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FORWARDEVER MEDIA CENTER

Writer Alex Haley writing The Autobiography of Malcolm X with Brother Malcolm.

"The media's the most powerful entity on earth. They have the power to make the innocent guilty and to make the guilty innocent, and that's power. Because they control the minds of the masses."
- Malcolm X

Mission

The Forwardever Media Center is 100% committed to providing unconventional writing workshops and media literacy training to "at-risk" Black youth, particularly males, ages 14 through 24. Working in partnership with The Mentoring Center in Oakland, CA., the Center's writing workshops, website internship, and film forums, help students develop critical thinking skills and discover their creative talents. We recruit youth for our programs from the California Youth Authority (the state's largest prison for youth) as well as from universities and high schools. This cross-pollination of young minds creates dynamic shared experiences.

Programs

Whatchusay Cinema–A monthly film forum hosted at schools or community centers in Northern California that explores issues such as race, class, gender, and society. Students are joined by a panel of activists, educators, athletes, entrepreneurs, etc. to rate the films and convene roundtable discussions about corresponding relevant issues in society. For info about film screenings and schedules contact: cheo@whatchusay.com

Writing Workshops–We offer intensive seminars in journalism, creative writing, cultural criticism, new media, film production, etc. These seminars are taught at the center, located at 1224 Preservation Park, Oakland, CA, 94612. They are also available on location, at schools, community and detention centers, churches, etc. For info about class schedules contact: cheo@whatchusay.com

Internships–Whatchusay.com offers competitive internships to young writers who have clearly demonstrated a passion for the craft of writing or media production. The 3-month internship covers news writing and reporting, feature writing, creative writing, media literacy and new media. Working in partnership with community based organizations, universities and international and national media outlets, we produce a pipeline of informed journalists of color who will go on to create their own independent media organizations or work for major media organizations.

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Revisiting a Classic: Games People Play

By Don K. Taylor

In the annals of social psychology, there was perhaps no greater incisive people observer than Eric Berne. He wrote the hugely popular book "Games People Play". He pioneered the work which he called "Transactional Analysis" and broke away from the established psychiatric medical boards of his time to give him the intellectual freedom to develop and practice his work in game analysis. He lived and practiced in San Francisco in the ‘50's and ‘60's.

For me, personally, I was attracted to Sales as a career because it afforded a much better than average income (over 50% of your Fortune 500 CEO's come from Sales). And, more importantly, it provided me the opportunity to work with people. For the average person, they think Sales people are affable, back-slapping, smiling people manipulators. For those of us who are professional sales people, we know better. I have a strong streak of the "loner" in my personality. Since I make my living working with people, however, I am constantly amused, befuddled, and sometimes terrified at the games people really do play!

There is one game some "religious" people love to play, which I call, "Let's go to church". In this game, if you are to be accepted into the group, you must go to church. If you don't go to church, you are somehow viewed as an "outsider" with the attending emblem of a non-believer. Of course, this is pure nonsense! Whoever said going to church is going to get you into heaven? I don't think God bases our salvation on church attendance records. It's all, sadfully, very silly. The more I observe people, the deeper my "loner" need becomes. Of course, I've always gone my own way, and have had an insatiable need for personal freedom. A "nine-to-five" job was always a killer for me.

We all have a need for authenticity, but most people don't have the courage to be "real". Acceptance is the easier route. Of all human traits, I've always thought courage reigned supreme. Without it, we are weak, impotent, and our lives are empty. Courage gives you the strength to be yourself, and not care what the other people think. You won't be the most popular kid on the block, but whoever said being popular makes you happy?

BlogOn: What games do you play to get in the world? Do you have to play them?

Posted on August 1, 2005 7:18 AM