Throwing Forward (far, far forward!)

Does it ever make you nervous to think too far ahead? To think about all the things that could go wrong, the things that may succeed and the things that will need more planning? Just thinking about our community partnership and how it will end up, come June, makes me panic slightly. I’m panicking because the team of four radio students- BK, Mike, Steve and I- will dwindle to only me. I panic because the Upstarters might not know as much as I hope they will, and can we keep this group of six Upstarters interested in the project for the entire year? Panic as I may, there still is hope. That hope is in the success of this week. 

Wednesday arrived this week, as Wednesdays do and I found myself less stressed and dealing mainly with the smaller details required to kick the Upstart radio project into action. All my planning and delegating had finally paid off as BK took the reins and prepped for the workshop. She covered interviewing skills again and began looking into scripting for radio. 

The highlight of the workshop was when we grouped the Upstarters into threes and got them to interview Jeanne duToit (our fourth year radio lecturer) and Jude Mathurine (the fourth year new media lecturer). I was as nervous, if not terrified about how Jude and Jeanne would treat the ‘newbies’. Jude somewhat lived up to my expectations, making it quite difficult for Roche’, Anesipho and Ziphozihle while they tried to interview him. When I say difficult, I mean: he took FOREVER to settle down, went off course with the questions, analysed their questions a little too harshly and then gave a mini-lecture after the interview. I felt sorry for my Upstarters and wanted to get them out of there ASAP! But hey, I suppose they learnt something from that- life doesn’t have any rehearsals.  

•   Anelisa, Thobani and Sinovuyo place Jeanne duToit (fourth year lecturer) in the hotseat as they ask her questions detailing her youth.

• From left: Roche’, Anelisa, Sinovuyo, Thobani, Anesipho and Ziphozihle having a squizz through the latest edition of Upstart while waiting for the taxi home on Wednesday. 

Saturday’s show saw Roche’ and Thobani on the airwaves for the first time. Roche’ couldn’t even write his script he was so panicked! But the show went off well as our anchor Xoliswa was there this time and his interaction with the six was great! They read their re-written Upstart scripts on air and then after a break, we posed the question to them: “If you were Mayor for a day, what would you do/change?” We had answers ranging from Roche’ wanting skating parks, to Thobani wanting all Upstarters to get free Blackberries. Issues we could delve into in later shows? I’m sure we could work on it- or rather raise some interesting debate about some of these and more in-depth issues these Upstarters face. The four girls were very relaxed this time round.

• Roche's nerves getting the better of him- but a stellar performance from him in the end.

 As the Upstarters become more acquainted with the fourth year radio students, the anchors, studios, equipment and idea of the community partnership, I am getting the feeling that they are also starting to open up. With them becoming more comfortable with us and each other, the potential for interesting and solid show ideas/topics will start to flow. Currently we are driving the ‘show bicycle’, but by second term, I want to see us (Mike, Steve, BK and I) holding one handle bar and Sinovuyo, Thobani, Ziphozihle, Roche’, Anesipho and Anelisa holding the other bar. Come June, I want them to be holding the bars and breaks, while I help them steer the bike and apply brake pressure when needed. It is not a distant goal at all and that makes me panic even more! But one thing at a time- or in keeping with my bicycle analogies, one grip at a time. 

Once the Upstarters have taken over from the radio kids, I would like for the show to sound or at least contain elements of the Upstarters with a hint of the radio students. I see a jingle being produced with their voices running throughout and a few stings to identify the Upstart slot on the Yung Amplified show. I want the show to be an honest, fresh, and prepared segment that reflects these youngsters’ personalities. Last night (Saturday), my friends and I were chatting about Carlie and Sade’ from Yo-TV in our younger days. We all knew who these two presenters were as we watched the show religiously, entered all the competitions and played all the games daily. I want our Upstart show to be as interactive, and as familiar to the Grahamstown youth as that show was to me. It will take time, but it will happen! 

How will they be able to produce a show like this? I’m still working on that answer but I know that, they will at least have all the skills in place to record, edit, interview and produce content for a show of this type by June. The trying periods will be the vacation times- as they will have to run their hour slot without us there. That crash course will prepare them for what may or may not come and how to deal with it as a team. Let’s hope that experience is a good one- I’ll keep you posted in the meantime though. 

 Nadia

• The team in studio on Saturday and having some fun with ideas around "if they were mayor for the day".

• We set the Upstarters to blogging after the show about their week's experiences.

 Week 2 Trying to see over the mountain

Up, down; left, right. This seems to be the progression of our community partnership with the Upstart group and the Yung Amplified Radio Show this week. I would have preferred a linear progression but at least this week has been a learning curve for me. What have I learnt? One- Nothing goes the way you want it (it’s life Nadia, deal with it) and Two- People have lives and are either as busy if not more than you. Hard facts, but true. 

Tuesday this week was meant to be my Media Studies reading day. Tuesday was meant to see me sitting the whole day in my pyjamas, cup of coffee in hand and the readings in my lap. But Tuesday saw me running around the Journalism Department (as usual- Stephen, a fellow radio student has even called me a piece of the AMM’s furniture!), scooting off into the township and auditioning pupils for the Yung Amplified radio show. My Media Studies readings? They were at home, in my bed where I should have been. 

My day was not at all wasted though! But at the back of my buzzing head, I kept thinking that this project is starting to take a lot more of my time than I thought it would. I find myself constantly wanting things to go to perfection, but ‘perfect’ is not what I think this project is at all about. It’s more about constantly learning and working with a team of youth who are keen and willing to learn as much as we are from them. 

On the Tuesday workshop with the Upstart group, myself and BK (another classmate of mine) met Zandi Shireen Badat’s intern for Upstart and a pair of twins volunteering from Germany, who are helping for the week with Upstart. They were all great! Zandi handles the pupils and workshops in the afternoons or during their breaks. She works really well with them yet she is also firm with them if need be and then it is all back to mentoring and basically just having a good time with them while learning and interacting. 

Evidence of this good relationship between her and these Upstarters was apparent when Zandi encouraged the pupils to go forward and audition for a chance to be in Yung Amplified radio show. A short and energetic boy, Luthando, with a megawatt smile and confidence engulfing all those near him, marched to the stage, swung round, grinned at Beketele and I then proceeded to tell us about why we should pick him for the Yung Amplified show. Zandi then asked him to give us a demonstration of his acting skills (as he mentioned he enjoyed acting) and he turned around, took a piece of chalk, looked sternly at the class and asked them, “do you know how to spell ‘South’!” The class, Zandi, BK and I roared with laughter as he grinned even wider knowing that he had us all from the moment he flashed us that memorable smile. 

(Luthando in the recent Upstart paper! Download the recent paper by clicking  here)

 BK and I chose Luthando as one of our finalists for the show, yet when the chosen six Upstart members arrived today for the workshop we were holding for the new team, Luthano was not amongst them. I learned (as mentioned in my previous blog post) that the final decision does not actually lie in our hands but that we are working in partnership with organisations that have been established for a while already. Yes, they need our contribution and help but they know full well that we need them too. On my side though, I have realised that I need to acknowledge that quickly and adapt to situations that might be out of my control. I still miss Luthando’s smile and energy, but I’m sure I will see him involved one way or another with this project. 

The challenges are quite a few at this point. They range from Mike (my classmate) trying to get myself and him a PDP license to drive the children around, to not being able to meet the anchors of the Yung Amplified radio show. The challenges might be daunting, but we are progressing too! Today (25^th February 2012) we had our first workshop session with our Upstart group- they are: Sinovuyo, Anesipho, Roche’, Thobani, Anelisa and Ziphozihle. The presentation went quite well and we had a few interacting items such as the ice-breaker and the in-studio practice with them. I felt a bit discouraged that they didn’t have as many questions as I would have liked and they seemed very nervous, but hopefully we will knock those walls down and feel comfortable around each other.  

Plans for next week and thereafter? Gosh, they are never-ending plans! But I have decided to take week by week and one item at a time. For now, this week was a relative success and I am so grateful that my team and I all pulled through with the workshop and the preparation needed for it. Below is an idea if the plans we are still working on:  

• We need to rework our proposal as Jeanne (our lecturer) has made it clear that we might be too over-ambitious with what we expect from the Upstarters.
•  We need to organise transport for the Upstarters.
• The first show needs a sort of theme and we need to do that ASAP! 
• I would like to meet Shireen and the team a bit more often.  
• The running of and maintenece of the Upstart radio show website. 

I am now looking forward to when these challenges will start resembling something smaller than the size of a mountain, but after having met these Upstarters and working so closely with my team, I will prevail until my next blog post!  (We hope!)

Nadia 

*Below are images from the Saturday workshop we had with the Upstart members. 

BK giving a presentation on interviewing.

Thobani figuring out the equipment.

Mike focusing hard on the presentation :)

In studio- the how to 101!

Steve having a mock show with the Upstarters

Week One- Community Partnership Project: Yung Amplified/Upstart

I am shit-scared. Those were about the most accurate thoughts that went flying through my head when we were introduced to the community partnership project (Upstart/Yung Amplified). Not the best response, I know, but bear with me, it was daunting!

 It was daunting knowing that I would have to work in the Grahamstown community with a group of people who have already established themselves and have as much to say as I, a Fourth Year Radio Student does. Daunting again when I met their ‘leader’ Shireen Badat who is clearly the spine of the project and the watchdog who will growl at you lest you tread on her children’s toes. I would like to think however that I am starting to absorb all of the information (slowly) and prepare as swiftly as I can for a challenging yet (hopefully!) rewarding term. 

The purpose of the project I think will become clearer as I start to work and engage with Upstart. I think for now however, the purpose is to launch a group of Upstart kids into the world of radio and to ensure that as we step slowly away from the project into our own lives come 2013, they should be able to manage and sustain the Yung Amplified radio show. I also think the purpose for us as students is to ensure that we engage not only critically and ‘professionally’, but at a level that is appropriate and engaging for this specific audience. I would like to think that Jeanne and Shireen are trying to engage us in ‘real-life’ situations which will give us the skills to tackle the working world and any project that comes our way. The purpose therefore will be a mutual transfer of knowledge, skills and friendship (I like the friendship part the most!).  

I don’t say this proudly, but when I think about the kinds of people I’ll be working with and about the kinds of communities I will be exposed to, I think instantly of poverty. Let me explain my thoughts and position on this: When I say ‘poverty’, I think about children without adult supervision during the day- these would include youngsters below the ages of 7- years old. I think of people struggling to buy food in a week, large numbers of people in a one-room house and dusty back yards as their ‘gardens’. Instantly, I also find myself thinking that this community are all illiterate and I wouldn’t be able to communicate with them. But then I think about Upstart/Yung Amplified and this directly challenges my ‘middle-class’ assumptions. These pupils are tackling stereotypes and proving that they are as educated, as motivated and as excited about learning as I am. I’m quite happy that they have challenged and proved me wrong on certain points, and I cannot wait to see what else they will show myself and my team. There is certainly a whole other side of education that they know that I do not and they might see me as illiterate in their world. 

There is a lovely quote which describes my assumptions and the manner in which they will be challenged. It is by Oscar Wilde and it goes: “When you assume, you make an ass out of u and me.” Therefore, from this blogpost onwards, I choose (and will try my hardest) not to make an “ass out of you and me”.

The Upstart/Yung Amplified project is tricky in terms of trying to place the children we will be working with into a ‘needy’ box. This group has grown in strength and is functioning quite well on their own. It almost seems like WE need THEM at the moment. But the youngsters that we will be engaging with are from communities that have challenges and may need some ‘time-out’ from these situations to engage in new and stimulating activities- that being the medium of radio. I think the needs of these Upstart members probably range from just needing friendship to actually needing an escape from difficult and challenging situations, such as alcoholic parents. From working on the Ukufunda Radio Show last year, I think there is in particular a need for more literacy awareness in these communities. Through a project like this, I feel strongly that we will be able to tackle these head on. 
   

I have learnt a lot in my time here at Rhodes and I think the most was through the ‘Journalism, Democracy and Development course’. Reason being because I felt as though there was a two-way flow of information, skill and communication. Usually as a journalist, you feel that as the outsider, you get the story and you swoop out again. For the JDD project, we got to know the people- we felt as though we were a part of the community itself- for me, that is what makes good journalism. 

I want to offer this project something similar to last year’s project. I would like to offer my skills, time and friendship. I have accumulated a number of ‘professional’ (I still contest this issue) skills that I can offer this project ie: helping to produce the Yung Amplified Radio Show for organisation, Upstart.

Very often it’s so easy to forget to actually learn or try to take in something new when in the daily motions of interviewing, finding stories, hunting down sources etc. I would like to constantly refer back to this blog and try open up to this often. I believe that I will learn how to communicate effectively with a number of people through their varying ages. The Upstart project caters mainly for high school pupils and there are different organisations involved in the running and sponsorships of it. Working with these organisations as well as the Upstart members will ensure that I constantly challenge myself and learn to adapt easily to different situations. 

I will also learn to take a step back as I like to be in control very often. For this project to work well, these pupils will need to learn what they can from me and the team, and while they learn, I need to take small steps backwards giving them the chances to flex their radio muscles. I think at the end of this process, my initial thoughts of “I am shit-scared” will still be there. But this time, the difference will be because I will not want to leave the new-formed friendships, interactions and lessons I learnt from the community partnership projects. I look forward to that change.    

*Click here to see the link to the Upstart website.