Participants in Reporter Corps, a USC Annenberg program to train young adults from South LA to report on their own communities, created audiovisual introductions to their neighborhoods this summer. Skylar E Myers project focuses on history, poverty, and love. 

Skylar Endsley Myers, 23, Saint Bernard Catholic High School graduate, University of California San Diego graduate 

My family has lived in South Los Angeles for nearly three generations. My grandparents remember the treachery of the Watts Riots of 1965 just as vividly as they can recall their first time witnessing the genre-bending genius of George Clinton & the Funkadelics at a house party in Compton. And let me tell you their words are unlike anything you’d read in a history book. In the midst of gang wars, riots, and disparity my grandparents would tell me these stories and they’ve worked to instill me with pride, hope, and dignity throughout my life. I always assumed they told me these stories as a reminder that we’ve been here before and we’ve made it through and we have the power to get through it again. For this reason I feel storytelling is important, especially for the improvement of the community. Stories are records of what has happened in the past to form both who you are and how you’ll behave in the future. Through Reporters Corps South LA, I hope to bring light and voice to the overshadowed stories of the streets, the people, and the schools in hopes of instilling all South Central Angelinos with the same pride, hope, dignity and attachment I feel for this city.

To read about Skylar’s experiences growing up in South Central click here.