mission:
The Youth Channel is a division of Manhattan Neighborhood Network (MNN) targeting youth under 25. It is an alternative to mass media-providing equal access to all young people, regardless of ethnicity, gender, religion, sexual orientation or social status.

The Youth Channel strives to build confidence, establish role models, inform, educate, and entertain. It empowers youth to create change within their communities and the world. The Youth Channel is run by adults and youth who want to make a difference.


history:
We are the first Channel created by youth for youth.
Manhattan Neighborhood Network's Youth Channel was established in March 2000 with the mission of providing disadvantaged, low-income and minority youth with access to a quality media forum through which to express creativity, foster dialogue, and encourage social and political participation.

what we do:
We provide trainings and hands on experience in all aspects of public access television and video production. With a strong emphasis on media education, media production and youth media distribution we empower young people to see themselves as participants of media and not just consumers. While working directly with youth from NYC we are also providing an outlet for youth media nationwide and globally.


staff:

Director: Cynthia Carrion
Cynthia is the new director of the Youth Channel- Cynthia joined MNN’s Youth Channel as its Outreach Coordinator in June 2004. In that role, she has co-organized various youth events including: "I Have a Voice" an LGBT Youth Media Conference and Youth Voice 2004. As an advocate for youth media, she has been involved in the NAMAC Youth Media Leadership Institute. Prior to MNN, Cynthia was the Project Assistant for the Caribbean Cultural Center and was formerly the Pre-teen Coordinator for Hour Children, an advocacy organization for children of incarcerated mothers. As co-founder of 2Tonez Productions, she recently directed and produced "Seeking the Soul of Freedom," a short documentary examining Haitian Independence. Cynthia graduated from Hunter College with a BA in Media Studies and Latin American and Caribbean Studies and is currently working on her MA in International Relations.  She lives in Inwood, Manhattan. 

Production Coordinator: Derrick Dawkins
Derrick is a Hunter College graduate with a bachelors in film studies, and has recently been promoted to the position of Production Coordinator for the Youth Channel. Working at YC has been a joy and is something thing that keeps him motivated and ready for the everyday. Derrick prides himself on his filmmaking skills as well as his experiences passing along that knowledge to other youth. He has completed five short films shot on 16 mm, and 3 short films on digital. Derrick looks at life with a simple principal: Everday is a lesson learned, an experience earned. When he first found his interest in filmmaking, he was trained by other young people, and now he does the same. For Derrick, the skills of this powerful tool of media are the most important gift he can give back. This is the very reason why Derrick remains committed to youth media production, and will always train others in media throughout life.

Viva la resistance!

Education Coordinator: Isabel Castellanos
Isabel is a media-maker and educator, originally from northern New Jersey. She has worked as an associate producer, researcher, production coordinator, and assistant editor on numerous urban planning and education documentaries and shorts. She has taught media literacy and production classes at organizations in the New York City area, including at Manhattan Neigborhood Network’s training center. Isabel completed her M.A. in Media Studies from the New School University in 2005. Her interests include hybrid identities, language, performance studies and pedagogy.


Outreach Coordinator: Mariela Rosario
Mariela graduated from Wesleyan University in 2002 and since then has held a variety of positions in media. She began her career in communications at Sesame Workshop assisting with bi-lingual children’s publications and continued on to Suede Magazine, the first high fashion magazine created for women of color. Last summer, she helped to shoot the premier season of Cash in the Attic, adapted from the original BBC hit. Mariela also assisted with casting for the Dove Real Beauty Ad campaign, which provided a refreshing take on marketing to women. She facilitated an all girls Media Literacy class  in the fall of 2005 and jumped full force into the youth media world. Mariela is currently working towards her Master's degree in Media Studies at the New School University. She lives in the Boogie Down Bronx.

“When I dare to be powerful, to use my strength in the service of my vision, then it becomes less and less important whether I am afraid.” Audre Lorde

Programming Coordinator: Julián Gerena-Quiñones
Julián Gerena-Quiñones grew up in El Barrio, East Harlem, NY. Raised in the NYC educational system he went on to attend college at the University of Hartford where he studied mass communications and TV production. His interests in television grew when he landed his first internship at Bloomberg Television. Julian is a talented videographer & editor with a keen sense of composition and knowledge of video production. He also created Barrio Media; a community minded video production company. Julian co-produced segments for a TV series entitled “Pa′ Que Sepa / So You Know,” a Latino Sports Life Style show. He shot scenes for and edited segments of the documentary film "The Legacy of 21" dedicated to retiring the number of humanitarian and baseball great Roberto Clemente as well. He has worked with the Youth Channel in the past as a Peer Educator and is excited to be joining the team full-time!

Consultant/ YVXN Coordinator: Andrew Lynn
Andrew Lynn is an artist and educator who recently re-located from BK back up to Troy, NY. He received an MFA in Electronic Arts from iEAR Studios at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in 2002 where he began teaching video and multimedia as a teacher’s assistant and instructor. Andrew began working with youth and media in 2000 at The Ark in Troy, NY where he helped to develop a video-making program in an afterschool center. Since then, he has taught video production, digital imaging, stop-motion animation, and media literacy at The Ark Community Charter School, Hudson Valley Community College, Childrens’ Media Project, and Eyebeam. Andrew is also the creator of Whirl-Mart and Troy Bike Rescue, and has co-directed documentaries including Still We Ride and Independent Media in A Time of War, among other short videos and animations. He served as the Education Coordinator for YC from 2004 until 2007. As the YVXN Coordinator & consultant, he will continue to teach workshops in upstate New York, develop curriculum, and coordinate the Youth Video Exchange Network and website.

Peer Trainers:
Habibah Ahmad has been involved in Youth Channel for almost 3 years as a youth producer, being part of the creative team of D.A.M.N. (Defense Against Media Non-Sense) YC News and has been a senior producer of YC’s Youth M.I.C.(Media Impacting Communities) Program. She has also taken a creative and supportive role in the MNN Youth Channel production, Bringing Back Venezuela and directed Beyond the Hijab: Struggling Against Stereotypes a production made possible by Salesforce.com. Habibah has served as a member of Urban Visionaries Film Festival’s Youth Committee, Media that Matters Film Festival Committee and the Tribeca Youth Fellows. She is also involved with the Lower Eastside Girls Club and is attending Hunter College.

Vanessa Bateau produced her first documentary Scrolii, about her lifelong struggle with scoliosis, as a participant in Reel Works Teen Filmmaking. "Scrolii" has since been featured in the San Diego’s Women’s Film Festival, Urban Visionaries Film Festival as well as on Uth TV and Youth Channel. In October 2005, Vanessa became a member of the Youth Organizers Television (YO-TV) crew at EVC, which produced "Still Standing", a documentary on Hurricane Katrina survivors both in New York and in New Orleans. She takes great pride in being a Peer Trainer at Youth Channel, which enables her to have the opportunity of teaching other youth how to make use of media to create a social tool for change in their community or environment.  Vanessa is a sophomore at Brooklyn College and currently works as an intern for PBS: NOW TV- news show program. She reps Brooklyn to the fullest and lives off the motto “Dream big.  Accomplish BIGGER!”

Eugene Jones is an Afro-American film, television, and stage actor born and raised in Harlem World, NYC. At the age of 13, he joined Harlem Overheard Theater Works, a local theater troupe that allowed young actors to write the material they would act in. Eugene attended the Professional Performing Arts High School, where he excelled in the Drama major as well as won awards for writing in local contests. Since the age of 16 he has been working professionally with credits including College Road Trip (Raven Symone, Martin Lawrence), Nothing is Private (dir. Alan Ball), and Mother Courage and her children (Public Theater's Shakespeare in the Park '06, dir. George C. Wolfe). He is currently developing scripts for his own film production company SlangShotMedia.



Youth Media Distribution, (YMDi.org) provides information and tools that are essential to increasing the visibility of youth made media.

YMDi.org improves the distribution of independent youth created film, video, radio and new media. The short of it is YMDi will help you find your audience. (more) www.ymdi.org
NYMAP
The National Youth Media Access Project NYMAP is an innovative partnership among public access centers from across the country committed to expanding services to young people. Initiated by the MNN Youth Channel, NYMAP seeks to nurture the right of free speech, to strengthen the much-needed presence of alternative and youth voices, and to connect young mediamakers from diverse backgrounds.
(more)