City Parks Program Helps Local Youths’ Media Dreams Take Root

Look out, Oscars 2015 filmmakers: Youth Made Media students and alums are coming through!

In almost 11 years, the City Parks Foundation’s Youth Made Media (YM2) program has trained hundreds of teens — aged 13 to 19, students in alternative high schools — in narrative storytelling, media literacy, leadership and life skills training, and film production and editing. Dozens of original shows have resulted, giving the alums — many of whom have even been hired as peer educators — a portfolio of work that they have then taken to college and beyond.

Fort Greene’s DaQuan Herring, 20, is one of those former teens.

After joining YM2 in the fall of 2013, Herring now works as a paid intern with the program while studying graphic design and advertising at NYC College of Technology in Downtown Brooklyn. His task? Pay it forward, teaching middle schoolers and other teens the skills he’s learned, while also leading by example and working on his own music videos and short documentaries about life and art in his home neighborhood.

“I hope to be the male version of Oprah,” Herring said, chuckling, yet simultaneously being honest. “I want to do it all and have a talk show and Youth Made Media has really helped me move towards that. The program has definitely helped me with my confidence because i’m usually shy behind the camera and the program helped me overcome that.”

Herring also helps create lesson plans for middle school kids who YM2 interns work with on Fridays.

“Seeing the talent come out of kids, seeing them use their energies toward something positive. . . It’s good for me because i feel like i’m helping the next generation,” he admitted. “I didn’t have a program like this when i was a middle school student. This is helping them grow and helping me grow to become an instructor one day.”

YM2’s program provides academic credits over six hours, three days a week throughout the semester, with students learning to use software to create movies, documentaries and narratives within a structured and intimate learning environment.

Looking back, Herring noted that growing up in Fort Greene, attending MS 113 and Brooklyn High School of the Arts on Dean Street, he was surrounded by talented people, “but saw a lot of them get caught up in wasting that talent in other lifestyles.

“So I was determined not to get caught up, and determined to have my community look at me as a proud example,” he said. “Sometimes we get overshadowed by the bad things that happen.”

Seeing the changes in his community also informs his work with YM2, his family — two of his younger siblings are interested in drama, as well — and beyond.

“This is where I’m from so I’m living through the changes,” said Herring. “I’ve seen the block change so many times over the year and I think that keeps me on my toes when I’m filming, making me able to be flexible when needed. And I want to do positive films instead of focusing on the negative.”

Thus far, Herring has made numerous short documentaries and funny party music videos. One of this earliest films was a short documentary called “Beyond The Block,” about two of my friends overcoming obstacles in life through artwork: rapping and dance.”

Looking forward, explaining why he described his goals as to be “the male version of Oprah,” Herring said he feels like he “ha[s] the personality and energy to be a media mogul and now I’m learning the talent and skill sets for it.”

On the value of YM2 and the City Parks Foundation, he added:

I think everyone should try this program because it’s a great program and you’re about to step into a wonderful family that will help you grow in ways you probably didn’t think you could. So many kids come in, had never thought about filmmaking, and end up loving it. Some kids, they come in not knowing the potential they have, are a natural producer or editor. they weren’t given the chance and when they are, they excel. You never know what you’re good at until you try it.”