Contact: Wayne Knickel/Felix Racelis
Creative PR
888-233-5650/323-655-0330
wayne@creativepublicity.com
Listen Up!, the nation's leading network for young audio and video producers, has launched "America's Youth Speak Out" Public Service Campaign for radio and television broadcast. Short, sweet and to the point, these edgy, arresting 30 second public service announcements are written, videotaped and produced by teenagers. Youth media producers tell it like it is -- in a voice that their peers will understand and trust: their own. These teenagers speak out on domestic violence, relationships with parents and peers, literacy and the arts, drug and alcohol abuse, smoking, diversity and racism.
Listen Up! is a national youth media network that teams youth producers with adult mentors, encouraging them to exchange work, share ideas and learn from each other. The mission of Listen Up! is to help youth get a voice in the mass media and contribute to a culture of free speech and social responsibility. When they address their peers in their own language, there is a greater likelihood that other youth will listen.
The Listen Up! Network has connected more than 80 organizations involved in teaching radio and television production skills, media activism and creativity. Member groups are found in every area of the country, from a high school in South Central Los Angeles to a 4H Center in Montana, a video project in Anchorage, Alaska, a Native American health program in rural Wyoming, and a media production center in Whitesburg, Kentucky. Listen Up! also provides funding for media groups with underserved populations such as incarcerated, homeless and low- income youth. To assist young producers in creating their distinctive PSAs, the Listen Up! Network has formed partnerships with the National Mental Health Association, the National Domestic Violence Hotline, the National Alliance of Urban Literacy Coalitions, the Phoenix House, and idontsmoke.org.
Showcasing young people's vibrant style of communication, the "America's Youth Speak Out" public service campaign enables youth from all backgrounds and ethnicities to use their own voices to fight stereotypes and create positive change, and in the process to learn creative self- expression and gain media skills. "I love the adrenaline that I get after I have shot something on camera," remarks Hei-Yesh Broom, a teen participant from New Orleans Video Access Center (NOVAC). "I love to see the concept come alive. I love to hear strangers tell me that they liked and were touched by my work."
In only its fourth year, Listen Up! already has an impressive list of accomplishments, including PSAs and films from member organizations that have screened at national and international film festivals such as the prestigious Gen-Y Studio at Sundance, the Atlanta Film Festival and the Taos Talking Picture Festival. The national office of Listen Up! in New York City provides key technical and organizational support to member organizations including web hosting through its www.ListenUp.org web site; national workshops; production and distribution guides and distribution support for TV and radio broadcast; demo and compilation reels; film festival support and funding information.
Founded by Executive Director John Merrow, one of America's premier education journalists, Listen Up! is a project of Learning Matters, Inc., which also produces the award- winning educational series The Merrow Report. Listen Up! is funded by the W. K. Kellogg Foundation, the Open Society Institute and the Surdna Foundation. For more information on Listen Up! and the "America's Youth Speak Out" Public Service Campaign call Distribution Director Rhea Mokund at 212-725-7000 or visit the Listen Up! website at www.ListenUp.org.