Editor's Note: The Eastern Echo staff is meeting regularly with interesting people both on and off campus. Engage in those conversations with us through our weekly Q&A report. This week, we interview Eastern Michigan University alum Antonio Cooper.
Eastern Michigan University alum Antonio Cooper, a former writer for The Eastern Echo, has launched a program called "The Seven Series" that highlights local artists and journalists. While at EMU, Cooper earned a degree in journalism. After graduating, he began looking for ways to provide exposure and experience for local journalists and artists that he did not have.
Q: What is "The Seven Series?"
A: It's a music and performance series. You have artists from around the area come and perform. They do whatever song they want to, and what highlights the artist is that they have a color of their choice where they perform under lights. Whereas, for example, I feel like my music is cutesy, so I'll perform under a pink light. If I feel like my music is intense, I'll perform under a red light. Then afterwards, they have a sit-down, one-on-one interview with up-and-coming journalists or a student journalist. The journalist sits down in front of a camera and asks questions to prove they can interview on camera, to show they have the skills to ask questions and be free to show their personality.
Q: What was the driving force in creating the series?
A: The reason I started this is to give up-and-coming journalists the opportunity to boost their resume and to show that, you know, I have the skills, and I can show this on my resume. So that's the true reason why I started this... to show the skills that artists have in Washtenaw County, and to show that there's a lot of journalism skills. And to give these up-and-coming journalists an opportunity to graduate, go into the field and showcase that they have enough on their resume to where they can thrive in the market.
Q: How long does a season take to shoot?
A: So, we do bi-weekly episodes, and shooting the episodes doesn't take that long for a season. That's more so depending on everyone's schedule. And it's all on YouTube.
Q: How can people find "The Seven Series?"
A: It's all on YouTube. If you look up The Seven Series Amplify on YouTube, all of the performances and interviews that we have released so far will pop up.
Q: How are artists found?
A: For season one, particularly, it was me for the most part. I was doing research and going, oh, I like this artist, I want them to perform. But that's changing for season two because we have files and folders now to where people have suggested to us. Ypsi, Ann Arbor, Saline [and] Dexter are very musical outings. So anytime you go to a bar, you hear a band. Anytime you go somewhere, you are going to hear some people singing, or some rappers and go, oh, they're pretty cool. So, it's a bit of me doing research, a bit of people recommending it nowadays, but for the most part, it was just me doing all the research myself.
Q: How long has the series been going on?
A: We finished shooting season one this year and we're prepping for season two right now. This has been going on for two years now. The Amplify Project picked it up and they said they wanted to take it on. And I am very grateful for them because they're the ones who have put this on and put it out to the world.
Q: Who was involved in creating the series?
A: First person I reached out to was my good brother, Derek Dandridge. I reached out to him, and he was a great photographer around Detroit, and he agreed to do it. I told him this is the vision that I have and he said yes. I told him, I can't do this without you. And he agreed to do it. He was the primary videographer, photographer. He edited all the videos and I want to give a big shoutout to him. He recently passed away. I just want to say that I'm very thankful to have been his brother and I'm very thankful that he believed in my vision. Because without him this vision does not exist. Also, all of the people who helped with season one, a special thanks to them. That was Maya Evans and London Banks. London came in and they were an absolute superstar, and I appreciate them, and I appreciate my entire team for making all of this possible.
Productions of The Seven Series can be found on The Amplify Project on YouTube: @AmplifyProject-734.
