Tent City tour by the ASU and UMN Humphrey scholars
Posted on February 17, 2015
Thursday last week was interesting, I was able to tag along with Humphrey Scholars from the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and University of Minnesota as they spoke with Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio and took a tour of tent city. The groups were comprised of journalism, human rights advocates, lawyers, judges and law enforcement officials from a plethora of different countries and they were able to listen to Sheriff Arpaio talk about his approach to law enforcement and address everything from his religion to his human rights record.
For many scholars the idea of an outdoor jail was something completely new, but when I served in Peace Corps in Zambia our local district Mwinilunga, functioned in much the same way. The fact that tent city serves no meat in their menu was a particular point of interest as well as prisoners working as a means to staying in the short term tent city as opposed to staying downtown. Pink underwear came up of course.
I’m uploading some images that I liked and trying to respect that I asked inmates before taking their photo, we had limited time but it was interesting to see the facility after growing up with it as a constant presence. My mother worked across the street and I remember as a child several times when she was late coming home because an inmate had escaped and her office was on lock down.
The inmate pictured above was being released at midnight and was so happy, she said she was clean and would go straight to rehab. She said she read a book a day and her favorite was The Fault in Our Stars, a great book about teens suffering from cancer who were in love. The covers of every book were so worn, it made me want to donate more books.
The image below is difficult to make out but it’s a calendar with crossed out days.
The guards were also interesting to talk to, it just wasn’t enough time.
Chris Rainier lectures at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism
Posted on November 25, 2014
We had the privilege of having National Geographic Chris Rainier speak at the Cronkite School. He spoke about the democratization of story telling, of which he is an active teacher and participant. Rainier travels to far parts of the world and to remote cultures teaching them how to document their own stories, language and songs.
I think he spoke about very real trends in journalism. As different parts of the world become more connected they also begin to control the stories and narratives about their own cultures. In my two year Peace Corps service from 2011-2013 I saw my village go from zero connectivity to smart phones. I saw people in my village start to photograph and document videos of daily life and share them online. It was wonderful to see what they felt deserved documentation versus what I felt deserved documentation. I cannot wait to see Mwinilunga, one of the most remote and underfunded (by the government) districts develop their own narratives online and begin to share experiences through their own eyes.
A trip to the Navajo Reservation at Monument Valley
Posted on May 11, 2014
We got the chance to travel with Humphrey Fellows from Arizona State University to visit the Navajo reservation in northern Arizona/Utah. During the trip we were given a tour of monument valley, including different rock formations and mountains before dinner and some traditional dancing and ending the night in a traditional hogan. I was able to shoot some photographs of the fellows enjoying their trip and tour, I wish I had more images, but there are too many to share. I shot some night images before the moon rose and some of the cloud streaks are jet streams that continued throughout the night. We finished up the visit with a group portrait which turned out okay given the ridiculous nature of the Arizona sun.
Final Days of News21
Posted on July 25, 2009
So the days are winding down . . . videos being exported, writing being edited, codes being written and while I was nervous the whole summer that the work we did wouldn’t be what we expected, today I think it is even better. It’s a good start and I can say that everyone’s work, I mean everyone’s work is amazing and exceptional. It’s one thing to be given the financial opportunity to do work like this, but it is something else to see every single one of the journalists I worked with create pieces of work that make me alternately proud of our program and jealous because I wish I had thought of it. Below are some of the portraits we took to do our intro video and Christopher Cameron, a master of Motion put together an amazing video . . . bet you can’t wait to see it . . . just a few more days . . .
Chris Cameron, above, and Chrystall Kanyuck, below, worked on a project about Latinos in the military. You wouldn’t think it, but Latinos make up a large force in our country’s all-volunteer military and yet they receive little coverage.
Below are reporters Travis Grabow and Emily Graham that worked on stories relating to religion and Latinos in the United States. Many Latinos today in the United States find themselves raised as Catholics and living secular lives. Some find their way to the Mormon faith, to Protestant faiths, and some to Judaism.
In the area of education Jeremy Pennycook and Elizabeth Shell did a series of videos focusing on early elementary education, high school, and higher education. Their videos use a function that allows links and extra information run alongside the video.
Christine Rogel focused on e-verify, the controversy surrounding the program and the rewards and costs of utilizing the system in Arizona. Can’t wait to see what her stand up looks like on this one . . .
Evan Wyloge is doing a study of the 1986 Amnesty program and a theoretical look into what amnesty would mean today. Some of my family got their citizenship through the amnesty program in 1986, can’t wait to see his work on it.
Another interesting story comes in the form of Dave Kempa’s look into the personal side of immigration. Kempa went down south, I mean all the way to Campeche, Mexico, so you’ll have to look at his work when it’s all wrapped up.
As for my story it ended up being an amalgam of the Virgin of Guadalupe and examples of cultural spread through out the United States and some parts of the world. I can’t wait to show you more of it, I can’t believe we’re almost done.
I’m officially done!
Posted on May 16, 2009
Graduation Finally! It was held at Frank Lloyd Wright’s Gammage auditorium. Awesome building if you’ve never been there. Here are some of the pics
Dean Callahan rounds us all up
A couple from home:
Moremoremore mortar boards
Posted on May 16, 2009
More personalized mortar boards . . . I love this stuff, here are some from commencement on Wednesday. These are all my fellow Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication, it’s been an amazing few years, amazing people and good memories.
Rhinestones, glitter, and messages
Posted on May 15, 2009
So these aren’t great, but I love love love personalized stuff, like these facemask pics from Mexico City, so I figured I’d put some of the hat pics I grabbed while wandering around yesterday.
And my personal favorite representing the worries of all of my fellow Cronkite school grads:
Obamacommencamania!
Posted on May 15, 2009
So security was tight, but I managed to sneak my camera in . . . can’t tell you how happy that made me. Not quite close enough to Obama to make my 85mm prime work, but an amazing experience nonetheless. I’m going to do three to four seperate posts, one on hats, one on random grads and commencement itself. Here are some random pre-pre-pre commencement stuff.
And my wonderful mother and family:
Tomorrow: Commencement!
Posted on May 13, 2009
So tomorrow is graduation . . . today was our rehearsal at Sun Devil Stadium in my hometown of Tempe, Ariz. And as if this weren’t cool enough, I was fortunate enough to receive an award which will put me in the seat pictured below about four seats from the left in the first row. I may not be shaking President Obama’s hand tomorrow, but at least I get to be front row.
Students at rehearsal listen to instructions
For some interesting numbers get this
ASU has a general student population of: 60,000 students
Average amount of graduates who attend a spring commencement: 3,000 graduates
2009 amount of graduates who have RSVP’d for commencement: 11,000 graduates
Sun Devil Stadium holds: 75,000 people
We arrive tomorrow at 3:30pm and Obama is scheduled to speak nearly 5 hours later at 8:00pm
The big stage!
And my dad all tuckered out
RFK memorial award
Posted on April 21, 2009
I am proud to say that my in-depth journalism course that worked on the Divided Families project at Arizona State University has won the college print journalism RFK Memorial award!.
Courtney Sargent
I am posting two soundslides done on two different stories, the first is of Courtney Sargent’s A Generation Abandoned about seniors abandoned in DIF homes in Agua Prieta, Sonora and Douglas, Arizona border.
Deanna Dent
Ryan Kost and I worked on a story about three American children abandoned in Mexico who had spent nearly two years in a Mexican orphanage even though they had their American birth certificates on file, you can see that project, Los Ninos Mejia as well.
Also here are all the students I had the pleasure of working with:
Adrian Barrera
Leah Duran
Branden Eastwood
Kristi Eaton
Brian Indrelunas
Ryan Kost
Jordan LaPier
Angela Hong-Anh-Le
Ashley Lowery
Ryan Ruiz
Codie Sanchez
Courtney Sargent
Amanda Soares
Michael Struening
Teana Wagner
Aja Viafora
I’ve been going to the orphanage for a little over two years now, here are a couple of older posts . . . although I have many more that I didn’t properly tag in the past.
Deanna Dent 