Thousand Kites combines art, activism and public media 2.0

Katie Donnelly

Art and advocacy have long gone hand-in-hand, but now public media 2.0 is making it easier for users to collaborate on creating artistic projects that promote dialogue around issues of social justice. For example, Thousand Kites is a media arts collaboration focused on prisoner rights. The project was conceived in 1998 when Nick Szuberla and Amelia Kirby, hosts of a hip-hop radio program in the Appalachian region, began to receive letters from inmates that described racism and abusive treatment. In response, Szuberla and Kirby launched the Thousand Kites project, which uses radio, film, theater and multimedia storytelling to address issues of overincarceration and human rights violations in the criminal justice system.

According to the Thousand Kites website:

In prison slang to "shoot a kite" is to send a message. Thousand Kites is a national project that works directly with stakeholders using communication strategies and campaigns to engage citizens and build grassroots power. It uses performance, web, video, and radio to open a public space for incarcerated people, corrections officials, the formerly incarcerated, grassroots activists, and ordinary citizens to dialogue and organize around United State's criminal justice system.

Participatory radio is one of the central features of the project. In 1999, Szuberla and Kirby launched "Holler to the Hood," a live, call-in radio show that gives prisoners and their family members a chance to tell their stories. Users can share their experiences with the criminal justice system by calling the StoryLine hotline, 24 hours per day. "Holler to the Hood" airs Mondays from 7-9 p.m. EST on WMMT-FM. You can listen to the WMMT broadcast here.

Thousand Kites encourages community radio stations to make use of their programs and facilitation guide (available on their website as a PDF). Prisoners, educators, community activists, and government officials across the country have used Kites radio to promote dialogue on the criminal justice system.

Another feature of the project is a one-hour documentary produced by Szuberla and Kirby called Up the Ridge, which examines the prison industry:

Through the lens of Wallens Ridge State Prison, the documentary offers an in-depth look at the United States prison industry and the social impact of moving hundreds of thousands of inner-city minority offenders to distant rural outposts. The film explores competing political agendas that align government policy with human rights violations, and political expediencies that bring communities into racial and cultural conflict with tragic consequences. Connections exist, in both practice and ideology, between human rights violations in Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo and physical and psychological abuse recorded in U.S. prisons.

Watch a preview of Up the Ridge here:

When I spoke with him recently, Szuberla described how Thousand Kites has given away thousands of copies of this film. He explained that giving away films can be more effective than selling them for social justice filmmakers, as this practice inspires goodwill and can eventually generate even greater financial returns in the form of donations.

The Thousand Kites Project also includes an adaptable play that is meant to promote discussion and dialogue. The play is a collection of real stories from prisoners and community members, and the second act of is a moderated discussion in which the cast and audience share their experiences with the criminal justice system and work together to brainstorm potential solutions. Szuberla noted that the theatrical aspect of the project was driven by community requests. It has been especially successful due to the low barrier to entry, seeing as how as no particular expertise, technology, or equipment is required. Thousand Kites theatrical productions have been performed in all different types of settings, including churches, conferences, rallies, and prisons.

The Thousand Kites Play is available in both Spanish and English. A second play, Voices from Otter Creek, is dedicated specifically to women prisoners' stories. Like the radio show and the documentary, the play features an extensive facilitation guide to use to promote discussion.

In addition to the ongoing work of the radio, film and theater projects, Szuberla also described some of the project's upcoming news. Most notably, the Thousand Kites website is going to be significantly upgraded in January to include more interactive features, user-generated content, and more streamlined communication for users. Szuberla says he has become "really fanatical about databasing" and harnessing the power of contact management in order to create and maintain powerful connections. The site's developers aim to make better use of metadata in order to allow users to cluster around particular issues and form communities on the site.

The upgraded website will also allow users to send policy letters with ease, using an editable text tool similar to those found on change.gov. Thousand Kites is also actively promoting more high-tech user-generated content, as they recently distributed 100 Flip cameras to "super volunteers" around the country. These volunteers will become "Kites Correspondents" who will produce their own videos to share on the site. (The site will also be adding a video tool that allows for immediate syndication.)

In each aspect of the project, organizers have stepped away from the role of gatekeeper to allow users to take on the role of producers. Thousand Kites successfully demonstrates how media projects can provide not just content for users, but contexts for dynamic interaction.

Want to learn more about Public Media 2.0? Read our white paper: Public Media 2.0: Dynamic, Engaged Publics.