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Youth Voices: Claim the Podium Youth Media Challenge

GBH and the Museum of African American History invite students to create a speech or video message inspired by Boston’s Black abolitionists, their community, activism, and speeches at the African Meeting House.

[Podium, African Meeting Hall, Boston, MA]
Museum of African American History, Boston-Nantucket/Selvin Backert.

Youth Voices: Claim the Podium

Students choose a current issue or problem that matters to them and use what they have learned about Boston’s early 19th-century Black abolitionist community to create a narrated video, filmed speech, or a performance video that features an original song, poem, rap, or short story.

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Curriculum Connection

This is a chance for students to inform, inspire, and educate others! Bring your student’s projects to a wider audience by participating in Youth Voices: Claim the Podium. Students will create their own speech or video message and publish them to the Youth Media Challenge Showcase.
For Students

Students, choose a current issue or problem that matters to you and use what you have learned about Boston’s early 19th-century Black abolitionist community to create a narrated video, filmed speech, or a performance video that features an original song, poem, rap, or short story. Use one of the following essential questions to guide your work:

What does freedom, equality, or justice mean to you, and how is your vision connected to the struggles and hopes of the Beacon Hill community two centuries ago?

What issue or injustice today demands the same kind of moral courage and public voice that early Boston abolitionists showed, and how does their example inspire you?

How can education, words, or community action—like those centered in the African Meeting House and Abiel Smith School—help address the challenge or cause you care about most?

Claim the Podium

Two students, one with a microphone and headphones

Students choose an essential question and create a narrated video, filmed speech, or a performance video that features an original song, poem, rap, or short story.

Resources and Support for Media Making

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Media Skills for Educators

KQED Teach offers free workshops and self-paced courses on media-making and implementing and assessing student media projects.

Additional Resources

Find A Liberating Place for Bold Voices and Freedom: Black Abolitionists in Boston and Black Abolition in Beacon Hill on PBS LearningMedia.