Chaz Antoine Barracks, a filmmaker, media scholar, and postdoctoral fellow in the College of Visual and Performing Arts at Syracuse University, spent his summer in Homer, New York, engaging with the community through an experimental storytelling project titled “Mic on a Bike.” During his residency at the Center for the Arts of Homer, Barracks rode his bike around town equipped with a GoPro and microphone to record conversations and daily reflections. The project aimed to capture the rhythms and voices of small-town life.
Barracks has previously received recognition for his 2020 short film “Everyday Black Matter,” which highlighted Black life and joy in Richmond, Virginia. The film combined oral histories, dance, and self-representation. His academic background includes a Ph.D. in media, art and text from Virginia Commonwealth University. His work focuses on intersections between Black queer studies, performance, and digital storytelling by blending podcast interviews, photography, film, and public installations.
As a postdoctoral fellow at Syracuse University, Barracks continued to integrate artistic practice with scholarly research. “I see media-making as inquiry and intervention,” he said. “It’s artistic and intellectual practice rooted in lived experience.”
The town of Homer provided an environment conducive to Barracks’ approach. Its downtown business district, Village Green, historic district, farmland, lakes, and hills offered opportunities for community engagement. The Center for the Arts of Homer is housed in a restored Romanesque church from 1892 and hosts over 150 events each year.
Linda Dickerson-Hartsock—strategic initiatives advisor at SU Libraries and one of the center’s founders—helped shape Barracks’ residency after discussing his scholarship at Bird Library’s Mower Faculty Commons. She noted: “He brings artistry and scholarly depth that shifts how we think about place, storytelling and the role of art in connecting community.”
Barracks’ residency followed creative placemaking principles by using arts to connect residents around identity and shared values. He drew inspiration from both bike culture and the slow movement to encourage people to engage with their surroundings more closely.
“Biking is joy for me,” Barracks said. “It is how I decompress, think and connect with nature. In Homer, it became a way to share knowledge, culture and history with the community.” The town’s historical significance as a stop on the Underground Railroad also informed conversations during his project.
His activities included DJ sets at local markets as well as community art spaces where he mixed poetry with sound exploring Black joy. The residency concluded with a multimedia exhibition at Phillips Free Library featuring both “Everyday Black Matter” material as well as audio-visual content from “Mic on a Bike.” He curated books on Black and queer history for display during this event—the library’s first after-dark experimental gallery evening.
Barracks has been involved with Imagining America—a national consortium focused on civic engagement through arts—which was previously based at Syracuse University from 2007 to 2017 (https://imaginingamerica.org/about/history/). As an award recipient from this group’s Stories of Change initiative he will present his work at its annual gathering later this year in New Mexico.
Currently editing “Mic on a Bike” alongside student filmmakers from Syracuse University (https://vpa.syr.edu/academics/film-and-media-arts/), Barracks aims to expand this digital archive beyond Homer into other communities nationally or internationally.
“Biking itself is a mobile meditation,” he said. “It reinforces my belief in the image as profound proof of life. This is not just about recording others. It is about showing up fully as myself: Black, queer, neurodivergent, joyful, imperfect.”
