones
"When I was a child, Princeton was a real small community — everybody knew everybody," says SOKS founder Hank Pannell, whose goal was to recreate the small community of his childhood. "Princeton has the same needs as any inner city," observes SOKS member Tom Parker, "but the problems are being overlooked because it is Princeton." The men involved with SOKS all have the same mission — to make a difference in the lives of young African-American boys, ages 10 through 16, growing up in the Princeton community.
The idea for Princeton University's Princeton Atelier was sparked by novelist and Professor Toni Morrison's experiences collaborating on a song cycle, Honey and Rue, commissioned by Carnegie Hall for opera star Kathleen Battle. That project brought her together with André Previn who scored the music for the piece. In the Atelier program, Professor Morrison tries to capture the same excitement this collaborative experience offered her. The Atelier brings together on campus guest artists from different media for an intensive, in-residence collaborative effort with each other and Princeton's faculty and students. The focus of the Atelier is on the process of creating a work of art rather than on the finished product, and guest artists bring to campus an idea they want to create, explore, and develop. The "SOKS - Save Our Kids " videotape was produced in an Atelier directed by Louis Massiah and facilitated by Princeton students.
The "SOKS" program works to further community identification and provide high quality mentoring, recreation, and learning opportunities for young males in the Witherspoon area of Princeton, New Jersey.
September 10, 1997 - "Toni Morrison's Atelier: Students and professionals join forces to create art from the heart," by Deborah A. Kaple, Princeton Alumni Weekly
I Used To Teach English
Posted July 19th, 2007 by GretjenDocumentary Videomakers: Nadine Patterson and Margie Strosser; Executive produced and commissioned by the Stockton Rush Bartol Foundation
Marsha Pincus conducts English classes at Simon Gratz High School, a culturally diverse public school in gritty North Philadelphia. Pincus, always on the hunt for more effective ways to teach, is able to engage and motivate students through student-centered teaching using dialogue and playwriting. Her students, thrilled at her overt invitation to bring the whole range of their lives and cultures into the classroom, explain how the classes have helped them become more articulate, persuasive, and deeply interested in both playwriting and playing with words.
Philadelphia-based independent producer Nadine Patterson has been making independent film/video for the past twenty years. She has produced and directed programs for the School District of Philadelphia's cable station, and WYBE Public Television. She earned her MA in Filmmaking at the London Film School. Previous work includes Shizue , a Scribe Video production that was screened at the Museum of Modern Art, NY; and Moving with the Dreaming, winner of a Prized Pieces Award from the National Black Programming Consortium. A recipient of a Media Arts Fellowship from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, her award-winning work has often been broadcast on public television.
Margie Strosser is an award-winning producer, director and writer in television and film whose projects include the autobiographical documentary Rape Stories, and fictional works such as Strange Weather and Moon Juice. Recently, Margie was the senior producer/writer for three seasons of Birth Day, the Discovery Health Channel's highest rated daytime show. She and writing partner Cate Wilson are currently collaborating on a romantic comedy and a psychological thriller adapted from a British novel.
Winner, Golden Apple Award, National Educational Media Network
