A storyteller's story

Posts Tagged ‘poverty’

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68Blocks: Life, Death, Hope

In audio, multimedia, print, video on January 27, 2012 at 9:53 pm

68 Blocks

I was part of a team of Boston Globe reporters, photographers, videographers, and data visualization specialists, who spent 2012 focused on the Bowdoin-Geneva section of Dorchester, a neighborhood often identified with the violence that erupts with disconcerting regularity and not with the people who live there. The Globe rented an apartment in the neighborhood, where reporter Meghan E. Irons and myself, lived from May to September. The result was 68 Blocks: Life, Death, Hope, a beautiful, interactive tableau chronicling life during one of the neighborhood’s most turbulent seasons, the summer.

Role: Reporter, writer, researcher, videographer

Awards: Journalistic innovation first-place win from the National Headliner Awards; Unity Award from the Radio Television Digital News Association; Honorable Mention multimedia, 2013 competition for Casey Medals for Meritorious Journalism; NABJ Salute to Excellence Finalist; 2013 Dart Award Finalist.

Postscript: I have returned to Bowdoin-Geneva several times since the series published, witnessing the rebirth of a blighted lot, a mother’s worst fear realized, and a young man who defeated the odds.

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Badge is no shield for black officers

In print on August 23, 2010 at 2:19 pm

Byline: Akilah Johnson Staff Writer
Date: April 18, 2005
For Sgt. Michael Coleman and Officer Terance Scott, being black men in police blue is tougher since the death of Jerrod Miller.

They’re trying to reconcile their feelings of loss over the death of a black teenager shot by a white co-worker with their loyalty to the department while warding off increasing criticism from some black residents who characterize them as nothing more than sellouts.
Read the rest of this entry »

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Living: Builders of Hope

In multimedia, video on August 22, 2010 at 9:08 am

Builders of Hope, a non-profit organization in Raleigh, NC, relocates and recycles homes slated for demolition, offering working-class families the chance to live in affordable houses in safe neighborhoods.

While preserving as much of the home’s original wooden structure as possible, the organization upgrades salvaged homes and utilizes green techniques. All houses are sold at prices high enough to recapture the building costs but well below their new appraised values.

This video was produced by Shell Zun Zhu and Akilah Johnson for the multimedia project Greening the Grid.

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Checkmate

In video on August 22, 2010 at 8:52 am

The award-winning Raider Rooks Chess Team at Edison Park Elementary School in Miami struggled to make it to tournaments due to budget cuts.

At the school, chess is a tool used to boost self-esteem, improve academics and behavior as well as expose students to the world outside of their impoverished neighborhood.

The elementary school sits wedged between an Interstate 95 barrier wall and a public housing project in Miami’s Little Haiti neighborhood.

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City Concrete Gardens

In multimedia, video, web design on August 18, 2010 at 10:40 pm

City Concrete Gardens is a documentary web project that examines how community gardens stimulate economic development and improve public health in Miami-Dade County’s low-income and minority communities. It is the capstone project for my master’s degree in journalism from the University of Miami in Spring 2010.

I gathered and produced all the content—both written and filmed—as well as designed, planned and programmed the site. This website is culmination of three semesters of very, very long days spent studying multimedia journalism— everything from usability, navigation, design, production to audio and storytelling.

Role: producer/project manager, videographer, web designer, programmer and writer

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Miami’s Silent Struggle

In multimedia on August 10, 2010 at 11:09 am

Miami has the distinction of being one of the poorest and richest cities in the United States. However, in between the rich and the poor are people who make too much money to qualify for food stamps but not enough money to fill their refrigerators. Miami’s Silent Struggle tells their stories and spreads awareness through videos, text and graphics.

Role: designer and programming assistant