Hey Y’all, Max here.
We are increasingly approaching the end of the school year and the end of PLP and high school as a whole. While this is equally exciting concerning and confusing, I think I have learned a lot in the last 5 years and I will probably only realize the real-world practicality of a lot of what I’ve learned over time. This is a paraphrased version of some grand reflection on high school ( coming soon in another post ) and it’s all to say I think the recent project we have dove into, and it’s accompanying field school, may prove to be the swan song to my time in PLP. So without further ado..
PART 1: THE THINGS BEFORE THE TRIP
This project began back in February with knowledge. Through lessons taught by Mr. Hughes and Ms. Willemse it was mostly to give context as to what this project was about, namely the civil rights movement. We would continue to digest and consider ideas and new information through these waypoints, and also through watching film ( The Murder of Emmett Till, The Long Walk Home, SoundTrack for a Revolution, Klansville U.S.A, MLK: The Assassination Tapes ).
pretty much all my notes from the pre-trip lessons
The other important part of this project was CBL, or Challenge Based Learning. It sounds like a very PLP thing, and honestly it is. The infographics used even featured Memojis. Anyways, Challenge Based Learning is used to understand any given topic /problems and end with conclusions that have real-life implications, which is basically what happened. I struggled a little bit with this part of the pre-trip to do list, as indicated by the unfinished sections. But you know what? I’m in grade 12, I can make my own decisions. I can do whatever I want. So if I don’t finish it so what? I’m writing this now right? I did what I needed to do, and the world continues to spin regardless if I finished the ‘solution’ section of the Challenge Chart. Ok rant over
As a class we would choose a key figure who was involved in the Civil Rights Movement as an activist, or someone who otherwise helped bring change. I chose to research the life and times of Marlon Riggs, a filmmaker-activist who played a big role in the black / LGBTQ+ communities, breaking stereotypes and exposing homophobia and racism in American culture. He has an interesting background, and throughout the project I found myself admiring his artistic vision and style as a filmmaker alongside his role as an activist.
The media ( print, news, film, broadcast ) is primarily what I focused on, how it has contributed to discrimination towards black people over hundreds of years, and how it is a powerful tool for change, both good and bad. I like to think my topic was fairly unique compared to others, and considering not even museum educators at the Mississippi Civil Rights Museum knew who Marlon Riggs was, I think I found a good person to educate an audience on.
The one last important thing I will mention about this project is the use of ChatGPT. PLP has never repressed the use of AI for good, and in turn I think a lot of my grade has embraced using AI to simply make life easier. We certainly did a lot of that this project, after understanding how to most effectively get results.
At this point I had my topic, my activist, and essential background knowledge, but how exactly would I educate an audience? As it was the powers that be chose a video essay as the intended format. More specifically, one that uses the power of video storytelling to spotlight an individual who made brave choices to bring about positive social change, inspiring others to do the same. No shame in admitting this is copied and pasted, it’s simply the best explanation of the project; more so than anything these would be the words I would have in my head during the entirety of the trip.
Before our class left for the trip, the last notable thing was the Socratic seminar. It was a chance to demonstrate knowledge and refine the projects we would be taking into the trip, very soon.
I would like to take this opportunity to say I completely fumbled this seminar and I did not open my mouth once ( even though Ms. Willemse would tell me otherwise at my Mpol ). The terrible thing is I knew and understood quite a bit about the civil rights movement- dates, the people involved, things like that- but I just couldn’t find the words to explain it. I hate not being able to vocalize my understanding in class, something I’ve struggled with for a long time. After that Socratic seminar I made a mental goal for the rest of the year: speak up.
PART 2: GOOD TROUBLE FIELD SCHOOL
The field school began in the early hours of March 28th, at YVR. Short layover at Dallas Fort Worth, and soon enough we touched down in Medgar Wiley Evers International Airport, Jackson, Mississippi. I will admit at this point I was not feeling great, as in physically, and honestly I was really nervous about this whole trip. In my mind I was expecting another trip like last years, so maybe I had unrealistic expectations in mind. I did not emphasize enough in my post how much I enjoyed that trip and how important it was, but honestly it changed a lot for me, as a student but more as a person. So was I expecting that again? Maybe. And I have no one but myself to blame for that.
Ignoring my personal feeling for a minute, this was such a stacked trip educationally, and so, so, so, immersive. The first major stop was the Mississippi Civil Rights Museum in Jackson, Mississippi. I got a lot out of this place, I would even say it was the best place we went for my project. Plenty of footage for my film, hearing from two speakers ( the first being a photographer involved in Nashville library sit-ins, the second the youngest freedom rider in the movement ), and even an interview with Jerry Knight, a museum educator who gave me personal knowledge of the media in the civil rights movement. That same day we would visit the Medgar and Myrlie Evers Home National Monument, where Medgar Evers, the NAACP ( National Association for the advancement of Coloured People ) field secretary was gunned down in his driveway. It was interesting to be there, just thinking “‘I’m standing right where history happened”. There would be many more moments like this throughout the trip.
There were some scheduling errors on the second day because Margie didn’t make two flights ( ? ) which ultimately meant there were not enough drivers. I was a part of the group that did not go to Robert Johnson’s Gravesite or Dockery Farms, and we made it to the Emmett Till Historic Intrepid Centre mid-tour. It was a little disappointing but honestly it didn’t matter much, the Intrepid Centre was cool and we heard Mayor Jonny’s story ( the mayor of Glendora, Mississippi where the centre is located and where Emmett Till’s body was extracted from the Tallahatchie River ). Emmett Till was how we began studying this project and for those reading who do not know he was a black teenager from Chicago in the 50’s who was kidnapped, beaten and killed in Mississippi for cat-calling a white woman. his body was dumped in the Tallahatchie River, and his mother held an open-casket funeral to allow all ( including the media ) to see the extent of the brutality. Emmett Till may have started the Civil Rights Movement as we know it, so it was particularly moving to come full circle, from learning about this in a classroom to actually standing on the riverbank where they found his corpse.
PLP field schools really accentuate understanding and give a real-world meaning to textbook knowledge, that’s only been proven more every year over the last 5 years. I am and will always be grateful to have had these experiences.
Outside of the learning, it’s always nice to experience a different part of the world. My initial impression with Mississippi was not great. Or maybe I should say in comparison to somewhere like Vancouver, not great. I’ve heard the state ranks high in poverty and crime and low in education, and I could believe that. Perhaps it’s just me being uneducated and privileged but during long drives and seeing mile after mile of dilapidated homes, dry fields, and more than 1 gigantic cross I decided I would not live in Mississippi ever if I could help it. However, one thing that stood out to me, and likely everyone else, was the kindness we received. There was lots of concern from people back home ( my parents ) about travelling to the states now, but I cannot emphasize enough how friendly people were, even after we told them we were a school group from Canada. Hell, especially after we told them we were from Canada. There was lots of apologizing for Trump being in office, and lots of insisting not everyone is a Trump supporter. Faith in humanity restored.
While I won’t talk about every location we went to it’s worth mentioning the other side of this project, which was the power of music in change, and especially with the movement. I think the vast majority of people decided to research a musician ( Cooper and Sepaus even chose the same artist, Nina Simone, and didn’t realize until we were at Dallas Fort-Worth ). I was one of few not doing that, so initially I found it challenging to connect music to film, until I linked them through both being forms of media and both reaching audiences through creative messaging. The first music related stop was Graceland, essentially an Elvis theme park but very relevant in terms of music history. Elvis was an interesting guy because of his upbringing in a poor white family, and how he played music pioneered by black artists but never appropriated it. If anything, he helped black artists out by giving their work exposure to a much wider audience and breaking the divide between ‘white music’ and ‘black music’. I really liked Graceland, and even though I knew only a handful of Elvis songs going into it, I left wanting to be a fan.
It’s a good time to mention that I actually had no idea what I was doing at this point. I am horrible at planning ahead and I am embarrassed to say I finished Storyboarding on day 4 of the trip, and was writing my live VO’s ( talking in front of a camera ) the night before each location. I really had to think on my feet a number of times, but I feel I was ultimately able to make a video more reflective of the raw information I was taking in everywhere I went, than one that was planned to the second. I hate to say it but improvisation is one thing PLP has ( probably ) unintentionally taught me the best.
Tennessee was great, particularly Nashville. It was the strangest thing because I fell asleep in the car on the 3-hour drive from Memphis, seeing the same flat fields, and waking up in a city that rivaled Vancouver in grandeur. It felt like an Oasis, an anomaly. We mostly stayed around the heart of downtown and it always felt like there was something going on; street musicians, professional musicians, museums about musicians- did I mention Nashville is known as “music city”? I was impressed. While in Nashville we visited the Hatch Show Print and the Country Music Hall of Fame, as well as the Grand Ole’ Opry. The Print was really cool to me as an artist because of the methods and history of a really simple technique, basically just making woodblocks with a design or lettering, and inking them onto paper. I even got to do it myself. While I am not so much a country music fan, definitely not as much as Cole, I found myself really appreciating the culture that surrounds it. I would go back to Nashville anytime.
Of course, I cannot NOT talk about Dollywood. This was a lot of fun ( although a very poor day in terms of project-related research ) and it definitely brought me back to the Disney World trip. We arrived at 9 and left at 10, with the exhaustion also being a reminder of the Disney trip.
In general, I like to think the trip was a success. I had my doubts surrounding it and I definitely felt like I had some off-days, but generally I found it to be a good experience. Even if it was just the educational aspects of the trip it would have still been worth it.
PART 3: THE THINGS AFTER THE TRIP
Coming back home I was ready to finish this project strong. I had written my scripts and now I had to find acceptable footage that was relevant to what I was speaking on and edit in my live VO’s and the sole interview I did.
It took a long time to finish and I got very sick when I was editing, but I completed my video and I really like it. It covers the two main topics of media as a whole during the movement, and then focuses more specifically on the life and message of Marlon Riggs.
The driving question of this project is “How can stories of social activism and change from the past inspire us to create a positive impact in our communities today?”
It’s a loaded question, but I can answer it through my own project. A big part of what we were supposed to accomplish, and what I made, is the call to action. My call to action was for those who watched my video to simply think about what they watch or listen to in film, music, and other entertainment. As a consumer it is our job to acknowledge injustices within the media, who is controlling the narrative and who is being left out of it. I was inspired by doing research between the intersection of black and gay identity and coming to the conclusion there was in fact rampant homophobia within the Civil Rights Movement, and also racism within gay communities, which really surprised me. After watching Marlon Riggs’ films Ethnic Notions, and especially Tongues Untied, I came to understand the reason I did not know this is because no one ever talks about it. Yes, it is very specific, but does it concern no one that groups that formed because of a need to fight discrimination in fact discriminate against other marginalized, underrepresented groups?
Marlon Riggs was born in the mid-50’s and while he lived he was not involved in the first wave of the movement. He was a second-generational activist, inspired by the events of his childhood to take action- in his case using film as his preferred medium. Riggs’ is not alive anymore, but he certainly brought attention to lesser-known issues during his lifetime, and if we as a population want to make any real change it begins with finding people who’s actions made change, and become inspired to be the change we wish to see in the world.
The last part of this project / field school was the round table discussion held a week and a half ago, with all the parents in attendance and PLP 12 being divided into groups based on the message/call to action of our videos. Our groups enquire question was “How do the stories we hear and the ones we don’t, shape the way we see each other and what can we do about it?” We came up with three claims to answer this question:
Although it was supposed to come off as an open conversation but I guess at some point it became a scripted thing, and so as a result it probably looked and sounded like one of those AI videos where it does it’s very best to replicate natural human interaction. Maybe a little harsh but I hope I painted a picture for you. Artificial Intelligence or not, it wasn’t a bad round table and I felt as if I was able to summarily contribute to the 15-minute discussion our group had. It was a good way to close the project and communicate to parents that yes, your funding went somewhere, no we did not get into trouble ( except maybe good trouble 😈 ) and that we learned something. Which we did. So thanks mum and dad.