Lehman students' video earns lunch with Yoko, Sean Lennon
Click to viewAn anti-fracking student group from Lehman Alternative Community School has won a video contest sponsored by Artists Against Fracking. The prize? Lunch with organization founders Yoko Ono and Sean Lennon.
All it took the students was a song, a video and a little help from their friends.
Mariah Prentiss, staff adviser of New York Youth Against Fracking and LACS teacher librarian, was sitting in a staff meeting this week when she received the news in a phone call from Ono herself.
“That was the cool thing,” Prentiss said. “We don’t know the details of the prize, but it was advertised as lunch with Yoko Ono and Sean Lennon, widow and son of John Lennon, in New York City. Our big question for her is ‘Did you really mean 40 or 50 people?’ ”
Prentiss said the student group decided to enter the #DontFrackNY video contest after LACS parent Edith McCrea wrote a song called “You’ve Been Fracked.” The students took the tune to Nate Richardson at REP Studios, where they sang it with students from New Roots Charter School, all backed by a group of musicians that included McCrea on banjo and LACS parent Richie Stearns on bass. The recording session was filmed by Luke Gustafson of Moving Box Studios. Within a week the audio and video were edited and entered into the contest, which received nearly 100 submissions.
“You’ve Been Fracked” won the short video category and has been posted on the Artists Against Fracking website. Prentiss said she’s heard from people as far away as South Africa who were inspired by the students’ work.
As for the students themselves, she said, “They’re just ecstatic. They’re blown away. And they’re really hopeful this is going to make a big difference.”
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