Billy Weeks and UTC communication college students inform tales of Chattanooga homelessness

Storytelling gives a platform to present voice to the unvoiced and to teach audiences about points.

At the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga Department of Communication, Associate Lecturer Billy Weeks teaches his college students to seek out tales and talk them by means of writing, images, audio and video.

In January, Weeks labored with CHATT Foundation, a nonprofit group whose aim is to resolve homelessness by offering primary wants and finally a path to self-sufficiency.

He defined that his work with the inspiration displays a theme in his images.

“If you look back at the work I’ve done throughout my years,” Weeks stated, “I think you’ll see that there’s a common theme that runs through all of it—one of respect and help. Anytime I get an opportunity to help the people who are less fortunate, I’ll do it.”

Weeks has frolicked in Guatemala, Kenya and Uganda, capturing moments amid a few of life’s harshest circumstances.

He was requested by Holly Reeve, chief growth officer of CHATT Foundation, to assist take portraits, create audio and video tales for the group’s Journey of Hope Charity Gala, which passed off on April 23.

Weeks recruited two of his college students, junior Clara Paulson and senior Malcolm Key, to help him within the course of, together with native photographer Mark Gilliland.

Paulson and Key take Weeks’ Rising Rock course, which focuses on native storytelling.

“I just called them,” Weeks stated. “And that’s kind of how it worked with me, too. They just reached out and said, ‘We got this thing coming up. We need some photos.’ I’m the one who took it further than that because I never give them what they ask—always give them more.”

Paulson assisted with the lighting for the portraits.

“I was helping with lighting on one of the sides and would move it; however, he was saying,” Paulson stated. “Mark would do it on the other side. Billy was taking the photos. After that, I would run one of the second video cameras.”

Key collected the audio.

“After they had their portraits taken and they told their story, I was in another room with the director of communications, Holly Reeve,” he stated. “She was conducting longer type interviews the place they actually acquired to take a seat down and begin from primarily wherever they wished to, whether or not it was sq. one or simply final yr. She acquired them to inform their tales.

“My role was helping her set up the audio, getting everybody mic’d up, listening to the levels, making sure it sounds good and telling people to be quiet outside of the hallway, which was a really common occurrence.”

Paulson and Key recalled that it was an emotional day listening to contributors’ tales.

“This really happened to somebody,” Key stated. “They went through this and it was just as traumatic as it sounds, even more so because they were the ones experiencing it. It was like, man, how fast things can go wrong and just how fast things can change.”

Paulson defined that whereas the work could also be troublesome to listen to, it’s going to assist make clear a troublesome topic.

“The power of storytelling is so interesting because you can go a long time without thinking about someone’s story,” Paulson stated. “Then you hear all these folks’s tales, and as soon as you permit, you’re like, ‘Man, they’re on the market within the chilly and also you’re fascinated by all these folks extra.’ It was nice that we acquired to focus on them.

“There’s a lot of stigma around homeless people. People will be like, ‘Don’t go down that street, watch out.’ Being able to be in the room with them and hear their stories—they’re just people.”

Both college students appreciated the chance to study from Weeks and to inform an vital story.

“I’m super grateful to have somebody around like him and learn from somebody like him who is the embodiment of somebody who’s good at their job and somebody who lives for their job,” Key stated.

Paulson credit Weeks’ programs for altering the way in which she views images.

“I didn’t expect to be in Billy’s classes until the end of college,” she stated. “But it’s been such a great expertise. I did get pleasure from images earlier than faculty, however I by no means actually centered on the story of images. I used to be simply getting photos of issues I assumed had been fairly.

“Then I came to college, and now I can’t drive down the street and see a protest without going, ‘Oh, I got to go get photos.’ But now there’s a lot more emphasis on the moments within the photos.”

With their audio tales, portraits and video collected, they delivered an vital message to the viewers on the gala.

“Telling these people’s stories at the end of the day is really important and so overlooked,” Weeks stated.

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