[Dryerase] UPC Stories

[XRay Magazine]

UPC Organizers chat with XRay

An email interview by Stephen Novotni with UPC
organizers Jen Angel and Jason Kuscma

X: How many people showed up? What was the farthest
someone travelled to get there? 

Jason: Approximately 700-800 people showed up this
weekend from over 36 different states and Canada. Both
the east and west coasts were well-represented and we
had people from the hearts of Florida and Texas as
well. A good number of the attendees were
midwesterners and local Northwest Ohio residents. 

X: How does the 4th UPC compare with the first or last
year's? 

Jason: The 4th UPC differed from the others primarily
in its intention. In the past, the conferences had
been about 2/3 devoted to media and art while the
balance was made up by activist-related workshops,
panels and discussions. This year we not only
increased the number of sessions per day (and per time
slot) but we made sure that each one was explicitly
related somehow to democratizing the tools for
do-it-yourself media making. We had independent film
screenings, workshops on web production,
screen-printing, bookbinding, and a host of others. We
also used panel discussions to allow independent media
makers talk about the work they are involved in. 

Jen: We've also become more organized. This year,
people were able to register and pay online, we had
welcome packets/bags for each person that were full of
books, cds, flyers, magazines, buttons, etc, and we
had new evening events, like the Saturday night
Bowling party, where we rented an entire bowling alley
for conference-goers. 

X: What's been the most valuable thing you've learned
from the event? 

Jason: The most important thing that I think a lot of
people take home from the weekend (myself included) is
a renewed sense of purpose-kind of a reminder that the
work that we do is important, and sometimes we need to
renew that purpose and energy to keep it all going. 

Jen: I also think that events such as this one
constantly reinforce how much we need and can learn
from one another. 

X: What do you think is in store in the future of the
progressive/indie/leftist press? 

Jason: I think we are at an exciting time right now
where participatory media projects have the potential
to contend with the corporate giants. Everyday folks
know that the stuff they see on television and read in
the paper is not entirely accurate and often immoral
in it's omission of certain news. Participatory media
counters this by creating more media sources that
amplify the voices of the people. I'm excited by how
far indymedia.org has come in such a short time, and I
also think it's remarkable that Clamor is still around
after two years...both of which are using models that
technically shouldn't be able to work in a market that
works best when it panders to the lowest common
denominator. 

X: What are the most important things women can do to
have a voice in the media? What publications are best
at advancing the role of women in the media?

Jen: Well, there are many ways that women can be
strong in media. One is to participate in creating and
founding new media institutions, such as new magazines
and radio stations, etc. It is important for women to
not only participate in these things, but to help
create them. Women who are currently involved need to
lead by example and help reset our ideas of what the
"norm" is.... Instead of featuring a women's issue or
a radio show devote to women, how about producing a
magazine where all the writers and contributors are
female, but the topics are regular topics and not
specifically womens-interest topics? That would be
more powerful. 

There isn't any one organization that exemplifies how
women should act within media. Venus magazine is a
great resource, but it is organized differently than
many participatory media resources. THere are many
good organizations out there, but no matter how much
outreach they do, individual women need to take the
initiative to find their own voice. 

X: The conference had some diversity, but how can more
minority-owned publications and publishers be brought
into the mix? 

Jason: This is always a concern of ours, and something
we've tried to address every year. The primary way
that we can work on increasing diversity would be to
increase the funds available to bring folks who are
not as easily able to drop what they're doing to head
to a conference in Ohio. With an increase in sponsors,
donors and other fundraising projects, we should be
able to bring folks in from a variety of media
projects from various communities of color. 

Jen: However, we have always had a lot of women
involved, and have been very good at bringing together
a good mix of ages, from high school students to
experienced media activists in their 50's and 60's. 

*Current List members should feel free to use this
piece for one time use in their publications or on an
ongoing basis online. Please attribute to Stephen J.
Novotni, GoXRay.com

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