Visitors from throughout the Black Belt enjoyed the opening reception of The Exhibit at Bryan W. Whitfield Memorial Hospital on July 12 when photographs by students participating in the Black Belt 100 Lenses program displayed their work.

     The 2008-2009 The Black Belt 100 Lenses Project is a joint endeavor between the Black Belt Community Foundation and the University of Alabama Office of Community Affairs. The project is based on the Photovoice method, combining photography with grassroots social action. Black Belt 100 Lenses allows the participants to use photography, film interviews, and oral narratives to portray the daily experience of life in Alabama’s Black Belt.

     Selected high school students from both public and private schools document their lives and define what their culture means to them. Given a camera and film, each of the participants set out to capture the images in their life that they see as significant in both positive and negative ways.

     The goals of the project are to depict the culture of Black Belt region through the eyes of its youth giving them a voice and a forum to raise issues that affect them and their community and to conduct the program in each of the twelve counties in the Black Belt Community Foundation’s service area. This exhibit features photographs that were taken in the past two years by students from  Greene, Hale, Perry, Macon, and Sumter counties. In addition to the student’s photographs, a community artist from each county was selected to create artwork based on the themes of the students’ work. Black Belt 100 Lenses will be conducted in the remaining seven counties over the next few years.

     The Black Belt Community Foundation was established in 2004 to support community efforts in the Black Belt that will contribute to the strength, innovation, and success of all of the region’s people and communities. The Foundation hosts a variety of projects including two competitive grants programs, resource workshops for local nonprofit organizations, and a grassroots leadership program for its Community Associates. In addition to the Black Belt 100 Lenses program, plans are underway for a Youth GIVE program that will engage youth across the region through philanthropy and service projects.