Embedded Files
HANDHELD STORIES | ADDIS ABABA
About
Handheld Stories:
Handheld Stories:
Education & Representation
Education & Representation
Handheld Stories is a volunteer-based, educational and media-arts collaborative that provides media creation tools and training worldwide. Handheld places an emphasis on working with underrepresented, marginalized communities where planning a secure and stable future is compromised by political, social or economic circumstances.
The ethos driving this initiative is that education and representation are profound and powerful forces in promoting social change. By providing children the tools to document their own lives – untrammeled by mainstream media – their unique voices can be heard. Their voices will resonate to a global audience through online platforms.
The rise of the internet promised a level playing field for all. Anyone could get online, tell their stories, raise awareness, educate, inform and share. The seemingly democratic nature of the internet fell short, however, due to accessibilty factors. Not everyone has a cell phone, a computer or access to the internet. Handheld Stories was established to narrow that digital divide.
Handheld Stories does not seek to advance or endorse any specific political agenda other than the simple idea that the world benefits from expanded communication and the creative exchange of ideas.
Handheld Stories was founded on the ethos that education and representation are profound, powerful and necessary forces in promoting social change.
Guy Brooksbank
Guy Brooksbank
Founder, Lead Instructor
Guy’s career is rooted in the belief that media production is a profound tool for social change. Beginning in American public television working alongside Paul Lally (director of Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood), Guy quickly learned that the term 'mass media' was inaccurate, and the power of media wrested in a one-on-one relationship. This foundation led him to the Himalayas, where he established workshops for the monks of Namgyal Monastery to document and preserve the teachings of the Fourteenth Dalai Lama.
As a lifelong educator, Guy’s mission is to provide youth and marginalized communities worldwide with the tools for self-representation. This passion culminated in the founding of Handheld Stories, a non-profit that equips those facing critical social issues to tell their own unique narratives. From the West Bank and the Dharavi Slum in Mumbai to rural Nepal and Africa, Guy has traveled the globe leading workshops that turn students into authors of their own experiences.
Page updated
Google Sites
Report abuse