The camera serves as a vehicle to encourage self-expression, creativity, and reveal social injustices. I am a believer that within each person lies a unique story just waiting to be told. Art and the creative process is the key to unlocking our highest potential for personal and spiritual growth. I've witnessed so many young people struggle with adapting a growth mindset and the ability to grow from their mistakes. Art has the power to challenge these fixed mindsets for ourselves and the world around us. All of the projects on this site have been created by former high school students in my digital media arts classes in Chicago.

LovingKindness Videos

Developed from Sharon Salzberg's Street Lovingkindness (aka Metta) video series
Rotoscope Animation
Students in my Multimedia Arts class at Chicago Tech Academy produced a rotoscope animation video of "The Bigger Picture" by music artist, Lil Baby.
Greystone Row 
Students at North Lawndale College Prep high school in Chicago, IL wheat-pasted large-scale portraits of themselves onto a series of abandoned buildings near the school campus. My digital media students produced a short documentary about the creative process.
Experimental Personal Narrative Film
Poetry in Motion is a collaborative project between Multimedia Arts and English students at Chicago Tech Academy High School in which they create a visual representation of an original poem. In English, Poetry and the People is a project designed to demonstrate how poetry not only connects and enlightens us as individuals, but how it offers strategies that generate a wealth of meaning. Through the study of various poems, students then created and analyzed literary devices in their own writing. In my class, Multimedia Arts, students captured their ideas on camera using the fundamental principles and elements of photography in a multimedia format. Through recording voiceover, adding soundtracks, and editing a sequence of still photos their stories come to life.
Short Documentaries
Samples of short documentary video work produced by Seniors in my Advanced Documentary Course at North Lawndale College Prep High School on Chicago's westside, produced in conjunction with Free Spirit Media.
Fight Through the Struggle (TRT 9:44) -  This documentary discusses the marketing techniques used to influence African American teens as consumers. Advertisers primarily use negative stereotypes that are harmful to the African American image when representing this key demographic. The filmmaker seeks to persuade media makers to produce more positive media and asks viewers to think critically about how they are being represented in the mainstream.
Broken English? (TRT 9:45) African Americans are often stereotyped because their speaking patterns and use of language falls outside the norms of Standard English. This film was produced to teach non-ebonics speakers that "black talk" a dialect that originated in the south and contains a rich history and contributes to identity formation and cultural value. 
Extended Life: A Study of Breast Cancer Disparities (TRT 10:10) Every year 1.6 million women are diagnosed with breast cancer. This documentary uncovers how health disparities are impacting the high mortality rates of African American women diagnosed with this disease.
Caminando Sobre Cascaras de Huevo: Walking on Eggshells (TRT 10:53) - Every year more than 400,000 undocumented immigrants are deported from the United States. What happens when someone comes to this country with unlawful status and then is forced out of the country?  Their American Dream is shattered. This documentary explores the struggles of being undocumented and what we can do as citizens of the United States to makes tho country a better place for everyone.
The Them's and the Me's (TRT 8:04) -  This documentary explores the United States' response to the Holocaust, as well as the historical and contemporary perceptions of genocide. 
Art Against Abuse (TRT 10:07) - This documentary explores Art Therapy as a means to help heal victims of gender-based violence.
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