[beginning of transcript]
Since my last post, we started the WeXL Boundless Program, and we taught self-discovery filmmaking to 5 to 11-year-olds at The Village Project SF, which is a community organization offering free childcare in the Western edition of San Francisco.
And it's changed my life.
I'm still processing the six weeks of activities, going to St. Cyprian's Episcopal Church and teaching these kids filmmaking every week and making movies with them. And then, after all of that, I also put together a red carpet screening for their movies at the Little Roxie Theater and 518 Valencia, which is a reception area.
I can't even talk about it. It's just — I still haven't processed everything.
I guess the postpartum processing is part of the creative process, right? I know it's interesting because during these past six weeks, the founder of The Village Project, Adrian Williams — who we lovingly call Ms. Adrian — she had to bury one of her babies, as she calls them. She had to bury a 15-year-old boy who was shot to death in the Fillmore District. And it was in the news, but the boy wasn't identified. Ms. Adrian told me about it the day after our event, and she was at his funeral the day after the event. But she kept things positive.
A reporter from the radio station [Mallory Somera] interviewed Ms. Adrian and me about our partnership and also the kids, which is so, so cute.
Man, it's hard to talk about it. It's hard thinking about all the goodness that we did together and then having [Ms. Adrian] lose one of the kids she's been looking after in her program.
You know, you do all this work, and yet we still live in a reality.
But it's why we do the work, right?
The hardest thing right now is to be able to package all of the energy and the work and communicate the impact we made so that we can get proper support for the program. I am trying to communicate the bigger vision, but people do get lost in the vision sometimes, and they want something more concrete. And I think that's the exact problem of this world right now, is that they want things concrete.
Like, oh, the kids are gonna become filmmakers after this — this program. No, they're not gonna become filmmakers professionally. Not all of them, at least, maybe some of them. But really, the whole point of the program is to help them play and explore and see what they like to do and have fun together.
This is showing up in my life that this is part of my calling, but I'm not gonna lie; I was trying to fight it. I still try to fight it sometimes because all I wanna do is write and paint. And then I realized, no, there's also this other thing that I can do that I do enjoy doing, which is share my work with young people and empower them and inspire them, and maybe it'll help get them off the streets, or maybe it'll help them get along better as they get older because these kids, they're so innocent and beautiful, and loving and creative and fearless. They're shy, but they're courageous. We need to learn from them. Take a page out of their book.
[end of transcript]
WeXL Boundless Gratitude Video
We presented a gratitude video after the kids’ movies to show everyone involved throughout the six-week program.
Thank you to the San Francisco Bay Area artists and creators who mentored and partnered with us: Adrian Williams, Ian Storrar (thisspace), Khepera Batties, Keika Lee, EunBi Chang, Marissa Smit, Antonio Garro, and Erin Lin.
I share my story in hopes of helping your creative journey. Please consider supporting my work if it brings value to you.
For $5 a month or $42 annually (16% off $50 and the answer to life, the Universe, and everything), you get access to The Cove, where you can explore the good, the bad, and the ugly of my finished and unfinished creations.
Goldie’s Box of Tricks, Tools, and Treasures
Our voyage on The Creative isn’t always smooth sailing, but no worries! My imaginary friend Goldie comes around with her box of tricks, tools, and treasures to help make the journey joyful.
A Trick: Partnerships are key if you want to get people to your event. On May 23, 2023, after the youth red carpet film screening, WeXL hosted a panel talk on “The Future of Film & Media” in collaboration with the Bay Area Film Mixer and its founder, filmmaker Dave Moutray. We got over 60 people there!
A Tool: The Nebo app is great for note-taking and marking up screenplays on the iPad.
A Treasure: Zyzzyva is a beautiful literary magazine based in San Francisco. Check it out, especially if you have dreams of publishing short fiction stories!
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