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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.

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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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This is Bailey: Remembering Chauncey Bailey - Journalist, Mentor, and Friend

By Kwan Booth

Deadline nights in the newspaper business are sacred. Nothing compares to that last minute rush of writing, editing and designing, trying to squeeze in that last crucial detail before going to press. When I heard that Chauncey Bailey, editor of the Oakland Post, was ambushed and killed on August 2, 2007, "deadline night" was the first thing that came to mind.

For the last two and a half years, I've been a writer and editor at the Post, where Chauncey and I worked together on several occasions. Some of my best memories are from Tuesdays in the production room at 2 am: huddled around a computer screen - shirt sleeves rolled up, bags under everyone's eyes, cups of stale coffee littering every counter top. I remember some nights looking over at Chauncey, and seeing the fatigue on his face. But more than that, there was the joy. The man was addicted to the news, and the business associated with it. Those were the times he relished.

Those were also the times when he opened up the most. Reports from the last 24 hours have repeatedly mentioned his hallmark aggressive style and brevity, and for good reason. Chauncey wasn't one for small conversations. From the way he answered the phone -"This is Bailey. What?" - to his habit of writing stories in the body of emails or dictating them to layout designers directly to speed the process, he was all about getting it out quick, hard, and correct.

But his style always came across as more tough love than "tough shit." During late nights, he'd open up about the screenplays and movies he was working on, and his frustration with trying to get movie studios to read scripts that showed "real life" black characters. He'd tell stories of his years spent chronicling the African American community in the Bay Area and Detroit, and of the roadblocks he encountered trying to increase the presence and credibility of black people in the media.

We'd have long debates on media and the best way to reach under served neighborhoods. I'd call him a dinosaur for his unrelenting faith in the power of print news and old school TV broadcasts. He thought I put too much emphasis on all this "new media." His rationale: you've got to reach people where they are, and most poor folks aren't checking for the Daily Kos. Understandable, coming from a man who never figured out how to send an attachment in an email. But from those late night conversations, I learned a lot about the inner workings of the news industry. Chauncey taught me everything from how to really grill public officials to how to score a spot on the coveted "press junket."

We often joked about it in the office, but Chauncey really was the James Brown of Bay Area reporting -"The hardest working man in journalism." He refused to have a computer in his house, explaining that he'd "never stop working." It was a regular thing for staffers to make late night and early morning runs to the office to find Chauncey sitting there, hunched over his computer, ballpoint pen in his mouth, eyes three inches from the screen, surrounded by mountains of press releases, phone numbers and story notes.

Chauncey had a great feel for what people wanted, and was a big fan of short, tightly written stories. He liked to tease the reader and make them come back for more next week. He regularly chided contributing writers for their verbosity: "I wrote about the entire state of black people in California in 300 words, why do you need 800 for a record review?"

This article - 756 words written in his memory - would have probably driven him nuts, and I can imagine him over my shoulder with a red pen in hand, slashing copy. Like most journalists, he didn't like to be the center of attention, and I could see him bumping his own memorial for something more "newsy." For just this once though, long winded or not, I hope he'd agree that the length of the article fits the occasion.

Chauncey you were a good dude, a trusted mentor, and a hell of a newspaper man. Your contribution to the community will be greatly missed. End of story.

Kwan Booth is a contributing writer for whatchusay.com. Hit him up at: kwan.booth@gmail.com
[This article was orignally published on novometro.com]

Posted on August 17, 2007 1:31 PM