Hey everyone! My name is Brooklynne Bates. I’m a rising sophomore from Northville, Michigan double majoring in Business Administration and Film, Television, and Media at the University of Michigan. I have a passion for educating myself and others on intersectional identities and a desire to create positive media content for underrepresented groups. One day, I hope to run my own television network and produce a variety of television shows.
Community is a group of people who share similar interests or backgrounds and uplift each other. As a resident of Metro Detroit, I grew up going to events and visiting my nana in Detroit. Part of the reason why I was interested in working in Detroit was because of the past experiences that I have had there.
As President of my high school’s Human Relations Council, I was able to create spaces for students to re-evaluate subconscious biases and have authentic conversations about their identities. This ability can help me be successful, as my project is revolved around uplifting the voices of Black Muslim community leaders in Detroit. I also have gained a lot of editing skills from editing YouTube videos, projects, and even TikToks. I can use these editing skills to help me edit the documentary footage of Black Muslim community leaders.
I would like to learn how to use Adobe Premier. I usually use iMovie to edit videos, but I want to take advantage of the fact that Michigan offers Adobe Premier to its students.
At the end of the program, having a breadth of knowledge of Islam and Black Muslim community leaders in Detroit would make me proud. So far, I have editing one interview and already learned about prominent Black figures, such as Elijah Muhammad and Marcus Garvey. I have also learned about Jeddah and Mina in Saudi Arabia.
