We are proud to showcase the films created this summer by teens and youth mentors in the Youth Media Sanctuary program at the Sanctuary for Independent Media. Youth Media Sanctuary is a community media arts project designed to teach multimedia skills to young people to help develop urgently needed independent local voices in this economically devastated neighborhood. Youth Media Sanctuary aims to help bridge the digital divide, both in terms of immediate outcomes and as a call to the future. They hope to give voice to, and access to the voices of, a chronically under-served population—the youth of North Central Troy.

Jerry’s House by Kai Griffin, Bryanna Mangual, Diajah Grier, Milan Miles, and Andrew Pintro, tells the story of a family forced out of a deteriorating rental “now abandoned,” with a happy ending of owning a home.

Sadie’s Grandmother’s House by Sadie Anson, with media mentor/editor Kathy High, recounts restoring a vacant building into a loving home.

Orange and Lex, by Shatora Buckman, Jahsendah Dann, and Ayisha Menko, shares a razed childhood neighborhood. Created with media mentor/editor Jamel Mosely.

Abandoned Building Haikus were created in collaboration with the “Breathing These Words” poetry workshop, led by Danielle Colin Charlestin with Nancy Klepsch.