Welcome Home: A Journey Into Afro-Costa Rica

Its all about stories. Even the ones untold. I marvel at that evolution of nature and people and being able to place beginnings and endings on a conceptual spectrum. That makes me happy. I have always wanted to do work that makes me happy and story telling does that.

My tools are videography, photography, graphics and the written word…Mental stimuli.

I watched people who have lacked materially, create, build, and manifest their dreams through their work. I am going to do the same.

For the past twelve years I have worked and organized with people who were tossed out of the mixing bowl and who didn’t melt well in the pot, figuratively and literally. They teach me, test me, and inspire me, because their stories, whether ugly or beautiful, still mean something. And I enjoy the challenge of having to creatively, unbiasedly, and confidently tell them.

I highly value community and believe I have a responsibility to aid in its growth. I have organized in urban communities that at times, mirror desperate conditions in areas around the world that are going through perpetual poverty. I strive to identify the talents of the community and create strong relationships by combining resources that allow the organizations I have worked with to operate effectively.

Working in challenged communities involves boot-strapping and problem-solving. If something needs to get done the “rank and file” are recruited.

This necessity and sometimes unmet need is what allowed me to enter into videography and photography. Between campus events at Northern Kentucky University, where I graduated. Community events and personal celebrations that needed recording. Add to that a healthy dose of activism in Cincinnati, Ohio allowed me to cut my teeth and gain invaluable experience. That positive energy fueled my commitment to growing and getting better at capturing and telling stories.

Documenting events and creating valuable messages is a way I’m able to communicate to the community I want to serve. In that capacity, I was also able to create messages in print that reflected the sentiment of the people we were working with.

I love to create.

I love purpose.

I love a challenge.

Background voices drowned out, are still voices, and I am going to make sure they are heard.

Print, photography, web, and video together is what I use to to create. I live to tell the Story.

-B