News
Announcing AMC2012 Tracks, Network Gatherings, and Practice Spaces. Submit session proposals now!
AMC2012 features 21 amazing participant-organized Tracks, Network Gatherings, and Practice Spaces. Read the descriptions here!
You are now invited to submit proposals for AMC sessions. Submit your proposal at AMPTalk!
We are looking for sessions that can be hosted within AMC Practice Spaces or Tracks, or that stand alone in their awesomeness. When you propose your session, you can associate your proposal with multiple Tracks and Practice Spaces, or none-of-the-above by selecting the "General" track.
Tracks are a series of 5 - 10 AMC sessions focused on media-based organizing strategies. We define "media-based organizing" as any collaborative process that uses media, art, or technology to bring about a more just and creative world.
Practice Spaces are experiments in creating the world we want to see. Through Practice Spaces, we model practices that make the AMC more accessible, engaging, and transformative for everyone.
Network Gatherings are day-long mini-conferences held on the Thursday before the conference. These are spaces for established networks or groups to convene in the space of the AMC for in-depth reflection and planning conversations.
We're excited to fill the AMC with incredible content from new and returning presenters.
Let the session proposing begin!
Help shape AMC2012 - take a 10 min survey
Next week, 34 coordinators of the AMC2012 tracks, network gatherings and practice spaces will meet up in Detroit for three days of intensive planning.
At this meeting, we will launch the six-month process of content-development, cross-network collaboration and grassroots fundraising that will result in a glorious AMC2012.
We need your input in this planning process! What skills do you want to learn at AMC2012? What strategy conversations do you want to have? Who do you want to make sure participates in the conference this year?
Tell us all these things and more in a super short survey. It will only take 15 minutes of your time and it will contribute volumes to the awesomeness of this year's AMC.
If you are inspired to give more detailed input, please fill out an additional survey designed by the coordinators of the Webmaking Track to assess what web development skills should be shared at AMC2012.
While we will continue to accept responses over the next several months, your input will be MOST VALUABLE to us if we receive it before 9am EST on Friday 1/13. This will allow us to incorporate your feedback into the coordinators' planning meeting next weekend.
Thank you for being a part of the AMC network.
AMP Year-End Reflections
Image by Joe Namy
This was the most epic year-to-date in the life of Allied Media Projects.
Image by Joe Namy
During that same weekend in late January 2011, AMP moved from our cozy (but too small and inaccessible) office in an old Elementary School to a 3,000 square foot ground-level space in the Furniture Factory Theater building, only a few blocks away, in the Cass Corridor. Our new office includes a media lab/classroom which we designed to host the first round of Detroit Future Media workshops. We have spacious work areas for our staff, which has grown from three at the beginning of the year to a crew of eight full-time and a dozen part-time staff.
Image by DMEC Communicator
Through DFM we trained an inaugural class of Detroiters in audio, video, graphic design, web design skills and the application of these skills in education, social justice organizing, and community-based entrepreneurship. We selected DFM students through an application process which asked, "What is your vision for the future of Detroit?" and "How will you use digital media to transform your community?"
Image by Joe NamyIn August, we launched Detroit Future Schools by hosting 12 teachers and eight DFM artists-in-residence to "AMP Camp" – a five-day professional development retreat at a YMCA camp in West Michigan. AMP Camp was a time for collaborative curricula-building,plus a healthy dose of kayaking, karaoke, and jumping off trampolines into a lake. At the retreat, we looked long and hard at the education crisis facing Detroit. We realized that the goals of our program were nothing less than to reinvent the purpose and practice of education in Detroit. Our purpose is to prepare the future-builders of a more just, creative and collaborative world. Our practice is digital media arts integration, project-based learning, democratic classrooms, and school-community connectedness.
Photo by Leona McElveneAmidst the highs of the 2011 Allied Media Conference, the graduation of the first class of Detroit Future Media, and the AMP Camp week of Detroit Future Schools, the Summer of 2011 hit a profound low with the passing of Detroit poet-activist-educator, D. Blair. Blair had been an important part of the AMC community, most recently as co-coordinator of the "Poetry and Music as Transformative Media" track at AMC2011. AMP staff mourned alongside our vast network of people locally and nationally who loved Blair. We celebrated and honored his life, while committing to do better at taking care of each other as we work towards a more just and creative world.
AMP continues to be an active member in the Detroit Digital Justice Coalition, providing facilitation for monthly meetings and technical support for the network of the coalition's thirteen Public Computer Centers. At the first DDJC retreat, held in November of this year, we laid strategic plans for the coming year of Discovering Technology Fairs (or "DiscoTechs") community wireless networks and communications work, including the publication of the zine, Communication is a Fundamental Human Right.
Flyer Templates for Your Organizing for AMC2012
We have four flyer templates that you can use for your local organizing towards the AMC. Check them out and download here!
HIRING: Allied Media Conference Content Coordinator (Full Time)
Allied Media Projects is seeking an experienced, creative and visionary individual to serve as Content Coordinator for the Allied Media Conference, which we host annually in Detroit.
Job title: AMC Content Coordinator
Job type: Full time with benefits
Job location: Detroit, MI
Overview
The Allied Media Conference works at the intersection of many social justice communities: youth leadership, queer and transgender liberation, environmental justice, disability justice, transformative justice, radical people of color anti-violence, healing justice, prison abolition, decolonization movements, anti-poverty movements, radical art, intergenerational movement-building, immigrant justice, media justice, community media, open source technology, education for liberation, and many more.
The ideal candidate has organizing experience in three or more of these communities, strong relationships in at least five and a clear understanding of how they are using media-based organizing strategies. The ideal candidate also has extensive experience with writing and editing, large-scale project-management, facilitative leadership on local and national levels, grassroots fundraising, non-hierarchal, network-based organizing models, popular education and program logistics. They must understand and be aligned with the Allied Media Projects Network Principles.
About the Allied Media Conference Content Coordinator position
The 2012 Allied Media Conference will feature 24 “program nodes,” including 6 Tracks, 11 Network Gatherings and 8 Practice Spaces. Each of these program nodes will be coordinated by two or more individuals or organizations from within the AMP network. Each set of coordinators will work with 5 to 12 other individuals and organizations to develop conference content, implement grassroots fundraising strategies, and coordinate the logistics for hundreds of AMC participants. In total, this will involve over 200 “content producers” for AMC2012. We anticipate 2,000 people will attend the conference this year.
The Allied Media Conference Content Coordinator will work closely with AMP Co-Director, Jenny Lee to provide direct support to all of the content-producers of the 2012 Allied Media Conference. This support will include: helping groups to clarify the visions of their programming and edit their descriptions; helping groups clarify the vision and strategy for their grassroots fundraising and outreach efforts; doing general AMC fundraising; making connections across issue areas, skills and identities; facilitating collaborations; aligning all conference content with the vision and principles of AMP; facilitating groups and individuals through logistical, programmatic, and financial challenges towards solutions.
The Allied Media Conference Content Coordinator will also solicit and support AMC content outside of the 25 program nodes (approximately 50 additional sessions). Immediately following the AMC, the Coordinator will lead documentation and evaluation efforts to begin the organizing cycle for the 2013 conference.
The Coordinator will also support year-round network organizing using online platforms developed by AMP.
The ideal Allied Media Conference Content Coordinator will take increasing leadership in conference organizing with each AMC, with the goal of full direction of conference organizing by AMC2014.
Responsibilities
- Manage systems (organizational and technological) for AMC content coordination. These include systems for:
- Content solicitation, proposal submission, and review processes
- Collaborative writing, editing, and decision-making
- Grassroots fundraising strategy development and implementation
- Logistical needs assessments and organizing to meet those needs
- Year-round idea development, match-making between AMC content partners, and organizing support
- Participate in innovating AMC organizing systems
- Facilitate AMC documentation and evaluation processes
- Support year-round network organizing using online platforms developed by AMP
Qualifications
The ideal candidate will have many of the following qualifications:
- Exceptional capacity to listen and learn
- Confidence and skill to integrate new ideas into established systems
- A passion for facilitating the leadership of others
- Excellent writing and editing skills
- Vision and imagination. The ideal candidate has a vision for a more just and creative world and the leadership of grassroots communities in shaping it.
- Ability to weave relationships across diverse issue areas and identity groups.
- Comprehensive understanding of accessibility; experience producing events that are accessible to people with disabilities, non-english speakers, queer and transgendered people, parents, low-income people, and multiple age groups.
- Familiarity with principles and practices of collaborative design
- Familiarity with Detroit social justice organizing and ability to draw connections between Detroit and other communities within the national AMP network.
- Experience as a participant, volunteer, presenter, or Track Coordinator of the Allied Media Conference.
- Experience as a media producer
- Experience with conflict mediation
- Experience with creative problem-solving in a collaborative setting
- Experience designing and leading creative, participatory workshops
- Experience facilitating productive, enjoyable meetings in person and virtually
- Experience administering websites or an ability to learn
- Experience designing and implementing social media strategies
- Ability/desire to work flexible hours, including occasional evenings and weekends, and willingness to travel occasionally.
How to Apply
Please send the following to work@alliedmedia.org:
- cover letter
- resume
- 2 writing samples
- 2 outlines of workshops or presentations that you have led
- names, emails, and telephone numbers of three professional references
Applications will be accepted until January 1, 2012. Interviews will take place January 4, 5 and 6. Our ideal candidate will be able to attend the AMC2012 Coordinators Meet-up January 13, 14 and 15, and will have an official start date of February 1.
Allied Media Projects is an Equal Opportunity Employer and does not discriminate on the basis of race, creed, color, gender, gender identity, gender expression, age, ethnicity, national origin, immigration status, sexual orientation, religion, HIV serostatus, disability, height, weight, veteran status or marital status.
Link buttons for AMC2012
Help promote the Allied Media Conference to your community by posting one of these link buttons to your website or blog. Make sure the image links back to http://alliedmedia.org/amc2012
See more resources to help you promote the AMC.
Save The Date Postcards for AMC2012
Send us your postal address and we will mail you a stack to share with your community. Click here to contact us.
Detroit Future Programs Share Their Work with Local and National Audiences
Detroit Future is a movement to build a more just, creative and collaborative city. It consists of three programs that put the principles of the Detroit Digital Justice Coalition into practice: Detroit Future Media, Detroit Future Schools and Detroit Future Youth. Recently, Detroit Future program leaders had opportunities to share their work with local and national audiences:
- 10/29/11 - Jenny Lee, Ilana Weaver, Alia Harvey-Quinn, Isaac Miller and Ron Watters presented about Detroit Future Programs at the recent Re-Imagining Work conference and led an interactive workshop to engage participants in re-imagining Detroit's economy. Read framing remarks from Jenny Lee here. Read the workshop outline here.
- 11/5/11 - Diana Nucera presented at the Race 2 Equity Conference, which launched the Metropolitan Detroit Truth and Reconciliation Commission on Racial Equity.
- 11/9/11 - Jenny Lee presented on the "Advocacy and Innovation in Social Media" panel at the PolicyLink Equity Summit, alongside James Rucker of ColorOfChange.org and Rishi Jaitly of the Knight Foundation. Read her remarks here.
- 11/11/11 - Diana Nucera and Janel Yamashiro led a workshop at the University of Michigan School of Information with Kat Hartman of Data Driven Detroit. Read their workshop outline here.
- 10/15/11 - Lottie Spady spoke with a Media & Social Justice class of masters students at Marygrove College on the role of social media in social justice work, how the Detroit Future Programs are using social media for documentation, to address the lack of justice coverage in mainstream news outlets and to build community through the #detroitfuture hash tag.
The Work Department is Hiring
The Work Department designs and builds websites for Allied Media Projects. We are looking for a programmer to join our team.
The Work Department is a small firm, currently consisting of two principals/owners and two independent contractors. We work on challenging and world-changing projects, and make an effort to come up with innovative solutions and push them back to the open source world. Much of our work involves collaborating with Detroit social justice organizations.
We take pride in our involvement with the Detroit Digital Justice Coalition. As our company grows, we are dedicated to finding new ways to support accessible communication and information technology.
Our technology
We have plenty of programming work to go around, ranging from theme implementation (we use the Omega framework and Display Suite) to module development (lots of Drupal 7 Organic Groups bugs to fix!) to frontend development (Javascript wizardry). Speaking of Javascript, we work with node.js for some niche cases.
If you're not a Drupal person, you will have to be willing to dive into it. It's less about knowing Drupal and more about being smart, flexible, and cooperative. We put a lot of effort into version control and project planning, although we aren't an "agile shop" or management zealots of any sort.
While we're currently inundated with web development work, we are also a general design and development firm. For example, we are on the brink of starting a project researching and developing embedded mesh network applications. We won't expect a candidate for this Drupal developer position to be interested in working with mesh routing protocols and OpenWRT (C + Lua + unix-fu) but it might be awesome if you were!
Wanted: Drupal Developer
The Work Department seeks a programmer to work with us on our Drupal web development projects.
You would be able to work 30-40 hours per week, with at least half of these hours spent coworking during the first three months of working with us.
You would be expected to work with our existing team of designers and developers to:
- outline project requirements
- inform design decisions
- inventory what’s available in the Drupal ecosystem and what needs custom work
- implement designs as a Drupal theme
- work with and contribute improvements to Drupal modules like Features, Context, Display Suite, and Views
- write clean, testable code
- collaboratively code with Git
- use an online project management system
- document your work, both in code and in worklogs
You should have at least the following qualifications:
- Effective command of the English language, both verbal and written
- A history of participation in collaborative software development, ideally open source / Drupal
- 2+ years of Javascript programming experience
- 3+ years of PHP programming experience
Compensation will be based on experience.
Please use our contact form to apply. Please provide a brief introduction to yourself, a link to your resume/CV, and a link to your Drupal user profile, Github profile, or something similar.
Please apply by December 15, 2011.
Some Helpful Resources for Engaging the 99% Movement
"We Occupy the Future" taken by Minne-Bruce Pratt. This photo was taken during the Occupy Oakland General Strike.
**Updated 11/17/11**
This is a compilation of inspiring media from the past five weeks of the 99% Movement. Some of it comes directly from long-time Allied Media Conference participants; some of it resonates with the ideas and practices of the AMC community. All of it helps us take in the immensity of this moment and channel it into transformative action.
In Front and Center is a collection of important analysis, tools and resources. They invite your contributions. How have you been engaging with the Occupy movement in your area? What alternate language to "Occupy" are you using and how did you develop it? How are you building mutual support between 'Occupy' organizers and long-time community organizers? How are you practicing community safety (safety from infiltration, police violence and interpersonal violence?) How are you dismantling oppression and practicing liberation? How are you making space for youth and children to participate? How are you staying warm?
At In Front and Center, you can share what you've learned in these and any other areas. This could be as simple as a proposal you passed at a general assembly, a workshop outline, an orientation manual, a diagram scribbled on a napkin, or a story of how something happened. Send contributions to: infrontandcenter@gmail.com
ANALYSIS
(CHRONOLOGICALLY ORDERED)
"So Real It Hurts"
Hena Ashraf >> Racialicious >> 10/03/2011
This is a powerful narrative of how transformation happens. "...There in that circle, on that street-corner we did a crash course on racism, white privilege, structural racism, oppression. We did a course on history and the declaration of independence and colonialism and slavery. It was hard. It was real. It hurt. But people listened. We had to fight for it. I'm going to say that again: we had to fight for it. But it felt worth it."
"Occupy Wall Street: The Most Important Thing in the World Now"
Naomi Klein >> NaomiKlein.org >> 10/06/2011
This is an articulation of common threads and important differences between this movement and the anti-corporate globalization movements. "Only when you stay put can you grow roots. This is crucial. It is a fact of the information age that too many movements spring up like beautiful flowers but quickly die off. It's because they don't have roots. And they don't have long term plans for how they are going to sustain themselves. So when storms come, they get washed away. Being horizontal and deeply democratic is wonderful. But these principles are compatible with the hard work of building structures and institutions that are sturdy enough to weather the storms ahead."
VIDEO: "Grace Lee Boggs' message to Occupy Wall Street"
Grace Lee Boggs >> 10/09/2011
96-year-old Detroit movement veteran says "thank you" and "you have a long way to go." "This enemy of ours is not just Wall Street, it's a whole culture; it's a way of valuing ourselves and each other. You have the opportunity to create something new based on entirely different values. But you're going to have to be thinking about values and not just abuses."
"Manna-hata"
Tequila Sovereign >> 10/09/2011
A history of land fraud and treaty violation that made "Wall Street" possible. "In 1653, in fact, the Dutch built a wall attempting to block Lenape, other Native nations, and the English from attacking "their" settlement. By 1700, when the English assumed Dutch land holdings in the region, they tore down the wall and paved a street over its location that they called 'Wall Street.'"
"The Fight for 'Real Democracy' at the Heart of Occupy Wall Street"
Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri >> Foreign Affairs >> 10/11/2011
Analysis of how OWS represents a call for a new political system, not just a new economic system. "One obvious and clear message of the protests, of course, is that the bankers and finance industries in no way represent us: What is good for Wall Street is certainly not good for the country (or the world). A more significant failure of representation, though, must be attributed to the politicians and political parties charged with representing the people's interests but in fact more clearly represent the banks and the creditors."
VIDEO: Interview with Kazembe Balagun
Leia MonDragon >>Mad TruthSeekR Multimedia Productions >> 10/11/2011
Writer and cultural activist, Kazembe Balagun on the fact of the past and the open-ended beauty of the present. "The first commodity sold on Wall Street was enslaved Africans... so to occupy Wall Streets is to take a historical analysis of how this particular area has oppressed the world...The thing that we have to learn, particularly as oppressed communities, is how to get these skills, these resources, this information and to use it in our communities. These facilitation skills, these technology skills, these gathering skills we have to get them and spread them across the world."
"The Space Being Occupied by Occupy Atlanta"
Kung Li >> Leaving Evidence >> 10/12/2011
A sweeping historical narrative of U.S. racism, told through the story of one park, now being occupied in Atlanta. "I am simply suggesting that in addition to questions of logistics and process during Occupy Atlanta's committee meetings and larger Assemblies, the questions of why and how race and racism figure into this fight are, I think, worth trying to think through and understand together. Because this is Georgia, after all. And because what happens in Woodruff Park Troy Davis Park in 2011 is being written now."
VIDEO: Climbing Poetree Performs at Times Square
Climbing Poetree >> 10/15/2011
The Human Mic in beautiful action. "If so much is controlled by so few / imagine how much / so many of us could all do/ if you consider this system / runs off of our fuel / if we stop running along / we see just who's ruling who / the game don't exist / if we don't play by its rules..."
"Letter to a Dead Man About the Occupation of Hope"
Rebecca Solnit >> Tom Dispatch >> 10/18/2011
A snapshot of how the world has changed since the death of Mohammed Bouazizi, the Tunisian street vendor who set himself on fire on Dec. 17, 2010. "Young man whose despair gave birth to hope, no one knows what the future holds. When you set yourself afire almost ten months ago, you certainly didn't know, nor do any of us know now, what the long-term outcome of the Arab Spring will be, let alone this American Fall. Such a movement arrives in the world like a newborn. Who knows its fate, or even whether it will survive to grow up?"
Letter of Solidarity to OWS from Tahrir Square
In Front and Center >> 10/25/2011
Activists from Cairo offer lessons and encouragement. "So we stand with you not just in your attempts to bring down the old but to experiment with the new. We are not protesting. Who is there to protest to? What could we ask them for that they could grant? We are occupying. We are reclaiming those same spaces of public practice that have been commodified, privatized and locked into the hands of faceless bureaucracy, real estate portfolios, and police 'protection'. Hold on to these spaces, nurture them, and let the boundaries of your occupations grow. "
"Letter from the Middle of the Night"
Marcelo Garzo >> 10/26/2011
Profound reflections after the Oakland Police Department attacked and destroyed the encampment at Oscar Grant Park. "For the energy of 10 police precincts, Is now ours to take, / and transform. / That is, / If energy cannot be created nor destroyed, / But can only change its shape, / How are we, / As shape shifters in our own bodies, / Working to change the shape of this energía, / And in turn, / Changing the shape of this movement? / Of this world?"
VIDEO: "Grace Lee Boggs' message to Occupy Wall Street Part II"
Filmmaker, Grace Lee >> 11/2/2011
"You must not be satisfied with rebellion. We are at a point in history where we need revolution and revolution means re-inventing culture."
HOW-TO RESOURCES
This letter to the organizers of Occupy Detroit, drafted by Jenny Lee from Allied Media Projects and Yusef Shakur from the Urban Network to the organizers of Occupy Detroit. It was circulated widely among dozens of other Detroit organizers and collectively edited and endorsed.
The letter formed the basis for a meeting of local organizers to brainstorm ways of engaging Occupy Detroit to make it more relevant and connected to ongoing grassroots organizing efforts. Proposals were generated during that meeting and brought to the General Assembly.
This proposal was written by members of Regeneración Childcare Collective proposed to and adopted by the POC Working Group of OWS:
We would like to provide safe and loving childcare that supports the participation of parents and caretakers in this space. We propose that while the meetings are still being held at Liberty Square where there is a large police presence, that we not separate kids from their caretakers and that instead we encourage folks to bring their kids to meetings and have our meetings be spaces where children feel welcomed and valued. This looks like being ok with child noise, meaning no side eying if a kid is laughing or crying or playing. This looks like folks, not just those who know the kid, but everyone taking responsibility for engaging kids in things like coloring, sign making, writing, drawing, and story telling and this looks like recognizing that kids that are in this space may have their own vision of what a truly decolonized space looks like. We also propose that as more parents and caretakers come to the meetings and as we possibly change our meeting locations that we continue to decide together and to reevaluate what childcare might look like for this meeting.
This is a video about how consensus works.
This is a list of safety and self-defense tactics in the event of police violence.
This is an illustration of how Mesh Wireless Networks can be set-up to provide Internet access to an encampment :
It was designed by the Open Technology Initiative and the Work Department.
This is an open, shared space for distributed research about the Occupy Together Movement.
This is a mail service that allows anyone to sent letters to the 1%. Occupy The Board Room.
This is a Toolkit for Inclusion produced by disability activists in San Jose, filled with practical tips on how to make an occupation accessible for people with disabilities. And also this advice: "This toolkit is intended to be just that, a set of tools that can be used to help make the Occupy Movement inclusive of all members of the 99%. The strategies suggested here may or may not work for all people with disabilities. Use this toolkit as a starting point, but seek leadership and direction from the people with disabilities at your particular site to determine what will work best. The most important thing is to have an inclusive state of mind."
Toolkit for Inclusion (Disabilities) was created by the Center for Independent Living (Berkeley) and the Independent Living Resource Center - San Francisco
Contact us to suggest other resources to be included here.
AMC2011 Documentation Round-Up
Photo provided by Carlton Gholz
"Always been a no borders space time traveling mutant rebel girlchild of the 3rd 4th 5th dimension but #amc2011 inspired me to live it loudly" – @mothershiester
"And what an incredible conference – perhaps the best I’ve ever witnessed – a whole bunch of media geeks and radical shit-kickers coming together to share knowledge and dream the future." – DJ Bent >> Duty Artz >> 6/30/2011
"What’s inspiring about the AMC is that while there is no shortage of panels dedicated to sharing knowledge and policy analysis – there is also a free flowing energy of innovation and response. We’re not just railing against the system, we’re actively building a new one based on mutual association and collaboration." – Nadia Mohamed >> Paper Tiger TV >>7/3/2011
"Anyone lamenting the end of traditional media would do well to attend the AMC conference and experience the excitement of a metaphorical phoenix rising from the ash." – Mandy Van Deven >> AlterNet >> 7/1/2011
The 13th annual Allied Media Conference brought over 1,800 people together in Detroit to push the boundaries of what media can be and how it can be used to transform our lives and our world. This round-up represents a snapshot, but in no way represents the totality of everything that transpired between June 23 – 26, 2011 in Detroit.
At AMC2011 we shared knowledge in small circles and large circles, panel discussions, hands-on workshops, dance-party slideshow presentations, science fairs, and curriculum carnivals!
More Detroiters participated in the AMC this year than ever before, as representatives of the Detroit Future network, an emerging city-wide movement. Students from the Detroit Future Media Workshops program led workshops and tours, sold merchandise produced through their classes and documented the AMC.
Photo provided by EMEAC.
Photo provided by Joe Namy
Photo provided by EMEAC.
Photo provided by Carleton Gholz
AMC sponsor, the Detroit Creative Corridor Center said, "The AMC is the alternate reality I would create if I were allowed to create new realities: a place where we respect each others’ differences and everyone earnestly wants to make a positive change in the world." Read their full report-back here.
Every year at the AMC, more people put the world they want to see into practice. This year, we saw this most clearly through the Healing Justice Practice Space. This space stayed open throughout the whole weekend, offering free treatments in message, reiki, accupuncture and other healing arts. The Healing Justice Practice Space helps ensure that everyone at the AMC could contribute to the conference with their full selves.
Photo provided by Carleton Gholz.
We toured the city, drawing the connections between environmental justice and media justice, between the way we grow our own food and the way we make our own media. As part of the "Eco-Media Strategies for Survival and Sustainability" track, youth at the AMC spent Saturday afternoon cooking, eating and talking about "the radical notion that we are what we eat," both in terms of food and media consuption. Read a full reportback from the East Michigan Environmental Action Council.
Photo provided by EMEAC.
At the intersection of the AMC’s "Radio Active" track and the "Ending the Incarceration Nation" track, we saw how community radio stations can be used to create solidarity between people inside and outside of prisons, towards the vision of ending the prison industrial complex.
We premiered innovative new organizing tools like the Dialed-in Toolkit and the What the Cell? documentary which were picked up by organizers confronting the impending merger of ATT & T-Mobile.
In her reflections on the AMC, Nadia Mohamed of Paper Tiger TV said, "Participating in the conference taught us more about the potential AT&T – T-Mobile merger and how it would specifically target low income communities of color, especially Latin@s. We learned more about the prison phone justice movement and began brainstorming ideas for creating media tools for similar campaigns in detention centers." Read her full reflections here.
Fabiola Carrion, a delegate with the Media Action Grassroots Network, reflected on the AMC: "The conference is one of the few spaces where the role of media is fully analyzed: its applications in our everyday lives, its impact on other social justice issues, and the public policies affecting us all. This year, I was lucky to get a chance to discuss the latter — specifically the importance of state legislation in this effort ... My goal was to remind attendees that, as the most involved advocates in their communities, they have the power to shape the policy that is created at the state and local level.” Progressive State Network >> 7/8/2011
We shared media tactics for ending poverty, and supporting low-wage immigrant workers rights, drawing connections between our many movements. Watch this video report-back from the Vermont Workers Center, in which they explain how the AMC taught them that "it doesn't have to be hard or scary or expensive, we can take media into our own hands."
We created space for trans and queer youth media organizations to grow networks of support and solidarity, through music workshops, flashmobs and curriculum shares. Read Bianca Campbell's reflections on how the AMC supported the work of her organization, SPARK Reproductive Justice Now.
LGBTQ Southerners of all ages convened their first AMC caucus, hosted by Southerners On New Ground (SONG), to begin strategizing on ways to collaborate and bring more LGBTQ Southerners to participate in the AMC.
We freestyled in words, sounds, images, and movements.
With so many amazing things happening at once, we spent a lot of time deliberating and documenting.
The "Let's Build It Together! Collaborative Technology Design" track applied the Allied Media network's successful participatory media practices to the design of the media tools themselves. In the "Every Network Tells a Story" workshop, "we developed a wireless networking game and educational workshop based on the idea that the technology should fit our relationships, not the other way around." Participants then got to visit a node in the local mesh network and install a wireless router. Read the full narrative of this adventure here.
Photo provided by Eric Breibart.
The "Poetry and Music as Transformative Media" track convened a network of people who are thinking deeply and expansively about the role of art in social movements. Read this report-back from the session, "Building Movements Through Touring," which focused on the question of "how to build a tour that is not just about coming to town and disappearing once you’ve performed/exhibited, but actually building on the momentum of local community organizing work for social change."
On the last day of the conference, the "Kids Transform the World Track" planted a tree, and saved the future(!), modeling a world that is playful, inventive, and intergenerational.
As we do every year, we partied as hard as we worked. With karaoke, open mics, bowling, concerts, dance parties and a notable addition: LED-lit "illumaballoon" chandeliers custom made for the AMC by the Motor City Makers.
Last but not least, we documented the conference through thousands of tweets. What follows below is a choice selection of tweets from the #AMC2011 hashtag. A file (.csv) of 2,072 tweets can be downloaded here, for anyone who wants to reconstruct their own AMC2011 experience.
A thousand thanks to everyone who contributed to the telling of this story. We are planning for AMC2012 and we hope you are too. Save the dates! June 29 – July 1, 2012.
SELECTED AMC2011 TWEETS
@MiggyAndrade expect loving/serious crew w/media-related strats 4 collective liberation/transformation & nothin less @allied_media #amc2011 - @hannahsassaman
\History is social memory ... we need to remember important moments so others can learn from us.\" from the notes #digitalecosystem #AMC2011"
@bigboomcu
Props to Detroit and to the conveners and participants of the #amc2011! It's where the grassroots goes to use, defend, and transform media!
@culturejedi
has landed in Detroit and ready to network w/ geeks, djs and people doing positive things w/ tech for the future #AMC2011
@FoxxBoogie
half a day into #AMC2011 and already met other awesome nerdy youth activists. Workshops tomorrow - can't wait for intersectional radness.
@sayyeslena
Good morning world!!! Suiting up for The Allied Media Conference. Ready to educate and be educated. #amc2011
@ernestolivo
Truth be told \organizers MUST be artists be creative\"#amc2011 #catchingfire folks think social justice is easy"
@Unprison
\Movements are created by connections and small critical steps\" #WorkInProgress #AMC2011"
@bryanfenster
Info is currency; most important thing is sharing info @pipercarter #DDJClabs #amc2011 #490st
@pamelagdempsey
#editingwithlove relevant for radical presses, creators, but how to 'edit with love' at e.g. Chicago Tribune? #amc2011 #490st
@meghanb
\storytelling not only allow ppl to speak an hear but facilitate the transformation we know is gonna take place\" #workinprogress #AMC2011"
@humanright2home
There's a baby in this session #amc2011
@SophiaJazQ
the things i learn are not mine to hold, but mine to share #amc2011
@chancellarw
If my name were a magic spell cupcakes would appear! #Amckids #amc2011 http://twitpic.com/5g5byg
@KCCATL
We know what our communities need; we have our own solutions #fightpolicing #AMC2011
@queerliberation
Mind a little bit blown about the possibilities of mass sms campaigns for Texas youth. Anyone used this tool before? #AMC2011
@sayyeslena
michigan welfare rights: you get what you organize to take #amc2011
@chancellarw
#detroityouth #amc2011 these folks are doing huge things, inspiring me to bring back new ideas and energy to my community.
@kavitabee
#writingscifi incredible different stories on housing, borders, children, race at #amc2011 holycow
@hannahsassaman
Within five minutes of being at #amc2011 I saw a good friend, made a new one, and had intense stimulating convo
@dj_bent
#amc2011 #DJ when you create what your needs are, that is activism--naming your needs, dialoging with elders, taking time to exchange care
@KCCATL
Too much awesome at #amc2011 for @MPLSPoBoy. (Dreaming of a transformed world) #tc2amc
@eboustead
The 2nd half of Day 1 #AMC2011 begins. Already covered vlogging, pop ed, and competition among artists. #round2 #divingin
@poppistol
How to design stuff together, by us for us, in a process that is accessible #amc2011 #LBIT
@schock
Queer youth of color breaking down media representations, thinking outside the frame #queeryouthmedia #amc2011
@queerliberation
#amc2011 sad that i'm missing #indigenousmedia but the #healingspace is SO EFFING gorgeous. even w/massive sign in learning experiences :D
@resistdance
Desribing tech through symbols, designing interactive media players, building digital pirate dropboxes, and way more #490st #amc2011
@zpmatthews
Denying that prisoners have certain basic communication rights has far-reaching implications for us all. #amc2011 #mediajustice
@aynrandom
Making bike powered smoothies at #amc2011 #fenderbender
@fionakilla
In the colonized US, there are 560+ native tribes. That's 560 languages/cultures to consider when media approaches native issues #amc2011
@jennkloc
Today's lesson: volunteering at #AMC2011 is a fantastic way to meet a bunch of awesome people, really fast!
@cayden
'you're Gna change things, and u gotta start doing it now'' -Rhonda Anderson... #Ecojusticetour #TC2AMC #AMC2011
@MoiraPirsch
Toying with traditional notions of objectivity: being invested in a community gives you MORE legitimacy, not less. #amc2011 #490st
@jennkloc
#amc2011 thoughts of healing, wellness, childcare collectives, food, new family and friends, strong Toronto presence, new surroundings...
@LaurenPragg
\I want it all...like institutions that are built to fuck with other institutions...as well as community media.\" #AMC2011 #awesome"
@cayden
collective wisdom is in our cellular memory #mapwellness #amc2011
@ha78na
Can journalism b #decolonized under advertising model? Ppl need to support cultural workers #amc2011
@schock
People who dehumanize those in prison should listen to calls on http://calsfromhome.org like http://is.gd/dBl33W #AMC2011 #phonejustice
@jackaponte
breath is a tool of resilency #mapwellness #amc2011
@ha78na
Just napped it up in the relaxation space. #bestconferenceever #iheartAMC #AMC2011
@mailemae
#amc2011 we're just doing the damn #openingceremony run thru & my ass is already emotional. so. much. fierce.
@resistdance
geeks, hackers, writers, film makers, dancers and activists all under 1 roof...only at @Allied_Media Conference 2011 #AMC2011 #Detroit
@FoxxBoogie
Kids and elders tracks at #AMC2011 is awesome! Great to see multiple gens engaged and representin' well
@ahaywood78
Last year I stood on that stage saying \in 2010 we were gonna past Local Community Radio Act\" and it rang true http://j.mp/ijAPPT #amc2011"
@Andalalucha
Voguing at #AMC2011
@kanedizzle
If AT&T/TMobile merger is approved by @FCC they'll control 80% of wireless in the US! #mediajustice #AMC2011 #access4theppl
@reelgrrls
Wanna book 110+ acts in over 92 venues for a week-long music fest on a budget of $0.00? Ask @poppistol, @POPBASS, @ernestolivo. #amc2011
@aynrandom
Diana Nucera: Here in Detroit we say the dance floor is our church. #amc2011 #mediajustice
@aynrandom
We're learning to live stream! #streamingsocialmovements #AMC2011
@pinksheepfilm
Pedro Joel Espinosa: When we create & use our own systems (VozMob) we can control what happens w/ the information. #AMC2011 #access4theppl
@jackaponte
Tech support at #AMC2011 is awesome because people appreciate (and let you know they appreciate) when you fix what's broken.
@cayden
@cayden Indeed y'all are a rowdy crew! Thanks for helping us out ystrdy & making our workshop *seamless* :) #AMC2011
@Whitney86
#access4theppl #amc2011 the universe is made up of stories, not atoms!
@KCCATL
Oh shit! 2 hours til aaaaah GEEK OUT!! (cue disco song) #djgeekout #amc2011 @radiocpr
@kanedizzle
Getting ready to build a radio! This is what @Allied_Media is all about - taking action! #AMC2011
@namac
Just learned how to set up an online news station for free! #amc2011 #tacticalmedia http://t.co/PCuBsJh
@Unprison
a good brine is two cups of water one tablespoon of salt #amc2011
@ha78na
Participatorybudgeting.org applied to media making orgs& networks? Cool. #amc2011 #civicmedia
@schock
Collective methods of affordable and effective image production. #graphiccampaigns #graphics #socialmovements #AMC2011@homoground
@pinksheepfilm
Women who had never met or marched before said 'the homeless speak for themselves' #endpoverty #amc2011
@hannahsassaman
Why do cellphone providers commoditize data, voice and text even tho its all on the same service n infrastructure #whatthecell #amc2011
@JDarko22
so many issues around social game design but we got this. lots of bright minds in the room! @tumeric @cayden @unatronic #amc2011 #gamedesign
@FoxxBoogie
\Media is transformative and develops leadership when directly affected communities tell their own stories\" #endpoverty #amc2011 #tc2amc"
@CGoHome
Important point: very light paper is really hard to peel once is wheat pasted! #graficasdelucha #AMC2011
@salas_e
interested in designing your own video games? check out these open-source tools: Scratch, Alice, OpenSim, GameStar Mech #gamedesign #amc2011
@FoxxBoogie
Hell yes! 10 Female DJs on one stage... Beautiful! #DJGeekout #AMC2011
@hilhack4paz
It's always hot when indigenous instrumentation and phrasings cross with straight funk #amc2011 #djgeekout
@ahaywood78
When I originally heard #djgeekout #amc2011 vision i was like you can't do all 6 of those things in 1 wrkshop. Wow they pulled it off
@mikemedow
When tech is designed for our movements, we really need to remember that our admins, project managers, et al need to eat. #mvtech #amc2011
@kmontenegro
CLEARLY the world needs more mid day, all ages, cross genre, sober, female led dance parties! #djgeekout #amc2011
@nickeyrobo
Hearing about these radical pedagogy projects happening in 21st century real life around the country RULES. #AMC2011 #ourschools
@cayden
Communities, activists, and orgs need control over their tools, data to have true and sustainable agency and power. #amc2011 #490st #mvtech
@jddunn
\We were certainly loving women before the 19th century.\" #amc2011"
@KismetNunez
With the proliferation of certain technologies, maybe it's time to realize that techie v nontechie is false binary -aponte #mvtech #amc2011
@kmontenegro
This might be the best workshop I've ever seen at a media conference--DJs, dancing, projections of music history. Yes! #djgeekout #amc2011
@tumeric
\A stage is not made out of wood or metal it is manifested everywhere someone speaks truth.\" -Matt Blesse #amcPMTM #AMC2011 @amcpoetrymusic"
@isaacnoah
THIS \@Adriennemaree: not only transform the prisoners but transform those who teach in prisons -- tongo #amc2011 http://t.co/5DAhr4s\""
@markgonzalesIS
Appalachian Media Institute: Old school flyering has been getting more people into a screening than facebook events. #amc2011
@namac
Learned more abt #mediapolicy than I coul ever digest in just an hour +. Looking forward to doing research, learning more. #amc2011
@KismetNunez
Building small radios that hook up to a mp3 player and allow you to \broadcast your podcast\" over FM radio! #amc2011 #radiobuild"
thsese little radios have been used at conventions or talks for people that need translators, ingenious! #radiobuild #AMC2011
@FoxxBoogie
Documentary born out of sex workers intimate relationships and how to tell/teach partners how to support them #amc2011 #everyho
@KismetNunez
New for AMC2012: Network Gatherings, Practice Spaces & Delegations
As AMC networks grow and deepen, we are designing new structures of conference content to hold and nurture those networks. In addition to Tracks, AMC2012 will feature Network Gatherings and Practice Spaces . We encourage you to carefully assess what structure best meets the needs of your network and only propose one type of content. There's always next year to do the other thing! Some groups may not want to hold down an entire content area, but still want to mobilize a crew to attend the AMC together. In that case, you should consider organizing a Delegation. Read more about Tracks, Network Gatherings, Practice Spaces and Delegations below.
The deadline to propose a Track, Network Gathering or Practice Space is November 14th. Propose your idea now! (Delegations don't have to be proposed). Please note: This is not a call for session proposals. The AMC2012 Call for Session Proposals will go out in February 2012.
Read below for more details and visit AMPTalk to propose a Track, Network Gathering, or Practice Space.
TRACKS
NETWORK GATHERINGS
A Network Gathering is a day-long mini-conference on the Thursday before the AMC. It is a space for established networks to have in-depth strategy conversations (the kinds of conversations that we often try to cram into 90-minute lunch breaks, and then realize we need a full day!). Network Gatherings might also involve skill-sharing, but it is primarily a strategic planning and organizing space to support the year-round collaboration of groups within a network. A Network Gathering is also a way for a network to prepare itself to get the most out of the AMC. Network Gatherings should be financially sponsored by at least one organization, to help offset the costs of starting the AMC a day early. Network Gatherings are the ideal structure for networks that have been convening through the AMC for several years and want to build strategy and infrastructure for ongoing trans-local organizing .
PRACTICE SPACES
A Practice Space is an experiment in creating the world we want to see. It is a space for a network to implement a practice that makes the conference more accessible, transformative and wonderful for everyone. It is also a space for a national network to make meaningful connections with Detroit organizers, learning from and adding to local practice spaces. Practice Spaces are the ideal structure for networks that are held together by a shared practice (such as healing, food justice, community radio, etc.).
DELEGATIONS
A delegation is a crew with a shared identity that combines forces to get themselves to the AMC and is strategic about their experience of the AMC. A delegation can be a way for a region to lower collective travel costs and make a plan for what skills they want to bring back to their local communities. A delegation can also be a way for people with a shared identity to find each other before and during the conference. This might happen through collective fundraising appeals, meet-ups, matching t-shirts, flags, karaoke performances and any other forms of identification that allow a crew to proclaim their presence. You do not need to propose a delegation, just organize it! Delegations will be elligible for a limited number of mini-grants to support grassroots fundraising efforts.
FAQ
Can I propose a combination of track, network gathering, and practice space?
Yes, but it's unlikely that we will accept more than one proposal from the same group. If you feel strongly that your group needs to do more than one thing, be sure to give a detailed explaination of your capacity in the proposal form.
Yes. Every single AMC session must go through the session proposal process in the Spring so that it can be reviewed by AMP staff and advisors.
- November 2011 - Proposals are due
- December 2011 - Accepted proposals are announced; fundraising begins
- January 2012 - Coordinators meeting in Detroit 1/13 - 1/15
- February 2012 - Call for AMC2012 Session Proposals goes out
- March 2012 - Accepted AMC2012 Sessions are announced
- April 2012 - AMC2012 Session Outlines are finalized
- May 2012 - AMC2012 Session Logistics are finalized
- June 2012 - AMC2012 6/28 - 7/1 !
Each Track, Network Gathering and Practice Space should have three coordinators who can commit an average of 7 hours per week between December 2011 and June 2012 (this is variable and may be more like 2 hours per week earlier in the year and closer to 15 or 20 in the final weeks leading up to the AMC). In addition to its three coordinators, a Track, Network Gathering or Practice Space should have 3 - 5 "supporters" who help out with specific tasks as needed.
AMP staff will advise on the development of vision and content of Tracks, Network Gatherings, and Practice Spaces and facilitate connections between coordinators, potential participants and funders.
Coordinators are invited to a meeting in Detroit, January 13 - 15, 2012 (bundle up—it will be cold). At the retreat we will share and develop skills to be used in the AMC organizing process: facilitative leadership, popular education, grassroots fundraising, online communications infrastructure, and accessibility.
All Tracks, Network Gatherings, Practice Spaces, and Delegations will be eligible for a limited number of mini-grants to support grassroots fundraising to get their networks to the AMC. All will have access to AMP’s online communication tools for track organizing throughout the year.
D. Blair, 1967 - 2011
The passing of D.Blair (September 19, 1967 – July 23, 2011), is a tremendous loss for the Allied Media Projects network. Blair was an award winning poet, urban folk singer/songwriter, afro-punk, educator and activist. The Allied Media Conference would not have become what it is without Blair's contributions year after year, since 2007. We mourn his loss with our whole hearts.
Read a message from his family and friends here, and make a contribution to the David Blair Memorial Fund, which will help cover the costs of his funeral arrangements. Any funds raised beyond the costs of his memorial services will go towards a fund for artists without health insurance.
If you are anywhere near the Detroit area, please join us at the community memorial service, this Sunday 7/31 at 1pm. More information here. Allied Media Projects will be livestreaming the memorial service at dblair.org.
At the close of the 2011 Allied Media Conference, a friend asked me, "Did you all cast a spell on this building five years ago to ensure this magical experience for everyone, every year into eternity?"
I realize now that we did, but it was an emergent spell, cast by many hundreds of people over time. Blair has been an essential part of the magic that defines people's experience of the AMC, beginning with the poems he read during the "Welcome to Detroit" Opening Ceremony in 2007, continuing through to his last AMC performance, "Detroit (While I was Away)" at the AMC2011 Opening Ceremony.
Between those book-ends, Blair contributed to the AMC as a performer, workshop presenter and host of tours of the city. In an AMC tour highlighting Detroit's musical legacy in 2008, he stopped the bus in front of the Motown Museum, and performed Stevie Wonder songs on the lawn. Another year, he led a workshop on the "History of Black America as Told Through Music" which was a collaboration with elders from Detroit's Hannan House. People told us that that workshop changed their approach to teaching, expanded their definition of "media," and inspired them to build intergenerational relationships in their own communities. Through his many Allied Media Conference performances he rooted the conference in the culture of Detroit, teaching people how to love the city, whether they were visitors or lifelong residents.
Blair would always make a point to tell us that he wanted to be a part of the AMC, and would plan his tours so he wouldn't miss it. I remember feeling surprised and honored the first time he said that, thinking "how lucky are we? Blair thinks this thing that we do is important."
AMC2009 fell just three weeks after the death of Michael Jackson. We struggled with how to celebrate Michael at the AMC, without simplifying him. We asked Blair to do a tribute performance during the Opening Ceremony. At the time he was completing a book of poems about Michael Jackson, called Moonwalking.
Fitting with the theme of the Opening Ceremony, "Media and Creativity to Transform Ourselves and Our World," we decided to ask Blair to sing "Man in the Mirror." When I asked Blair if he would perform the song, he said he didn't know if he could do it. It's a hard song with lots of complicated ad libs and high notes, and it was also just a hard time, and he was daunted by the task of being a conduit for such a massive collective mourning process. Thinking about that conversation now, it seems remarkable, because his performance comes across as absolutely fearless.
Blair opened with his poem, "Into Darkness," which climaxes in the line "I want to be MICHAEL JACKSON BLACK!" It is a masterpiece that frames the Jackson family story within the context of the American story of racism, generational violence, fame, fantasy and transcendence. Blair then asked us all to snap a beat as he began his a cappella version of "Man int the Mirror."
For me, and I think for many of the hundreds who were in the auditorium that year, Blair's performance was a spiritual experience. It's awkward to say that because I know Blair would resist any identification of himself as a "spiritual leader" as much as many people in that audience would resist being identified as participants in a "spiritual experience." But with that song he created space for spirituality to mean something honest and un-cheesy and real.
Blair sang the song in a way that made people gasp and then want to sing along with him. The lyrics were definitely part of it – the theme of changing oneself to change the world resonates deeply with the AMC community. There was also the longing among this audience of radicals and outsiders to reconcile the mainstream pop icon of Michael with their love for him and his place within so many of our childhoods, and the subtext of everything his life spoke to: race, gender, sexual violence, the globalization of American culture, fundamental truths about humanity. Blair could see all of that and sing it.
Blair was a shapeshifter, who could access truths about humanity that others couldn't necessarily see or understand. He had the talent to translate that truth into art and the generosity to share it with people constantly. That's what made him such an incredible performer, but also teacher, and organizer. I never knew how much of an organizer Blair was until this past year when he co-coordinated the Poetry and Music as Transformative Media Track of the 2011 AMC.
He worked with Isaac Miller and a crew of other amazing artist-organizers to convene a series of workshops around expansive topics like "Collaboration and Competition in Artistic Communities," "The Pedagogy of the Open Mic" and "Building Movements through Touring." Through his work on that track, and through his daily life, Blair helped define what the role of an artist within a community should be: a facilitator of other people's brilliance and liberation as much as their own; and a bridge-builder and seam-weaver between disparate ideas, identities and communities. In the last conversation I had with him, we talked briefly about the momentum coming out of the track and all of the ways it could grow. I told him I thought it was one of the best-organized tracks of AMC2011.
The week before the AMC, as a fundraiser for the track, he organized a special version of "A Crowded House" – an epic cross-genre, curated open mic night that he used to do regularly, but hadn't done in a long time. It was a spectacular, 35-person line-up of many of my dearest friends, some of them performing for the first time or the nearly-first-time, or just the first time in a long time. Their anxieties were put to ease by the supportive atmosphere he cultivated so gracefully. The show went on for 9 hours or something, and it stayed super-crowded. A lot of people there didn't even know about the AMC – they crowded in out of love for Blair.
The poem Blair did at the AMC2011 Opening Ceremony rings in my ears because it's a poem about missing Detroit, and now we are the ones left missing him so terribly. In that poem, "Detroit (While I Was Away)" he asks "Do you ever think of me this way? / Do you even know I've gone? / Say my name, Detroit, / I pray you claim me / A small town boy, born in New Jersey, but made / in Detroit" ... "The year I was born you blew up / I came when I could / I've never left / I stay even when I go."
Thank you, Blair, for loving us so hard, and giving us so much. We owe you symphonies of voices, saying your name, claiming you. We owe you better ways of loving and taking care of each other. You stay with us.
Written by Jenny Lee. Mike Medow contributed to this writing.
AMC2011 Closing Party: ALLIED MANIA
TONIGHT!!! ALLIED MANIA!!!!!!!!! SUNDAY, JUNE 26, 8PM-2AM ★★★★★★★★★★★★
AMC2011 after party! Featuring Pre-Columbian (Philly), Anthology of Booty (D.C.), DJ MIke Medow (DET), Adriel Fantastique (DET), and Andalalucha (NYC). Hosted by DintheD.
Cass Cafe, 4620 Cass Ave., Detroit. Free – tip your bartender.
Allied Media Conference 2011 Mixtape!
Check out the official Allied Media Conference 2011 mixtape. Each AMC2011 track contributed a song.
Rock this in the car, plane, train on your way home.