TechKno Academy
The Work,
Since 2012
TechKno Academy has taught film, music and sound to young people on Chicago’s South Side since 2012. More than 500 students have come through. These are some of them, at work.
2012 to 2013
Where it started
Summer 2012: TechKno Camp, fifteen students, Chicago. Their first documented project was Black Beauty.
The studio
Real rooms.
Real gear.
Students record, mix and produce on the same tools working engineers use, taught by people who make their living doing it.
Young people telling their own stories, in their own words, about the life they actually live.
Behind the camera
Lights. Camera.
Their story.
Camera, sound, lighting and editing, on location and in the studio.
On location
Where the
show is
A live event is a working broadcast plant. At the House of Hope, students took the cameras alongside a TechKno Academy instructor.
Watch
In his
own words
Kiev came to TechKno Academy as a high school student on Chicago’s South Side. Here he talks about what the program meant for his life.
The people
Who showed up
Visitors, audiences, and the teams that came through the doors.
2020 to 2024
The work
kept going
From the COVID years, when TechKno Academy ran virtually, the only two years it has. Lessons went home, and so did the instruments.
Back in the room.
2026
Now
The work continues. The Countdown, this year.
Be part of the next photo
Two ways to give
Fund a cohort
Your gift goes to the TechKno Academy program fund and puts students in the studio this semester.
Give to TechKno AcademyBuild the MEMa Studio
Your gift goes to the MEMa Studio build fund: a mobile recording studio in a 53-foot trailer that will bring this work to schools.
Give to the Build