PPH Represents at the National Conference for Media Reform

People's Production House was in full effect at the recent National Conference for Media Reform, in Memphis, TN, January 12-14.

PPH Co-Director Deepa Fernandes gave a tremendous keynote address on media justice and the history of Freedom's Journal, an early black-owned newspaper. One of the few speakers to speak about media justice, Deepa connected the media's social justice past to today's media system, encouraging attendees to work towards a truly participatory media. You can read the transcript of her speech here, or watch a video of the address.


CNPI members Abdulai Bah and James Williams were there reporting, and CNPI Director Mitch Jeserich hosted Pacifica Radio's national coverage of the conference. PPH Co-Director Kat Aaron produced the broadcasts. Along with attending the numerous panels on media reform and socializing with other media activists, both Abdulai and James also contributed to the Pacifica Radio broadcast.

James Williams, with the Street Vendor Project, interviewed D'Army Bailey, a local civil rights pioneer and founder of the National Museum on Civil Rights in Memphis. Listen to his interview here.


Abdulai Bah reported on disability right activists who converged at the Conference. The group, who were widely ignored by the countless other journalists in attendance, were protesting the portrayal of people with disabilities in the media. Abdulai's piece is a sound collage made from the interviews he gathered at the protest. Listen here!

And PPH was well-represented on many panels throughout the conference. If you missed them, you can still check out what we said - just click the panel title to listen to the session audio. Kat Aaron spoke on a panel on Independent Media as an Organizing Tool, along with Jenny Lee of Detroit's Live Arts Media Project and Shivaani Selvaraj of the Media Empowerment Project. Deepa participated in a panel discussion on Media and the Immigrants Rights Movimiento, and Radio Rootz member Hana Georg, the youngest speaker at the conference, held down a rousing panel on Making Our Voices Heard: Youth Media Across the Nation. And PPHer Joshua Breitbart moderated a panle on a Owning Our Own Media Infrastructure, addressing the importance of community control over media technologies. Joshua also wrote a great analysis of the National Conference for Media Reform and how it has changed over time, the ways in which it has improved and how it still needs to change.