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  A Video Celebration of Black Chicago

  Black, Blog, Chicago, Communities

  This video showcases Media Burn’s videos documenting Black life in Chicago. It includes everything from neighborhood cultural festivals to jazz and blues legends to trailblazing politicians. Follow the links to watch the full programs from which these excerpts were taken. 0:09 Journalist Vernon Jarrett (1918-2004) describes the intersection of 47th and Martin Luther King Drive in Bronzeville as the “terminal point of the great dream that so many Black people [from the South] envisioned,” from Omnibus: Studs Terkel’s Chicago (1985, […]

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  In Memory of Scott Jacobs (March 27, 1950 – October 21, 2021)

  Blog

  He was hooked on video journalism until Thursday, October 21, 2021.

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  Moments After: Carol Marin On the Scene of Ground Zero (September 11th, 2001)

  Blog, Carol Marin

  Twenty years ago this Saturday, viewers across the U.S. and around the globe watched in horror as the moments immediately following the September 11th, 2001 terrorist attacks unfolded live on television.

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  In Memory of Ed Asner (November 15, 1929 – August 29, 2021)

  Blog

  Last week, American actor and political activist Ed Asner passed away.

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  In Memory of Nancy Cain

  Blog, Nancy Cain

  We miss you already, Nancy! Nancy Cain died on August 22 in her home in Desert Hot Springs, CA. She was a pioneering videomaker, photographer, author, feminist and role model for generations of artists. Nancy had an unwavering commitment to visionary alternative video for more than five decades, starting with the Videofreex in New York. She was a best friend of Media Burn for all of our 20 years and a major producer of our television series THE 90’s, and […]

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  Resurrecting the 1970s Guerrilla Television Movement

  Blog

  We have some exciting news about a new project!We’re proud to be able to announce that, after several years of planning and development, we’ve been awarded a nearly half million dollar grant from the Council on Library and Information Resources to lead a collaboration that will digitize and make available more than 1,000 videotapes from media art centers across the country. The University of Chicago Library and Department of Cinema and Media Studies are our main project partners. This three-year […]

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  In Memory of Frank Sullivan (1930-2021)

  Black, Blog, Chicago, Chicago Politics, Communities, Politics, Tom Weinberg

  Frank Sullivan, press secretary for Mayor Richard J. Daley from 1971-1976, died June 18 at the age of 91.  Prior to working for Daley, he served as spokesperson for the Chicago Police Department during the 1968 Democratic National Convention protests. Television viewers around the world then were shocked at live broadcasts of police beating anti-imperialist demonstrators. This was unprecedented violence and the origin of the now-famous protest cry, “The whole world is watching!” The independent Kerner Commission report determined that […]

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  America’s First Drag Queen President

  1992 Election, Bill Stamets, Black, Blog, Chicago, Chicago Politics, Communities, LGBTQIA, Politics

  “A presidential campaign is like a drag show.” Joan Jett Blakk In 1992, there was another candidate against Bush, and her name? Joan Jett Blakk. For Pride month, Media Burn is highlighting and celebrating the work of queer activists of the past. Blakk was the drag persona of performer Terence Smith, who was a performer and leader of Chicago Queer Nation in the 70s. In the 1990s, Blakk campaigned for various political positions, such as mayor of Chicago, President (as […]