Candace Minster – Spiritual Journey
Posted by timfrakes | Filed under Chicago Sunday Evening Club, Education, Faith Based Production, Nature, Peace and Justice, Spiritual Journey, Tim Frakes Productions, women
This story reminds me of summer. Candace Minster is an Environmental Education Coordinator at the White Violet Eco-Justice Center, a ministry of the Sisters of Providence of St. Mary-in-the-Woods, Indiana. I recorded this story for 30 Good Minutes, WTTW, Channel 11, PBS, Chicago on a blazing-hot summer day.
Tags: Gardening, Justice, Spiritual Journey, Sustainability, Tim Frakes Productions, Video, women
Honoring MLK, KKK Cross Sculpture at Chicago Temple
Posted by timfrakes | Filed under Culture, Education, Faith Based Production, Interesting Places, Peace and Justice, Pro Bono, Spiritual Journey, Tim Frakes Productions
If you are in Chicago’s Loop, stop by the First United Methodist Church at the Chicago Temple and check out a sculpture based upon a cross that was burned on the lawn of Tougaloo College in Jackson, Mississippi in the autumn of 1963. The students were being encouraged by Ed King, the campus minister to go into the city and to try and desegregate the churches on Sunday morning.
That not only led to the arrests of the students, but also led to the KKK burning a cross on the college lawn. Ed King kept the cross and gave it to the United Methodist Church who were in the process of trying to desegregate the denomination nationally. So, this cross became the symbol for the desegregation of the United Methodist Church in the 1960′s.
Eventually, the cross was taken to Pittsburgh at the general conference and walked around the conference hall. It became a rallying point. Later, the cross was given to Gerald Forshe, a pastor in Chicago, who brought home. He took it to Jack Kearney who was a very well regarded sculptor in town.
Kearney took that charred wooden cross, encased it in a kind of skin of metal, so that it wouldnt disintegrate. On it, he placed the obviously African American, distressed, truncated Christ. And so Jerry has had this sculpture for over 40 years in his own possession.
But when Jerry was very ill last spring he wanted to make sure that First United Methodist Church at the Chicago Temple received it and put on public display. The cross is a gift to the church that we can make available to people who visit and want to know the story. This cross not only referrers back to 1963, but it, holds a great deal of power for us today.
This summer, First United Methodist Church at the Chicago Temple had a guest who came to worship. He was a retired university administrator from Mississippi. He saw the figure on the cross and immediately said, “That is James Chaney.” James Chaney was one of the three young men who were murdered as they tried to register voters in Mississippi in 1963. Chaney was the only African American among the three. And so at least for that person, he saw in this figure, that historical moment.
Tags: Art, Chicago Temple, Cross, James Chaney, James Cheney, KKK, United Methodist
Carrie Newcomer – 30 Good Minutes, Spiritual Journey
Posted by timfrakes | Filed under Chicago Sunday Evening Club, Faith Based Production, Interesting People, Music, Peace and Justice, Spiritual Journey, Tim Frakes Productions, women
This is a spiritual journey I produced for 30 Good Minutes, WTTW Channel 11, PBS, Chicago. Singer and songwriter, Carrie Newcomer, drawn to the social justice and peace focus of the Quakers, writes songs about the sacred in the ordinary things of life.
Tags: Faith, Music, Peace, Tim Frakes Productions, women
Empowering Haiti: Let’s Hear it from the Girls
Posted by timfrakes | Filed under Carribean, Education, Faith Based Production, Interesting Places, News, Peace and Justice, Pro Bono, Tim Frakes Productions, Travel, women
It’s back to Haiti in August. This time, I’ll be shooting footage for Haitian Artisans for Peace International (HAPI). HAPI was founded in March 2007 as a fair trade artisan co-op focused on spirituality and creativity. The marketing of the resulting art supports women’s economic development and empowerment.
HAPI Executive Director, Valerie Mossman-Celestin and my friend, photo journalist, Paul Jeffrey asked me to help with this project. The footage will be woven into a short documentary. “Let’s Hear it from the Girls” (working title) will connect the voice of girls in a rural Haitian community to touch us with stories, music and dance that convey the joys and challenges of growing up female in Haiti. The film will also capture the subtle messages of hope emerging from a dream that the community recognize the value and equality of girls and women.
We will be working in Mizak, a mountainous, rural section of La Vallee in South-East Haiti, 80 km south of Port-au-Prince and 12 km west of Jacmel. The total population is just over 35,000. Seventy percent are peasants living under the poverty level of less than $1 US per day, and 63% of the population is under the age of 18. There are no jobs available, no electricity, no telecommunication system, no plumbing, and no water filtration. The majority of households have no measurable income and they rely on system of barter and trade.
HAPI plans to make this DVD available as a teaching resource to folks in the United Methodist Church. The project is funded in part through a grant from the United Methodist Women’s organization.
Look for more in the coming days and weeks!
Tags: Haiti, Tim Frakes Productions, Travel, women
Proud of my Ugandan Friend Emmy
Posted by timfrakes | Filed under Africa, Education, Interesting People, News, Peace and Justice, Tim Frakes Productions
I first met Akoch Emmanuel (Emmy), managing an internet cafe in Kitgum, Uganda in 2006. At the time, Northern Uganda was in the final stages of a 21 year civil war that saw hundreds of thousands forced into Internally Displaced Person (IDP) camps. More than 20,000 children were abducted from villages and forced to join militants as sex slaves or soldiers. To avoid capture, children would leave their defenseless villages at night and congregate in city parks, back alleys and spartan night shelters.
Emmy lived with his mother and siblings on the outskirts of Kitgum. A bright student, Emmy worked his way into a management position at a store-front cafe on the main street of this dusty, provincial town. Not only did he run the store, he also served as an IT educator for friends and older Ugandan customers unfamiliar with the internet and computer technology.
After high school, Emmy enrolled in Gulu University and studied computer science. Despite considerable financial struggles, the burden of being the oldest male child, (Emmy’s father passed away several years earlier), theft of his computer and concerns about his mother’s health, Emmy emerged from Gulu with a bachelors degree.
Today Emmy serves as the IT manager for St. Josephs Hospital. In June, 2011, he launched their new web site. Check it out! http://www.sjhkitgum.org/
Emmy is a great example of the kind of talent, vision and energy possessed by many young Africans. He is a sign of hope in a world in need of something to hold on to.
Tags: Africa, Education, Justice, Tim Frakes Productions, Travel
The Bread Shed
Posted by timfrakes | Filed under Education, Evangelism and Outreach, Faith Based Production, Peace and Justice, Tim Frakes Productions
The Bread Shed is a grass roots, faith-based, volunteer organization in Poplar Bluff, Missouri, that feeds the hungry, both spiritually and physically while sharing the love of Jesus Christ.
My friend Jim Ward asked me to help this growing organization make a video about their work. Big thanks go out to Briana Freeland and Kevin Fields for their help with the production. Also, thanks go out to the Ward family for their hospitality.
Tags: Church, Hunger, Poplar Bluff, Tim Frakes Productions, Video
Hope for Haiti: Blankets+ in Action
Posted by timfrakes | Filed under Carribean, Causes, Client Production, Disaster, Education, Faith Based Production, Interesting Places, Non-Profit, Peace and Justice, Tim Frakes Productions, Travel
In January 2011, Church World Service asked me to go back to Haiti to record stories about their blanket and food coop programs. It was a wonderful trip full of positive stories and hopeful signs. Here is the video the folks in Elkhart, Indiana put together with the footage we recorded.
Tags: Church World Service, Haiti, Tim Frakes Productions
Reporting from a Farming Co-op in Northern Haiti
Posted by timfrakes | Filed under Carribean, Disaster, Interesting Places, Peace and Justice, Tim Frakes Productions, Travel
Church World Service and Odyssey Networks in New York asked me to record a greeting while in Haiti, January 3-9, 2011 to mark the one year anniversary of the earthquake. This report was recorded in a tiny village called Mayombe in Northern Haiti.
Tags: Church World Service, Haiti, Justice, Odyssey Networks, Tim Frakes Productions, Travel, Video
Haiti One Year Later
Posted by timfrakes | Filed under Carribean, Causes, Disaster, Interesting Places, News, Peace and Justice, Tim Frakes Productions
One year after the January 12, 2010 earthquake, Haiti struggles to rebuild. Yet, signs of hope emerge through sustainable development and rural agricultural co-operateves. Chris Herlinger, Church World Service, reports from Haiti.
Tags: Church World Service, Development, Haiti, Tim Frakes Productions, Travel, Video
Rebuilt Homes for Haiti’s Disabled
Posted by timfrakes | Filed under Carribean, Disaster, Peace and Justice, Tim Frakes Productions, women
James Mwangi is a building engineer volunteering with the Mennonite Central Committee, a partner of Church World Service in Haiti. Mwangi is part of a team that assesses damage and helps to rebuild the homes of Haiti’s dissabled.
Tags: Church, Church World Service, Haiti, Tim Frakes Productions, Travel, Video, women