HIV/AIDS in the African American community

My goal for the rest of the summer semester is to become an expert in the subject area of HIV/AIDS in the African American community. Before I read the lecture for Module 7 I was a little worried about my niche choice. The lecture was posted after I talked to the internship coordinator at the Black AIDS Institute where I am interning at. I was worried because I was expecting to create more social media as part of my internship. Now that I have learned that I need to take matters in my own hands I am excited and believe I have chosen the right niche. My goal this summer is to use social media to spread awareness about HIV/AIDS with a focus on the African American community.

There are a number of ways I plan on increasing awareness of HIV/AID. They include using social media sites such as Twitter, NING and Facebook. I will also be creating and editing blogs, videos, podcast and videos for distribution on the web. Since my internship is at the Black AIDS Institute most of my work will be featuring the work that the Institute is doing.

Twitter/Facebook
At the Black AIDS Institute I have created two hashtags #blackaids and #lifeaids to be used for our tweets. Currently we have a twitter account for the organization as a whole @baidsinstute and one for Leaders In the Fight to Eradicate AIDS (LIFE AIDS) @WeAreLIFEAIDS. This summer I plan on increasing the number of followers on each account. On Twitter and Facebook I will be posting pictures, articles and videos that I have created. I will “become a mad tweeter,” and believe it is necessary in getting out awareness about HIV/AIDS.

NING
Despite the fact that NING will soon be charging their users there site really is great for those who need a social network. For the LIFE AIDS Initiative of the Black AIDS Institute our site is www.lifeaids.ning.com. NING is great because everyone that is on the network is interested in HIV/AIDS. You don’t have to worry about if your targeting the right audience or not. On NING I will display blog post, photos, videos and podcasts dealing with HIV/AIDS topics.

BLOGS/Articles
Using www.jerseygirl.quicm.net/blog I will also post articles, video, pictures and podcast. Lately I have been doing a lot of videos, pictures, tweets on Twitter and updates on Facebook. My main focus for the second half of the the course will be to focus on writing blogs and articles for site operated by the Black AIDS Institute and others.

Podcast & Videos
Sometimes people don’t want to read an article. For that audience that wants to watch a video or hear the news I will create them for them. I have been video taping a number of events and editing with the skills I learned in ICM 508. I would like to create a podcast where I interview HIV experts, individuals with HIV and create a short 30 min podcast around HIV/AIDS news. I will create the podcast and allow for it to be downloaded. Currently the videos I have created can be viewed on www.viemo.com/blackaids as well as the other social media sites for the Black AIDS Institute.

In conclusion I will be using interactive media such as Facebook, Twitter, blogs to increase awareness of HIV/AIDS to a large web audience. I will use the sites to display podcast, videos, blog post and pictures to promote HIV/AIDS information.

Publishing my own newspaper Say It Loud! geared towards the African American community in the San Fernando Valley and minoring in Pan-African Studies in undergrad have prepared my knowledge of the issues facing the African American community. With one month of my internship at the Black AIDS Institute under my belt I have also gained understanding in the obstacles and challenges around HIV/AIDS.

The Black AIDS Institute welcomed back their African American HIV University (AAHU) Fellows. This week the fellows will move on to Training Module Two of the AAHU Community Mobilization College, which focuses on strategic planning and implementation. They will build on findings from assessments they completed in their local communities. This week-long event is an opportunity for Fellows to receive feedback about their work. For more information on AAHU click here.

Saharra White is an Interactive Media Intern at the Black AIDS Institute.

In the lecture for module 4 Professor Kalm states that we should “question everything. It is the only way to become a good writer.”

I should have known way in advance that I would be a journalist….I ask to many questions. Since I can remember I have always asked to many questions. For me a good journalists also asks a lot of questions and doesn’t just take yes or no for an answer.

I haven’t liked any of my blogs …… (infrequent), or websites ..in terms of the design of the site. I used different forms of sites such as googlepages to host a website for my work. I was never satisfied with any of the web site templates. I didn’t think I would ever be happy with my web site design until I actually designed it myself. There are a number of sites that are distracting for their visitors. Web site should be about the content display rather then the design of the site. If the web site provides the information “content” it’s suppose to be the writer is doing there job.

For my main blog that I don’t blog for that much its design is pink, girly and includes a lot of flowers. In this module the professor asks a number of questions “What does your photo say about your messages? What does your background say about your words…?”

I never thought about the theme, design or font I was using on my sites to a large degree. If I liked the color theme then that was it. I never to into consideration the topics I discussed and impact the theme or color scheme of my site may have on my audience.

I agree and understand that writing is a discipline. In the first chapters of On Writing Well the author William Zinsser describes being on a panel with a doctor tuned writer. It was funny to hear the different responses Zinsser and the doctor had for the audience on writing. The doctor made writing seem like a glamorous career. In the text in the chapter Style Zinsser notes that “a writer will do anything to avoid the act of writing,” (pg 20). I am a slacker when it comes to writing unless I make a schedule for myself. So I definitely agree that writing is a discipline.

“In life, we choose how much we reveal of ourselves and to whom.”

I believe this statement is true in so many ways. When I first meet people I don’t always tell them everything that I do at once….I’m a busy person and involved in a number of activities in my community. I know I have done some great things in my life thus far but I don’t want people to think its all about me or I only care about what I’m doing. I know that once people get to know me that I will start to reveal to them my talents.

While reading the lecture for module 3 a sentence that made sense to me is the line “..writers reveal more of themselves than they realize.”

I can recall in undergrad a time when I wrote a poem for this guy I liked. I gave it to him and he started to freak out and I guess ….wasn’t that into me. I later took the poem to my mentor who was also a writer and professor of English at the university. My professor read the poem and went on to say that I basically put my heart into the poem and the young man was just afraid.

I believe I reveal more of myself in my poetry and creative writing then I do in other forms. For the biography assignment I don’t think I vomited my entire life story at all….is that good or bad? I guess I don’t want to overwhelm my audience or maybe I’m shy as the professors mentions that “many artist are shy.” I want to be friends with everybody and I don’t want to offend anyone. Since I don’t want to offend people I think that keeps me from saying what’s on my mind a lot of times.

So it was hard for me to come up with a topic. I was locked between two choice African American news which can cover a lot of areas. The other topic I was extremely interested in writing about was HIV/AIDs. For along period of time now I always wanted to do more to get out the word about HIV/AIDS. Earlier this year I started working with the California Black Women’s Health Project (CABWHP) where I have gained knowledge of health policy from a Black women’s point-of-view.

I have been late in posting because of many issues…..one of them is my new internship as the interactive media intern at the Black AIDS Institute in Los Angeles. If this wasn’t a hint of what I should be writing about for the next couple of months then I don’t know what is. I still as I am writing this have some doubts about if this is the right topic to write about.

For the CABWHP we also have to present a project on a health issue facing Black women. For this project I was also thinking about working on HIV/AIDS.

I won’t say I haven’t thought about my capstone project I have and to be honest I’m terrified about the whole project…..and what’s expected. As I said before I was debating if I should talk about African American news and/or issues. I do believe my capstone project will have something to do with African Americans and/or Africa. In undergrad my minor was Pan-African Studies, I own a black newspaper and I’m planning on starting non-profit in Africa. It just makes sense to work on a project around that area.

After thinking about it long and hard I have decided to write on the subject of HIV/AIDS with a focus in the African-American community. With my internship at the Black AIDS Institute I will be able to get a glimpse of what the HIV/AIDS epidemic is all about and how that effects so many different issues health, marriage etc.

I have always wanted to be and consider myself an HIV/AIDS advocate I just don’t believe I have the right or enough knowledge in the past to advocate on the topic. With my training at the CABWHP on health policy and health issues effecting African-American women I believe I have knowledge about how health policy works. Hopefully my internship with the Black AIDS Institute will help me gain more knowledge about HIV/AIDS. I will also be using interactive communications to get the word out about HIV/AIDS so it will be interesting to see what the response will be.

Saharra Jovan White is a 25-year old freelance journalist, activist and poet born in Long Branch, New Jersey. White is also the founder of Say It Loud! an African American newspaper in the San Fernando Valley.

Saharra Jovan White was born in Long Branch New Jersey and raised in southern California. The 25-year old is a freelance journalist, activist and poet. She is the founder of Say It Loud! an African American newspaper in the San Fernando Valley. White spends her time between the east and west coast as well as Africa. She earned a B.A. in Journalism with a minor in Pan African Studies from the California State University of Northridge in 2008. White is currently pursing her Masters in Interactive Communications from Quinnipiac University and working on her second book about hip-hop in East Africa. To find out more information visit www.saharrawhite.com.

My name is Saharra Jovan White I was born in Long Branch, New Jersey and raised in Southern California. I am a 25-year old freelance journalist, activist, dancer and poet.

I should say I got my start in journalism while my mother was dragging me around from the Jersey shore to New York at her job as the Assistant to the VP/Publisher of ABC Publishing. As a child I was always writing mostly poetry and prose. My uncle worked as a sports report for the Los Angeles Times since almost the time of my birth. In high school when it was suggested that I enrolled in a journalism course I decided to pass. I thought at the time my uncles profession was boring. It wasn’t until my junior year of high school in 2002 that I decided to enroll in Journalism 1. The decision came shortly after my mother took a position as the Assistant to the Editor and Chief of SportsAfield Magazine.

My mother isn’t much of a journalist but she is one of the reasons why I started my career in journalism. The same year I joined the staff of the Kings Courier at El Camino Real High School I got my first internship at SportsAfield Magazine. Didn’t really do much but archive the magazine but it was still quite an experience……and I got my first paycheck!

I continued working for my school newspaper. Was even nominated for Student Journalist of the year from CLASS! Magazine. I applied for many journalism programs around the United States. I decided to go to the California State University of Northridge where I received my B.A, in Journalism with a minor in Pan African Studies in 2008. While at CSUN I worked at the school newspaper The Daily Sundial and the school radio station KCSN. While at CSUN in 2007 I founded Say It Loud! an African American newspaper in the San Fernando Valley.

In October 2008 on a journey to see the world beyond America I got on a plane. My last semester at CSUN I decided to go and volunteer in Africa. I went to teach journalism and dance to children and young adults in Uganda. I would stay there for five months writing, dancing and enjoying life.

When I came back to the U.S. I was in search of a job on the east coast NYC to be exact…when things didn’t work out and to save myself from having to get a non-journalism job I decided to apply to Quinnipiac. I learned about Quinnipiac the summer before I went to Africa they were at the UNITY Journalists of Color conference in Chicago that I attended. The name was weird….I still don’t know if I’m saying it right.

I waited to see if Quinnipiac would accept me and finished editing my first poetry collection. The last couple of months of last year I started my Masters at Quinnipiac University and finished my first poetry book Simply Saharra.

I’m currently working as an English tutor in California. I love helping my students perfect their writing but I can’t wait until school is out. I have missed writing my own stuff. I’m actually looking forward to writing in this class all summer.

Hi my name that I will be using is Saharra White
My twitter that I use regularly is http://twitter.com/silsfvalley. I learned in ICM 501 that my hastag’s didn’t work so for that purpose I use http://twitter.com/saharraqu .

I will be using my qu blog: http://jerseygirl.quicm.net/blog

Image Awards Celebrate African American Excellence

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