CEM

I am sitting here at my computer; I have not blogged all week. I have really wanted to write something. The week has been taken up with planning the future of the Center for Emerging Media, so we can become the new public media for our community. It has taken time to raise money and plan productions. I am lucky that despite the uncertainty, Jessica Phillips and Justin Levy, my producers, left WYPR to work with me and build CEM.

So, this morning I was all set to wax forth on Presidential campaigns, Obama and Wright, the property tax wars in Baltimore City, and the future of the bay and the crabs that are trying to survive in it, but I am just not there right now. I will be, though, in the coming days. Right now, I keep reflecting on how this has been an interesting two weeks of lecturing at colleges and emceeing. It has filled me with a joy and hope for our future.

And this morning, I was all set to write, when I went outside to look at the field across from our home. A family of foxes dug its den across the road. The mama fox gave birth to five kits the other week. So instead of writing I went outside with my binoculars to watch the kits cavort with one another, leaping in the air and wrestling. Some wandered over to suckle on their mother, who sat calmly watching over her offspring to ensure their safety.

Then, just as I had my fill of my new neighbors the Foxes, Valerie called me outside again. Her hands were cupped around a baby finch that had left its nest too early. It was huddled up on the windowsill of our den. She called the wild animal rescue lady and now has the baby in one of the carrying cases she keeps around to rescue small things lost or injured. My lady is a reiki master and performed her reiki healing on the young bird. We will see how the young, downy-covered boy fairs today.

The spring is full of life and new birth, as I’m witnessing with the exciting and creative growth of the Center for Emerging Media.

We will be sending our fund drive letter out to you all soon, so you can support your new public media meeting ground in Baltimore. CEM will be doing some interesting things for and with you in the coming months.

Last night, I was the emcee for a Baltimore Green Week event at Morgan State University. The keynote speaker was Van Jones, who is the founder of Green for All. WEAA recorded his talk. It was so inspirational. He is working to bridge the gap between social and environmental justice. His thrust is that building a green economy creates jobs and is the way to start ending inner city poverty in America.

He is right. We have to build industries in this country based on solar and alternative energy technologies. Just retrofitting all the buildings in America can create millions of jobs. He calls for a Green New Deal to stimulate this economy, government stimulus that will release the entrepreneurial spirit to create new jobs and new industry. He is right we have to dream big and push for a new America. Our country needs to be the world leader of the new Green Economy. The earth and our future will not wait. It has to happen now and we have to make it happen.

This week, I also lectured to a graduate communications class at Morgan and moderated a panel of actors, a writer, director and producer from The Wire at the Baltimore Museum of Industry. You can hear The Wire panel right on our site.

Two weeks ago, it was Goucher, this week Morgan, and I continued to be inspired by this generation of twenty-somethings in our midst. They want to do the right thing, are socially committed, and the graduate students I met at Morgan want nothing to do with corporate media. They want to create their own and say what has to be said.

So, all in all, it has been a good week. And next week, well I promise to write more…and want to hear from you.

Have a wonderful weekend…see you at the Flower Mart in Mt. Vernon.

-Marc

Welcome to the Center for Emerging Media's new website!

We're so excited to bring this to you after working on it for a month and a half. This website brings together in one place all our various projects, and also incorporates an interactive forum for our listeners to interact with each other.

If you have any questions about how to use this website or where something is located, leave a comment below or send me an email at jes.phillips@gmail.com.

To navigate the website, pay attention to the top menu bar. That will be your number one place to go once you know what you wanted to do. Do you want to read the blog? Click on "Blog". Do you want to listen to CEM programs? Click on "Programs". And so on. Once you make a decision, depending on what you click on, the right column will give you more options. For example, if you click on Programs, the right column will show you what programs we have available for you to listen to. If you click on Blog, the right column will show you archived entries and tags.

Just click around and get to know the site. Please let us know if you have any problems or questions about how this works!

We look forward to seeing you all in the forums and on this blog!
-Jessica

We're so proud and pleased and overwhelmed to announce that this morning the Center for Emerging Media was honored with a 2007 Peabody Award for the series Just Words.  Just Words was a weekly documentary feature series that gave voice to marginalized people-low wage workers, ex felons, recovering addicts, the homeless, and more.  You can listen to it here.

We share the honor this year with some of our colleagues in public radio such as Speaking of Faith, the Brian Lehrer Show, and Wait, Wait...Don't Tell Me!  Also honored were television programs such as The Colbert Report and the BBC/Discovery Channel series Planet Earth.  A full list of  2007 winners can be found here.  All the winners ever are listed here.

Thanks for all your support!  We couldn't do without it.

Nina Noble and friends accepting the Emmy for Outstanding Miniseries for HBO's The Corner in 2000.  She is on far left.

I have major sympathy for Nina Noble.  We share a job title (okay, well her title has the fancy 'Executive' in front of it) and people are constantly asking me "What does a producer DO?"  I imagine she gets the same question.  I always like to answer, "I do all the work" and then flash a smile.  If Marc is around, I will usually add jokingly, "...and he gets all the glory." (Fair enough, really, considering he also has to bear the brunt of all the criticism!)

But seriously, Nina Noble had a gigantic job as Executive Producer of The Wire.  From convincing the Port of Baltimore to let them shoot scenes on location to keeping track of the hundreds of characters David Simon and the other writers created, it's a wonder she didn't burn out long ago.  But as she told Marc when she sat down for an interview about the experience of working on The Wire, this is the only job she is suited for.

Click here to stream the interview.  Right click here and select "Save Target As" in order to download this onto your computer.  Want to get this in iTunes?  Instructions are below, just click "Read More". Running time is 40:20.

It’s easy to subscribe to any podcast using iTunes, even ones that aren’t available in the iTunes Store. To subscribe, find and copy the podcast’s feed URL. In the “Advanced” menu, select “Subscribe to Podcast” and paste the feed URL into the dialog box.

The URL for the CEM podcast is
http://www.switchpod.com/users/cem/feed.xml

This way, your ITUNES should update whenever we add a new podcast.

External Links

• David Simon: The Wire Exit Interview from Baltimore City Paper
• Bittersweet Work of Wrapping 'Wire' from The New York Times
• What Does a Producer Do?by Marshall Persinger
• Nina Noble from Internet Movie Database

We're back again today with another fantastic interview for you.  Last week Marc sat down with Robert Chew, the Baltimore native who has portrayed the east Baltimore drug lord Proposition Joe for the past several years on the hit HBO series The Wire.  Prop Joe, as he came to be known, was an iconic figure that represented a time in Baltimore where the drug trade was less violent and bloody, when word was bond, and "The Game" was something very different than what it is today.

Click here to steam that interview.  Or, right click here and choose "Save Target As."  Running time is 34 minutes.  You can read the transcript here.

Click read more for interviews and resources.

• Robert Chew on the Internet Movie Database
• The Arena Players Youtheatre
• An Interview with Prop Joeon The FADER
• Back to School from Baltimore City Paper-this article goes in-depth regarding the coaching Chew provided to the four young men who starred in season four.
• The TV Club talks about Prop Joe's fate (spoiler alert!) on Slate.com
• Wire Watch from Time Magazine (spoiler alert!)

Sunam is only 3 years old. She is dressed up in her bridal outfit as she prepares to marry her 7 year old cousin. Photo Credit: Farzana Wahidy/AP.

We have brand new content for you from the Center for Emerging Media! Stream the podcast here. (Or just right click on that link, and choose "Save Link As."  This will download it onto your computer.  Thanks to our intelligent reader Ron Counsell for figuring this one out!) Program length is 39: 21.

Female genital mutilation. Sex slaves. Human trafficking. These are the topics that journalist Maria Hinojosa thought of when she was deciding which global women's issue to focus on for a special episode of NOW, the acclaimed PBS program. But a phone call to a source set her straight. The biggest issue facing women globally is not genital mutilation, or slavery. It is the millions of women that are forced to marry as children. 51 million girls under the age of 18 are married. According to a report by the International Center for Research on Women, that number will rise to 100 million by the end of this decade. Marc and Maria sat down and talked about her documentary Child Brides; Stolen Lives which premiered on PBS in 2007.

You can stream that interview here. (Program length is 39: 21)

Want to watch the documentary? Visit the website of Now on PBS.

Under the cut...resources and pictures!

Here are a couple of the girls you will meet in this documentary and interview

Habi

Habi lives in Niger. She will tell the story of how she came to be incontinent as a result of being married as a child.

Mamta

Mamta was only 7 when she was married to a man she had never met. She is afraid of her husband.

Other resources

Several months ago, the New York Times Magazine published a stunning series of pictures of child brides in Afghanistan with their husbands. Here is a link to that article and slideshow. One photo is above. Ghulam Haider, 11, is to be married to Faiz Mohammed, 40. She had hoped to be a teacher but was forced to quit her classes when she became engaged. Photo Credit: Stephanie Sinclair for the New York Times

The International Center for Research on Women has a wealth of information about child marriages. Visit their online exhibit Too Young To Wed: Child Marriage in their Own Words.

Let us know what you think of the interview.

-Jessica

I just read each and every one of your entries on the blog. It is hard to know what say.

For starters, show up at the Community Board meeting on February 20th. It will be at the Baltimore Museum of Art in the Meyerhoff Auditorium at 7 pm. I have no idea what the WYPR representation will say but I am sure that it will be a continued misrepresentation of the truth.

What I am really worried about is the future of public radio in our community. WYPR will be here for a long to come. Morning Edition, All Things Considered, Car Talk, Prairie Home Companion and all the other national programming you love will be there. They won't go off the air.

What is missing in the you in public radio. I think about all the times during the fund drives (which they cancelled for February) I said to you "that you are the public in public radio, that is why I named WYPR "Your Public Radio". I feel like you were betrayed and lied to.

The management of the station has done a remarkable job building underwriting. Perhaps the best job in public radio
But they have let membership wither on the vine. No money, or I should say very little money is invested in serving members, getting new members or marketing the station.
While they may make enough money with underwriters to sustain themselves, the heart and soul of public radio is the listener members. There has to be a balance. The balance is gone. You are not cared about nor there to ensure the democratic nature of the station.

The board has some wonderful people on it who love and are very devoted to public radio. While we need corporate and philanthropic leaders on any non-profit board what is missing are the everyday listeners who invest their money in this station. They are not heard. They do not have a seat at the table. Gary Levin is there as President of the Friends Group but he is ex-officio with no vote. The board does not reflect those listeners who invest in and support the station.

These are just two of the battles I have fought and lost at the station. I will tell you more stories along the way on this blog, and soon we will begin some new productions on the web.

Jessica Phillips, who was a producer on the Marc Steiner Show from October 2005 to February 2007, has come to work for me. I have a production company called The Center for Emerging Media that has produced a series on the Vietnam War and a series called Just Words, about the lives of the working poor and other marginalized groups. You can go to our website to see some of what we have done. The whole Vietnam series, Shared Weight, will be posted soon. The website itself is going to be rebuilt.

I thought soon, even though we will continue for a time to talk about the station madness, we should talk together on this blog about the issues of day. We will be posting interviews and productions soon as well.

So, we will all stay in touch.

Thanks so much for your support.

-Marc