I am extremely proud to be able to share the following video. This piece is the result of a three-month participatory video-research project I had the pleasure to work on with some of the youth at Project HIP-HOP (PHH).
For the past year I have been partnering with PHH as a researcher, documenting their cultural organizing work. Partway through the project, the PHH staff and I were looking for ways to make the research more participatory — to do research with the youth rather than simply on them. At the same time, Ashleigh, one of the young leaders, was advocating for the group to create a video about the organization to help with recruitment. We decided to merge these two ideas into one project.
The result was a video-based research project centered around the question, “What is Project HIP-HOP?” I offered support to three of the young leaders — Ashleigh, Kassa, and Nailah — as they developed research questions, designed interview protocols, and interviewed a mix of members, leaders, staff, and a parent. I typed up the transcripts, and two of the youth and I coded the interviews for emerging themes. These themes became our guide, as we edited interviews together with footage from PHH events and newly-filmed footage to produce the ten minutes you see below. I was thrilled by the resulting video, and the insightful work of these young cultural organizers. This is Project HIP-HOP: Enjoy!
