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MATV Presents "We Have a Dream"

A Diverse Community Celebrates the Spirit of Dr. King’s Legacy

 

In the spring of 2008, the community of Malden, Massachusetts re-created Martin Luther King Jr.’s historic “I Have a Dream” speech in a studio at Malden Access Television. Over a period of one week, over 150 community members, representing the incredibly diverse population of this city, each recited a line. Participants in this project were young and old; of every race, creed, and culture; gay and straight; and of varying abilities. The edited video, entitled “We Have A Dream,” not only recalls Martin Luther King’s famously inspirational speech which gave voice to the U.S. civil rights movement, but embodies the dream Dr. King describes, a dream of equality and inclusiveness for all Americans.

The video, which first premiered during Martin Luther King weekend, 2009, will be presented again in 2010 and can be viewed at a variety of venues. On Tuesday, January 12th, it will be screened at the Malden Senior Community Center, 7 Washington St., at 3:00pm, open to everyone with free admission. On Saturday, January 16th, the video will be screened during the 17th annual North Shore Black Women’s Association (NSBWA) Martin Luther King Jr. Luncheon at Anthony’s Restaurant in Malden, where MATV will be honored by the NSBWA. On Monday, January 18th, it will be the feature presentation at the Martin Luther King Jr. Breakfast in Reading, MA. On that day also, it will be posted on the MATV website at www.matv.org and screened throughout the day on the MATV Public Access Channel (Comcast Channel 3 & Verizon Channel 28 in Malden.)

This project was supported in part by a grant from the Malden Cultural Council, a local agency, administered through the Massachusetts Cultural Council, a state agency.

"We Have a Dream: A Video Tribute to the Life & Words of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr."

Attend a Screening (the best way to view this video!)

Tuesday, January 12, 2010, 3:30pm (Doors open at 3pm)
Malden Senior Community Center
7 Washington St. Malden, MA
781-397-7144

Saturday, January 16, 2010, 11am
North Shore Black Women's Association
18th Annual Martin Luther King, Jr. Luncheon
Anthony's Restaurant, 105 Canal St. Malden
$40 tickets
For tickets, call Mary Moore at 781-324-7547

Monday, January 18, 2010, 9am
Town of Reading Martin Luther King Day Celebration
Reading Memorial High School Performing Arts Center
82 Oakland Rd. Reading, MA

DVD copies of the video are available through MATV for a requested donation of $10, plus a $2 mailing fee.

For more information, please contact Anne D'Urso-Rose (Executive Producer "We Have a Dream") at anne@matv.org.

MATV Wins Outstanding Excellence Award for NE Region

On November 7th,  MATV, Malden’s Media Center was given the “Overall Excellence in PEG Access” Award at the 12th annual ACM/NE Fall Festival that was held in West Hartford, Connecticut.  This prestigious honor is awarded in recognition of our overall operational activities and programming efforts between July, 2008 and June, 2009.

The festival is sponsored by the Northeast chapter of the Alliance for Community Media, a nonprofit advocacy group whose mission is to assure people’s access to electronic media by promoting public information, advancing a positive legislative and regulatory environment and supporting local media organizations like MATV that provide PEG (Public, Government and Education) access to their communities. The chapter includes all 6 New England states plus New York.

Executive Director Ron Cox, who attended the ceremony along with Station Manager, Terlonzo Amos and Government Access Coordinator, Brian Biggie commented, “We are thrilled at receiving this impressive award and it was all made possible through the hard work done by our talented staff and our incredibly dedicated volunteer members who have come together to make all of this happen. We truly have a great team and I guess I can say it’s the best in the northeast region”

The DVD entry submitted last summer included several examples from programs that were produced by both members and staff that reflecting the best of what Malden Access Television has to offer. From last year’s “We Have a Dream” project that included 150 members of our community reciting the famous Dr. King’s speech to the more recent “Digital Storytelling” workshop that featured heartwarming stories told by participants in a workshop held at the Cybercafe  and the “YouthTube” adventure last spring, MATV had plenty of productions to showcase.

Popular programs such as “Giving Back” that features the work of the Bread of Life organization and the cooking show, “Neighborhood Dish” that focuses on the idea that “all communities have eating in common” were also part of the submitted entry along with the shows, “Ablevision”, “Asian Spectrum”, “Legislative Report”, “Around the Rim”, “Gallery Spotlight”, “Junior Varieties” and “Live on Tape”. This collection of programming truly reflected the diverse, informative, and entertaining programming that is seen on our three PEG channels and obviously, was rewarded for its outstanding quality. It was a fitting tribute to the past year and a half as MATV celebrated our 20 years of providing community media to the residents of Malden.

Individual awards were also given out during the celebration. Those included “Ablevison” which won second place for the Diversity Empowerment/Non Professional category, Nestor Dudley won second place for “Around the Rim” in the Live Event category, Hailey Hao won third place for Blast Off with Summer Reading” in the Children and Youth/Professional category and the Kids Video Adventure Workshop won third place for their “Earwitness News” segment in the News & Magazine/Non-Professional category.

It indeed, was a very good year for Malden Access Television and I am so happy to be part of this experience and I am very grateful to our members, staff and board of directors who made it all possible.