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AWARDS FOR FEMINIST MEDIA MAKERS

December 21, 2012 Media Equity Collaborative awards two women-led media projects and an investigative radio journalist grants to advance their projects. Stimulating the development of feminist made media has been a core focus of this tiny outfit. Three modest, yet heart-felt $500 awards were given this month to Crunk Feminist Collective (http://www.crunkfeministcollective.com/), a blog Where Crunk Meets Conscious and Feminism Meets Cool; the webseries Black Folks Don't (blackfolkdont.com/) created by writer/director/producer Angela Tucker; and investgative radio journalist Kellia RamaresWatson for a piece on the increase of psych prescriptions, especially for women. In awarding these three grants Media Equity provides support in a variety of media among the broad spectrum in which women work from theatrical production to political cartooning in this case feminist blogging, the evolving format of web television and investigative journalism. Women of color groups have been more severely effected by the recession and funding opportunities. Crunk Feminist Collective, which has been posting commentary from a community of 18 bloggers since March 2010, will use its grant towards its annual retreat in January. The blog creates ..a space of support and camaraderie for hip hop generation feminists of color, queer and straight, in the academy and without, by building a rhetorical community, in which we can discuss our ideas, express our crunk feminist selves... Black Folks Don't, a highly acclaimed television program on the web, is currently rapping up its 2nd series of episodes. Playing on the colloquial Black Folks Don't.... add your own story. The series is a spirited irreverent inquiry. Additionally supported, in part, by National Black Programming Consortium, the series is produced by Tucker Grrl in association with Arts Engine, Inc. Feminist Investigative journalism is a critical area in need of more funds and is the heart of feminist news outlets. Since Media Equity Collaborative began in 2008 the vision to give feminist journalists funds to delve into timely topics about women has been a central driving force as the fledgling project sought funds to expand. Media Equity is pleased to offer Kellia
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Ramares-Watson opportunity to to produce a piece on "government and big pharma are trying to compel compliance with prescriptions to take psychiatric drugs. The reporter relayed, Women get psych prescriptions far more than men, and parents are being told to medicate their kids." Media Equity requires this report to be published first on a women-led outlet. Women remain underrepresented at almost all levels and in almost all forms of media. In the first six months of 2012 as many as 25 separate reports came out speaking of this media bias. While Media Equity monitors gender bias within corporate media, the core of its work is building and resourcing women-owned media outlets. It is estimated that there may be as many of two thousand such entities operating throughout the US. Media Equity would like to provide awards to additional innovative and diverse feminist media, preferably with a few more zeros added to the awards. More donors and funding communities, however, need to step up to achieve this vision. Media Equity hopes these examples will encourage more funders to step forward to support women's voices where their raw power is most effective and vibrant, within women-owned media.
Since 2008 the following supporters have assisted Media Equity to advance its work: Jacquelyn and Gregory Zehner Foundation, Tracy Gary, Anonymous, Michael Meyers, Ms. Foundation for Women, Third Wave Foundation, On the Issues magazine, Women Make Movies, Free Press, and Social Science Research Council as part of a re-grant program from the Ford Foundation.

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MEC Mission: Dedicated to ensure a swath of new resources to build the gendered Feminist Public Sphere into a network with national identity and force -- which honor core principles without compromise to racial & economic justice, grassroots political activism, women!s empowerment & human rights, and the evolution of a selfdetermined healthy environment & culture for all

International Media Project, Inc. # 94-3239511 is fiscal sponsor for Media Equity Collaborative.

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December 21, 2012