#KashmereProud

Often times as educators we get it wrong. But sometimes we get it right.

This summer I had the opportunity to teach for a summer program at Kashmere High, which serves Houston’s historic Fifth Ward. I taught a Digital Media for College Credit class. This class was the first in a series of classes that this group of students will take over the next 2 years.

Kashmere High has partnered with Houston Community College (HCC) to create two STEM programs. The students start the program at the beginning of their junior year, taking sequential courses to graduate with an HCC Level 1 certificate by the end of their senior year. Kashmere has two HCC Level 1 certification programs: one certification program is for Engineering and one is for Digital Media.  

The HCC STEM programs are a part what is called the Futures Academy at Kashmere.

Kashmere High, the home of the famous Thunder Soul, serves the Kashmere Gardens, Houston Gardens and Settegast neighborhoods. The school feeds the students at least 2 meals every day. Sometimes all three. The school, along with Sam Houston and Jack Yates, has been slated for closure more than once in the past few years for low performance on standardized testing.

I worked with a group of about 15 students in the Digital Media sequential course program. The students in this program are hard working, smart, creative and hopeful. They were engaged and active in the learning process. They want to learn in a school that is a part of their neighborhood. They want to be proud of their neighborhood school. 

I believe that the community did the right thing to fight to keep the school open. It is easy to give up, harder to fight for a school, and almost impossible to turn around a school with low performing grades.

As educators, we need to think outside the box how to educate our students in historic communities, not close their schools and all the resources that go with them.

The Futures Academy at Kashmere is definitely a step in the right direction.

Updated September 8, 2017:

The fifth ward was hit hard by Hurricane Harvey due to extensive flooding. Kashmere did flood but was quickly attended to and will be prepared to open for students in the first wave of HISD school openings after the storm.

Hopefully, the school can give the neighborhood and its students a sense of pride and normalcy after so much turmoil.

After my teaching experience, I am #KashmereProud.

Broadcast Intern Asia

Every once in awhile you have a banner year. The spring of 2017 was one of those years.

There was a group of journalism students that always hung out in my room, and would do just about anything for me. Or was it the lollipops?  One of those students I had the pleasure to work with was Asia Youngs Bailey. She came into my Digital Media class her junior year as a budding young artist. But whenever you took the time to get to know her, you could feel something different. Something special. When I happened upon a broadcast internship, I chose two students based on their availability, meaning they had afternoons off. Or should I say they chose me. This is the story of Asia, one of the broadcast interns for Bellaire High School for the spring of 2017. 

"The Mayor is going to be there", she said. But this would not be the first time Bellaire High School senior, AP-Photography student and   Three Penny Press journalism staff member Asia Youngs Bailey would meet City of Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner. Nor the second.

This talented Bellaire High School senior has entered the Mayor’s Art Scholarship contest every year, and placed in the top 3 in the Senior division in 2017 as well as the Junior division in 2016.

She also met Mayor Turner in January when she was given the opportunity to interview Mayor Turner and First Daughter Ashley Turner as a student broadcast intern under the direction of Stephanie Coleman of Tre’ Magazine and Tony Cox of KPFT 90.1 Houston. 

The interview was held at City Hall with the assistance of the HTV crew.

The interview of First Daughter Ashley Turner was printed in the March edition of Tre’ Magazine, which can be found online at the following link starting on page 29.

https://issuu.com/thetremag/docs/170214_tremag_1702_feb_v29smer

Her first radio broadcast was aired on KPFT 90.1 Houston on January 23. Here is a link to the program posted on her high school journalism newspaper website, The Three Penny Press. This piece focuses on the evolution of hair for African American women, including her own struggles with her hair and the importance that has had to her life.

http://www.bellairetpp.org/audio/2017/01/26/videographer-reflects-on-the-impact-of-hair-kpft-segment/

Asia is more than just a talented artist. She has a heart for helping others as she has curated several shows to help showcase and promote student artists.

Asia is a member of the Teen Council for the Contemporary Art Museum Houston, which curated “Origins of the Self”. The exhibit in the Zilkha Gallery opened in January, and featured 85 pieces from 63 local teen artists. The exhibit is on view until May 7.

http://camh.org/exhibitions/teen-council-2017#images

“Eye on Houston: High School Documentary Photography” was an annual exhibition by The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston that ran from January to April. High School students from all over the city were showcased as they captured the diversity of Houston’s neighborhoods. The exhibit included 67 pieces presented by 37 junior and senior photographers from school all over the city. Asia had 2 pieces in the show, both shot in Houston’s Third Ward district. The photograph of a teenage boy sitting under the porch of a white house sitting out of the rain, showing his camera to 2 small children who are also seeking shelter from the rain, was shot in the Project Row Houses. Asia spoke at the opening as a student representative. This was her second year to be in the “Eye on Houston” exhibit.

https://www.mfah.org/exhibitions/eye-houston-high-school-documentary-photo-2016

Other 2017 accomplishments include:

* Regional Silver Key award from Scholastic Art and Writing

* Exhibition at Silver Street Studios

* Interview and portfolio critique with renowned photographer and artist Dawoud Bey sponsored by MFAH

Asia will spend her summer working as a broadcast intern at KPFT 90.1 where she has a weekly show on Friday afternoons called Kicks. You can check out her podcast shows on facebook at www.facebook.com\KICKS.  

She is preparing to enter the Photography and Art program at University of North Texas in Denton in the fall. 

To encourage the students to go further with their talents, Mayor Turner shared a quote his father used to say about how if “a gift has been given to you, you now have it, and you are the only one that can use it.” The art scholarship awarded serves to acknowledge such gifted students who are able to reach higher.

Asia may be reached at asiayoungsbailey@gmail.com

Review of Tish Hinojosa, Anderson Fair

Review of Tish Hinojosa

Anderson Fair

By Linda 

Originally posted by The Lone Star Jukebox of KPFT Houston 90.1 FM on December 3, 2016

Background Story 

November 30, 2016

He moved out 7 years ago to the month. He moved out when I was out of town. When I got home, he had taken almost the entire CD collection, spare a few that were in my car or had fallen under the couch, and all of the single malt Scotch. I immediately sent him a text to complain about the Scotch. And the CD’s. The Scotch was easy to replace. But the 2 tall Ikea Billy bookcases filled to the brim with CD's, not so much. My music inventory now consisted of a few first issue CD's of Nancy Griffith, Greg Trooper, Jimmy LaFave, Kelly Willis and Tish Hinosoja. Plus one or two others. The entire collection fit into one shoe box. 

Six years have passed, and most of my music now comes from internet sources or KPFT radio. As I was getting ready to drive to Austin for a photography class last summer, I feared my internet connection might not work well, so at the last minute I grabbed the “Homeland” (1989) CD and threw it in the car.

I listened to the CD as I drove around Austin for different photo shoots. Her tone was pure and unpretentious. The folksy lyrics had an element of honesty in them, but her voice had a sweet, almost innocent air to it. The contradiction between the innocence and wisdom, the country beat with Spanish flair, I found appealing. She became my best friend for the ride.

I listened to one song in particular over and over again, “Donde Voy”. It meshed well with the curved, hilly roads surrounding Austin. 

I was excited to hear that Tish Hinojosa was performing Friday night at Anderson Fair. 

Musical Performance Review

December 2, 2016

Her flirty black hair sat just on top of her shoulders with long bangs that accented her eyes. She wore a black velvet dress, appropriate for the holiday season. As she sang her opening song, “Western Sky”, she had a grin from ear to ear. 

She sang an acoustical mixture of older songs from her “Heartland” and “Heart Wide Open” albums, songs from “After the Fair” and other more recent albums, songs sung in English and songs sung in Spanish, and holiday songs sung from the “From Texas for a Christmas Night” album. 

Her voice is still as pure today as it is on her first album. She sounded strong and mature, as if the years of experience living in Germany and abroad had enriched her musicality.  

Her newest single, “After the Fair” off the album with the same name, is an upbeat song about falling in love visiting a pop-up, travelling fair in Hamburg. The other single off the same album, “Infinity Times Ten” is written about the love a mother has for her daughter. She sang the song as if she were singing it to her daughter, full of emotion with a big, warm smile on her face. 

She introduced the popular “Donde Voy” saying it was an immigrant’s story about crossing the border, migrating, finding a new life. She sang the song with a rich, full and emotionally mature tone. I think it was my favorite song of the evening. 

I look forward to following Tish and seeing her again as she rebuilds her career after putting down her guitar for a few years. 

Note to Lone Star Jukebox

Thank you for the opportunity to review Tish Hinojosa. I know she was not on the original list that was sent out via Facebook, however by the time I tried to buy tickets, Ian More and Reckless Kelly were sold out. Then about that time I heard on Border Radio that Tish was in town on Friday, and I knew I had to go see her! 

Feel free to read all or part of this review. The background story is there to add interest, and to help others understand the connection between the song, listener and artist for this story. 

Enjoy!

ATPI Summer Workshop June 2016

ATPI Summer Workshop.
June 2016.

Wow. Just Wow.

First, I had to take "street photos". Really? Me? Ok. So I got into my car in the middle of the day 24 hours before the photos were due. The day before I leave for the workshop. They were due uploaded to the ATPI website by sundown on Saturday. "I'll go shoot one or two decent photos", I thought. In auto mode, of course.

Then about 6:00 pm, the sun was setting in the sky and the light was perfect. So I grabbed my camera and headed out to take a few more pictures.

And to my surprise, when I got back, some of them were not half bad!

Hopson June 2016 - Street Photos

We met early Sunday morning in Austin, beginning with a slideshow and an introduction of John Isaac. He is undoubtably one of the greatest photographers of all time. His stories brought joy, as well as tears, to all of our eyes and hearts. He deserved the Pulitzer. He deserves more Pulitzers. Do yourself a favor and become familiar with his work.
johnisaac.com

Next was the critique of our Street Photos that we uploaded. The first 4 went well. They liked the content, which was surprising since I really did not spend a lot of time on them. And in some cases, just felt like I got really lucky with "that shot". But I soon learned, my eye was better than I thought. What was holding me back was my lack of camera skills.

So off we went for our Urban Experience led by experts John Isaac and John Knaur. We started at Barton Springs, on the back side with the canoes and waterfalls. I was shooting a shot of the canoes when a paddle boarder came into my view and was framed by one of the trees. I immediately went back down to the ground and took the shot.


Bazinga! I got it! During our critique that evening, I showed this picture first and many said "I almost got that shot." I replied, "Well, I did get it."

My confidence was up, but I was still shooting in auto mode.

Before lunch we went out to a very bright soccer field where folks were playing volleyball, soccer and ultimate frisbee to practice action shots. The sun was harsh and straight up in the sky making it hard to shoot. However, we all commented that this is the time of day when most of our photographers are taking action shots, so we all started taking pictures. I learned how important it was to be on the "good" side of the sun, even in mid-day. I also got out of auto mode when a few folks helped me set the manual setting for bright sun. The following is a decent action shot, but the shadow is on his face because I was not properly placed in relation to the sun. I needed to be on the other side of the field with a longer lens to get the sun on his face instead of a shadow.

 During lunch, Leah Waters, one of the expert volunteers and a photography teacher, sat next to me and began to explain how aperture, shutter speed and ISO all work together. After lunch we headed to downtown Austin. I took a few good shots, but mainly folks took good shots of me that day.
Here is my best from downtown. Nice repetition, but no subject to draw the eye to.



Here is Delia Alderete's version of the same, except with a subject.

Much better. Yes, that is me.
These too. Lol.



The workshop began on Monday afternoon. We were given 4 assignments for the workshop to shoot, choose our best 4 or 5 photos to crop, color correct and input metadata. As I went through the week, I decided to focus on my skills of balancing the ISO, white balance and shutter speed while in low light. So I requested dark places, such as a theater, winery tasting room and a jewelry show.

And although you would think that the winery would have been my favorite, right? Here are a few from the winery tasting room, as well as a video we put together as a group.

(Oops - too big for Blogger, need to upload to YouTube and link. I will do that later!!)

Well, actually, my favorite shoot was the Moon Dance Arts Jewelry shop in Wimberley Square.  The owner's were absolutely lovely and so excited to have us. We dove right in taking photos of the equipment, machinery, shop and jewelry. The owner's, Kathy and Gary Arnold, also demonstrated several techniques of jewelry making for us to photograph. And here is my end product of the Moon Dance Arts Jewelry shop. I cannot believe that in just 4 days, I was able to shoot such detailed photos of shop owners and their beautiful jewelry! This is due to the great teaching from all of the experts and volunteers who were at the ATPI Summer Workshop!

I cannot wait until next year!
(And yes, I also taught myself how to create a video using the Photoshop Slideshow technique.)