Sissy’s 21st birthday

His Sissy’s wedding

I've been looking through old photos trying to find good ones from our time working on the Intergenerational Media Literacy Project of The LAMP (already a decade ago!)... but I realized that maybe better than any photos I have from my old first generation iPhone of DC would be sharing a peek behind the scenes of that very special project. For those of us who worked with him, you know. For others who didn't have that opportunity - I am happy to share! What remains from that program was created by the participants themselves. You can see the blog the students and older adults created along with lots of thier impressions/projects here https://talkbacktomedia-blog.… Just so you don't miss them, there are lots of photos here https://www.flickr.com/photos/thelampnyc/sets/72157644329138812/ and a great video about the program itself. https://youtu.be/6f27NU2_XkM D.C. isn't featured in many of them - but that makes so much sense - he had the tendency to set wonderful things in motion, stand "behind the scenes," work alongside great people, and let magic happen. His work to change the world wasn't about HIM, it was about the people involved in his deeply passionate and creative pursuits. And his legacy, to me, will live on in so many ways through his work, through the people whose livers he touched, the butterfly effect of all the minds he expanded, and the legacy of his amazing presence and contributions to our world and our lives. (And darnit, I will NEVER watch TV commercials the same way again!)

I was introduced to D.C. through a colleague at Viacom and it only took a couple of conversations with him to convince me to join his cause at the LAMP and serve on the Advisory Board.  His vision for MediaBreaker and the 22x20 campaign was inspired and embodied the hard work and hope we needed for future generations. Though I didn't know him well on a personal level, his quirkiness, odd sense of humor, vulnerability, and intentional questioning impressed upon me. After the LAMP, I only got a chance to meet up with him once, but every moment with him was meaningful.

Derrick was a committed, passionate leader across the NYC workforce and nonprofit community, loved and respected equally by his colleagues and peers. His work touched the lives of many, and his legacy will live on.

DC and me at a LAMP fundraiser I hosted (in full costumed attire, of course). — with DC Vito

Derrick with Jon Reynolds

Derrick with Jon Reynolds

Derrick with Jon Reynolds, Erik Close, Darryl Moorhouse

bringing me an BEC sandwich last friday

I met DC through Alan, when he volunteered, and then worked with the LAMP. DC invited me into that space with open arms, often yelling "Brie!" when I walked into the room. What a welcome! He always seemed to have a story or experience saved up to tell me. He made me feel like a co-conspirator, in the best possible way.

I'll never forget DC making me a plate of food at my wedding and telling me to pretend to chat with him while I ate it so that I wouldn't go the whole night without dinner. What a kind, goofy guy.

I always knew DC as a creative, hardworking and very caring man who never failed to show appreciation and generosity in my direction.  What a loss for me and for the communities we worked together to make better.  DC, I'll miss you. 

“There’s no such thing as death, life is only a dream, and we’re the imagination of ourselves. Here’s Tom with the weather…. We all pay for life with death, so everything in between should be free.” —Bill Hicks 

Could anyone share some of DC's favorite music? I know he liked Neko Case and A Tribe Called Quest. I'd like to play a few tunes in his honor. 

Idiotarod ~ 2007 — with Emily Vito and Corey Valdez

I've been so sad and confused this week. I've been going through all my memories with DC, experiencing again all the warmth, joy, inspiration and exasperation of what it meant to be in DC's orbit. I spent the most intense and rewarding four years with DC at The LAMP. It felt like we were nearly joined at the hip those years, sharing a cramped office space and the wonderful burden of believing in a mission. DC gave me an opportunity that changed my life and his support and faith in me were never less than total, even when I was clearly out of my depth.

I was volunteering for a LAMP program in Queens when I first met DC, and he made me feel that this little workshop where we were helping a few parents and their children make short videos about their families was the most important thing in the world and that my being there was essential to its success. When you were with DC he made you feel very special. And I have yet to meet anyone as passionate about media literacy or as certain in its ability to transform us all.

In honor of DC, I'm dragging out all my Bill Hicks albums to "squeegee my third eye." I may even root for Arsenal.

My thoughts of DC are always as an eccentric, knowledgeable, quirky and kind person. I’m all the more intrigued by who he was after reading his obituary and discovering his joy in pranking friends ;-) 

I collaborated with DC while he ran the LAMP and I was at Sony. Years later I applied for a role with NYC DOE, and when DC found out I was interviewing with someone he knew, he reached out to her and urged her to hire me…I found this out not through him, but through her. He never told me he put in that recommendation. That was very telling to me about who he was. 

DC- thanks for being an awesome friend and colleague and for introducing me to the best chocolate sorbet in NYC (at Bloomingdale’s). You’ll be sorely missed…

Derrick became my best friend at University of Colorado at Boulder, and we had our own Dead Poets Society, meeting at night in alcoves of buildings to share our favorite poems (including our own writing—he is an incredible poet!) and discuss the yearnings of our souls (often over Blackjack Pizza). I still vividly remember the moment he shared e.e. cummings's "l(a" with me—it brought tears to my eyes. This society even dared run the football field in the winter snow wearing only boxer shorts! Derrick and I had affections for the same girl, but our friendship was not harmed by this. 

Derrick wrote me lengthy correspondences during my two-year mission, and we shared special times (including filmmaking) with another dear friend that Derrick introduced me to—Rob Christopher. 

This was nearly 30 years ago! We're the same age. I pray the peace of God to be with his mourning loved ones, and I express my faith that his immortal spirit lives on. I welcome the future day to embrace him and catch up on some lost years. 

Thank you, Derrick, for a friendship that comforted my soul and changed my life!

This is totally gutting. I did not know DC well -- we worked together briefly on MediaBreaker. He was so gung-ho, high energy, charming, direct, righteous and mostly right, stylish in the most subtle ways, and an idealist but not a dreamer. Like he knew what to do, and how to do it and most importantly the why, but he just wanted to share how much he cared with the people that didnt yet see the power of that same empathy and concern. To Emily and his family and close friends, please know the impact he had and will continue to have was immense. I worked with him for 3-4 months 8 years ago and this news is bringing me to tears and I cant really do much else but try to convey how awesome he was even I didnt ever see him with all his nuances nooks and crannies. He just seemed like an awesome combo of have a beer and watch the game, let's debate the efficacy of Marx's real intensions, how can that be your favorite Godard film, let's talk about this over a hike, I want to actually change people not just policy ... Again, to his loved ones, know his manifold wizardry was palpable and immediate even to those who knew him none too well. Go Gunners! Break The Media Change the Message (you basically pre-invented TikTok and envisioned the direction of 2020s media DC!!!!)  

Derrick was introduced to me by Robert Zimmerman  in 2000 after he arrived in New York.  We had coffee in the concourse of the original World Trade Center and we became fast friends. He helped to convince me to move to Brooklyn just  blocks from where he was living. We spent the evening of 9/11 with each other and we made a point of being with each other a lot in the days following the attacks when the city still smelled of burning rubber and when we were so filled with uncertainty. Derrick was a constant in my life.  I am grateful that we watched the Grinch the Stole Christmas together every December, and that he made his famous easter borscht every spring with polish kielbasa he acquired from Greenpoint, Brooklyn.  I am grateful for the far too many to count political fundraisers we attended together as well as all of the election night parties. I admired how brave he was to leave his cartography job at Con Ed where he excelled to create a non -profit whose focus on media literacy was prophetic.  I marveled at how he grew the LAMP and how it gained attention from every day New Yorkers and also the city's power elite.  Through everything, Derrick was sincere , earnest, always wanting to do good in the world.  He was also stubborn, complicated and quirky. He never called me Alan because he said I looked more like a Joseph and that was the only name he called me for more than 20 years. When he changed his name to DC, I laughed and told him I would only call him Derrick. I don't know if I will ever be able to understand the events of the last year or how things unraveled so quickly but I will remember and cherish the time I had with this dear friend . I pray that his memory is a blessing and that our loving G-d gives him the peace he so deserves.

I love you Derrick.

Derrick is my cousin and although we haven't talked since we were younger he was just an awesome person to be around.

My favorite memory is when a few of us rode up with him to Boulder so he could show us his college and the rink he played hockey in. 

I just wish I would have stayed in touch. He's still a big inspiration!