KQED ARTS -- Staffer Lauren Taylor and trainee Nicole Rivera will accept the award for the Bay Area Video Coalition. Rivera learned how to make short documentaries in the Bay Area Video Coalition’s Next Gen Program, which teaches media literacy to low-income teens.
“When you really connect with the youth and provide the space for them,” Rivera said by phone from Washington, “a lot of vulnerability and a lot of strength comes out of that.”
Rivera, a freshman studying Cinema and Race and Resistance at SF State, says she was “really shy,” before walking into BAVC. But since then, she’s done interviews and made videos about racial justice and female sexuality.
The National Arts and Humanities Youth Awards honor outstanding after-school and out-of-school programs. A total of 10 groups from around the nation will be honored at Tuesday’s event at the White House.
Photo, from left: Bay Area Video Coalition Senior Education Manager Lauren Taylor, student Nicole Rivera and first lady Michelle Obama.