Moses Yale Beach Revealed “Doing History” Community Project
Adele Houston Productions is thrilled to announce the upcoming film production of Fit To Print, a compelling historical teleplay written by Josiah Houston. This project represents a landmark collaboration between community talent and emerging professional leadership, directed by Adam Benzinane, a recent Cinematography and Film graduate from Boston University.
Production is set to begin in mid-June and will continue through the summer, with a scheduled release during USA250.
At a time when the impact of media and journalism sits at the heart of our democracy, Fit To Print offers a timely, provocative look at the origins of how the news began to control the daily narrative. Wallingford native son, Moses Yale Beach, was at the forefront of this historic journalism pivot.
Our community partner is a CT250 Affiliate @CTHumanities
The Vision: A “Doing History” Initiative
Fit To Print isn’t just a period piece; it’s a high-stakes “chamber drama” designed to function like a machine on screen. Set during the explosive rise of the Penny Press, the film tracks six pivotal moments where the pursuit of news changed American history forever.
The Fit To Print narrative dramatizes six pivotal historical decisions made by The Sun publisher, Moses Yale Beach, between 1839 and 1849. The story of journalism follows Beach’s encounters with a revolving door of historical titans:
1839: Roger Sherman Baldwin & Joseph Cinqué (The Amistad Case)
1842: P.T. Barnum – American Museum Opens
1844: Edgar Allan Poe (The Balloon Hoax)
1844: Jane Storm (Manifest Destiny)
1846: Willis A. Hodges (Anti-slavery activism)
1849: Daniel Webster – Court on Trial
This is not a story of moral collapse, but of procedural adaptation. It illustrates how pragmatic decisions—made one logged line at a time—constructed the governing logic of modern media. The film’s arc is not the corruption of a man, but the expansion of a system through him.
Production Status & Resource Needs
While WPAA-TV and the Community Media Center is providing significant technical resources, and the cast is nearly finalized with talented local performers, we are seeking community partners and journalism scholars to help bring this “Doing History” project to life. We appreciate the contributions of Kathleen Maher, Barnum-Museum and Campbell Harmon, Poe Actor, during the validation phase of script development.
While WPAA-TV and the Community Media Center is providing significant technical resources, and the cast is nearly finalized with talented local performers, we are seeking community partners and journalism scholars to help bring this “Doing History” project to life. We appreciate the contributions of Kathleen Maher, Barnum-Museum , and Campbell Harmon, Poe Actor, during the validation phase of script development. We are seeking history scholars and journalists to join the film release and education tour to prep schools, colleges, and universities.
As A contributor
By contributing, you are part of a community media milestone: the production of a high-caliber historical narrative that challenges audiences to recognize how public reality is manufactured. We invite you to be part of the “machine” that builds this story. Help us document the moment ‘American journalism’ began to not just report the world, but shape it.
Susan Huizenga, WPAA-TV Executive Director, calls this a ‘signature’ local contribution to the ‘Doing History‘ motif embraced by the CT Humanities Commission for the United States Semiquincentennial (USA250). This film interprets the past as shaped by the interests, attitudes, and contexts still present in our evolutionary history. It helps us critically question and understand the role of journalism and newspapers through the lens of Moses Yale Beach, native son of Wallingford, and his impact on his time and ours.
Fine art & tech intersect in the integrated Nelson ‘Carty’ Ford Memorial Gallery with featured installation by Apollo Maldonado at #wpaatv. Other work by featured artists Charles Buzinsky (StreetshotZ), Iyaba Ibo Mandingo (We are not like you & more), and Susan Clinard inspires reflection about our humanity. Content list here.
The gallery fosters conversation about community, history, nature, health, and empowerment. Styles vary from photography to cartoon to mixed media. The art challenges its viewers, but the gallery has a bigger challenge: being seen.
We were ready to welcome guests from #ctmainstreet the day Wallingford #EDC Staff and other community leaders were showcasing how our community embraces art & culture. WPAA-TV and Community Media Center, the location of the 1st ARCY large-scale mural in Connecticut, had no visitors. We were assured by the Executive Director of Wallingford Center, Inc., that we were included on the tour route.
Why wouldn’t we be? We are the only Art & Culture nonprofit with a physical footprint in Wallingford. Volunteers readapted a 1924 cow barn in the town center into a community space. We are recognized by both CT Humanities and the Office of the Arts.
Questions that linger: What is public art? Who decides what is valid, valuable, or what ‘We the People’ voices are represented with public art?
Let me bring part of the experience to you, the audio panels in our podcast room; In Concert
Roll The Credits for Wallingford Lamp & Shade, Wallingford Flower Shoppe, and Modern Formals
The WPAA-TV volunteer research team behind Moses Yale Beach Revealed Initiative had an ambitious capstone goal: produce a classic “rags to riches” documentary about Wallingford’s native son and philanthropist, Moses Yale Beach. However, the scarcity of primary sources created an authenticity gap for the production of a biographical sketch.
While Beach’s most enjoyable time of life was as a resident of Saugerties, NY, his most impactful years were as publisher of the penny paper, The Sun, in New York City.
Our findings suggest his entrepreneurial decisions aligned with the technical revolution anchored in the development of the telegraph. He would influence journalism, in particular, and marketing, more generally, including the production of paper, the mastery of newsprint (column sizes & broadsides), directories, multilingual publishing, syndication, and the co-op that ultimately led to the founding of the Associated Press. He successfully navigated the ‘Era of Hustle‘.
Faced with a lack of a biographical documentary footprint but armed with a fascinating historical figure, the project pivoted from telling his life story to telling a story about what he influenced most: journalism itself.
Documentary Masquerading as Drama
Last Fall, when there was no script, just a concept, the core team invited a cadre of talented community theater actors and content experts to commit to the production of a #USA250 #ct250 film. All we had was ‘Beach in conversation with his contemporaries and willing partners in the creative process,’ said the Artistic Director, Josiah Houston.
By February, Houston and local researchers turn ‘What if’ into insight into the operating system of American journalism—not as it imagines itself, but as it actually functions. Fit to Print dramatizes six editorial decisions Beach made while publishing The Sun penny paper between 1839 and 1849; the decade when modern media learned to shape reality instead of record it.
Beach’s daughter figures prominently in our story that follows the editorial decisions of Moses Yale Beach in Antebellum America. This portrayal was a significant decision in the project.
Bringing the ‘what if’ film to life has become a masterclass in leaning into the strengths of committed partners, turning lemons into soufflés, and embracing the pure serendipity of networking and neighbors.
Today, we share how those neighbors made a difference.
Lighting the Path Through a Changing Decade
The narrative of the film spans a pivotal decade of rapid technological innovation, from 1839 to 1849. It was a period defined by transition, perhaps nowhere more visibly than in how people lit their world—moving rapidly from traditional pewter oil lamps to modern gaslight.
Capturing this evolution visually is critical. The story unfolds inside Moses Yale Beach’s business office on Nassau and Spruce Streets, as well as across the chaotic counters where young newsies gathered to pick up their daily bundles: The same two spaces over ten years.
To accurately guide the audience through this passage of time, the production settled on authentic, period-correct desk lamps. This is where John LeTourneau’s lighting restoration expertise, Wallingford Lamp & Shade, comes into play. “I am happy to supply a few lamps that can support authentic storytelling by just being on Mr. Beach’s Desk. Understanding history is an integral part of my work.”
A Serendipitous Window and a Flapping Success
One of Moses Yale Beach’s most famous real-life business strategies was his innovative use of carrier pigeons to beat rival newspapers to the latest European news. Naturally, the production needed to represent this unique element of 1840 news-gathering.
As fate would have it, the solution was sitting just a few doors away. Tammy Rose from the Wallingford Flower Shoppe—who happens to be the granddaughter of George Mellor, the man whose former antique shop location is now WPAA-TV Community Media Center—is both a local history and theater enthusiast. In a moment of pure serendipity, a unique prop dilemma was solved; her shop’s window display had an antique pigeon carrier. Tammy’s nuanced contribution is as impactful as her effervescence: “Absolutely, I am so glad you asked. If I cannot do something, I will think on it; it never hurts to ask.” is her trademark of neighborliness.
From Scraps to Cinema-Ready Wardrobe
The discovery of that pigeon carrier actually happened thanks to RayRay, the official WPAA-TV greeter pup, who was taking a quick break from a visit with Dylan over at Modern Formals.
Dressing a formidable array of period-accurate characters—and representing the main characters’ evolution in style & wealth—on a community budget is no small feat. But Dylan and the talented seamstresses at Modern Formals jumped right into the fray. “It has been fun and out of the ordinary, with you showing up with new challenges each day.” Turning creative problem-solving into an art form, they became part of the film team, converting material scraps into authentic 1840s ascots, altering simple nightgowns into period-appropriate aprons, and tailoring scavenged dresses and trousers to perfect the illusion of mid-19th-century-like attire for Mr. Beach and his guests.
These three local vendors, neighbors of WPAA-TV, provided essential assistance in preparation for film days.
Chasing the Beach Legacy
The initiative originally set out to uncover the lasting legacy of a forgotten media titan and celebrate local history. Along the way, the team heard from Beach’s living descendants, none of whom belong to today’s billionaire class. Instead, they shared a frustratingly fascinating truth about the family lineage: there have been several “rags to riches” stories across the generations, but they were all temporary. Most ended in debt, primarily because the Beach legacy belongs to a family that consistently chases novel ideas long before their time—including early concepts for subways championed by his son Alfred Ely Beach, and pioneering aviation ventures pushed a generation later by his great-grandson, Stanley Yale Beach. A research contributor said,” The WPAA-TV team also chases novel ideas in authentic storytelling. I am so happy the film is happening, and finding a pigeon carrier is amazing.
The impetus for this Rabbit Hole is “A momentous day in American history” Steve Schmidt from The Warning with Steve Schmidt. He muses about the anniversary of the end of the Civil War (161 years ago) and who he believes ‘Americans’ should be grateful to that the Union survived. He opens with a quote from a memoir edited by Connecticuts own Mark Twain:
“My family is American, and has been for generations, in all its branches, direct and collateral.”
— Opening statement of Ulysses S. Grant’s “Personal Memoirs”
Policy Framework For “What We Foster”
This week the governance team approved our Social Media Policy. It establishes a framework for how I and others can engage publicly as representatives of the organization—aiming for a consistent, positive online presence that supports WPAA-TV’s mission: empowering diverse voices, promoting civic engagement, and advancing media literacy through public interest storytelling.The policy is public in our Sunshine Documents.
Questions are a tool for engagement. We don’t take direct positions with questions, but the questions themselves reflect values and information we consider in the public interest. Today I posted some of this Rabbit Hole thinking in the comments:
#CivicLiteracy#MediaLiteracy Upon whose shoulders do you stand? Our community media movement stands on the shoulders of George Stoney with nods to Frederick Douglass, Harriet Tubman, Ulysses Grant and Abraham Lincoln. (These four figures represent the historical foundation of liberation, civic literacy, and the fight for human rights in America.)
The Civil War is said to have ended 161 years ago in April 1865. Lincoln would be assassinated. Who has more Statues* Ulysses Grant or Robert E Lee? Do you know Robert E. Lee had significantly more public statues than Ulysses S. Grant. The Lost Cause Movement had some push back between 2015 and 2024. Iconic Lee statues in Richmond, Charlottesville, New Orleans, and the U.S. Capitol have all been taken down. Do you know The “Silent” Victor: Most Union monuments depict the “Anonymous Soldier” rather than Grant himself.
Do you know that Mark Twain edited Grant’s memoir, a bestseller in 1885?
What stories do you choose to foster in telling, art or in your heart?
*Statuesrefers to full-figure monuments. They are a form of #socialactionart. Historical markers, plaques, and busts, Robert E. Lee also outnumber Grant.
On The Shoulders
The post on WPAA-TV Facebook page suggests these four figures represent the historical foundation of liberation, civic literacy, and human rights in America. All came from humble or oppressed beginnings; each reached heights of influence. Whether escaping slavery (Tubman, Douglass) or rising from financial failure (Grant), they embody “standing on the shoulders of giants” to advance freedom.
Their roles differed, but their efforts were interdependent:
Abraham Lincoln provided the political will and legal framework for the war.
Ulysses S. Grant provided the military strategy to win it.
Frederick Douglass acted as a crucial advisor to Lincoln, pushing him to allow Black soldiers to fight and making the war explicitly about abolition.
Harriet Tubman served as a scout, spy, and nurse for the Union Army, directly assisting the military effort.
After the war, they remained committed to securing the rights of the formerly enslaved:
Grant, as president, worked to dismantle the first iteration of the KKK and signed the Fifteenth Amendment.
Douglass and Tubman continued advocating for suffrage—for Black men and for women—and civil rights throughout their lives.
Harriet Tubman didn’t start with an army. She started with a path through a swamp and the sheer will to return.
Frederick Douglass didn’t start with a printing press. He started with a “stolen” education and the audacity to speak his truth in a country that legally considered him property.
Our Civil War Remains— in Media
Divide is fostered and abetted by capitalized modern media.
“Modern media” is a delivery system. Community media aspires to civic service. It’s the difference between a loud noise in a crowded room and a meaningful conversation at a kitchen table.
Aspires—because we are grit without stone.
I’ve used the David vs. Goliath metaphor before: an underestimated weapon in the hands of the people, a path to victory. Today I align with David’s grit, showing up to do the work—but weaponless. Under-resourced, with phantom engagement, informed consensus in the public interest is far from guaranteed. We operate without the massive stones of corporate funding, high-end lobby groups, or viral algorithms.
Modern media is the giant. Its strength is scale. Its weakness is lack of soul—often aimless, drifting wherever profit or outrage leads.
Modern digital platforms lack town-square accountability. Community media provides a space where creators are also neighbors, creating a natural check on misinformation through shared local reality. One is driven by algorithms, engagement metrics, and speed (which invites misinformation). Community media is driven by the public interest—giving voice to the local collective rather than broadcasting unverified data globally.
To paraphrase Alice’s Cheshire Cat: “If you have no goal, any path will get you there.” George Harrison imprinted this on me with his 1970 song “Any Road”: If you don’t know where you’re going, any road will take you there.
In the original Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (1865), Lewis Carroll wrote it this way:
Alice: “Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?”
The Cat: “That depends a good deal on where you want to get to.”
Alice: “I don’t much care where—”
The Cat: “Then it doesn’t matter which way you go.“
Community media builds its aim through civic literacy. We’re tossing pebbles with social media so the community can reflect on democracy—why they’re standing on shoulders, and what they’re standing for.
“Standing on the shoulders of giants” isn’t about having it easy. It’s about realizing that others stood in that same aimless, rock-less position before—and still managed to move the needle.
In a space where misinformation is the giant, how does your community find its stone? Through the stories of local people? Through historical context? Both?
On behalf of the Board of Directors of WPAA-TV, thank you for the opportunity to submit materials in support of our request for inclusion in the Town’s FY 2026–27 budget. We are grateful for the Town’s consideration and welcome this process as a chance to be more transparent about who we are and what we provide for the entire Wallingford community. WPAA-TV has served Wallingford residents for more than 30 years — without membership fees, without service fees, and with a consistent goal of making our community’s own voices visible and accessible to everyone. Beyond locally produced programming, we have distributed government and education access content for years. Our work complements Town services. Our request is modest and specific: $1,500 annually to underwrite the bandwidth cost of 24/7 streaming on our website. Streaming allows anyone in Wallingford — not only cable subscribers — to access our full channel. Adopting this request to underwrite the internet simulcast bandwidth of the WPAA-TV channel can ensure stability in community-wide content delivery at a cost of less than $1 per household. We will restore this service on April 1, 2026, and we are committed to sustaining it.
Enclosed, per the requirements of your public letter of February 20, please find our funding request details & WPAA-TV Operating Budget. Thank you for this opportunity to demonstrate our value to the community we share.
Budget Request
$1,500 annually for streaming bandwidth, creating community-wide accessibility to all content via our website: WPAA-TV.
Who Can Watch: Less Than We Want
Historically, viewership was limited to cable subscribers who underwrote community media. Use of able fees is restricted to traditional community media services, which excludes non-cablecast distribution. So, anyone could make content, but not everyone could see it.
Our content distribution beyond cable TV began in 2005. We had on-demand availability of locally produced content underwritten by a local vendor. In 2015, we began simulcasting our channel with a 24/7 stream on our website. Anyone with internet access could watch all WPAA-TV content: Public, Government, Educational, and global news content in English & Spanish.
The GAP
Our simulcast was suspended as of June 1, 2025. The intent is to resume on April 1, 2026. Vendor capabilities impeded our ability to stream the mission-critical #greatGIVE06492 benefit concert in May 2025. Concurrently, a modification to the State of CT capital funding cycle impacts the ability to secure revenue for any annually recurring costs, such as bandwidth for channel simulcast via an internet stream. STATUS: New vendor capabilities have been identified to restore streaming functionality. Start-up costs were covered in the 2025 CT PEGPETIA grant. The grant is now biennial, unpredictable, and structured in a manner that makes annual costs difficult to cover. The annual minimum bandwidth cost is $1500. This annual cost is what we would like to be considered in the Town’s budget.
Rationale
Limited impact on Town, significant impact on WPAA-TV
Supports access by the entire town to services we provide to nonprofits and civic
organizations
Unlike town meeting coverage, we cannot stream to YouTube: Reasons include eligibility
of creators’ free speech content, agreements limiting distribution platforms, and
noncommercial requirements
How We Operate, Our Mission
Our work is to support whoever walks in the door, governed by: To provide a brave, safe, and creative space for a diversity of expression from within our community. We empower the people
Local churches have shared services for 30 years and cablecast the same day since 2005
Since 1990, we have carried government content not considered eligible for WGTV
Since 2008, STEaMc: (Science, Technology, Engineering, ARTS, Mathematics & CIVICS, aka Education Television, not provided on WPS-TV) content contracted from various educational sources begins daily at 5 am
In2Languages – Language Literacy in collaboration with SCOW midday since 2013
About Books in collaboration with Wallingford Public Library since 2008
We are not a member organization. We have never charged for services rendered.
Questions & Answers
Q1: Are there other costs associated with simulcast streaming? A1: Yes, the technical infrastructure for streaming, website, and service fees. We will continue to pursue covering these costs with technical infrastructure grants.
Q2: In 2025, WPAA-TV gave YSS $3,000, so how can requesting funds be justified? A2: A volunteer provided uncompensated services to the teen program, conditional upon his pay being used to support the expansion of the program to after-school hours.
Q3: Why can’t you use YouTube? A3: It is complicated by contracts, free speech content, and advertising constraints.
Q4: Why should the taxpayer pay anything for WPAA-TV? A4: The value of content access is unpredictable. You never know when someone you know will be on TV or when the convenience of the simulcast for curated content can make a difference in your life. One performance, one piece of knowledge, one chance encounter could be priceless. The support request is less than a $1 a year per household.
Q5: If this expense is not added to the budget, what will the impact be? A5: Streaming without interruption depends on our ability to secure alternate funding. Per regulations, cable fees are for content creation and cablecast distribution. Support will send a clear message about our value to our community.
Q6: Is this relevant to Social Services? A6: Much of our content is related to education and the well-being of the community, a social services designation is appropriate.
Update:
On March 24th, The Mayor confirmed inclusion of WPAA-TV in the YSS budget with an allocation of 50% of the requested amount ($750). Within the letter of acknowledgement and confirmation of action were two considerations. The 1st was to be aware that the Town Council has the ability to alter the budget. And to stay engages in the process by attending two public meetings:
Budget Workshop: Wed. April 8 6:30 PM
Public Hearing: Monday April 27 6 PM
The Acknowledgement: April 7
On behalf of the Board of Directors of WPAA-TV, thank you for your letter of March 24th affirming your budget recommendation of $750 within Dept. of Youth & Social Services FY 2026–27. As previously shared, we are grateful for the Town’s consideration. We welcome this process as a chance to be more transparent about who we are and what we make available to the entire Wallingford community. The modest request was for $1,500annuallyto amplify our investment in the community with 24/7streaming of our cablecast on our website. We did restore internet streaming on April 1, 2026, and we are committed to sustaining it.
Our cablecast includes collaborations with local nonprofits such as About Books – Author interviews represented by Wallingford Public Library, In2Languages – Language Literacy initiative with Spanish Community of Wallingford, several local feature stories, and our nationally recognized TeenTigerTV youth training program.
In fact, on May 4th beginning at 7 pm, we will LIVE stream the Annual Be The Seed Benefit Performance in support of 18 Wallingford-centric nonprofits providing direct services, training and entertainment to Wallingford and beyond. We use the monies WPAA-TV raises during #greatGIVE06492 to cover expenses for the Be The Seed community performance and Spanish content for In2Languages. We serve soup we purchase from Soups On and refreshments we buy from local business.
WPAA-TV has served Wallingford residents for more than 30 years — without membership fees, without service fees, and with a consistent goal of making our community’s own voices visible & accessible to everyone. Beyond locally produced programming, we have distributed both government and education access content for decades. Our work complements Town services.
Supporting our request helps ensure stability of community-wide content delivery at a cost of less than 9 cents per household. I am copying the council, which as you indicated, can alter your budget recommendation. Your recommendation invests a nickel from every household in the services that we consider priceless.
Since we have community programs on the Workshop & Public Hearing dates, I am copying the final arbiters of the budget, the Town councilors, with the most current information provided in for original request. WPAATV_2026OperationsBudget032026.pdf, updated & approved April 6, 2026, Original WPAATV Grant Request FY 2026–27 budget.pdf
Thank you for this opportunity to demonstrate our value to the community we share.
At WPAA-TV, we often say that community media is a stage, but the true magic lies in the storytellers who step onto it. Since our inception but especially in the past decade, our station has participated in national and regional Alliance for Community Media video festivals to showcase the incredible advocacy and artistry happening right here in Wallingford.
While we look forward to the national recognition event on June 24 in Madison, WI, the true victory lies in our history of independent producers and youth creators who make this station a community landmark.
A Legacy of Independent Voices
Our status as an award-winning station is built on the shoulders of independent producers who have called WPAA-TV home for years, in addition to our Team Hercules part-time staff and volunteers:
Georgian Lussier: For nine years, Georgian has produced and hosted Midlife Matters, a series centered on transformational womens’ stories shared in conversation. Her work has been recognized regularly, proving that conversation at any age matters and women have wisdom & wit.
Mike Schleif: A creative force from Space Cub Studio, Mike contributed regularly for two years, exploring story and animation. His work ranged from the full-length animated feature The Space Bears – The Movie to instructional programming about Chinese culture created alongside his daughter.
Mark Houde: Our latest featured producer, Mark’s three-month visual journal, The Magic of Mackenzie, represents the high technical quality and deep sense of place that defines our current submission cycle.
When Students Meet the Masters: #TeenTigerTV
The 2026 festival submissions also highlight a beautiful synergy between our veteran producers and our youth program. One of our standout selections is an episode of the #TeentigerTV profile talk show, The Meet, where student producers sat down with Mark Houde to discuss his journey capturing the flora and fauna of the Mackenzie Reservoir.
This crossover is exactly what WPAA-TV stands for: a space where a student can interview an expert, and both works can be recognized on a national stage. It’s why we invest 15% to 20% of our #greatGIVE06492 revenue (approximately $700) to underwrite these festival fees—ensuring that “What We Do Together” remains our winning formula.
“With all its innocence, flaws, and growth apparent to us who experienced it with the young people, I am proud to have been part of this #TeenTigerTV Profile Interview: ‘The Meet’: Photographer Mark Houde’.”
The Festival Process
The 2026 submissions emerged under the theme “From The Heart,” a motif discovered organically through the collective works of youth, staff, and independent creators. You can view the history of these emerging themes on the station’s Annual Report Videos page.
Building on a decade of award-winning storytelling, the WPAA-TV and Community Media Center Governing Board recently completed its review of 21 candidate videos produced or cablecast in the prior calendar year. From this pool, a curated selection was chosen to represent Wallingford at the Hometown Media Awards. Categories such as festival categories such as About Access, Community Events, Children’s Programs, Community Meeting Coverage, Democracy In Action, Arts, Talk Shows, represent public, education and government televsion
Featured Submission: The Magic of Mackenzie
A primary highlight of this year’s submission list is “The Magic of Mackenzie,” entered into the newly established Parks & Recreation category. This 50-minute visual journal by ecological photographer Mark Houde captures the serene beauty of the Mackenzie Reservoir (Pine River Reservoir). For complete details and convenient on-demand viewing go here.
“It was selected for its incredible technical quality and its ability to connect residents with the local nature we depend on daily, and I think more people should see it.” Jeff Kohan with affirmation by the Board.
Youth and Community Partnerships
The Board’s final selection list also highlights the diversity of Wallingford’s media landscape:
While the national results await in June, the community can enjoy these works now. WPAA-TV will cablecast The Magic of Mackenzie trailer followed by the full documentary every Friday and Saturday at 10 PM during March.
“Community isn’t just a place with people; it’s a creative practice. While Wallingford folks may know the Ubuntu Storytellers from the series produced at WPAA-TV, their latest evolution—USA (Ubuntu Storytellers & Allies)—suggests that curating stories from elsewhere empowers effectively too. I caught up with them this week at the Wallingford Public Library where silence was broken and ‘incidental allyship’ took center stage. I encourage you to read, listen, and perhaps find the courage to step into a shared space yourself. Our communal healing depends on it.” Susan Adele Huizenga
WPAA-TV had the privilege of hosting Ubuntu Storytellers in Wallingford in two series that showcased Black, Brown, and biracial performers telling stories of “being,” as well as of “being in the skin they’re in.” Recently, the Wallingford Public Library welcomed the community to an evening of stories with a new twist in the lineup: some tellers would share stories of allyship.
As a long-time host and advocate for these tellers, I was beyond curious. The acronym USA initially confused me, then in an ‘aha’ moment it became immediately apt: Ubuntu Storytellers & Allies. As always, the seven stories in ‘The Long Echo of a Moment’ were true, personal, and universal. On this evening, solo voices in a shared space created a sensorial connection that spoke bravely of the importance of creating room for connection.
The program began with a story set years earlier in California during the initial Obama election. It was personalized with a T-shirt screened “everyone matters” and a love story. The teller established the scene, then the tension of the election outcomes: the failure of a local referendum alongside the national, unifying win of Obama. The scale of referendum votes against same-sex marriage adjacent to a presidential victory clobbered my listening. I felt this story’s evolution. It felt different now versus when the teller’s marriage was ‘legalized’. It no longer feels safe, or even ‘correct’ to wear the T-shirt “everyone matters” no matter its truth.
Thea Iberall’s story, “Are We There Yet?”, echoes like a child in the backseat of a car anticipating arrival at a fantastic destination. Yet it is told in the broken spirit of speeches and books anchored in the currents of history, asking: “Where Do We Go From Here?” This story and the new format expose the answer: No, We Are Not There Yet. Maybe we are Becoming.
As before, Ms. Keyes, the Ubuntu Storytellers founder, lavishly introduces the tellers. It feels as if she wants them to be credible to the audience before we hear a single word. They are worthy of this stage; accept and listen.
Next, a journalist shares a transformational story about finding purpose, an awareness of the current generation’s sense of inheritance, and her unexpected fandom. She discovers Greta Thunberg and “Shoulders Joy,” both physically and metaphorically. Her encounters yearn; they are full of weight. We glimpse the power of representation and the unsaid, wishing to find a way to fill the unfathomable gap. Bekah Wright is clearly still trying, as we all should be.
An awareness of how personal stories echo differently across time sets the stage for other intergenerational insights into “gaps” in our communal knowing. But first, we experience a cage with Wendy Marans’ story, “But I Didn’t.” Observation and self-talk become a haunting silence. With role ambiguity, boundaries can come into awkward conflict with moral values. Too often, silence is our response to our observations. She reminds us that the hollow feeling is anything but silent.
The aspirations revealed in “The Method” by an Ubuntu teller perform as a backdrop to self-revelation once again. Universal self-discovery is at the core of Jezrie Marcano Courtney’s storytelling. Jezrie examines fragility and the serendipity of circumstance, taking us back to her days as an acting student. The differences elevated by the Uta Hagen’s “Place” technique in the sensorial recreation of personal space—to find truth—sets the stage for an incidental allyship and unanticipated trust. One father’s motto is a handle to another’s safe embrace. Told is another student’s “coming out” journey—a story of quiet introspection, family, and universal hugs.
Cindy Rivka Marshall’s “My German Friend” was prerecorded. Her Zoomed-in appearance at the end of the evening affirmed how a story can be both ageless and locked in time—persistent. Anchored in the weight of Holocaust history, distant in years and generations, time did not lighten the burden of division cloaked in silence. What lifted the unsaid and unhealed was entering into challenging spaces side-by-side.
“The Long Echo of A Moment” is the tough, stabilizing sinew of this curated collection. The geometry of the decisions we make can have multiple proofs; we may not know if an answer is truly right until others see it in us or with us. Denise Manning Keyes Page also reaches across generations for affirmation and recognizes the burden of silence that found power in those gaps’ decades before. A tutor rescues ‘in secret’; empowering an unfolding, restless talent.
A new Ubuntu member, Tennette Correia, emerges from the ashes in “Unexpected Ally.” Without question, this was the story to conclude the evening. Loss and absence led the audience to a new understanding. It was a heart-wrenching story whose hope can be discovered when we see ourselves sitting on a park bench, talking with a stranger. Conversations in safe places—a salve.
As with most story events, the room was not filled with questions and discussion in the time set aside for Q&A. However, the audience did line up to speak one on one with the tellers. Digesting this seven-course menu will take more than the wink of time after applause. It gave me much to think about. Thanks for reading.
Rabbit Hole posts: The result of being distracted by an idea, image or reference that speaks to your core and leads to new unexpected understanding.
This series, and 1st blog post, was triggered by the description of substack The Weekender about its purpose: “In these spaces, stories emerge, are shared, and are iterated upon”. I immediately forgot about the task at hand and emerged several minutes later.
The story I read as a consequence was by a self-proclaimed folklorist, anti-AI human: ‘A Folklorist visits a Data Centre‘ E.S. Northey Jan 05, 2026
While I found his story engaging and insightful in an expected way, the trigger for my journey to his article is what lingered. For me, the substack description remains the unrealized experience of community media as a movement. However, it is the discovery that nearly every visitor experiences when they visit our space. An exeprience intrinsically linked to “Finding what you did not know you needed”.
While we didn’t think we could top our record-breaking 2024, the 2025 results are in: 9 awards, including two national honors and the prestigious Overall Excellence for New England. Alliance for Community Media festivals judge work from the previous calendar year. WPAA-TV’s legacy of excellence stretches back to 2013.
The highlight of our year is the Rika Welsh Community Impact Award for our #TeenTigerTV program. This recognizes 10 years of compelling content created by local youth in a youth-led program. 100 youth have come through the program—a partnership with the Workforce Alliance and the town’s Youth & Social Services Dept. Our students thrive with the support of local story and video coaches who bring real-world industry experience to the table.
A huge thank you to the Rika Welsh Community Impact Committee for this honor and to the youth who have worked through the discovery process with us over the last decade and the Board which nominated the program for consideration.
The 1st Job series, completed in our first summer, remains a wonderful window into our community (One of the guests is now our Mayor.) and the “1st Job” experience. Everyone was unique. From developing ideas to sending letters of invitation, and from learning the process to producing 30 interviews—it was hard to imagine doing it all over again. However, once those first few young people completed the process, we were encouraged by a funder to transition to a youth-led program (Youth Made Media). We developed work deliverables inclusive of a PSA and Capstone project, but the content itself was left entirely to the youth. Their “It’s Never Too Late” 988 PSA is just one testament to that vision. It is now available on PEGMedia.org.
The program continues Weekly Monday Evenings from 6-8:30 PM. “Do you know a teen who wants to learn media production? Send them our way!” They will discover more along the way.
The cell phone, camera, or drone in your hand makes you our crew. #TeenTigerTV youth are the video producers and editors. No technical skills required – Just Love of Wallingford!
Ever captured a stunning sunset over Wallingford or a video of the first snowfall or a visitor you welcome to your yard? Your personal moments can become part of our town’s collective history. Wallingford is a town of stories, farmland, open spaces which we share with creatures of all kinds. We believe the best people to tell our stories from our backyards, windows, and walkable spaces are you, the ones living them. Contributed Media is our way of turning your personal snapshots and short clips into a collective visual history for everyone to enjoy. Here is how you can help tell the story of Wallingford.”
Step 1: Snap a photo or clip of something uniquely Wallingford or in the moment on our magnificent plant.
Step 2: Email it to movie@wpaa.tv. This submission process provides us with permission to use your content. You can identify the location and include a description (optional).
Step 3: Watch your contribution on Comcast Channel 1070 or WPAA-TV’s YouTube.
Step 4: Share and encourage others to join you.
The common idea in the #TeenTigerTV Contributed Media Project is we share Wallingford but see it from different vantage points. Many sunsets, rainbows, first snowfall or enormous ones, or critters visiting our yards have many of us reaching for our cameras; then sharing on Social Media. What if we could see the seasons change, our encounters with nature, our favorite places, and other things Wallingford, more collectively?
“From students in our youth programs to retirees capturing local landmarks, this project brings generations together through a shared lens.” Tim Lopez, Youth Mentor
With a camera in nearly everyones pocket anyone can contribute to content creation from where they are. Content can be crowd-sourced around an idea and produced into something representing many views. It is the coming together of people across generations as neighbors and fans of Wallingford, with different skills and vantage points agreeing to a common idea that defines community. Over 70 people have contributed to this project since January 2024. You can be a contributor too!
Focus on the Environment: We prioritize shots of our community spaces, buildings, seasonal weather, and community decorations. Grass Roots Fund, a New England Fund that prioritizes our planet and our relationship to it, helped fund our youth leader position for this initiative.
Privacy First: Please avoid sending images or videos where individual faces are the primary focus. We want to capture the vibe of the town while respecting everyone’s privacy.
Wide Angles: Landscapes and “b-roll” style footage (like the wind in the trees or a quiet street at dusk) are preferred but not required. They are the best suited for TV productions.
Community Media brings people together to produce video content. It is not about where you see the content, or the resources used to produce it; it is about coming together to engage, inspire, educate or entertain. Most Social media is a person sharing something they did, think, or saw on platforms. They can be one of houndreds or thousands with a common interest. Each person participates from their point-of-view. Common interests can be viewed collectively with a hashtag; but a true collective experience is rare. This can be ours.
Help us bridge the gap between individual moments and a shared community experience. Your experiences can be part of our community memories: Submit your pictures to movie@wpaa.tv.
There is no need to wait, submit your first image or clip today.
To recap: Let’s make a ‘community media’ videos together! Your Vision, Our Community: The Power of Contributed Media
Contributed Media means content—specifically pictures and short video clips—that is crowd-sourced from various individuals in our community and then edited/produced collectively to represent many different views around a common idea about Wallingford. It is defined by:
Crowd-Sourcing: Anyone with a camera can submit content (photos of sunsets, nature, or favorite places) via email to movie@wpaa.tv.
Collective View: The goal is to move beyond individual social media sharing to see things, like the changing seasons in Wallingford, more collectively.
Community Production: The submitted content is used by the #TeenTigerTV youth media program to produce a video that becomes a community memory, which is then shared on social media, cablecast on WPAA-TV, and uploaded to YouTube.
More about Community Media
Did you know, community Media originated before Social Media? In the 1960s, people got together to learning technology to tell local stories. Public Access TV stations popped up across the nation as cableTV expanded. Cable TV is not expanding anymore but the publicly managed resources to create video content still exist. Today, community content creation does not depend on public resources; however, it still requires people coming together in the public interest around an idea.
WPAA-TV and Community Media Center hosts the #TeenTigerTV youth media progam. Our purpose is to serve our viewers, producers, and contributors in the production of content that matters to them and ultimately the public. By providing our tools and stage as a free resource on a 1st, come, 1st serve basis, WPAA-TV celebrates Wallingford every day. Community media can encourage local dialogue, increases discourse around policy issues, foster an understanding of local cultures, and shares information to improve our lives. In Wallingford, we have a space to be brave and safe for all of this. However, Unity begins with U. Let’s share the joy of enjoying everything Wallingford.
