September 20, 2023 • 40 mins
Get ready to be inspired by Dr. Jimmeka Anderson, a visionary educator from Charlotte, North Carolina. Her passion for film and education to build a path for young Black girls in the media industry is nothing short of astounding. Specializing in critical digital media literacies, Dr. Anderson shares her journey into media literacy, pursuing a Ph.D. in Urban Education and creating a groundbreaking initiative, the Black Girls Film Camp.
Navigating the rigorous world of a Ph.D. program is not for the faint-hearted. Hear about Dr. Anderson's struggles and victories, how she maintained her authenticity, and how she tackled the well-known imposter syndrome. Learn from her experience on how she mastered the art of trusting her own expertise and standing her ground in an academic setting that often leans towards publicly accessible data.
We take you through the incredible journey of the Black Girls Film Camp. Dr. Anderson designed this program to empower girls aged 13 to 18, providing them with adequate resources to transform a story concept into a short film. They get to tour studios like ARRAY Creative Campus and Walt Disney Studios and get to see their work premiered at renowned film festivals. Lastly, we address the profound impact of media on mental health and the vital role of media literacy education. So, tune in as we share Dr. Anderson's advice for Black women and non-binary doctoral students about staying true to their paths.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Ijeoma Kola (00:03):
Welcome to the Cohort Sisters podcast, where we
give voice to the stories,struggles and successes of Black
women and non-binary scholarswith doctoral degrees.
I'm your host, dr Jamakola, andtoday we're joined by Dr
Jimmeka Anderson, with a PhD inCurriculum and Instruction from
the University of North Carolinaat Charlotte.
Dr Anderson is a visionaryeducator specializing in
(00:27):
critical digital medialiteracies among Black girls.
She's the driving force behindthe Black Girls Film Camp, an
innovative initiative providinghigh school Black girls across
the US with a transformative16-week experience to pitch,
develop and produce their ownshort films.
The founder of I Am Not theMedia Inc.
(00:47):
Dr Anderson's impactful workextends beyond the camp.
She's a project manager for theNational Association of Media
Literacy Education and a projectfellow for the Cyber
Citizenship Initiative with NewAmerica, with features in Wired
Magazine, the New York Times andNPR.
Dr Anderson's dedication hasgarnered awards like the
Crowning Achiever Award from theCrown Jewel, north Carolina
(01:10):
links.
Welcome to the show, dr Anderson.
Thank you.
I'm glad to be here.
We're excited to have you too.
I want to know a little bitabout you where you're from,
where you currently live now andwhen you are not working and
getting Black girls to developand make their own films, what
do you?
Jimmeka Anderson (01:30):
like to do?
Oh okay, Well, the first partis very simple.
I am from Charlotte, NorthCarolina, born and raised, and I
am still at home in Charlotte,North Carolina.
I love Charlotte, I'm aCharlotte girl, I've been to
cities all over the UnitedStates and I just wouldn't
change it for nothing.
So I am a Charlotte girl and sowhat I'm doing outside of Black
(01:54):
girls' film camp, you cantypically find me writing poetry
.
I'm a poet at heart.
I've been writing since I wasmaybe like six or seven years
old.
I fell in love with MayaAngelou when I was younger and
then really fell in love withNikki Giovanni and started doing
spoken word in college andperforming in front of an
(02:16):
audience and publish three booksnow of poetry.
So that's what I'm doingtypically when I'm not doing
Black girls' film camp, whichstill is a form of Black girl
literacy.
Ijeoma Kola (02:26):
It absolutely is.
So how did you becomeinterested in film and urban
education?
I'm kind of curious how thesetwo things like where did the
love for film come from?
And the love for teaching Blackgirls' film, but also the love
of education, when were theroots of those?
Jimmeka Anderson (02:48):
Yeah.
So I would say the love of filmthat has been there my whole
life.
I grew up as a child ofBlockbuster in the 80s and 90s
and so, like movies and cinemahas always been embedded in me.
Even with me and my friends,when we get up we're having a
movie night.
(03:08):
So I've always been a lover ofmovies and film.
And then even I was a Barbiegirl and I used to put them
together in my own productions.
Growing up I always had a lovefor that.
It wasn't until after Igraduated with my bachelor's, my
bachelor's in human development, family studies.
I'm a first generation collegestudent, didn't know what I was
(03:28):
doing in college, I just knew Ihad to go and be the first.
But once I got out I had beendoing a lot of programming and
working in the nonprofit spacewith youth, with teenagers, when
I still technically wasn't toofar off from being a big star
and just saw a huge connectionwith youth through media,
through music, through films,through movies.
(03:49):
But then also was seeing how itwas shaping the youth that I
was serving at that time theirlives, but also shaping my life,
how it has shaped my life andwas still shaping my life as
well.
So that's when I started doingmedia literacy.
But at the time didn't knowthat that was the term, I just
knew I was wanting to sit downand analyze lyrics and I'm
packing and discuss like what isthe hidden and unhidden
(04:12):
messages in the song or what arethe messaging from this
commercial or this advertisement?
Just really became obsessedwith media construction and the
messaging of media and soeventually turned it into an
organization and learned that Iwas actually doing media
literacy, built a lot ofrelationships with media
literacy scholars and educatorson a national level.
(04:33):
A lot of them wanted to startdoing research with the
programming that I was doing,had no idea, once again, just
had the bachelor's that I hadachieved all there was to
achieve.
I was the first to go tocollege.
But when I started seeing, ohokay, you can do research on
this.
Well, you all don't look likeme and why do you want to
research with the youth I'mserving that look like me, you
(04:55):
know.
And so that's when I got reallyintrigued to go back to school
and majored in media education.
And I did that at AppalachianState University and got my
master's and then pursued my PhD.
So just backing up, backing upa bit the work that I was doing
with I'm not the media startedgrowing tremendously with
(05:16):
workshops where organizations,schools, boys and girls clubs,
girls scouts, anyone with youth,were booking me to come and do
workshops about media literacywith their youth.
And so from that I learned thatmedia literacy there's this
component of analyzing that,there's still this component of
creation.
And so I started doing a lot ofmedia creation work, with doing
(05:40):
podcasting, with doing video,psa, short documentaries, and so
there's this huge mediacreation piece, but also seeing
the benefit of youth being apart of the process, feeling
like they had a voice, beingactive, participate,
participants in the narrativesthat were being constructed, I
(06:02):
grew a fascination in that rightand understanding that now, wow
, this tool where we'reunpacking that has been used
historically to oppress canactually be used to liberate,
because these kids now have theauthority, agency and power to
construct their own messagesright.
And so I pursued my PhD andwanted to dive deeper in
(06:24):
building out curriculum,learning how I can build out
curriculum and targethistorically marginalized
students through media literacy.
And so that's how I landed inthe Urban Education Program,
because that program was gearedtowards helping me really dive
in and unpack theory andunderstand the constructs that
have created the powerstructures that we see in our
(06:46):
lifetime, that have beenembedded into the fabrication of
our everyday lives andpractices in ways in which we
get engaged in the ideologiesthat we have, that we have no
clue where they've come from,and so that program really
helped prepare me to betterserve historically marginalized
students and leverage theconnection between how media has
(07:07):
been used as this ideologicalapparatus to continue to
perpetuate systems of power andhow we can utilize it to
deconstruct it as well, and so Ikind of take that approach in
theory with how I teach medialiteracy now, and so that's how
the two marry.
Ijeoma Kola (07:25):
Yeah, yes, well, thank you for explaining.
It's a perfect marriage, a verybeautiful marriage.
I am curious, before we getinto the nitty gritty of your
doctoral journey.
I want to know, because weoften talk to people on the show
who either have made a careerpivot if they have worked before
going to grad school, and thenthey'll kind of do something
(07:45):
different after grad school.
When you went into the doctoralprogram, it seems as if you had
a clear idea that you weregoing to continue doing the same
kind of work.
You were just going to do itwith more knowledge and with
more expertise.
So can you just talk a littlebit about how you thought of at
the beginning, before you evenstarted the doctoral program,
like how you thought about whereit would change your, how it
(08:09):
would change your careertrajectory, if at all?
Did you think about that at thetime, or were you just really
focused on Let me just get thisthe fear, the theoretical
background, theoreticalframeworks for how to continue
doing the work?
Jimmeka Anderson (08:21):
Before I went into the PhD program, I had no
idea what a theoreticalframework was.
Okay, I just knew I wanted tobe the one that's doing the
research and I wanted to enhancethe work that I was doing, the
curriculum that I was doing withthe youth.
And so once I got into the PhDprogram, I knew my focus was on
(08:46):
media literacy and specificallyworking with historically
marginalized students.
Or or should I say criticalmedia literacy, because media
leaders and critical medialiteracy are two different
frameworks.
Right, you have a critical kindof theoretical lens applied to
media literacy that looks atsystems of power.
But so I knew I was going intothat in that that wrap.
(09:09):
I knew I was going that waywithout knowing the terminology.
We're having the vocabulary.
You know what I mean To definewhat it was.
And so when I got into the PhDprogram, I remember, like my
first semester in my cohort Iwas hearing about other other
(09:31):
colleagues in their likeresearch and I was like, oh my
gosh, that sounds amazing.
And I remember, like you comein and you start getting pulled
like in my face my work and myresearch.
That impactful should I reallybe.
Yeah, I need to be over here,because this day that they
talking about that.
They need some help.
I need help research this.
And I remember meeting with anadvisor and she was like, do not
(09:52):
, do not get pulled.
You know, like, keep yourvision ahead, like what your
passion about staying in there,because that passion is gonna
create longevity.
It's very much needed, it'svery much necessary.
The work, the need, you justneed to, you know, read and do
(10:12):
the research to back up why thisis such a value and why it's so
necessary.
And so when I started diving inand learning about the
theoretical frameworks andseeing the ties and the
connections you can't tell methere wasn't a case of why
critical media literacy isneeded.
You know what I'm saying, yep,and where the gaps lie.
And so, you know, I was in thebeginning kind of sway, like
(10:37):
whoa, maybe I should be overhere doing this, or maybe I
should do this.
And then, you know, a lot ofstudents were doing a lot of
research at the time and it wasreally being pushed with us like
publish, publish, publish tomake yourself.
You know, if you're trying togo out for the, the professor
track, and initially I wasthinking I might, that might be
a possibility, you know, basedoff of.
(10:57):
You know, my advisor and I waskind of.
You know, you get into the PhDprogram, they're trying to pull
you in a little bit on thatprofessor track and I'm like,
okay, maybe I need to jump thetrain.
Like, let's be honest, when yougo into a PhD program, you're
dealing with a lot of impostersyndrome.
You're questioning a lot ofthings about you and what you
should be doing, what youthought you knew, and so I kind
(11:19):
of fell prey to kind of likeallowing a little bit of that
molding to happen, where it'slike, well, maybe I should
consider the professor trackright.
And so this is true story.
I started going along that routeand I was starting to do, I was
starting to be involved withlike opportunity hoarding, like,
okay, I need to do this, I needto be my CV up, I need to be
(11:42):
writing.
And then I'm ran into the blockwith with the field that, the
field that I'm in, with criticalmedia literacy, a lot of the
students that were publishing.
They were able to pull likepublicly accessible data and I'm
like there's no publiclyaccessible data on critical
media literacy.
I have to angle this thing adifferent way to get like, you
know, national report card, naicdata or civil rights data, like
(12:05):
how do I position this, towrite about it?
And I don't want to reach toofar to make the connection of
Critical media literacy.
You know, I mean I literallystarted going down the route
with, like tech inequity, like,okay, digital digital skills,
the connection betweentechnology access that I was
like Now kind of down here so Ican write you know what I mean,
just have something to writeabout, because I felt like I had
(12:28):
to publish, I had to build myCV.
I'm not saying that it was acompletely bad thing.
It did help build me more as ascholar to have that experience
and figure out some of theconnections.
But I couldn't really dive deepon the critical media literacy
side because, you know, criticalmedia literacy it's not about
quant, it's more about aqualitative kind of analysis, so
(12:50):
to speak, with really workingwith kids and seeing how it's
impacting them in ways that maynot quantify and so and that's
just usually how doing any kindof literacy based educational
research works, usually likereally Diving in to see the
socio-cultural practices and howit's impacting them.
And so I had to start realizing, like jimica, stand your own
(13:13):
lane.
What happened to me is with me,trying to Be with someone else,
was trying to make me be.
While I was in that phd program.
I was like having An inner bodyreaction to it.
It was like I don't like this,I don't want this.
I was, I was eating crazy Likeit was.
I was stressed I had started.
(13:35):
When I told you I had took on somany opportunities.
Gata, I mean, I was thegraduate, uh, graduate student
counselor a, e, r, a.
I mean I'm just doing the most.
And I was.
I got some point.
I was like I don't even enjoythis.
I don't even like this.
I enjoy doing my program, Ienjoy creating experiences for
(13:57):
youth, I enjoy working withyouth, understanding youth.
And I remember even having aconversation with my mentor and
I was like people are startingto look at me like this Expert
and I don't like how it feels.
And she told me.
She said You're an expert inthe work you're doing with youth
.
Just own that.
No one knows your program, whatcomes out of your program, how
(14:19):
youth are engaging, what you'relearning from the youth in your
program like you do, and justown that.
And so I actually had to dolike a full circle and come back
around and say, hey, I don'twanna do professorship, I don't
wanna do all of this extra stuffto build my CV.
Let me just walk in my passionand my purpose and everything
(14:44):
else started just organicallyflowing like speaking requests,
invited speaking opportunities,invited collaborations, news
opportunities.
Let me just stay here, right,yeah yeah.
Because you operate in this pathand so I had to kind of have a
full circle kind of situation.
And it was kind of scarybecause, you know, I had been
(15:06):
doing so much work with myprofessor at the time and I was
like I don't know, I wanna doprofessorship.
Ijeoma Kola (15:13):
Yes, yeah.
So I feel like I relate a lotto the idea that you don't want
to disappoint, especially ifyou're a first gen and if you
find a mentor or an advisor whoyou actually like, which is rare
.
If you find one who you like,you know there is an element of
(15:34):
well.
I don't wanna disappoint you.
I know that you see so much inme.
You know they are enriching you, they are supporting you, they
are increasing your confidenceby telling you that you can do
all these things.
But it is also, as you mentionedlike, really important to not
necessarily go down the pathjust because someone says you
should be a professor Becausethat's all they know.
That's often what they knowbecause that's their career and
(15:57):
so everyone is gonna try to getyou to their side of the table.
But it's really frequent thatpeople in doctoral programs
heavily consider, as they shouldthey shouldn't rule it out and
academic career, because that'swhat their advisor has.
So I'm glad that you were ableto have come to use this moment
and just kind of assess all ofthe different things you were
(16:18):
doing and realize that youdidn't have to be, as you
mentioned, like hoardingopportunities and trying to step
your CV to chase a dream thatyou actually didn't even want in
the first place.
So hopefully someone else islistening to that and can just
take a moment, take a beat, toreassess and evaluate whether
all that you're struggling to door even, if you're not,
charlene, everything that you'redoing in grad school are you
(16:39):
actually doing it because youwant to be doing it or because
you think that's what's expectedof you for the next step.
So thanks for sharing that.
I wanna talk a little bit aboutthe specific program that you
were in.
So you mentioned that you're aCharlotte girl through and
through.
I love that.
Was there something specificabout the UNC Charlotte program
that was really compelling, thatmade it the best fit for you?
(17:04):
Did you explore other programs?
Did you end up, at the end ofthe day, being happy with that
decision?
Jimmeka Anderson (17:10):
Yes, so one.
The UNC Charlotte program Ithought was going to be a
perfect fit.
Not what's going, it was agreat fit for me, it was an
amazing program, but what reallylured me into it was one.
The program was ran by DrChance Lewis, who is phenomenal
(17:33):
and is very renowned in thefield of urban education, and he
spearheaded that program.
Additionally, I thought it wasvery intriguing that that
program was predominantly Blackscholars in that program.
So I was like, ooh, what wouldit be like to be in a program, a
cohort of predominantly Blackscholars, right?
(17:56):
And so I thought that was goingto be a culturally amazing
experience as well.
And so that's why I was like,ooh, I really want to do this.
Additionally, I have a daughter,so I'm a single mom.
I didn't want to leaveCharlotte.
My support structures are here,in addition to me loving
Charlotte, and most PhD programsare in person, and it's
(18:20):
specifically the ones that I waslooking at.
They were in person programs,so it was just the best fit for
me.
And then also, with UNCCharlotte being an R2
institution, I knew it wasn'twith me, kind of.
I didn't have a strong researchbackground like in my master's
program, but I felt like it wasa nice kind of transition from
(18:41):
going from a master's programthat was more heavy on practice
versus research for it to easeme into research, and so, yeah,
I thought it was a pretty goodfit, yes.
Ijeoma Kola (18:53):
So what were some of the successes and some of the
challenges that you experiencedduring your doctoral journey?
Jimmeka Anderson (19:03):
The successes and challenges.
Ijeoma Kola (19:04):
Yes, we'll give us like one high and one low.
Jimmeka Anderson (19:10):
Success.
Of course the success is goingto be finishing that
dissertation in a decent while.
So that was the high wasgetting that dissertation Locked
out.
I guess still got somecolleagues still working on that
dissertation.
I'm like, whew, that was asuccess.
I guess to get thatdissertation done.
(19:31):
So how?
Ijeoma Kola (19:32):
long did it take you From courses and then sorry.
Jimmeka Anderson (19:37):
I graduated in four years.
So it was about a year and ahalf process because I took
comps early, like I kind of spedthrough and ended up taking
comps, and so I took compsactually in my second year, wow.
And then I really startedcleaning up my proposal.
I defended my proposal inspring 2021, and I graduated in
(20:03):
spring 2022.
Wow, yeah, that was quick.
So another thing that helped meout with that was I could
completely focus on that in theschool arena.
And I say in the school arenabecause I actually was built
Black Girls Film Camp while Iwas pursuing my when I was doing
(20:24):
my PhD, and I was in the secondyear doing Black Girls Film
Camp while I was doing mydissertation, so I saved that.
But I didn't have to do anyGATA work because I received a
dissertation year fellowshipgrant and so that paid for me to
just focus completely on mywriting when it came to school,
(20:48):
and so all I had really wasdissertation and I could just
focus on that.
And then I had Black Girls FilmCamp going on at the same time,
which was amazing that thecards landed that way, because
otherwise I would have beendoing working writing and, you
know, managing and spearheadinga national, non-proper
(21:09):
occupation at the same time.
Ijeoma Kola (21:13):
Yeah, and so what were some of the challenges?
Jimmeka Anderson (21:17):
Challenges Well, I think I kind of spoke to
this a second ago, I thinkchallenges when you're a black
woman and trying to find theright mentor, and so you're.
You're trying to find otherblack women, phd scholars in the
.
In it for me in the universityand I was lucky for that my last
(21:41):
year in the PhD program, drAnderson, who's like a mentor to
me now and we're actually thesame age, but she's was an
overachiever and got her PhD,like before she was 30, but you
know she came in.
She has all this experience,have been teaching, been a
(22:02):
professor for like six yearsalready.
You know what I mean and justyou know.
But we were on the same, in thesame generation.
We can relate and you know,speak to each other, eye to eye,
you know, and really she couldmentor me in a peer kind of
mentor way and she came in my,my senior, what I don't know my
(22:25):
fourth year, my fourth year, myfourth year, I think I'm in high
school.
Ijeoma Kola (22:30):
I've never heard anyone referred to the doctoral
years as like seniors.
But what if you finish in four?
Then yeah, you were a senior, Iwork with teens all the time.
Jimmeka Anderson (22:40):
So I'm like, my senior year I mentor came out
of nowhere you know like, andshe was a new professor that was
brought in.
And I kind of joke and say thatshe was brought in.
For me even that sounds alittle bit like I think you were
(23:02):
meant.
You were meant to get here forme in my last year into the
program she ended up becomingcoming on as my co-chair.
But for those three years it'slike you really want to find
like this.
I know for me I really wantedto find this black woman PhD who
could speak to me, and I havebeen searching for that, and
(23:22):
then Dr A came on the scene orher last name is Anderson too,
but I call her Dr.
A.
She came on the scene first-gencollege student, all the things
, and I was like, wow, this isreally a really good match, and
so I had struggled with that forthe first three years.
Ijeoma Kola (23:40):
That was a challenge okay, okay, yeah, but
I love how I think you shouldjust keep on saying that she
came just for you.
She was sent just for you andit's really cool that she.
It sounds as if she served asboth a peer mentor and like a
faculty mentor, and I haven'theard of anyone else being able
(24:00):
to have that experience.
But you get the best of bothworlds you get the camaraderie
of someone who is around yoursame age, but also the authority
of a faculty member being onyour side.
So that's awesome.
That sounds like it was sheactually it really sounds like
she came just for you and I lovethat you were able to find that
kind of mentorship before youcompleted your program.
(24:23):
Thank you, I am too, so now Iwanna talk about your work.
So you just wrapped up the 2023cohort of Black Girls Film Camp
a couple of months ago and youguys do an all expense paid like
weekend retreat in LA.
So you take girls to LA abouthow many girls are they?
(24:45):
What do y'all do in LA and how,like, how is this funded?
It's just, it's so.
It's so inexpensive to me tofly a bunch of girls over to LA.
We'll love to know some of thehighlights of what happens
during the retreat and how itcontributes to the development
artistic development of theBlack Girls who participate in
the camp.
Jimmeka Anderson (25:06):
Yes, so the Black Girls Film Camp is a
annual initiative.
It's a 16 week program wheregirls from across the nation
pitch a story concept, a storyidea that centers a Black girl
and the story needs to focus onan issue that impacts Black
girls in the United States.
(25:27):
Right, and so they pitch thisstory idea.
We interview these girls.
We probably get like over threeto 400, it's ranged over the
last year, two years, from threeto 400 applications of interest
and we have to narrow it downbecause we only take 10 each
year.
So we take 10 girls between theages of 13 and 18.
And what we do is, once theyget selected, we help them
(25:52):
through education, throughtraining, to develop their short
films.
We then produce those films anddistribute those films.
And to support them withdeveloping those films, we
contract out Black womencreatives to serve as a
professional editor and creativecoach for each girl.
So each girl gets her owneditor and creative coach and we
(26:16):
call it their production team,their Black Girls Film Camp
production team.
So there's this Black womanthat's helping to support the
vision and all of herimagination and what's in her
mind with this story and makingher story come to life.
Additionally, we provide themwith technology.
We have a lot of sponsors.
We have a lot of sponsors.
(26:37):
We tend to do a lot of thisstuff without the sponsors.
So they get free technology.
So Sony cameras, they getlighting kits, they get boom
mics.
Beats by Dre has been a sponsor.
They get multiple pairs ofBeats by Dre headphones.
They get free software FinalDraft is a sponsor which is the
industry standard screenwritingsoftware.
(26:58):
So they actually get freesoftware to learn how to build
out their script utilizingindustry standard software.
They get Adobe Premiere forediting, and so they get all of
this stuff for free.
And then we also have advisorsthat help serve as industry
experts that supervise theproduction teams and also kind
(27:19):
of create this pipeline to serveas like a coach for the
professional women, and it'salso a resource for them and
maybe where they're trying toget into their career because
our advisors are successful inthe industry.
So, for instance, ourpost-production advisor she won
an Academy Award for editingeverything, everything
(27:41):
everywhere all at once.
Is that the name of it?
Yes, yes.
I think that's the name of ityeah.
Yes, an Academy Award.
You know, like these women,he's really done the thing in
the industry.
And so they serve as advisorsduring the 16 weeks to oversee
the production process of allthe girls in their production
(28:01):
teams.
So in the middle of the camp,because we go through
pre-production, then we go toproduction.
And when we go to production wethen do the LA retreat where we
fly each girl and a parentbecause we wanna make sure the
parent is involved and invested.
So we fly each girl and aparent and her production team,
which is her editor and hercoach.
So it's about 40 people wereflying to LA.
(28:24):
And when they come to LA wepartner with USC Annan Verge's
Critical Media Project.
It's a professor out there,alison Troupe, who I've been
working with in the nationalmedia literacy community and she
was in love with what I wasdoing the first year with Black
Girls Home Camp and she was likeI really wanna support this,
like let's figure this out, andI'm like, well, the world is
(28:46):
opening up post COVID.
I think we wanna do anin-person retreat as a part of
our production, like leadinginto the production process, and
she was like I'm on board.
So this is an annual retreatthis year.
This past year was our secondyear going.
We're now cleaning out thethird year, but it happens
midway when the girls transition.
For pre-production ofproduction, we have partnerships
(29:07):
for the girls to take trips.
So we went to Array CreativeCampus, which is Ava DuVernay's
creative campus, where they do alot of the production work for
a lot of the projects that theywork on.
The girls got to meet AvaDuVernay and we also partnered
with Walt Disney Studios wherethey got to tour their studio a
lot and they created like acustomized experience and allow
(29:30):
the girls to have lunch withtheir executives.
So they get to do all of that.
They also have courses with USCprofessors and they get to be
with their production teams inperson to work on their films in
person, because everyone isnationally everywhere.
So, our sessions are virtual.
So after that's done, they dothe post-production process.
(29:50):
They have a film and we debutand have a premiere in no other
place but Charlotte, NorthCarolina, and so the films are
debuted and then they go on afestival circuit and so we have
partnerships with festivals likeMill Valley Film Festival,
Bentonville.
This past year we were atEssence Film Festival and the
girls get to attend thefestivals and speak on panels
(30:14):
and talk about their storiesthat they created in this
program, but also just about theexperiences of black girls in
the United States.
So yeah, that's kind of thecamp in a nutshell.
Ijeoma Kola (30:25):
Yes, it's such a cool work Stuff that I wish I
mean I'm not even like thatinterested in.
I can't like lie and say thatI'm like a movie person or a
film person but, I, still wishit existed when I was a teenager
.
Jimmeka Anderson (30:39):
I know I was a teenager too.
Ijeoma Kola (30:41):
Yeah, but that's what we do, you know.
We create the things that wewish we had, and that's how we
make the world better.
I know that it's still.
It's huge and has grownexponentially, but since you
just said it's the second year,have you observed?
Do you feel like there aregirls who've done the film camp,
who are you know going to be?
(31:02):
Have you identified the nextgeneration of filmmakers?
Do you already know who theyare?
Jimmeka Anderson (31:10):
Yeah, so it's the second year for us doing the
LA Retreat.
It's the third year.
We just finished our third yearwith the camp, so we're now
going into the fourth year, andso me and my co-founder, we were
talking about that and was likewhoa, four years, that's like
senior year, right, like that.
Like whoa, we're gonna get acamp from fresh from this year,
right?
And so a lot of the girls arebeing impacted tremendously from
(31:35):
being in this space.
We also have an alumni program,so the girls, even once they
finish with the camp, there'sstill a lot of great
opportunities for them to stayinvolved.
We have meetups on the regular.
We have a IG chat and then wejust found out they have their
own little text chat that theydo where they don't want us to
see stuff, and we also havecreated opportunities for them
(32:02):
to serve as alumni coaches tohelp the next cohort that comes
in.
But these girls have utilizedtheir films to get into film
schools, such as NYU Tish, whereSpike Lee is at, and then you
got your USC, the tool ofcinematic arts, which is
sometimes they dispute whetherwhich one is the top film school
(32:24):
, right.
And then we have other girlsthat have continued to put their
films in film festivals and winawards on their film
individually.
So, even though we have thesepartnerships, the hostess
gratings, the girls can stillsubmit their films into film
festivals for awards andaccolades.
And I want to say just eventhis cohort that just came out,
(32:48):
out of 10 of the girls, six ofthem have already started
receiving awards and selectionsinto film festivals and some of
them have received more than one, like three, four film festival
selections, and they firstwatched their films each noon
and it's end of August.
So, yes, they definitely wantto go and pursue film.
These are the future filmmakersof tomorrow.
Ijeoma Kola (33:12):
I love it.
I'm so excited.
I like need to like see whichfilms I can watch and how I can
screen them.
It's really exciting.
So there's a lot of oh yes, wewill drop the website in the
show notes and that's what Iwill be doing with my weekend
for sure.
There's a lot of conversationright now about youth's exposure
to media, youth's consumptionof media, typically focused
(33:36):
around social media, but I'dlove if you can speak a little
bit to how media literacy canplay a role in addressing
broader societal issues such asrepresentation, identity and
equity, particularly for youth,and also how it can be kind of
like a protective barrieragainst some of the more like
(33:56):
negative and insidious elementsand aspects of the media that we
consume.
Jimmeka Anderson (34:03):
Absolutely.
I mean education in general isa remedy to a lot of the issues
that a lot of people are subjectand prey to many of the
challenges that we experience inour society, because lack
thereof, like lack of educationon certain topics, issues Media
(34:24):
literacy education equipsstudents to engage with media in
a more active, participatoryway, for them to become more
critical and conscious to thecontent that they're engaging
with, the messaging, thelanguage, all of those things
and really be able to unpack itin a way where they're not just
(34:47):
inactive consumers, where, whenyou're an inactive consumer or a
lazy consumer media, you'rejust watching it right and
you're not even paying attentionto how the messaging is shaping
you Media and messaging is youconsume it just like you consume
food.
That's why we call we alwayssay like, what is your media
(35:09):
diet, because sometimes youdon't realize your consuming
content, your consumingmessaging in your mental.
It's impacting your mentalhealth.
But if you're an activeconsumer media you're constantly
asking critical questions asyou're engaging or you're
thinking critically while you'reconsuming.
So you're asking yourself likewho's represented, who's not
(35:30):
represented?
Why am I not represented?
What is this saying?
What is this trying to sell me?
Even if it's not anadvertisement.
How is this group beingrepresented and how might this
impact their perception on thiscultural group?
Or how is it impacting me andmy perception?
Also, it's making you think andengage in a more politically
(35:54):
conscious way, because you startlooking at systems of power and
how they're being perpetuatedin it.
So you're looking at race, sex,sexual orientation, you're
looking at gender.
You're looking at all of thatand you're seeing how gender
roles are being perpetuated.
You're seeing how the constructof relationships and what that
(36:15):
should look like For me growingup.
I grew up in the 90s in hip hopand for some reason I thought I
wanted me a Tupac.
But you know what I mean,because that was idolized.
And then I'm dating theseTupacs and I'm unhappy and I'm
like what's happening?
Why am I not getting what Iwant?
Why am I not getting 20s R&Blove?
You know what I mean, what I'mattracted to the Tupac.
(36:38):
I'm attracted to Tupac, but thenyou gotta start unpacking that
a little bit more, so you reallystart becoming more critical
and understanding like, wow,this person is being reflected
as something to be held of value.
There's the value expectancytheory as a concept that makes
us create value with some of theimagery we see.
(36:59):
But then, at the same time,what is that messaging saying to
me as a young lady, and to theman, which is telling him, like
you should have many women andyou should have this persona?
And so we're getting twodifferent messaging with the
same media.
And it's that when you becomethis active consumer, you start
(37:19):
asking these questions, right,and so you become more resilient
to it.
And then, when it comes tosocial media and representations
, a lot of young girls are beingexposed to content to show them
, to desire them, to want to bethin.
You're seeing hashtag bodygoals, you're seeing hashtag
relationship goals and all ofthat is doing is creating this
(37:43):
social competitiveness in thisspace and causing a lot of the
challenges with social media andmental health, with depression
and social media, anxiety andall of these things that now are
new constructs, so to speak.
That has impacted our mentalhealth in ways before we even
had social media.
That is like whoa, whoa, whoa,whoa we're learning, like all
(38:04):
the dopamine that's beingreleased as we're engaging in
content online and how that'simpacting our brains.
And so what media literacy doesis allows us to sit down with
students and really help themhave those conversations, let
them know that they have agencyand authority.
In these spaces, especially insocial media, you have agency
(38:25):
and authority to shut somethingoff.
You have the ability to justask yourself how does this make
me feel?
This is a simple conversationthat we rarely ask ourselves.
Sometimes, when you think of itand it's really sad, just how
does this make me feel?
And once you realize, whoa, Idon't like how it feels, knowing
that you have the agency andauthority to change it.
Media is a construct, meaningit can be changed.
(38:48):
It has been created, it can berecreated, and so that's what
media literacy education does isit teaches students that.
Ijeoma Kola (38:56):
Yes, I know that we're short on time.
I have one last question.
We ask all of our guests thisquestion what is one piece of
advice, one final piece ofadvice that you have for
perspective or current blackwomen and non-binary doctoral
students?
Jimmeka Anderson (39:14):
Don't let anyone change who you are.
Be true to yourself, stay trueto yourself and know that the
path that brought you there isthe right path and you can stay
on that path.
And if you do stay on that path, you will be successful.
That's it.
Ijeoma Kola (39:35):
So Mike dropped moment right there.
Thank you so much, dr Anderson,for joining us on the Cohort
SysS podcast.
We're excited to share yourwork and everything you're doing
with Black girls and medialiteracy with the rest of the
community.
Thank you.
Jimmeka Anderson (39:48):
Thank you so much.
Have a great day everyone.
Welcome to the Cohort Sisters podcast, where we
give voice to the stories,struggles and successes of Black
women and non-binary scholarswith doctoral degrees.
I'm your host, dr Jamakola, andtoday we're joined by Dr
Jimmeka Anderson, with a PhD inCurriculum and Instruction from
the University of North Carolinaat Charlotte.
Dr Anderson is a visionaryeducator specializing in
(00:27):
critical digital medialiteracies among Black girls.
She's the driving force behindthe Black Girls Film Camp, an
innovative initiative providinghigh school Black girls across
the US with a transformative16-week experience to pitch,
develop and produce their ownshort films.
The founder of I Am Not theMedia Inc.
(00:47):
Dr Anderson's impactful workextends beyond the camp.
She's a project manager for theNational Association of Media
Literacy Education and a projectfellow for the Cyber
Citizenship Initiative with NewAmerica, with features in Wired
Magazine, the New York Times andNPR.
Dr Anderson's dedication hasgarnered awards like the
Crowning Achiever Award from theCrown Jewel, north Carolina
(01:10):
links.
Welcome to the show, dr Anderson.
Thank you.
I'm glad to be here.
We're excited to have you too.
I want to know a little bitabout you where you're from,
where you currently live now andwhen you are not working and
getting Black girls to developand make their own films, what
do you?
Jimmeka Anderson (01:30):
like to do?
Oh okay, Well, the first partis very simple.
I am from Charlotte, NorthCarolina, born and raised, and I
am still at home in Charlotte,North Carolina.
I love Charlotte, I'm aCharlotte girl, I've been to
cities all over the UnitedStates and I just wouldn't
change it for nothing.
So I am a Charlotte girl and sowhat I'm doing outside of Black
(01:54):
girls' film camp, you cantypically find me writing poetry
.
I'm a poet at heart.
I've been writing since I wasmaybe like six or seven years
old.
I fell in love with MayaAngelou when I was younger and
then really fell in love withNikki Giovanni and started doing
spoken word in college andperforming in front of an
(02:16):
audience and publish three booksnow of poetry.
So that's what I'm doingtypically when I'm not doing
Black girls' film camp, whichstill is a form of Black girl
literacy.
Ijeoma Kola (02:26):
It absolutely is.
So how did you becomeinterested in film and urban
education?
I'm kind of curious how thesetwo things like where did the
love for film come from?
And the love for teaching Blackgirls' film, but also the love
of education, when were theroots of those?
Jimmeka Anderson (02:48):
Yeah.
So I would say the love of filmthat has been there my whole
life.
I grew up as a child ofBlockbuster in the 80s and 90s
and so, like movies and cinemahas always been embedded in me.
Even with me and my friends,when we get up we're having a
movie night.
(03:08):
So I've always been a lover ofmovies and film.
And then even I was a Barbiegirl and I used to put them
together in my own productions.
Growing up I always had a lovefor that.
It wasn't until after Igraduated with my bachelor's, my
bachelor's in human development, family studies.
I'm a first generation collegestudent, didn't know what I was
(03:28):
doing in college, I just knew Ihad to go and be the first.
But once I got out I had beendoing a lot of programming and
working in the nonprofit spacewith youth, with teenagers, when
I still technically wasn't toofar off from being a big star
and just saw a huge connectionwith youth through media,
through music, through films,through movies.
(03:49):
But then also was seeing how itwas shaping the youth that I
was serving at that time theirlives, but also shaping my life,
how it has shaped my life andwas still shaping my life as
well.
So that's when I started doingmedia literacy.
But at the time didn't knowthat that was the term, I just
knew I was wanting to sit downand analyze lyrics and I'm
packing and discuss like what isthe hidden and unhidden
(04:12):
messages in the song or what arethe messaging from this
commercial or this advertisement?
Just really became obsessedwith media construction and the
messaging of media and soeventually turned it into an
organization and learned that Iwas actually doing media
literacy, built a lot ofrelationships with media
literacy scholars and educatorson a national level.
(04:33):
A lot of them wanted to startdoing research with the
programming that I was doing,had no idea, once again, just
had the bachelor's that I hadachieved all there was to
achieve.
I was the first to go tocollege.
But when I started seeing, ohokay, you can do research on
this.
Well, you all don't look likeme and why do you want to
research with the youth I'mserving that look like me, you
(04:55):
know.
And so that's when I got reallyintrigued to go back to school
and majored in media education.
And I did that at AppalachianState University and got my
master's and then pursued my PhD.
So just backing up, backing upa bit the work that I was doing
with I'm not the media startedgrowing tremendously with
(05:16):
workshops where organizations,schools, boys and girls clubs,
girls scouts, anyone with youth,were booking me to come and do
workshops about media literacywith their youth.
And so from that I learned thatmedia literacy there's this
component of analyzing that,there's still this component of
creation.
And so I started doing a lot ofmedia creation work, with doing
(05:40):
podcasting, with doing video,psa, short documentaries, and so
there's this huge mediacreation piece, but also seeing
the benefit of youth being apart of the process, feeling
like they had a voice, beingactive, participate,
participants in the narrativesthat were being constructed, I
(06:02):
grew a fascination in that rightand understanding that now, wow
, this tool where we'reunpacking that has been used
historically to oppress canactually be used to liberate,
because these kids now have theauthority, agency and power to
construct their own messagesright.
And so I pursued my PhD andwanted to dive deeper in
(06:24):
building out curriculum,learning how I can build out
curriculum and targethistorically marginalized
students through media literacy.
And so that's how I landed inthe Urban Education Program,
because that program was gearedtowards helping me really dive
in and unpack theory andunderstand the constructs that
have created the powerstructures that we see in our
(06:46):
lifetime, that have beenembedded into the fabrication of
our everyday lives andpractices in ways in which we
get engaged in the ideologiesthat we have, that we have no
clue where they've come from,and so that program really
helped prepare me to betterserve historically marginalized
students and leverage theconnection between how media has
(07:07):
been used as this ideologicalapparatus to continue to
perpetuate systems of power andhow we can utilize it to
deconstruct it as well, and so Ikind of take that approach in
theory with how I teach medialiteracy now, and so that's how
the two marry.
Ijeoma Kola (07:25):
Yeah, yes, well, thank you for explaining.
It's a perfect marriage, a verybeautiful marriage.
I am curious, before we getinto the nitty gritty of your
doctoral journey.
I want to know, because weoften talk to people on the show
who either have made a careerpivot if they have worked before
going to grad school, and thenthey'll kind of do something
(07:45):
different after grad school.
When you went into the doctoralprogram, it seems as if you had
a clear idea that you weregoing to continue doing the same
kind of work.
You were just going to do itwith more knowledge and with
more expertise.
So can you just talk a littlebit about how you thought of at
the beginning, before you evenstarted the doctoral program,
like how you thought about whereit would change your, how it
(08:09):
would change your careertrajectory, if at all?
Did you think about that at thetime, or were you just really
focused on Let me just get thisthe fear, the theoretical
background, theoreticalframeworks for how to continue
doing the work?
Jimmeka Anderson (08:21):
Before I went into the PhD program, I had no
idea what a theoreticalframework was.
Okay, I just knew I wanted tobe the one that's doing the
research and I wanted to enhancethe work that I was doing, the
curriculum that I was doing withthe youth.
And so once I got into the PhDprogram, I knew my focus was on
(08:46):
media literacy and specificallyworking with historically
marginalized students.
Or or should I say criticalmedia literacy, because media
leaders and critical medialiteracy are two different
frameworks.
Right, you have a critical kindof theoretical lens applied to
media literacy that looks atsystems of power.
But so I knew I was going intothat in that that wrap.
(09:09):
I knew I was going that waywithout knowing the terminology.
We're having the vocabulary.
You know what I mean To definewhat it was.
And so when I got into the PhDprogram, I remember, like my
first semester in my cohort Iwas hearing about other other
(09:31):
colleagues in their likeresearch and I was like, oh my
gosh, that sounds amazing.
And I remember, like you comein and you start getting pulled
like in my face my work and myresearch.
That impactful should I reallybe.
Yeah, I need to be over here,because this day that they
talking about that.
They need some help.
I need help research this.
And I remember meeting with anadvisor and she was like, do not
(09:52):
, do not get pulled.
You know, like, keep yourvision ahead, like what your
passion about staying in there,because that passion is gonna
create longevity.
It's very much needed, it'svery much necessary.
The work, the need, you justneed to, you know, read and do
(10:12):
the research to back up why thisis such a value and why it's so
necessary.
And so when I started diving inand learning about the
theoretical frameworks andseeing the ties and the
connections you can't tell methere wasn't a case of why
critical media literacy isneeded.
You know what I'm saying, yep,and where the gaps lie.
And so, you know, I was in thebeginning kind of sway, like
(10:37):
whoa, maybe I should be overhere doing this, or maybe I
should do this.
And then, you know, a lot ofstudents were doing a lot of
research at the time and it wasreally being pushed with us like
publish, publish, publish tomake yourself.
You know, if you're trying togo out for the, the professor
track, and initially I wasthinking I might, that might be
a possibility, you know, basedoff of.
(10:57):
You know, my advisor and I waskind of.
You know, you get into the PhDprogram, they're trying to pull
you in a little bit on thatprofessor track and I'm like,
okay, maybe I need to jump thetrain.
Like, let's be honest, when yougo into a PhD program, you're
dealing with a lot of impostersyndrome.
You're questioning a lot ofthings about you and what you
should be doing, what youthought you knew, and so I kind
(11:19):
of fell prey to kind of likeallowing a little bit of that
molding to happen, where it'slike, well, maybe I should
consider the professor trackright.
And so this is true story.
I started going along that routeand I was starting to do, I was
starting to be involved withlike opportunity hoarding, like,
okay, I need to do this, I needto be my CV up, I need to be
(11:42):
writing.
And then I'm ran into the blockwith with the field that, the
field that I'm in, with criticalmedia literacy, a lot of the
students that were publishing.
They were able to pull likepublicly accessible data and I'm
like there's no publiclyaccessible data on critical
media literacy.
I have to angle this thing adifferent way to get like, you
know, national report card, naicdata or civil rights data, like
(12:05):
how do I position this, towrite about it?
And I don't want to reach toofar to make the connection of
Critical media literacy.
You know, I mean I literallystarted going down the route
with, like tech inequity, like,okay, digital digital skills,
the connection betweentechnology access that I was
like Now kind of down here so Ican write you know what I mean,
just have something to writeabout, because I felt like I had
(12:28):
to publish, I had to build myCV.
I'm not saying that it was acompletely bad thing.
It did help build me more as ascholar to have that experience
and figure out some of theconnections.
But I couldn't really dive deepon the critical media literacy
side because, you know, criticalmedia literacy it's not about
quant, it's more about aqualitative kind of analysis, so
(12:50):
to speak, with really workingwith kids and seeing how it's
impacting them in ways that maynot quantify and so and that's
just usually how doing any kindof literacy based educational
research works, usually likereally Diving in to see the
socio-cultural practices and howit's impacting them.
And so I had to start realizing, like jimica, stand your own
(13:13):
lane.
What happened to me is with me,trying to Be with someone else,
was trying to make me be.
While I was in that phd program.
I was like having An inner bodyreaction to it.
It was like I don't like this,I don't want this.
I was, I was eating crazy Likeit was.
I was stressed I had started.
(13:35):
When I told you I had took on somany opportunities.
Gata, I mean, I was thegraduate, uh, graduate student
counselor a, e, r, a.
I mean I'm just doing the most.
And I was.
I got some point.
I was like I don't even enjoythis.
I don't even like this.
I enjoy doing my program, Ienjoy creating experiences for
(13:57):
youth, I enjoy working withyouth, understanding youth.
And I remember even having aconversation with my mentor and
I was like people are startingto look at me like this Expert
and I don't like how it feels.
And she told me.
She said You're an expert inthe work you're doing with youth
.
Just own that.
No one knows your program, whatcomes out of your program, how
(14:19):
youth are engaging, what you'relearning from the youth in your
program like you do, and justown that.
And so I actually had to dolike a full circle and come back
around and say, hey, I don'twanna do professorship, I don't
wanna do all of this extra stuffto build my CV.
Let me just walk in my passionand my purpose and everything
(14:44):
else started just organicallyflowing like speaking requests,
invited speaking opportunities,invited collaborations, news
opportunities.
Let me just stay here, right,yeah yeah.
Because you operate in this pathand so I had to kind of have a
full circle kind of situation.
And it was kind of scarybecause, you know, I had been
(15:06):
doing so much work with myprofessor at the time and I was
like I don't know, I wanna doprofessorship.
Ijeoma Kola (15:13):
Yes, yeah.
So I feel like I relate a lotto the idea that you don't want
to disappoint, especially ifyou're a first gen and if you
find a mentor or an advisor whoyou actually like, which is rare
.
If you find one who you like,you know there is an element of
(15:34):
well.
I don't wanna disappoint you.
I know that you see so much inme.
You know they are enriching you, they are supporting you, they
are increasing your confidenceby telling you that you can do
all these things.
But it is also, as you mentionedlike, really important to not
necessarily go down the pathjust because someone says you
should be a professor Becausethat's all they know.
That's often what they knowbecause that's their career and
(15:57):
so everyone is gonna try to getyou to their side of the table.
But it's really frequent thatpeople in doctoral programs
heavily consider, as they shouldthey shouldn't rule it out and
academic career, because that'swhat their advisor has.
So I'm glad that you were ableto have come to use this moment
and just kind of assess all ofthe different things you were
(16:18):
doing and realize that youdidn't have to be, as you
mentioned, like hoardingopportunities and trying to step
your CV to chase a dream thatyou actually didn't even want in
the first place.
So hopefully someone else islistening to that and can just
take a moment, take a beat, toreassess and evaluate whether
all that you're struggling to door even, if you're not,
charlene, everything that you'redoing in grad school are you
(16:39):
actually doing it because youwant to be doing it or because
you think that's what's expectedof you for the next step.
So thanks for sharing that.
I wanna talk a little bit aboutthe specific program that you
were in.
So you mentioned that you're aCharlotte girl through and
through.
I love that.
Was there something specificabout the UNC Charlotte program
that was really compelling, thatmade it the best fit for you?
(17:04):
Did you explore other programs?
Did you end up, at the end ofthe day, being happy with that
decision?
Jimmeka Anderson (17:10):
Yes, so one.
The UNC Charlotte program Ithought was going to be a
perfect fit.
Not what's going, it was agreat fit for me, it was an
amazing program, but what reallylured me into it was one.
The program was ran by DrChance Lewis, who is phenomenal
(17:33):
and is very renowned in thefield of urban education, and he
spearheaded that program.
Additionally, I thought it wasvery intriguing that that
program was predominantly Blackscholars in that program.
So I was like, ooh, what wouldit be like to be in a program, a
cohort of predominantly Blackscholars, right?
(17:56):
And so I thought that was goingto be a culturally amazing
experience as well.
And so that's why I was like,ooh, I really want to do this.
Additionally, I have a daughter,so I'm a single mom.
I didn't want to leaveCharlotte.
My support structures are here,in addition to me loving
Charlotte, and most PhD programsare in person, and it's
(18:20):
specifically the ones that I waslooking at.
They were in person programs,so it was just the best fit for
me.
And then also, with UNCCharlotte being an R2
institution, I knew it wasn'twith me, kind of.
I didn't have a strong researchbackground like in my master's
program, but I felt like it wasa nice kind of transition from
(18:41):
going from a master's programthat was more heavy on practice
versus research for it to easeme into research, and so, yeah,
I thought it was a pretty goodfit, yes.
Ijeoma Kola (18:53):
So what were some of the successes and some of the
challenges that you experiencedduring your doctoral journey?
Jimmeka Anderson (19:03):
The successes and challenges.
Ijeoma Kola (19:04):
Yes, we'll give us like one high and one low.
Jimmeka Anderson (19:10):
Success.
Of course the success is goingto be finishing that
dissertation in a decent while.
So that was the high wasgetting that dissertation Locked
out.
I guess still got somecolleagues still working on that
dissertation.
I'm like, whew, that was asuccess.
I guess to get thatdissertation done.
(19:31):
So how?
Ijeoma Kola (19:32):
long did it take you From courses and then sorry.
Jimmeka Anderson (19:37):
I graduated in four years.
So it was about a year and ahalf process because I took
comps early, like I kind of spedthrough and ended up taking
comps, and so I took compsactually in my second year, wow.
And then I really startedcleaning up my proposal.
I defended my proposal inspring 2021, and I graduated in
(20:03):
spring 2022.
Wow, yeah, that was quick.
So another thing that helped meout with that was I could
completely focus on that in theschool arena.
And I say in the school arenabecause I actually was built
Black Girls Film Camp while Iwas pursuing my when I was doing
(20:24):
my PhD, and I was in the secondyear doing Black Girls Film
Camp while I was doing mydissertation, so I saved that.
But I didn't have to do anyGATA work because I received a
dissertation year fellowshipgrant and so that paid for me to
just focus completely on mywriting when it came to school,
(20:48):
and so all I had really wasdissertation and I could just
focus on that.
And then I had Black Girls FilmCamp going on at the same time,
which was amazing that thecards landed that way, because
otherwise I would have beendoing working writing and, you
know, managing and spearheadinga national, non-proper
(21:09):
occupation at the same time.
Ijeoma Kola (21:13):
Yeah, and so what were some of the challenges?
Jimmeka Anderson (21:17):
Challenges Well, I think I kind of spoke to
this a second ago, I thinkchallenges when you're a black
woman and trying to find theright mentor, and so you're.
You're trying to find otherblack women, phd scholars in the
.
In it for me in the universityand I was lucky for that my last
(21:41):
year in the PhD program, drAnderson, who's like a mentor to
me now and we're actually thesame age, but she's was an
overachiever and got her PhD,like before she was 30, but you
know she came in.
She has all this experience,have been teaching, been a
(22:02):
professor for like six yearsalready.
You know what I mean and justyou know.
But we were on the same, in thesame generation.
We can relate and you know,speak to each other, eye to eye,
you know, and really she couldmentor me in a peer kind of
mentor way and she came in my,my senior, what I don't know my
(22:25):
fourth year, my fourth year, myfourth year, I think I'm in high
school.
Ijeoma Kola (22:30):
I've never heard anyone referred to the doctoral
years as like seniors.
But what if you finish in four?
Then yeah, you were a senior, Iwork with teens all the time.
Jimmeka Anderson (22:40):
So I'm like, my senior year I mentor came out
of nowhere you know like, andshe was a new professor that was
brought in.
And I kind of joke and say thatshe was brought in.
For me even that sounds alittle bit like I think you were
(23:02):
meant.
You were meant to get here forme in my last year into the
program she ended up becomingcoming on as my co-chair.
But for those three years it'slike you really want to find
like this.
I know for me I really wantedto find this black woman PhD who
could speak to me, and I havebeen searching for that, and
(23:22):
then Dr A came on the scene orher last name is Anderson too,
but I call her Dr.
A.
She came on the scene first-gencollege student, all the things
, and I was like, wow, this isreally a really good match, and
so I had struggled with that forthe first three years.
Ijeoma Kola (23:40):
That was a challenge okay, okay, yeah, but
I love how I think you shouldjust keep on saying that she
came just for you.
She was sent just for you andit's really cool that she.
It sounds as if she served asboth a peer mentor and like a
faculty mentor, and I haven'theard of anyone else being able
(24:00):
to have that experience.
But you get the best of bothworlds you get the camaraderie
of someone who is around yoursame age, but also the authority
of a faculty member being onyour side.
So that's awesome.
That sounds like it was sheactually it really sounds like
she came just for you and I lovethat you were able to find that
kind of mentorship before youcompleted your program.
(24:23):
Thank you, I am too, so now Iwanna talk about your work.
So you just wrapped up the 2023cohort of Black Girls Film Camp
a couple of months ago and youguys do an all expense paid like
weekend retreat in LA.
So you take girls to LA abouthow many girls are they?
(24:45):
What do y'all do in LA and how,like, how is this funded?
It's just, it's so.
It's so inexpensive to me tofly a bunch of girls over to LA.
We'll love to know some of thehighlights of what happens
during the retreat and how itcontributes to the development
artistic development of theBlack Girls who participate in
the camp.
Jimmeka Anderson (25:06):
Yes, so the Black Girls Film Camp is a
annual initiative.
It's a 16 week program wheregirls from across the nation
pitch a story concept, a storyidea that centers a Black girl
and the story needs to focus onan issue that impacts Black
girls in the United States.
(25:27):
Right, and so they pitch thisstory idea.
We interview these girls.
We probably get like over threeto 400, it's ranged over the
last year, two years, from threeto 400 applications of interest
and we have to narrow it downbecause we only take 10 each
year.
So we take 10 girls between theages of 13 and 18.
And what we do is, once theyget selected, we help them
(25:52):
through education, throughtraining, to develop their short
films.
We then produce those films anddistribute those films.
And to support them withdeveloping those films, we
contract out Black womencreatives to serve as a
professional editor and creativecoach for each girl.
So each girl gets her owneditor and creative coach and we
(26:16):
call it their production team,their Black Girls Film Camp
production team.
So there's this Black womanthat's helping to support the
vision and all of herimagination and what's in her
mind with this story and makingher story come to life.
Additionally, we provide themwith technology.
We have a lot of sponsors.
We have a lot of sponsors.
(26:37):
We tend to do a lot of thisstuff without the sponsors.
So they get free technology.
So Sony cameras, they getlighting kits, they get boom
mics.
Beats by Dre has been a sponsor.
They get multiple pairs ofBeats by Dre headphones.
They get free software FinalDraft is a sponsor which is the
industry standard screenwritingsoftware.
(26:58):
So they actually get freesoftware to learn how to build
out their script utilizingindustry standard software.
They get Adobe Premiere forediting, and so they get all of
this stuff for free.
And then we also have advisorsthat help serve as industry
experts that supervise theproduction teams and also kind
(27:19):
of create this pipeline to serveas like a coach for the
professional women, and it'salso a resource for them and
maybe where they're trying toget into their career because
our advisors are successful inthe industry.
So, for instance, ourpost-production advisor she won
an Academy Award for editingeverything, everything
(27:41):
everywhere all at once.
Is that the name of it?
Yes, yes.
I think that's the name of ityeah.
Yes, an Academy Award.
You know, like these women,he's really done the thing in
the industry.
And so they serve as advisorsduring the 16 weeks to oversee
the production process of allthe girls in their production
(28:01):
teams.
So in the middle of the camp,because we go through
pre-production, then we go toproduction.
And when we go to production wethen do the LA retreat where we
fly each girl and a parentbecause we wanna make sure the
parent is involved and invested.
So we fly each girl and aparent and her production team,
which is her editor and hercoach.
So it's about 40 people wereflying to LA.
(28:24):
And when they come to LA wepartner with USC Annan Verge's
Critical Media Project.
It's a professor out there,alison Troupe, who I've been
working with in the nationalmedia literacy community and she
was in love with what I wasdoing the first year with Black
Girls Home Camp and she was likeI really wanna support this,
like let's figure this out, andI'm like, well, the world is
(28:46):
opening up post COVID.
I think we wanna do anin-person retreat as a part of
our production, like leadinginto the production process, and
she was like I'm on board.
So this is an annual retreatthis year.
This past year was our secondyear going.
We're now cleaning out thethird year, but it happens
midway when the girls transition.
For pre-production ofproduction, we have partnerships
(29:07):
for the girls to take trips.
So we went to Array CreativeCampus, which is Ava DuVernay's
creative campus, where they do alot of the production work for
a lot of the projects that theywork on.
The girls got to meet AvaDuVernay and we also partnered
with Walt Disney Studios wherethey got to tour their studio a
lot and they created like acustomized experience and allow
(29:30):
the girls to have lunch withtheir executives.
So they get to do all of that.
They also have courses with USCprofessors and they get to be
with their production teams inperson to work on their films in
person, because everyone isnationally everywhere.
So, our sessions are virtual.
So after that's done, they dothe post-production process.
(29:50):
They have a film and we debutand have a premiere in no other
place but Charlotte, NorthCarolina, and so the films are
debuted and then they go on afestival circuit and so we have
partnerships with festivals likeMill Valley Film Festival,
Bentonville.
This past year we were atEssence Film Festival and the
girls get to attend thefestivals and speak on panels
(30:14):
and talk about their storiesthat they created in this
program, but also just about theexperiences of black girls in
the United States.
So yeah, that's kind of thecamp in a nutshell.
Ijeoma Kola (30:25):
Yes, it's such a cool work Stuff that I wish I
mean I'm not even like thatinterested in.
I can't like lie and say thatI'm like a movie person or a
film person but, I, still wishit existed when I was a teenager
.
Jimmeka Anderson (30:39):
I know I was a teenager too.
Ijeoma Kola (30:41):
Yeah, but that's what we do, you know.
We create the things that wewish we had, and that's how we
make the world better.
I know that it's still.
It's huge and has grownexponentially, but since you
just said it's the second year,have you observed?
Do you feel like there aregirls who've done the film camp,
who are you know going to be?
(31:02):
Have you identified the nextgeneration of filmmakers?
Do you already know who theyare?
Jimmeka Anderson (31:10):
Yeah, so it's the second year for us doing the
LA Retreat.
It's the third year.
We just finished our third yearwith the camp, so we're now
going into the fourth year, andso me and my co-founder, we were
talking about that and was likewhoa, four years, that's like
senior year, right, like that.
Like whoa, we're gonna get acamp from fresh from this year,
right?
And so a lot of the girls arebeing impacted tremendously from
(31:35):
being in this space.
We also have an alumni program,so the girls, even once they
finish with the camp, there'sstill a lot of great
opportunities for them to stayinvolved.
We have meetups on the regular.
We have a IG chat and then wejust found out they have their
own little text chat that theydo where they don't want us to
see stuff, and we also havecreated opportunities for them
(32:02):
to serve as alumni coaches tohelp the next cohort that comes
in.
But these girls have utilizedtheir films to get into film
schools, such as NYU Tish, whereSpike Lee is at, and then you
got your USC, the tool ofcinematic arts, which is
sometimes they dispute whetherwhich one is the top film school
(32:24):
, right.
And then we have other girlsthat have continued to put their
films in film festivals and winawards on their film
individually.
So, even though we have thesepartnerships, the hostess
gratings, the girls can stillsubmit their films into film
festivals for awards andaccolades.
And I want to say just eventhis cohort that just came out,
(32:48):
out of 10 of the girls, six ofthem have already started
receiving awards and selectionsinto film festivals and some of
them have received more than one, like three, four film festival
selections, and they firstwatched their films each noon
and it's end of August.
So, yes, they definitely wantto go and pursue film.
These are the future filmmakersof tomorrow.
Ijeoma Kola (33:12):
I love it.
I'm so excited.
I like need to like see whichfilms I can watch and how I can
screen them.
It's really exciting.
So there's a lot of oh yes, wewill drop the website in the
show notes and that's what Iwill be doing with my weekend
for sure.
There's a lot of conversationright now about youth's exposure
to media, youth's consumptionof media, typically focused
(33:36):
around social media, but I'dlove if you can speak a little
bit to how media literacy canplay a role in addressing
broader societal issues such asrepresentation, identity and
equity, particularly for youth,and also how it can be kind of
like a protective barrieragainst some of the more like
(33:56):
negative and insidious elementsand aspects of the media that we
consume.
Jimmeka Anderson (34:03):
Absolutely.
I mean education in general isa remedy to a lot of the issues
that a lot of people are subjectand prey to many of the
challenges that we experience inour society, because lack
thereof, like lack of educationon certain topics, issues Media
(34:24):
literacy education equipsstudents to engage with media in
a more active, participatoryway, for them to become more
critical and conscious to thecontent that they're engaging
with, the messaging, thelanguage, all of those things
and really be able to unpack itin a way where they're not just
(34:47):
inactive consumers, where, whenyou're an inactive consumer or a
lazy consumer media, you'rejust watching it right and
you're not even paying attentionto how the messaging is shaping
you Media and messaging is youconsume it just like you consume
food.
That's why we call we alwayssay like, what is your media
(35:09):
diet, because sometimes youdon't realize your consuming
content, your consumingmessaging in your mental.
It's impacting your mentalhealth.
But if you're an activeconsumer media you're constantly
asking critical questions asyou're engaging or you're
thinking critically while you'reconsuming.
So you're asking yourself likewho's represented, who's not
(35:30):
represented?
Why am I not represented?
What is this saying?
What is this trying to sell me?
Even if it's not anadvertisement.
How is this group beingrepresented and how might this
impact their perception on thiscultural group?
Or how is it impacting me andmy perception?
Also, it's making you think andengage in a more politically
(35:54):
conscious way, because you startlooking at systems of power and
how they're being perpetuatedin it.
So you're looking at race, sex,sexual orientation, you're
looking at gender.
You're looking at all of thatand you're seeing how gender
roles are being perpetuated.
You're seeing how the constructof relationships and what that
(36:15):
should look like For me growingup.
I grew up in the 90s in hip hopand for some reason I thought I
wanted me a Tupac.
But you know what I mean,because that was idolized.
And then I'm dating theseTupacs and I'm unhappy and I'm
like what's happening?
Why am I not getting what Iwant?
Why am I not getting 20s R&Blove?
You know what I mean, what I'mattracted to the Tupac.
(36:38):
I'm attracted to Tupac, but thenyou gotta start unpacking that
a little bit more, so you reallystart becoming more critical
and understanding like, wow,this person is being reflected
as something to be held of value.
There's the value expectancytheory as a concept that makes
us create value with some of theimagery we see.
(36:59):
But then, at the same time,what is that messaging saying to
me as a young lady, and to theman, which is telling him, like
you should have many women andyou should have this persona?
And so we're getting twodifferent messaging with the
same media.
And it's that when you becomethis active consumer, you start
(37:19):
asking these questions, right,and so you become more resilient
to it.
And then, when it comes tosocial media and representations
, a lot of young girls are beingexposed to content to show them
, to desire them, to want to bethin.
You're seeing hashtag bodygoals, you're seeing hashtag
relationship goals and all ofthat is doing is creating this
(37:43):
social competitiveness in thisspace and causing a lot of the
challenges with social media andmental health, with depression
and social media, anxiety andall of these things that now are
new constructs, so to speak.
That has impacted our mentalhealth in ways before we even
had social media.
That is like whoa, whoa, whoa,whoa we're learning, like all
(38:04):
the dopamine that's beingreleased as we're engaging in
content online and how that'simpacting our brains.
And so what media literacy doesis allows us to sit down with
students and really help themhave those conversations, let
them know that they have agencyand authority.
In these spaces, especially insocial media, you have agency
(38:25):
and authority to shut somethingoff.
You have the ability to justask yourself how does this make
me feel?
This is a simple conversationthat we rarely ask ourselves.
Sometimes, when you think of itand it's really sad, just how
does this make me feel?
And once you realize, whoa, Idon't like how it feels, knowing
that you have the agency andauthority to change it.
Media is a construct, meaningit can be changed.
(38:48):
It has been created, it can berecreated, and so that's what
media literacy education does isit teaches students that.
Ijeoma Kola (38:56):
Yes, I know that we're short on time.
I have one last question.
We ask all of our guests thisquestion what is one piece of
advice, one final piece ofadvice that you have for
perspective or current blackwomen and non-binary doctoral
students?
Jimmeka Anderson (39:14):
Don't let anyone change who you are.
Be true to yourself, stay trueto yourself and know that the
path that brought you there isthe right path and you can stay
on that path.
And if you do stay on that path, you will be successful.
That's it.
Ijeoma Kola (39:35):
So Mike dropped moment right there.
Thank you so much, dr Anderson,for joining us on the Cohort
SysS podcast.
We're excited to share yourwork and everything you're doing
with Black girls and medialiteracy with the rest of the
community.
Thank you.
Jimmeka Anderson (39:48):
Thank you so much.
Have a great day everyone.
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