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Hey Black Family,
I got the following email letter and PDF press kit on Saturday and wanted to share this vitally important project with y'all! This particular project is calling upon the Black same gender loving (homosexual, bisexual, transgendered) family to participant (observe the yellow captions below) . This is an opportunity to render our a lot of our INVISIBILITY useless.
Read on, y'all...
Digital Diaspora Family Reunion (DDFR)
Grand Army Plaza Brooklyn Public Library (NYC)
Sunday, February, 28th, 2010 @ 1:30PM
Greetings Rod,
I've been a fan of your Nubian Knights blog for some time and wanted to send this shout out about an upcoming event my partner is doing in Brooklyn. We really want to start activating the family photographic archives of our Black LGBT brothers and sisters in order to use our strength through visibility to turn the dialogue in our communities toward one of greater inclusivity and tolerance since we are family too. Next 
Sunday, we're bringing the Digital Diaspora Family Reunion Roadshow to Brooklyn Public Library for a special event as part of Black History Month. See details below. Please let your considerable following know about the event and invite them to participate. The "secret phrase" is "I'M A FRIEND OF THE FAMILY" which will let us know that they got the word through your channels and we can make sure to get their stories and images into the program. For too long, our invisibility has been used to hurt us, what with intolerant hate speech in Black churches and hate crimes directed at LGBT folk in our communities. Now is the time to make it personal, to show our communities that we're family 
too, and we deserve their love, respect and tolerance. That's part of the reason for Digital Diaspora, to show Black folk as we really are and not what the media and popular culture try to define us as; to show us from the perspective of the photographs that line our hallways, our refrigerator doors, our mantles and tables, for the people we love, we cherish, we remember and we honor.
Keep up the good work,
Sunday, we're bringing the Digital Diaspora Family Reunion Roadshow to Brooklyn Public Library for a special event as part of Black History Month. See details below. Please let your considerable following know about the event and invite them to participate. The "secret phrase" is "I'M A FRIEND OF THE FAMILY" which will let us know that they got the word through your channels and we can make sure to get their stories and images into the program. For too long, our invisibility has been used to hurt us, what with intolerant hate speech in Black churches and hate crimes directed at LGBT folk in our communities. Now is the time to make it personal, to show our communities that we're family 
too, and we deserve their love, respect and tolerance. That's part of the reason for Digital Diaspora, to show Black folk as we really are and not what the media and popular culture try to define us as; to show us from the perspective of the photographs that line our hallways, our refrigerator doors, our mantles and tables, for the people we love, we cherish, we remember and we honor.Regards,
Don Perry, writer/project development
Chimpanzee Productions, Inc.
For more on DDFR:
Digital Diaspora Family Reunion is a community engagement initiative 
that maps African Diasporic Photography across time, place, and genre. Using the power of new and emerging interactive platforms, the exciting stories of black photography will be made accessible technologically, geographically, and culturally to current and future generations.
The DIGITAL DIASPORA FAMILY REUNION (DDFR) project. DDFR is a multimedia community engagement initiative (see video above) where individuals are invited to explore the rich and revealing historical narratives found within their own family photograph collections. The highlight of the initiative includes a touring DDFR Roadshow that activates Black family p
hotographic archives and a Web Portal that creates community across time and space. DDFR brings to the forefront stories and histories suppressed and/or hidden that show the fullness of who we are. Many of these family photographs include images of little discussed gay and lesbian ancestors, family members and friends. By uncovering the hidden history of LGBT family and relatives, this important and timely project provides a gathering place where all these hidden, discarded shards of history can once again be seen, shared and appreciated. 
Combining the best features of PBS’ “Antiques Roadshow” and NPR’s “StoryCorps,” the goal of the DDFR initiative is to break down barriers between people and bring them together around the cultivation of their shared values and experiences. Conceived and founded by Chimpanzee Productions, Inc., with support from National Black Programming Consortium, Corporation for Public Broadcasting, Cross Currents Foundation, Fledgling Fund, Nathan Cummings Foundation and others, DDFR will launch its Beta site in April.
hotographic archives and a Web Portal that creates community across time and space. DDFR brings to the forefront stories and histories suppressed and/or hidden that show the fullness of who we are. Many of these family photographs include images of little discussed gay and lesbian ancestors, family members and friends. By uncovering the hidden history of LGBT family and relatives, this important and timely project provides a gathering place where all these hidden, discarded shards of history can once again be seen, shared and appreciated. 
Combining the best features of PBS’ “Antiques Roadshow” and NPR’s “StoryCorps,” the goal of the DDFR initiative is to break down barriers between people and bring them together around the cultivation of their shared values and experiences. Conceived and founded by Chimpanzee Productions, Inc., with support from National Black Programming Consortium, Corporation for Public Broadcasting, Cross Currents Foundation, Fledgling Fund, Nathan Cummings Foundation and others, DDFR will launch its Beta site in April.American Heritage.com: Digital History Review: Get Out Your Photographs!
1) WEBSITE & SOCIAL MEDIA
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* WEBSITE: http://www.throughalensdarkly.net
* BLOG: http://throughalensdarkly.wordpress.com
* FACEBOOK: http://www.facebook.com/throughalensdarkly
* MYSPACE: http://www.myspace.com/throughalensdarklydoc
* Brooklyn Public Library Website Announcement: HERE
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2) EVENT ANNOUNCEMENT
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Award winning filmmaker Thomas Allen Harris (Harvard '84) will introduce his new media platform, DIGITAL DIASPORA FAMILY REUNION, which taps into a vas
t network of Black photographic archives across the nation to bring a fresh look at African-American history and community. New Yorkers are invited to participate in this national initiative that maps Photography from the African Diaspora across time, place, and genre. Join us for this special DIGITAL DIASPORA FAMILY REUNION event at the Brooklyn Public Library central branch at 1:30pm on Sunday, February 28th.
t network of Black photographic archives across the nation to bring a fresh look at African-American history and community. New Yorkers are invited to participate in this national initiative that maps Photography from the African Diaspora across time, place, and genre. Join us for this special DIGITAL DIASPORA FAMILY REUNION event at the Brooklyn Public Library central branch at 1:30pm on Sunday, February 28th.
Got Photos? If you would like to have a sampling of your FamilyPhotos scanned and digitized for possible inclusion within the DIGITALDIASPORA FAMILY REUNION Brooklyn ‘road show’, please contact Thomas Allen Harris and his team to make an appointment before Wednesday February 24th, if you would like to be considered for the Sunday afternoon event.Email: throughalensdarkly[at]gmail.com
Web: www.throughalensdarkly.net
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3) THOMAS ALLEN HARRIS BIO
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Award winning filmmaker, journalist, and educator, Thomas Allen Harris, is the founder and President of Chimpanzee Productions, a company dedicated to producing unique media experiences that illuminate the Human Condition and the search for identity, family, and spirituality. Mr. Harris' films have received critical acclaim at International film festivals such as Sundance, Berlin, Toronto, FESPACO, Outfest, Flaherty and Cape Town and have been broadcast on PBS, Sundance Channel, ARTE, as well as CBC, Swedish broadcasting Network and New Zealand Television. A graduate of Harvard College, Mr. Harris lectures widely on the use of media as a tool for social change.
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DIGITAL DIASPORA FAMILY REUNION
Multimedia Community Engagement Initiative
Multimedia Community Engagement Initiative
(Press Kit)
Uncovering The Hidden Archives Of
African Diasporic Photography
African Diasporic Photography
Digital Diaspora Family Reunion is a community engagement initiative that maps African Diasporic Photography across time, place, and genre. Using the power of new and emerging interactive platforms, the exciting stories of black photography will be made accessible technologically, geographically, and culturally to current and future generations.
MISSION: Convergence of Black Photography
The Digital Diaspora Family Reunion outreach initiative empowers North American internet and television audiences to share their own photographic archives with their fellow citizens in cyberspace. Individuals, families, and local community groups from across the continent will be invited to become a part of an eclectic gathering or “reunion” of the Black Family Photo Archive.
METHOD: Mapping Black Photography A dynamic interactive map of North America and the Caribbean will be the portal through which users can begin their self-guided journeys into the world of black photography. The mission of the Digital Diaspora Family Reunion is to inspire visual and historical literacy in young people by encouraging them to creatively explore the ways their personal family archives intersects with the public record. Users of the site will also create photographs of their own communities and thereby construct new photographic archives of African Diasporic people. Our goal is that once people begin uploading their own personal archives into the Digital Diaspora Family Reunion – the map interface will become self-sustaining and evergreen with new media shifting and expanding the content with each user experience.
MULTIMEDIA: Digital Storytelling
Users will be encouraged to tell their own stories by uploading their own photos, videos, text, or audio to the Digital Diaspora Family Reunion Map Interface. With the specially designed Digital Diaspora “tagging” system, all uploaded media can be easily organized, searched, and aggregated into a safe multimedia environment that features the family photo within the larger sphere of Black Photography. We plan to develop a new model for interactive filmmaking where user-generated content is integrated into the documentary and all of our multi-platform interactive applications.
MOVEMENT: Making the Invisible Visible
Our goal is to build not just an audience but also a movement – a movement of people who are engaging with others - personally and virtually - to reclaim one of the most potent records of our past – the photograph. With our expanding network of community partners, we will encourage folks to participate in photography based virtual and regional activities. Our project will invite audiences to creatively engage in their futures by fearlessly exploring their pasts.
MODEL: Interactive Filmmaking with User Generated Content
Unlike most Public Media, Cable, or Network Television models of producing feature documentaries for national broadcast and distribution, the Digital Diaspora Family Reunion community outreach initiative will run concurrently with the production of a feature length documentary “Through A Lens Darkly: Black Photographers and the Emergence of a People.” During our production process, we hope to explore the boundaries of “author” and “audience” by cultivating authentic and reciprocal relationships with a variety of community and technology collaborators. We will work with our project partners to interweave community engagement, media literacy, and audience development into our documentary and multimedia production - ultimately crafting a new paradigm for integrating accessible interactive portals, tools for participation, and a transparent production processes that will engage audiences as active partners rather than passive viewers.
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