Verizon franchise deal must fund community media in Philadelphia

I’m proud to be part of a tight-knit artistic community in Kensington, where I create documentaries, short videos, and music. I’m surrounded by artists of all kinds, including muralists such as J.C. Zerbe and multimedia artists who are part of La Guagua 47.

I am fortunate that my talents and capacities were nurtured from an early age. I started attending classes at PhillyCAM (Philadelphia Community Access Media) when I was 16 years old. Seven years later, I am still at the Center City facility at least once a month, learning best practices for being on set, technical aspects of cinematography, and honing both my editing and teaching skills.

This work is supported by franchise agreements between the cable companies and the city of Philadelphia. Verizon, which uses our city’s telephone poles and sidewalks to build out its infrastructure, is now renegotiating its franchise deal. Much of this negotiation surrounds how Verizon, a $136.8 billion company, will give back to the community in exchange for access to our infrastructure. Those negotiations must include funding community media in Philadelphia.

Community media includes public, educational, and governmental access media organizations, like PhillyCAM, PHLgovTV, and PSTV, the School District of Philadelphia’s education channel, which each receive important funding for their current efforts from the city’s agreements with cable companies. For example, in 2015 the city inked a deal with Comcast that provided $21.3 million over 15 years to support public, educational, and governmental access channels in Philadelphia.

These agreements create economic impact by seeding opportunities for community media to hire artists as media instructors and content creators. Verizon’s first agreement was negotiated 15 years ago; an opportunity like this to generate more support for community media in Philadelphia doesn’t come up very often.

The Verizon deal will have a direct impact on the community I come from and the youth I work with in Kensington. As a teenager, PhillyCAM’s youth programs gave me indispensable professional training, taught me how to talk to people, book interviews, and, most importantly, gave me a community I could return to.

I often struggled to find the words to express my frustration with the neglect that my neighborhood, Kensington, constantly experienced. Still, I knew the folks at PhillyCAM would see those words within me while giving me the space to breathe and be treated as a whole human being.

Without this foundation of confidence, learning, and community that many young Philadelphians need, I would not have moved on to my fruitful professional career. When I dropped out of college, when my high school and parents did not support me, PhillyCAM helped me get back on my feet and contribute to society.

Artistic communities aren’t created by accident; they must be nurtured and cultivated. And to truly flourish, artists must have access to the tools and resources they deserve.

Today, I teach media and videography classes to teenagers and middle school kids in Kensington recreation centers such as McVeigh and McPherson Square Library. I also teach a cohort of Hear Us Out students from all over the city.

Funding from the Verizon deal can go a long way toward building Philadelphia’s capacity to provide transformative opportunities for people and communities to express themselves, to learn from each other, and to produce and share media that reflect their experiences.

Community media centers and public access television are vital points of entry into the local media ecology by creating space for Philadelphians — through the collaborative act of creating, telling, and sharing authentic stories — to build power and combat hurtful stereotypes.

Verizon and the city of Philadelphia must continue to support community media so that more people can have these same life-changing, horizon-expanding experiences.

Contact your local City Council member — either in person, over the phone, or via email — about the Verizon franchise deal. By emphasizing the need for accessible, people-centered media, you can help make an indelible difference.

Ramses Montes is a multimedia maker based in Kensington who makes art about people, places, stories, and memories. Their work can be found at sunborn.space.