Tribeca Teaches Expands to Los Angeles

While our hearts will always belong to New York City, we're excited to announce that our Tribeca Teaches program is expanding to Los Angeles with an after-school digital storytelling program at Lennox Middle School.

Tribeca Teaches Los Angeles will partner experienced filmmakers with teachers, community activists and parents to help students script their own stories using the familiar narrative of video games.

The program, which is presented in partnership with California non-profit Southern California Crossroads, is TFI’s first pilot outside of New York City and will focus on the medium of video games to guide a bilingual, storytelling curriculum to students.

Our new 18-week program will take place in Lennox, a Los Angeles County neighborhood with a population that is 93% low-income Latino immigrants. At the same time, here in NYC Tribeca Teaches will continue working in schools in all five of the city’s boroughs.

One site includes an innovative cross-cultural classroom platform where students at the Bronx Preparatory Charter School will explore the importance of community and identity through a partnership with a Brazilian school. Students in Brazil will read Ralph Ellison and James Baldwin, and conduct critical viewings of Menace II Society, while students in the Bronx will watch City of God and read Chico Mendes’ Fight for the Forest. The program will culminate in a student-driven film project.

This year, our youth programs are expected to serve more than 15,000 students!

[Photo: From our 2009 Tribeca Teaches NYC program]