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Producer, 20 Acres in Benin – “The Next Big Thing” Public Radio International, November 2003

I met the Jah family in 1999 during my first visit to Benin. On subsequent visits, I ran into them while reporting on the reconciliation efforts of the Beninese government. One day I finally had a chance to talk with them and found their story incredible and intriguing. I shared their story with a producer at The Next Big Thing and she was intrigued as well. With microphone and digital recorder in hand, I traveled back to Benin and found the Jah family. This is their story.
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The Jah Family were given final approval to take possession of the promised 20 acres. However, the location of the property had to be changed because the lack of city services like water. They moved onto the property in September 2004 and planned to build an orphannage.

As part of a comprehensive audio series for the Masculinity Project the students and journalism faculty at Hampton University put together a brief expositional narrative here on the state of the American education system and its intersection with race and class. What is the fourth grade failure syndrome? Who does it affect? And what can be done to counteract it?

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In 2008, I was invited to submit a proposal for the National Black Programming Consortium's national Masculinity Project. I decided to include my students on this opporutnity. As a class assignment, they pitched ideas and wrote draft proposals to submit to the NBPC. Two were chosen and received funding. The resulting auido narratives are from a small group of broadcast journalism students. I served as Producer and Senior Editor for the narratives.

Click here to read the Daily Press article or the press release about the Masculinity Project