Buffalo Youth - Documenting the East Side

This morning I had the opportunity to participate in the Buffalo Youth Media Institute sponsored by Squeaky Wheel. Twenty teens from the area - half urban/sub-urban - boarded a school bus and experienced the city, raw and unfiltered.

This year's program will focus on Buffalo's East Side. Youth producers will study the history, architecture, culture and civic issues of this overlooked neighborhood and make self-directed documentaries based on their own research and interests.

The East Side tour was bracketed by the 'new' - Artspace and the Michigan Street Heritage Corridor. The other stuff, total dereliction:  St. Vincent's - German Roman Catholic Orphan Home - Transfiguration - Central Terminal.  We made an unscheduled stop along Paderweski Street where we admired some city-owned trash filled and burned out houses right across the street from the recently remodeled Harriet Tubman School.

I'll follow the development of these documentaries over the next several months and eventually make them available here, too. Dorthea Braemer passed along copies of student work from the past two years. Will get that on-line soon.

And make sure to check out the Buffalo Youth Media on MySpace!

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Artspace • BAVPA • Woodlawn Row Houses • faq • my flickr
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