Meet Keva Peters Jr., a Fall 2020 Lede New Orleans Fellow
Keva Peters will be doing community reporting work in New Orleans this fall as part of the Lede New Orleans fellowship program.
By Jennifer Larino
Keva Peters Jr., a Dillard University student and local filmmaker, was in the 5th grade when he realized the stories he liked to tell his friends could also come to life through words on a page. Today his passion is capturing local stories on film. Peters, 19, grew up in St. Rose, La., where his family relocated after Hurricane Katrina and the levee breaks in New Orleans.
What does equitable media mean to you?
Telling the stories that people want to hear about. The stories that people in the community would like to hear. And doing it visually. Using community input to tell a story that they want to hear. That’s how I see it.
If you got to design your own community reporting beat, what would it be?
It would probably be sports and the impact that athletes have on society. That’s something that’s big now. Even if it wasn’t big, it’s a story that I think should still be told…
My little brother. He’s 13. He wants to be an athlete. He wants to be in the NFL and the NBA. He can’t really recognize that athletes have a say-so in society due to the platform that they’re on. That’s something that I would want to get young people to realize. With a platform comes a voice. You can use that voice to make positive change or negative change. It depends on the person.
What is your goal for this fellowship?
I’m looking forward to tapping back into journalism. I kind of got away from it for a while [after studying it in high school]. I also want to help other people become better storytellers, whether it’s with journalism or just telling a basic story to a friend. I just want to help other people really.
What else should the community know about you?
I have an appreciation for storytelling and building an image. To me, film making is like a mix of different art forms… I’m intrigued with how people create these beautiful images, similar to how painters do it, but in a different medium.
