Documentary Captures Roadtrip Through ‘Barack Nation’

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Recently I had the pleasure of meeting Connie Boaitey, director of an in-progress documentary called “The Barack Nation,” when she spoke to participants from the non-profit org The Cipher and hip hop crew Public Offenders, both of which I volunteer for.

The idea for the film came about from working with a group of students through The Coalition Club and an Intercultural Communications class at Santa Barbara City College. Tina Kistler, co-executive producer of the film, teaches the class, and Connie is an advisor to the club. The students had taken on several projects that would help them understand intercultural groups through service learning. As Connie and Tina noticed the students’ leadership beginning to develop, they thought it would be a great opportunity for them to go out and meet other members of their generation working hard on social change.

Connie and her group of Santa Barbara City College students have now just returned from their whirlwind cross-country adventure. What they found were people as young as 12 doing extraordinary work.

For example, in one of the most conservative counties they visited in Denver, there were young people ages 12-16 who put in countless hours campaigning for Barack Obama. In the Little Village section of Chicago, they met young people fighting for environmental justice and focusing on a coal plant affecting the air in their community. They also encountered teenagers who were inspired to reject joining a gang despite their neighborhood being infested with them for generations. In Greensboro, North Carolina, they met with the Beloved Community whose main purpose is to bring people together to resolve issues from racial injustices to homelessness. On the Chapel Hill campus at the University of North Carolina, the crew met with the Young Democrats whose hours and energy had a lot to do with turning their community from red to blue during the election.

One of their most exciting stops was the inauguration in Washington D.C. While in D.C., the crew interviewed the Hip Hop Caucus, whose mission is to empower young people in urban communities to participate in the policy making process. They celebrated the Martin Luther King Jr.’s Day of Service on January 19th by cleaning up Anacostia National Park and helped plant 44 trees in honor of our 44th president.

After D.C., Connie took the crew for a visit to The King Center in Atlanta, Georgia, for some personal reflection time.

“I wanted them to soulfully be able to connect with why they want to do this community work, and to the origin of who Dr. King was…It was a real neat experience,” Connie said.

Next month, they will wrap up the last of the interviews in San Francisco and Los Angeles, specifically looking for groups doing work through visual arts or groups representing the full spectrum of young people including gay and lesbian youth. The timeline for the next stages of the documentary is dependent on fundraising; luckily they have already created a buzz about their project. Their piece was featured on “Dr. Phil” and they were on Dateline during their trip.

In May, The Coalition will be sponsoring a film festival and will air about 15 minutes of footage from their trip. Read more about the journey on their site, TheBarackNation.com.

For more coverage of hip hop culture, check out the new Ypulse Urban Channel.

About Gynae:

Gynae is Ypulse’s new Urban editor. She currently works with The Cipher Project in Austin. She’s also been involved in Better Hip Hop Bureau Austin and is currently in training to be a Lonestar Rollergirl, which has a program for young girls called Austin Derby Brats.

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Categorized under: Urban

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