>> and building. it is a basic director. google people challenging the status quo. that is today on "cityline." karen: hello everyone. i am karen holmes ward. people challenging the current affairs in scholarship from political news coverage to a lack of diversity in hollywood, mainstream media has come under fire for not including diverse images. collins followed one

out how young people are rejecting mainstream media their own hands. >> students at process are police involved debts in missouri and new york. -- deaths in missouri and new york. >> we haven' people and seeing how they feel about it. >> i heard about it but i was not aware. afterward, seeing and hearing the stories of different people whose fathers, cousins, and brothers were shot, it really affected them. >> i don' t understand what people refuse to acknowledge this about race. >> saying i can' t breathe from when they choked the guy. they are saying a lot. pretty much saying things should not be this way. there is supposed to be quality. >> there is the quality for storytelling.

>> at press there is time for tv producers to share their stories. >> walking down the street, and i get frisked randomly. they stopped the bus one day. these things at the recent and people have to hear them or they will continue to go on. >> i am hoping the students are learning there needs to be a shift in public policy and police protocol that they are able to really have some of his obedience in documenting these efforts really create that change needed on a permanent level. >> my child' s death was not violent. it was because my life was silent. karen: we are joined by reggie williams. welcome to "cityline." thank you. tell me more about press pass tv.

employee and empower people we start out by training them in video production and we partner them with organization to create mentors. we can hire them and help generate revenues for our organization. karen: where are you based on and how did the organization begin? reggie: press trust tv began in 2004 at an afterschool program. now we are in the art. in discover roxbury in dudley square. karen: i think they have a new office space, right? reggie: right. of the young people in the studio there. tell us that things learn about and what they report about. reggie: students learn how to take a project from script to screen from storyboarding and digital concept and create a

from there, they worked together s pieces and are learning not only the skills of media production but also the literacy skills. karen: how do you analyze the media? how do you teach the young people to analyze what they see in the media? reggie: it starts with initial comprehension. having the understanding of advertising, what goes into the messages we are bombarded with on a daily basis and then being able to have a practicum where you are talking about it. we read articles together. we want to recent clips and new segments and are able to dissect them. what did you feel about them? did you notice certain things, certain buzzwords repeated to create the disc discussion? karen: what is the question most asked by students? reggie: one question most asked t understand what they are saying when they mean this. like how they are using these words to describe our communities.

they are able to look and see what that means for them. that is one of the key questions. karen: we saw in the production you have a few pieces in 2015. reggie: we produced 75 pieces in 2015. karen: what were they about? karen holmes ward reggie: a number of different topics. the stigma against unexpected pregnancy, mental health and covering the sandra bland protest this year. karen: these are posted on youtube. reggie: yes. karen: you have a press pass tv youtube channel. when students finished this piece, the video essay or whatever you might want to them? reggie: the pieces of our

producers of their own future. by showing that they have the the ability to create media and really make messages that travel is something powerful for them of self-confidence. karen: one thing that has been in the news the past week is the release of the academy award nominations and the subsequent boor brouhaha about the lack of nominees of color. jaiteh pinkett smith has called awards. what is the conversation on particular circumstance? reggie: in terms of addressing the lack of adversity in media, particularly from the mainstream perspective, we are looking to responding to everyone' s boycott of the oscars and also what they would do to change that.

actors of color, producers of color, given that they are the next generation of producers. looking to see our students t need a validation of the oscars or academy to make successful great media that reaches the world. that is what we are doing. our pieces are submitted to global film festivals and they are shared on our website with youtube and they are able to take that message and trouble with it. for oscars so why, it is the same. while using the hashtag, we do a lot of that work at home ourselves. karen: of course, receiving an academy award is one form of validation but there are other forms of validation and out other than to be honored at reggie: exactly. s right. karen: the other question i have discuss this is not the academy awards, it is the studios, the

it gets to the nominees. what you are teaching these young people is to be the person at the start of the process. reggie: yes. in terms of having that level of ground up and watching how these casting, how the scripts are red, and moving forward through the process of reduction, it is critically -- reduction, it is critically important to have that process because that representation is there whether we see it or not and we often don' t know what is going on in tv land. karen: your goals for the future? reggie: our program is blooming. we are now have presented a trip this week and we look to expand over providence, rhode island, and provide a network of interested in critical media. karen: ricky williams, thank you

up next, a boston stage production tackling issues on issue, race, and religion in america.

karen: welcome back. they say they are two things you company, religion and politics. a pulitzer prize winner throws this notion out the window. the production of this play takes the conversation in turns it on its head. provocative and timely

sharia een is in the play. what this is about. >> it is a one-man journey who is a pakistani muslim who very living. top mergers and acquisitions law firm. he is up for position of hopefully becoming partner. in this state he is in, he feels very good about his chances, but obstacle of supporting or being asked or badgered rather by his wife who is a white american up-and-coming artist and his nephew to help out with an imam

table, it is how he deals with that and that as a result of choosing to do that, the outcome. and then it all comes to a head when he has a dinner party. karen: an explosive dinner party at that. >> exactly. karen: the play makes a point that this character, amir, rises up in the professional ranks. he loses a lot of his muslim identity. that is where the conflict comes from, right? >> right. it is his choice to do that because he feels that in order to be accepted or to assimilate to this way of life, in order to become very successful that he has to do that i think. with. karen: not only does amir have these identity conflicts, all of the characters display some sort

counterbalance, brings out stereotypes of all of the characters and misconceptions about all of the characters. >> exactly. i don' t want to give too much for those planning to see it, but it definitely does. i think jolie is the most secure and the strongest. shimmy herself a little bit that she made -- she made herself. karen: that is your character. >> yes. a jewish curator invited what is going on. karen: how do you think the dialogue in the play pertains to what we see in the world today? >> it is definitely straight out of the headlines and i think it has a lot to do with our phobia and how we see muslims, not we

speaking, and how we deal with that. there is a lot of misconceptions , and a lot of misunderstanding, people just don' t know. i think with the way certain topics of information is presented in this play, it forces people to really take a look at what they thought they that. i think that is why it is definitely straight out of the needs to be talked about. karen: the performance i attended, the remaining moments throughout the evening where you can hear the audience go " oh" in reaction to an insult that was thrown or there was silence and you could tell that something uncomfortable had been said in the audience did not know quite how to react. >> exactly. which is why we have a post-show discussion for most of our

week about some of those reactions they had or were surprised by because people come they hear it is about a muslim american not knowing exactly what form that takes, that they have their own preconceived notions or perceptions of how they will receive that play, whether it is for or against. i think when they are confronted with things and how it comes about in the play, it is like ok, why did i have that reaction? what does that say about me and my understanding or belief? it is wonderful to hear how those perceptions have changed as a result of what they saw or what they are encouraged to go and discuss and hope to change as a result of what they saw. that is why i am such a big fan of this. karen: why did you decide to participate in this? >> big fan. i have been tracking this play

the first time it was done, my husband was part of the original cast in chicago. i was in grad school. i could not audition for it. when it was being done off-broadway, i was doing a broadway production upstairs of the lincoln center. that was another opportunity i did not happen have an opportunity to audition for. every end of last year, 18 or 19 productions have been done regionally. karen: the most produced play in the country. >> absolutely. i thought there was at least one i could get into. what i am drawn to specifically about my character is her strength, her ambition, this kind of self-confidence. she knows who she is on many levels, which is what i relate to in a lot of ways. there are certain things

lines that get the most laughter in the play. >> yes. because every time she comes on the scene, it is ready intense. pretty intense and her she allows the audience to laugh. karen: to let off some steam. it is a wonderful play. i really enjoyed it. you and your colleagues did a wonderful presentation. >> thank you very much. karen: this grace is on stage at the huntington theatre at the boston university theatre now through february 7. also on stage in cambridge through february 28. the underground production of the convert. company one theater production of a room is on stage through february 27 at the glass box

incendiary subversively funny search for an plantation. for more than half a century now a villain?

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sounds easy! it is easy! from that in-flight magazine. new car, a wedding the home of your dreams. how much you can save? ask a citizen at 1-888-333-0245 or visit lightenyourloan.com karen: welcome back. to kill a mockingbird classic coming-of-age tale and one of the main characters, atticus finch, is a justice seeking defense generation. released. the book was a prequel if you

boston university english professor john will host a seminar on february 3. what was your reaction? john: like most readers, my reaction was mixed. i think that a vote in a lot of ways betrays itself as a first draft of a book that needed work in order to become a successful novel. there are long passages of flashbacks to childhood. the book does not seem to go anywhere. it becomes very explosive toward the end. there is a great argument between scout, now known as jean louise, and her father. the book ends abruptly. there is a lot of talking. from this standpoint, it is not

karen: the book has been out several months now. you ask me before the program if i read it. i did not read it because i did not want my image of this character atticus finch to stray what i have been thinking all of these years. john: that is one of the foremost responses of the book. a few of the reviews that came out and the anticipation of the book' s painting in a way of his reputation, and a lot of people do not want to read the book. i think what we have is a book that comes from a different point in j jean louise' s life. atticus is not presented as a courageous father we know in to kill a mockingbird by somebody who is in people physically and symbolically whose positions on desegregation seem more and more outdated. more obnoxious in a way.

specific references to atticus perhaps being part of the ku klux klan. john: he has also joined the citizens council, which was a slightly more modern or polite version so there is a line dispute about that. he also possesses racist literature that scout discovers and makes her extremely angry and leads to her conversation. karen: the watchman version of atticus evolved or printed. john: i think the books were sent about 20 years apart. atticus' s position in the 1930' s as a younger man is something that was not originally part of what harper lee envisioned.

confronting hypocrisies when she 1950' s so what we are seeing is a fantasy return of what atticus might have been and the way he feels may have been more inspirational if they were cast in an earlier period. karen: since harper lee was the thoughts. john: i think that' s true but when she was in college and graduate school, she wrote a number of pieces for school newspapers that were critical of the racism she saw in the south. when she came to new york in the 1950' s, she was going to write this book that was much more confrontational. it was going to call out the software is resistance and its denial of the way in which racism had played such an important role in the kind of genteel life that so many small-town white people were able to enjoy.

editor, she took the book back to the 1930' s and re-envisioned it so the book and become more inspirational for the south in the country as a whole because they were facing very difficult conflicts over desegregation. karen: toni morrison, the renowned author, the pulitzer prize-winning author,: "to kill a mockingbird" a -- called "to kill a mockingbird" a white savior narrative. john: i think what she means by that is "to kill a mockingbird" that waiting for assistance, waiting for help from my journalistic whites. if you think about "to kill a mockingbird" the the book have very little agency on robertson. is he is heard from on trial accusations. karen: the tale is told through the eyes and voice of the white

black characters. john: how different the book would be. karen: that some of the criticism we have in terms of hollywood movies also about race. john: exactly. i think that is what spike lee has pointed to as well. it goes back to explain narrative that always has to be advocated by white people. karen: this was a fascinating topic. 30 seconds left. tell us what the discussion will be on february 3. john: one i hope to do is describe a little bit or explore ." i also want to talk about the significance of "go set a watchman" and how it changes and the other. karen: you can join professor

more information with links to everything is all on our cityline page. thank you so much for watching everyone. have a great day. take care. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its