To celebrate Black History Month, a group or participants from our Media Lab in the West Midlands have created their own magazine, Beyond.
Part of the MiFriendly Cities Project, the special publication was created by a team of budding ‘citizen journalists’ who have honed their media skills through Media Lab and newsroom workshops over the last two years.
Initially meeting up regularly for training with hands-on mentoring in mediums including photography, writing news and filmmaking; many of the participants have spent much of this year continuing their training at home due to the COVID-19 lockdown.
Creating, editing and collating articles, opinion pieces, spotlight features, poetry, art and photography, the group's final work consists of over 100 pages of content dedicated to celebrating Black History Month and the experiences of migrants and their communities.
Penning the opening message in the magazine, co-editor Althia writes: "Some of us, like myself, had no previous media experience and struggled with even the most basic technology, yet here I am writing a welcome message in an online magazine!
"Having attended Media Labs and newsroom sessions, made new friends and had the opportunity to learn about photography, filmmaking, copywriting, social media, and journalism skills over the last year and a half, together we now bring you our first magazine, and one which celebrates Black voices, Black talent and Black experiences."
You can read the full magazine here: https://cutt.ly/BHM2020