Bridge the Gulf
Bridge the Gulf is a storytelling initiative promoting cultural survival, environmental justice and sustainable development in Gulf Coast communities. The project is led by Gulf Coast community activists and supported by filmmakers and new-media artists.
After Hurricane Katrina, a grassroots movement for social justice and environmental health gained momentum. The Gulf Coast's most marginalized communities found that their shared stories are a source of healing and power. Now, as the BP oil disaster unfolds, these communities, stretching from Florida to Texas, are using new-media tools – the Internet, video, photos and audio – to help protect their environment and way of life.
Bridge the Gulf grew from a partnership between the Gulf Coast Fund for Community Renewal and Ecological Health (representing a network of 170 grantees) and the makers of Turkey Creek, a documentary about a resilient African American community in Mississippi confronting urban sprawl and environmental degradation. Community development expert Gus Newport and human rights activist Danny Glover are advisors to the project.
The foundation for the project was laid with funding from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation. Additional funding has been provided by the Gulf Coast Fund and the Fledgling Fund. In May and June 2010 the partners worked at the Producers Institute for New Media Technologies to design an interactive Web site and map of the Gulf Coast to document current issues and build alliances for a just, healthy and sustainable future.
In this first phase of the Web site, people who represent diverse communities and interests are contributing their own insights as well as helping to gather and curate stories from the region. Together we will work to establish Bridge the Gulf as an important resource connecting all of us to the unfiltered, grassroots voices of the Gulf Coast.
Through our collective stories we hope you will come away not only with a better understanding of the challenges we face, but with a compelling sense of:
a vital regional community that shares values of citizen leadership, sustainability and ecological health; a network of culturally vibrant but ecologically and economically vulnerable communities where people are working every day for positive change; and a limitless brain trust of local leaders and citizens with important ideas about the future of the region.
Check is out here