Rising Above The Smoke (Virtual Symposium, 2021)
RISING ABOVE THE SMOKE
(Virtual Symposium / Webinar, 2021)
Ascender supported The Colorado Black Health Collaborative by producing this 4-hour virtual conference featuring dynamic presenters and virtual activities to deepen the community’s understanding and advocacy for why eliminating the sale of menthol tobacco is a social justice issue in the Black community. 200 people joined the virtual event from all across the country, including many longstanding, renowed public health experts and advocates.
The Anatomy of A Social Justice Issue (Intro Video)
RISING ABOVE THE SMOKE
Flavor Academy: Dr. Terri Richardson and Dr Valerie Yerger
Dr. Terri Richardson and Dr Valerie Yerger discuss how major corporations have targeted the sale of menthol tobacco on African American communities.
Tobacco Policy Panel
Mr. Austin Collins facilitates a very informative tobacco policy panel with guest speakers Naomi Amaha, Natasha Phelps and Bob Doyle.
Rising Above the Smoke : Former Smokers Speak about their Cessation Process
Ms. Emma Jackson is a Denver resident, CBHC coalition member and a former smoker.
RISING ABOVE THE SMOKE: JIM PAVLIK ON STEPS TO SMOKING CESSATION
Mr. Jim Pavlik shares the steps to smoking cessation.
RISING ABOVE THE SMOKE: Dr. Rhonda Coleman, DAOM, Discusses a brief history of alternative clinical treatments for smoking cessation.
Jonathan Miles explains the Colorado QUITLINE
Jonathan Miles explains how the Colorado QUITLINE supports smoking cessation.
Ascender Creates Main Title and Motion Design Sequences for 'The Breakdown' Digital Series on BET+
'THE BREAKDOWN ON BET+'
(Main Title Design, Editing, Motion Graphics)
Ascender Films is proud to have supported main title design, animation and motion graphics for the new BET+ digtal series 'The Breakdown', released in April 2021. Each episiode of the four episodes takes a deeper dive into lesser known aspects of African American history and culture from an African-centered viewpoint. The show was created by executive producers Len Burnett and Darnley Hodge and it was hosted by comedian Klarity.
We also produced the fourth and final epidsode of the first season about the Maroons--enslaved Africans in the U.S. who fought for and won their freedom. The episode features rich commentary from celebrated historian and professor, Gerald Horne.
The Breakdown: Episode 4 (THE MAROONS)
Main Title Design, Motion Graphics & Animation
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Ascender Launches its' First Factual Series: 'Adrian Miller's Soulful Bites'
Ascender Communications, Inc. proudly presents our first factual series featuring James Beard Award-winning author and lecturer, Adrian Miller, ‘The Soul Food Scholar’ as he shares tasty morsels of stories from the history and evolution of Soul Food–America’s first fusion cuisine.
‘Adrian Miller’s Soulful Bites’ series takes fun, colorful approach to some seriously tasty—and controversial—facts about African American contributions to American cuisine. features James Beard Award-winning writer, lecturer Adrian Miller, ‘The Soul Food Scholar’ sharing tasty morsels of stories—three minutes of less—that you’ve never heard about food you have probably always loved.
“Black culinary history and stories about the damaging effects of cultural appropriation of black cooking traditions are still not fully in the plain view of most African Americans,” says Senior Producer, Paul Grant. “More and more has is being written almost daily on the subject. Yet, mainstream broadcasters are still resistant to invest in any series that explores the subject–even with the extensive amount of research and perspective that is being offered by black culinary historians. This project to fill that void by introducing short, entertaining factual stories into people’s social media timelines that might inspire them to take a deeper look.”
Adrian Miller’s first book, Soul Food: The Surprising Story of an American Cuisine, One Plate at a Time was published by the University of North Carolina Press in August 2013. Soul Food won the 2014 James Beard Foundation Book Award for Reference and Scholarship. His second book, The President’s Kitchen Cabinet: The Story of the African Americans Who Have Fed Our First Families, from the Washington’s to the Obama’s was published on President’s Day, February 20, 2017. The President’s Kitchen Cabinet has been nominated for a 2018 NAACP Image Award for “Outstanding Literary Work–Non-Fiction.”
Adrian recently received the “2018 Ruth Fertel Keeper of the Flame” Award from the Southern Foodways Alliance (SFA) for his work on African American foodways and he is currently working on Black Smoke, a history of African American barbecue culture.
To follow ‘Adrian Miller’s Soulful Bites’, visit:
- On Facebook: www.facebook.com/soulfbites.series
- On Instagram: www.instagram.com/soulfulbites.series
- Follow Adrian E. Miller” on Facebook: @soulfoodscholar
Visit his website: www.adrianemiller.com
Desiline Victor Project
Client: Advancement Project, Inc.
Producer: Leila McDowell
Director/Editor: Paul Grant
Camera A: Paul Grant
Camera B & Audio Assist: Joshua A. Washington
Every now and again, our work allows us to touch history. It's an electrifying yet fleeting moment. But we are thrilled to work behind the scenes while great stories that define the times in which we live unfold in front of our eyes.
Desiline Victor, a 102 year-old, Haitian Immigrant, was told she had to wait up to six hours to vote in the 2012 Presidential Election at the polls near her North Miami residence. Desiline persisted through the heat, the long lines and having been wrongly returned from the front to the back of the line because it was though that she had the wrong paper work proving her residency. Three hours later, she emerged from the polls with her "I Voted" sticker and throngs of cheering people, to become the symbol of voter frustration and for much need revamping of the U.S. voting system/ process.
Ascender was tapped by Advancement Project, Inc., a non-profit civil rights advocacy group, to document her experiences in Washington immediately leading up to her being an invited guest at the 2013 State of The Union Address. Save for a few technical embellishments, this was story that ended up telling itself--and inspiring millions in the process.
Ascender Wins 2012 TELLY AWARD for 'Enlisted: Conversations with Five Generations of African Americans in the U.S. Armed Services (2012)'
MUSEUM & CULTURE | ORAL HISTORY | DOCUMENTARY
ENLISTED: CONVERSATIONS WITH FIVE GENERATIONS OF AFRICAN AMERICANS IN THE U.S. ARMED FORCES (2012)
Our first museum video installation opened as a part of the Prince George’s County African American Museum and Cultural Center’s (PGAAMCC) ‘Coming Home’ World War II exhibition in North Brentwood, Maryland in, May 2011. ‘Enlisted’, is our 16-minute documentary featurette produced from oral histories of six African Americans who lived in the Washington, DC metropolitan areas that served in World War II, Korean War, and two Vietnam War veterans– and their collective experiences in service to their country.
The exhibition, ‘Coming Home: How the African American Experience in World War II Shaped the Culture of Prince George’s County’ explains how the full integration of the U.S. armed services during the second world war actually opened the a new widnow of opportunity for many African Americans to seek and pay for, higher education and gain new professional skillsets. This was eventualy contribute to making P.G. County, Maryland the most affuent, predominately black county in the nation.
Tagline
ORAL HISTORY & DOCUMENTARY
‘Coming Home: How the African American Experience in World War II Shaped the Culture of Prince George’s County’ explains how the full integration of the U.S. armed services during the second world war actually opened the a new widnow of opportunity for many African Americans to seek and pay for, higher education and gain new professional skillsets. This was eventualy contribute to making P.G. County, Maryland the most affuent, predominately black county in the nation.
