An adequate assessment of just one pre­sentation will be difficult; to express how powerful and moving the entire conference was will be even harder.
Most impressive was the wide-ranging scope of the program. Tracks (or areas) covered in­cluded Youth Media, Popular Education, How-To, INCITE! Women of Color/Trans People of Color, Media Policy, and the Kids’ Track.
The organizers were dedicated to represent­ing grassroots media and everything that encom­passes, including low-watt radio, zine-making, street art (graffiti, stencils, wheatpastes, chalking), etc.

Media outlets, organizations and collectives from across the U.S. were represented, including: The Empowered Fe Fes from Chicago, a support and action group of young women with disabilities, ages 13-24; People’s Production House, a media justice organization in New York; the Center for International Media, also from New York; 2-Cent Entertainment, a multi-media collective from New Orleans; and The Pocho Research Society, a Los-Angeles based collective of artists and activists.

It was a massive collaboration of ideas and strategies focused and invested in making media ac­cessible. No idea was too big, or felt out of reach, and no idea was too small or insignificant.
On Saturday, Adele attended the panel “Undoing Crime: Media to De-criminalize and De-colonize.” Journalists on the panel spoke about the sensational, class-based and racist coverage of crime typical of corporate media, and of their efforts to tell the real story about crime in the U.S., and also sto­ries about communities organizing to create new en­vironments and opportunities in high-crime areas.

The media’s spin on a story affects how we feel and whether we choose to mobilize. The corpo­rate media reports crime in a way that is immobiliz­ing, stokes fear, and seeks to restrict our actions.

As journalists and activists, it must be our purpose and mission to create and produce media that mobilizes people, holds others accountable, and is an ongoing, positive presence in our communities.

On Sunday, we gathered to watch a live U.S./Palestine video conference between activists here and in the Occupied Territories. This incredibly touch­ing discussion brought to light our common understanding and common struggles. Even across borders, we share the same vision, goals, and as one woman from Palestine noted, the same oppressors.

Everyone left the video conference empowered and unified; a feeling that ran through the weekend which brought people into each others’ lives and homes to work, dialogue, and build solutions.

Grace Lee Boggs, the renowned and revered Detroit activist, delivered the conference’s closing remarks. Wearing a t-shirt with her face on it, which she got from Invincible’s record release party and her 93rd birthday celebration the week prior, she paralleled the organizing ideas of young radi­cals in the 1960s to the AMC participants.

Young activists today, she said, focus on “what we can do,” rather than defining ourselves by oppression. Many meetings following the assassination of MLK were led by men giving fiery speeches, Grace recalled.

They often only succeeded in instigating more anger, and the people they mobilized became a faceless mass. Now, at the AMC, Grace observed women and proud queers at the forefront, and a movement that understands the importance of diversity and individual contributions.

Today’s young activists have learned valuable lessons from the past, she noted, and are working to create a concept of evolution based on love and care. Consequently, many in­dependent media projects are practicing a gradual revolution that brings new ideas, institutions and energy.

As an elder with 60 years of experience in grassroots activism, Grace encouraged the crowd to continue to find the power within us to maintain Detroit as a city of hope and transform our communities and countries.

The AMC also engaged the community surrounding the conference. Tours of Detroit were organized highlighting independent media, music, labor history, environmental justice, and urban agri­culture.

Clara chose the labor history tour. Labor ac­tivists Ron Lare and Rich Feldman spoke in front of UAW Local 600 outside the Dearborn Ford Riv­er Rouge Plant. They told the participants about a hunger march in 1932 on Miller Road where about three thousand unemployed workers, their families, and union activists were met by the Dearborn police, who fired on the crowd and killed five.

They also learned about the “Battle of the Overpass” where Walter Reuther and others were at­tacked and badly beaten by the Detroit Police and Ford’s “Service Department” goons for passing out pamphlets on the Miller Road overpass. “Old Harry Benet’s [the head of Ford’s Service Department] boys don’t like no union noise,” one tour participant sang while we listened to the story. The group then visited the empty shell of the Packard Plant in Ham­tramck.
The tour guide, Clara recalled, said a Mexi­can woman and UAW activist had commented that what the U.S. needs is more immigration so work­ers can learn the concepts of revolution from Latin America. “That was probably one of the best things I heard on the tour,” Clara said.

On Tuesday, Adele had breakfast with a number of women of color from the SPEAK! Col­lective, and everyone agreed this was the only con­ference they’d ever attended that felt like home.

There was never a question of belonging, nor was there a need to reference one’s resume in order to feel part of an exclusive network. “We wondered if ‘conference’ was the right word for the AMC,” Adele recalled. “But we realized it is exactly the right word.” The energy of the AMC was so unique that it has raised the standard for what a conference should be, and what others should aspire to achieve.

Yes, it was that good.

*****
Please visit the Allied Media Conference web­site for a more thorough overview of the tracks, presen­tations, and issues covered: http://alliedmediaconference.org