Episode 26: Jenny Lee
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Jenny Lee is a co-director of Allied Media Projects, a Detroit organization focused on the intersection of media and social justice. AMP stages the annual Allied Media Conference and, partnered with the Detroit Digital Justice Coalition, organizes on a variety of media education and outreach programs for communities marginalized by traditional media.
Jenny and I talk about digital justice, inequality, media landscapes (or should we call them ecologies?), the relationship between offline and online community, narratives, and the myth of individualism. You will hear echoes of systems thinking that has appeared in Frances Whitehead, Wes Jackson, and David Korten. Speaking of Korten, he appears directly when we discuss narratives. Gabriel Stempinski’s ideas are present but offstage, especially when we discuss whether the internet can foster meaningful physical communities.
Artwork by Eleanor Davis.
She seems to have set up a position where she is activating local people against local government. How is writing off the workings of local politics helpful? Is it actually easier to create something new while writing off the current system? Can a house divided against itself stand? Can a people taught the local government is not for them actually set up a trustworthy infrastructure?
The auto industry has caused the impoverishment of Detroit?! Her narrative is that all current community organizational systems are against us and cannot be fixed or changed. It seems she can only exist by opposing others and the very idea of leaders, the very antithesis of community.