Kinna LeBlanc Creative

Quarantine Scenes: Where Hunter Students Are Tuning Into Their Online Classes Students around the country have moved to online learning due to COVID-19, meaning their seat in the “classroom” may now be at a kitchen table, in the corner of a bedroom or cross-legged on the living room couch. Some are home alone, while others are sharing space with siblings, parents and grandparents — or children of their own. For an exercise on descriptive writing, students in instructor Susie Armitage's Hunter Reporting and Writing I class wrote up dispatches from their current study environments.  My cozy two-bedroom apartment is tucked away in the gritty, industrial section of Brooklyn called East New York. It’s a bright, sunny space nestled inside an enormous concrete maze of tall domino-like buildings. Each morning begins with subtle rejoicing from chirping birds outside my window. They make it easier to start another reclusive day. The indefinite downtime has turned my master...

NEWS STORY GE Manufacturing Plant New York City’s school board voted 6-1 in favor to open a school on the site of the new General Electric manufacturing plant, as members were convinced this idea would save the board money. Superintendent Greg Hubbard recommended the “pilot program” to mix companies and classrooms at a meeting held by the New York Department of Education Monday night. The plant will employ more than 600 employees, many of them women with young children, who will work on assembly lines helping make small appliances for GE. To attract and retain these working-class women, the plant’s “satellite school” will have three classrooms serving about 60 kindergarten and first-grade children of employees. “It’s the wave of the future,” Hubbard told the school board last night. “Its a win-win situation.” Hubbard went on to explain that the school is a good employee benefit, and it will help ease crowding in the local district schools. The program is thoug...

The Rebellious Black Artist Once a gritty alleyway and graffiti-draped artist playground, Lispernard Street in Lower Manhattan is now a luxury one-way block home to million-dollar listings, chic restaurants and popular art galleries. [Nice lead!] On a recent Tuesday evening, giggling millennials, modern moms and self-proclaimed art enthusiasts flocked there to the Untilted Space gallery to celebrate the eccentric black woman and multidisciplinary artist, Nicole Washington. Bopping down the licorice-colored winter asphalt, emerging artists from all walks of life moved feverishly in the same direction. Out of Brooklyn, were a sharply talented group of prominent female artist and curators. Often mistaken for ebony runway models, the enthusiastic and modish group came to meet and greet with like minds in the modern art world. The colorful trend-setting world of female artists, alternative creatives and black exhibitors was out in full force [or something] About 40 to ...

"Pretty Hurts" A Film by Kinna LeBlanc Storyboard This film depicts a girl getting glammed up for a Quarantine video call. Techniques: Continuity System, Dramatic Structure, Master Scene Techniques Shot 1: Master shot/ LS of girl waking, contemplating, checking cell phone, rises from bed and walks to bathroom. Shot 2: Jump cut of girl walking into bathroom. Jump cut/MS to girl in bathroom mirror. series of match cuts: girl getting ready, putting on makeup, trying on wigs--getting frustrated, playing with natural hair--getting emotional, thinking and contemplating, self loathing (beat change) Match/jump cuts: takes shower, becomes renewed, completes makes up, fixes natural hair (beat change) Shot 3: Jump cut/MS of girl sitting on bed, opens laptop, smiles, becomes innocent and says "Hi"

"Darlene" By Kinna LeBlanc In March 2020, I had the oppurtunity to talk to multidisciplinary artist, Darlene Deloris.  The NY based black female artist decided that no matter what others thought, or what the expected role to be played was, the journey was hers. This audio-portrait t ells Darlene's story of self discipline and how the earliest fundamentals ,  uncomfortable experiences and self-discovery led to her brand development through a    career in art.