April 18, 2025 • 47 mins
What does media that genuinely loves and cares for Black people look like? Diamond Hardiman and Courtney Morrison join us to introduce a powerful exhibition coming to Los Angeles on May 2nd. This exhibition, part of Media 2070's Black Future Newsstand initiative, features over 70 interviews with LA residents who experienced the 2020 uprisings following George Floyd's murder. These stories, collected in partnership with USC's Charlotta Bass Journalism and Justice Lab, create a rich tapestry of lived experiences that challenge oversimplification and erasure.
learn more about the Black Future News Stand, Free Press, and Media 2070 by clicking the links below.
https://blackfuturenewsstand.com/
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Brothers and sisters.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
Give me a moment with you, friend.
I've never been up to mythoughts before.
Speaker 3 (00:23):
Welcome to the only one-night podcast called Gerard
and Brooklyn Drake, joined byour special guest sisters
Diamond Hardiman of Media 27 andCourtney Morrison of Free Press
, here to discuss the Riot toRepair Soundscape exhibition
presented by Media 27's BlackFuture Newsstand.
How you doing, ladies?
(00:43):
Doing well, all right, okay,doing good.
Speaker 4 (00:45):
Happy Doing well.
All right, okay, doing good.
Happy to be here.
Speaker 3 (00:48):
All right, that's good.
So listen, before we get intoit.
We're going to talk about theRiot to Repair Soundscape
exhibition.
We want you to introduceyourselves to our audience.
We want to start with you,diamond, you know.
Let them know what yourbackground is.
We're working with Media 2070.
I have all your information.
(01:08):
Like I tell people all the time, I have your information right
here.
I can read your jacket righthere.
But I want you to be able totell your story to our audience,
and then we'll jump intoCourtney's story, and then we'll
jump into what we're here for,which is Riot to Repair.
Speaker 4 (01:24):
So go ahead, diamond tell us who you are?
Thank you so much.
That's a great opening question.
My name is Diamond Hardimanpronouns are she hers?
I am the Director of RepairativeNarrative and Creative Strategy
with Media 2070.
And so what that means is thatI work in the world of art and
(01:45):
culture to build narrativestrategies to transform society.
So how do we use our video,visual production like film, and
these installations like theone that we're talking about
today, to talk about theproblems in the world and what's
going on around us and then toimagine new futures?
(02:05):
So that's what I do with Media2070 is thinking about how can
we imagine the world on theother side of 2070, on the other
side of media reparation?
My background is in organizing,so I used to do housing
organizing, abolition organizing, and what I found is that story
and media is kind of thecentral line between a lot of
those things.
(02:26):
It connects to the people we'reorganizing with and what they
believe is possible.
It connects to us as organizersand what's possible in the
policy space, because thestories that we tell and the
media that gets told about thethings that we're doing kind of
sets the ceiling for what'spossible.
So that's where I'm coming fromand that's what I try to
incorporate into my work.
Speaker 3 (02:46):
And speaking of your work, you advocated for the
elimination of cash bail in StLouis, and I know this is not
the topic.
However, I was like, once yougot on here, I had to discuss
that with you, you know, and askyou a question what was that
like, working in that particularspace?
Speaker 4 (03:13):
And was there any turnaround in it?
Did you see any changes forcash reform, cash bail reform?
Yes, that was a minute ago inmy past life, in like 2018.
So don't quote me on thespecifics, but that was one of
those first places where I sawthis three pronged strategy of
narrative.
And so the place I worked atwas the Bail Project.
They're like a national orgthat has different setups in
each city and we bail people out, we put up funds and then we
(03:35):
give them resources in the cityfor folks that have just got out
.
And then we worked with thisplace called Arch City Defenders
, which is a legal org to kindof get through the legal
processes of you know why isthere cash bail in the first
place?
Because, especially in St Louis, in St Louis, a lot of people
are locked up for parkingtickets because of the way that
(03:56):
their parking ticket systemworks, the way that their
registration works for cars.
A lot of people are gettingwarrants for their arrest just
because they can't pay theirregistration fees for their cars
.
And then they're getting lockedup in this place called the
workhouse for 60, 90, 120 days,and the conditions in there are
terrible.
(04:16):
They're horrible no airconditioning, just violations of
everybody's rights, and so wewere kind of attacking all of
those things the jail, gettingpeople out of it immediately,
but also this longer termstrategy.
And that was definitely reallyinteresting in terms of seeing
the disconnects between thedifferent institutions in the
(04:37):
city, how we were kind of havingto hold that like why isn't
this org about jobs talking tothis org about housing?
But it was nice that peoplewere were holding that and
creating those webs for people.
As of today, the workhouse, Ithink, is actually on schedule
for demolition and so theorganizers which was Action St
(04:59):
Louis is like the organizerbehind it they did a lot of work
over a lot of years to, youknow, lift up the kind of abuses
that were going on in there, totalk about the ways that how,
if you're in jail just for 30days, how you can lose your job,
how you can get evicted, howthat messes up things in your
life, especially as black womenwith children, the kind of
(05:19):
effects it was having on mothers, on mothers.
So it was definitely a learningcurve that was when I was a
young organizer to see all thosethings.
But that jail is getting closed.
I can't speak for cash bail.
I know that there has been somereform in cash bail, but I know
even in forum conversations Ihad when I lived in Chicago for
(05:40):
a minute in Illinois recentlyhad like a cash bail campaign go
on and the media jumped on itLike corporate media jumped on
it with this misinformationabout what it means to bail
people out and you know whypeople even get put in jail in
the first place.
Speaker 2 (05:59):
There's been a couple of states that's been trying to
reform that whole situation.
Have you heard any state thatactually able to approve no cash
bail?
I think I thought I heardsomething like that One of those
states that actually havepulled it off where they don't
have cash bail.
Speaker 4 (06:12):
I think it might have gone through in Illinois.
Don't quote me I might be wrong, but I think it might have went
through Illinois and theefforts that we did in St Louis,
I think those did go through.
And the efforts that we did inSt Louis, I think those did go
through.
But then what ended uphappening is the judges kind of
did a backdoor thing.
So whatever we had set as apolicy legally whether it was
(06:34):
like this amount or this type ofoffense you could get bailed
out or you couldn't require cashbail.
Then the judges kind of wentaround it and just started
assigning stuff to everybody sothat they couldn't take access
or take control of that.
But I'm sure there are examplesof them.
I just don't know.
I'm sorry.
Speaker 1 (06:53):
I can recall that happening in Chicago.
Folks were pushing for it,especially around 2020.
More organizing happeningaround that time, so I can
recall a movement towardspushing for the end of cash bail
, and I believe we weresuccessful on some level.
I don't know if it wasstatewide, though, but Chicago
has definitely seen movementtowards that.
Speaker 2 (07:12):
Yeah, I think even Delaware was doing something
simple, like I don't think theywas putting you in jail for
traffic offenses Well, they were, but I think it was like a
weekend, like they had you onlike a weekend warrior schedule,
like you would work a a regularweekend.
Then you had to sign in thejail on the weekend or something
like that, you know, fortickets, parking tickets and
different things like that.
I think that was the case anddefinitely I know it was for
(07:33):
like drink drive, drunk drivingor any kind of offense like that
, you know, whereas you didn'thurt somebody, or something like
that, yeah, like bailing outmurderers and releasing back
into society and some peopleshould be in jail oh yeah, yeah,
yeah, I'm an advocate of thatTotally with that Destroying the
community.
Speaker 3 (07:48):
Yeah, you know you're a threat to the community,
definitely.
All right, and so, courtney,now on to you.
Okay, and can you tell us aboutyour work with Free Press?
Speaker 1 (08:05):
Again, I have your jacket up here, but I want you
to speak to our audience and letus know.
Yeah, of course.
So, yeah, my name is CourtneyMorrison, pronoun she.
They and I work for Free Press,an organization that advocates
for better policies around mediaand technology, and with them I
do creative content work.
So I'm strategizing around allthe creative for everything that
goes out, because largely ourcommunications are digital.
(08:26):
So working with different teamsto bring projects and campaigns
to life, one of those beingMedia 2070, working with them to
produce the Black Futurenewsstand and all the materials
that go with it.
My background lies infilmmaking and photography and I
found my way into marketingjust by way of necessity, being
(08:46):
a freelancer and just having towear multiple hats, and so,
along the way, I've reallydeveloped a, I'd say, value
around centering Black, queerand trans voices in everything
that I do, whether it's anexperimental documentary or a
photo series or something likean exhibit.
So that's the practice that Ibring to this work.
Speaker 3 (09:10):
All right, ok, so now we're going to jump into the
Black Futures Newsstand Riot toRepair Soundscape exhibition,
and that's going to be on May2nd of this year, 2025, in Los
Angeles, california.
Can you touch on what theexhibit is?
How did it come about, like theorigins of it, and what was the
(09:34):
?
What is the hope of theexhibition when presented to the
public?
Speaker 4 (09:38):
Yeah, I can jump in first and give a little
background.
So Black Future Newsstand is aconcept that Media 2070
premiered a couple years ago inHarlem, where we built a
life-size newsstand and filledit with Black media Black zines,
black magazines and Blacknewspapers with this question of
(10:01):
what does a media that lovesand cares for Black people
actually feel like?
And so we built this structureso that people could step into
it.
And so, since Harlem, we'vebeen to Austin, we've been to
Chicago and now we're going toLA and we're doing a different
rendition of it, where we'restill centering around how do
(10:21):
you step into this future wheremedia reparations exist, where
Black people are able to controltheir stories all the way from
ideation through the creation ofit and all the way out into
distribution?
And so this is just a play onthat history of Black future
newsstand, and what's specialabout this one is that we have
the Right to Repair CommunityArchive, and so we work with
(10:45):
Charlotta Bass, journalism andJustice Lab at USC and Dr Alyssa
Richardson to create an archiveof over 70 interviews of folks
from LA about their experiencesof 2020 and what it was like
being present during theuprisings and after the death of
(11:07):
George Floyd.
And so what we did is we mergedthese worlds of what is a media
that holds our stories welllook like, and we took that into
practice with those studentsand let them tell those stories
with those people.
And in LA, what we're going tobe doing is exhibiting them in a
multimedia exhibit for peopleto touch, see, hear all the
(11:27):
things, a full sensoryexperience of what we believe is
possible and inevitable for us.
Speaker 3 (11:34):
Hearing you describe it is kind of and I know it's
two different categories, butit's kind of likened to how the
9-11 museum was in New York,into how the the um, the 9-11
museum was in new york and theway that that was immersive and
more where you can go to.
This is just why I'm visioningit in my head.
You can go to a section whereyou hear people talk about their
experiences during thatparticular thing.
(11:54):
It was like individualexperiences also, um, things
that were displayed thathappened during that time, like
you might see a person's walletor something.
I mean, it's not the same exactthing, but the way that I'm
envisioning it is like havingsomebody sitting in front of
that camera and telling theirstory, or maybe having something
that was a representation ofwhat happened on that particular
(12:17):
day, whether it be a sign orsomething like that.
But that's just the way I wasenvisioning it.
And, courtney, what can youspeak to this?
What do you?
Can you explain to the audienceabout this exhibit?
Speaker 1 (12:30):
Absolutely.
I was going to say I can helpyou envision it even further
because we took a lot of time toreally adapt how people would
move through the space, whichwas really exciting for me
because we have all thesedifferent interviews that
Diamond has taken the time todigest and make sense of, to
then identify themes for theexhibit.
But as you're moving through it, we wanted people to feel like
(12:53):
it's something like tactile andit feels like something that
people can relate to.
We wanted to take people to aplace ultimately in this exhibit
, and where we're taking peopleis a grandmother's living room.
Everybody knows that feeling oflike going to grandma's house,
sitting on the couch, eatingsome food and having a good
conversation with your family,cackling, you know, sharing
(13:16):
stories.
Like creating that nostalgicfeeling of warmth but also
tension too.
Like hard conversations come up.
Who knows what's on the TV atthe time, whether it's a news
station giving a report onsomething that now we're all
reacting to.
Whatever comes of that being inthe space is kind of what we
wanted to recreate and givepeople an intimate experience as
(13:40):
they're navigating it, becauseone we can all relate to being
in a grandmother's living roomor a family living room.
But then the other element islistening to the interviews as
you're navigating the space,which we aim to do with
headphones.
So it'll be like a silent discoexperience where you have your
headphones on and you can switchchannels to hear, oh now I'm
(14:03):
listening to this on this topic,or now I'm listening to a
soundscape, to have people kindof have like a choose your own
adventure experience.
So yeah, that's kind of how wewant people to move through it.
Speaker 2 (14:17):
What are you interested?
Well, I want to know what youladies think about, like the
current state of Black media orurban media.
I mean, which term do you evenlike?
Do you of black media or urbanmedia?
I mean, which term do you evenlike?
Do you like black media orurban media?
Which term do you prefer?
Speaker 4 (14:28):
I like black media, capital B black media, because I
know urban media is the onethat most people use, you know.
Speaker 2 (14:37):
So I was just wondering and what do you think?
What are your ideas on thestate of what's going on right
now?
Speaker 4 (14:42):
Yeah, I can speak to that a little bit and then,
courtney, you can jump in if youfeel so.
I actually wasn't trained as ajournalist.
So, like I said, I come fromorganizing and then I'm an
artist, so I'm a storyteller inthat way.
But being in this field andtalking with journalists and
building relationships andcoalitions with them, it is
(15:03):
definitely precarious.
Time is what I would say,particularly when we think about
funding.
But what we say at Media 2070is the way that they set up the
media system has always made itprecarious for us.
The way that they have fundedus since the beginning, the way
(15:26):
that they have divested from ourknowledge, from the impact the
cultural and social impact thatour newspapers have had, from
the straight up theft, or theways that, like we even have
examples in the media 2070 essayof them burning down Black
newspapers.
So, even though that this is avery precarious time where you
(15:49):
know journalists are beingthreatened for telling the truth
, black journalists, blackpeople, black communities have
tools to know how to movethrough this time, because we've
done it before and we haveunderstood what it means to work
in community with one anotherand to have newspapers and press
(16:15):
and media that's actuallygrounded and rooted and then
supported by the people aroundit, so that it isn't as subject
to the whims of the governmentand thing.
Speaker 1 (16:27):
Yeah, totally 100% to what Diamond's saying.
Everybody's talking about thedeath of journalism, and it may
be true, and I think there is apublic media crisis happening
and folks can read all about itthrough free press, and I think
in this moment there's anopportunity to change the media
(16:48):
landscape, to finally centerBlack voices Going to look at
the media system and say thatthere's a problem and it's
failing.
The solution should be in whohas been left behind and left
out the whole time, like that'swhere we start.
So I do see this as anopportunity to rebuild from a
(17:08):
place where we're listening toBlack, brown, indigenous voices
first and laying a frameworkfrom there, because owning our
narrative will always berelevant, like in all of history
.
Owning our narrative as Blackpeople and changing the
landscape to center us willalways be relevant, and so we're
always going to have to pushfor the need for resources to
(17:30):
tell our own stories so thatwe're not waiting or letting
someone else do that for us,right.
Speaker 3 (17:36):
And I'm glad that you mentioned that, because even
the way that this exhibit is youknow you're describing this
exhibit when we watched theuprisings in 2020 and we seen
that I mean from us, from ourperspective as African Americans
, and all we've seen thereasoning for it, the reasoning
why it was done.
If you kind of probably goacross town and you look at it
(17:59):
from a white person'sperspective, it's just like, oh,
these guys are just destroyingtheir own neighborhoods and all
of that.
And it's good with that exhibitthat you give people the
opportunity to tell that story,to just not have us all be
looked at as you know, for lackof better terms savages.
That's just looking for areason to burn something down.
(18:20):
You know what I mean.
And this is kind of like, evenwhere you see the current
administration and the way thatthings are handled with
different, with people ofdifferent cultures.
You know I always say thattrain is not always going to
come back to us eventually, youknow.
I mean.
So, um, how can we like goingforward, like even if you say
urban media youtube is a bigspace, a lot of people out here,
(18:43):
they, you know their boots onthe ground with these type of
situations like.
So how would I mean, how can wedo this without putting
ourselves in a negative light?
If you get what I'm saying like, how can, how can the average
person get in here and do theirboots on the ground journalism
without showing all the negativeaspects and kind of putting
(19:04):
that up front?
You know what, what?
What would you suggest in thisspace?
Speaker 4 (19:09):
that's a great question.
I'm gonna um do a plug herebecause we did a reparative
journalism discussion guide.
So courtney and I worked on awith our other co-worker chain.
We did a three-part videoseries of reparative journalism
and it kind of looks at it atthese different levels of what
is it at a structural level?
(19:30):
But then what does it also justlook like from an everyday
black journalist to practice it?
And in that discussion guide wehave activities and questions
that get at what does it looklike for an everyday person to
do that?
So I have a few answers rattledaround in my head, but I think
the one that's coming up for meright now is giving context in
my head.
But I think the one that'scoming up for me right now is
(19:51):
giving context.
Like you said when certain newsmedia was discussing what was
happening in 2020 or in 2016 orin 2012,.
They're not telling the wholestory.
They're not telling the arc,the root of where these problems
come from.
So, as everyday people, whenwe're going to look to tell
stories, let's make sure that weunderstand the arc that it
plays within.
(20:11):
Where is the context?
What happened before you got tothis story?
What may happen after you leavethis story and then for me,
something about reparativejournalism is also always just
honoring being a storyteller,like it is very valuable for
somebody to sit with you andtalk with you and give you a
story.
(20:32):
And so how do we act ascaretakers of that and how do we
act as stewards of that?
And I think you know we call itin the space, we call it
citizen journalism, where, like,the everyday person takes
journalism tools and puts theminto community, takes journalism
tools and puts them intocommunity.
And now that we have, like yousay, youtube, we have iPhones,
(20:52):
we have TikTok, a lot of peopleare doing acts of journalism and
we talk about that within theexhibit and Dr Alyssa Richardson
also has a book about thatcalled Bearing Witness While
Black, and just thinking aboutthe ways that, how Black people
sit with one another, how Blackpeople are in community and can
(21:12):
continue to build community withone another, is how we do that
journalism that's preparativeand healing.
Speaker 2 (21:20):
Are we taking more like a worldview or is it more
like going to be like anAfrican-American thing?
What do you focus on?
The reason why I ask that isbecause recently I was turned on
this African diaspora news andI think I kind of liked it
because it was like not justfocusing on issues that we have
here in America, it was focusingon issues abroad.
So I was just wondering whatyou guys take on that.
Speaker 4 (21:41):
Courtney, you want to hop in or you want me to hop in
?
Speaker 1 (21:43):
I think you can speak to the video series.
Well, I was thinking about thesecond video.
Were we on the same page there?
Speaker 4 (21:51):
You had a better idea than me, I don't know.
But now I want to hear aboutthe second video.
Speaker 3 (21:56):
Yeah, let's go ahead.
Speaker 4 (21:58):
Tell them, Courtney.
Speaker 1 (21:59):
Tell them.
The second video highlights afew different reparations
movements across the countryLand Back reparations in South
Africa and the Truth Commissionsprocess that they went through.
Land back reparations in SouthAfrica and the truth commissions
process that they went through.
And reparations in the US forBlack folks.
And in doing that work we'reshowing folks how other people
(22:20):
have approached reparations, togive us the tools to think about
how we would go about that inthe media landscape.
And that's one way I'd say thatwe're reaching broader um to
draw the line between, likewhat's happening here locally
connects to across the worldmovements that are happening
okay.
Speaker 3 (22:38):
So what I also wanted to ask was we can have like
over 70 some was it 70narratives for, um, this
particular project that you did,and and if you could tell, if
you can pull this back out yourmental Rolodex, was there one
particular story or maybe twoparticular stories that might've
stood out from the 70 that youdid?
(22:59):
That says like wow, I did notknow this.
Speaker 4 (23:04):
Yeah, today was a great day to ask me that,
because I was in them todaytrying to put together a run, a
show.
There's this one by a 17 yearold, tiana, that really speaks
to me and she's talking abouthow she got her voice because of
(23:25):
this movement.
Because of this movement, shewas leading a protest and the
police paid a lot of attentionto her because she was a young
Black girl, versus wheneverybody else was grabbing the
mic, and so when she went up andgrabbed the mic, she kind of
felt the full force of all thepolice turn their directions
(23:46):
towards her and she was justreally talking about you know,
and their directions towards her, and she was just really
talking about, you know, being17,.
Little thing, I'm not a threat,but y'all clearly see me as one
.
So how do I understand my ownpower in that way and even being
able to take up space, and howmuch power my voice has, and so
(24:06):
I really liked hers because shetalked about 2020 inciting her
ability to speak, and I justreally liked hers because she
talked about 2020 inciting herability to speak and I just
really think about that on a lotof levels, including a
spiritual and artistic one, sothat was definitely my favorite.
I might have to come back to youon the second one, because I
got lost Just off of that one.
Speaker 3 (24:26):
It makes me think where she is now.
From 2020 to now, like, whattype of work or commitment is
she putting into the movement,you know, after finding her
voice?
Speaker 4 (24:39):
She started her own youth organization actually.
So, yes, she founded, I think,maybe a nonprofit, maybe an LLC.
That's Youth Media Advocatesfor Change and she works with
young people to organize, buildsolidarity and probably to tap
(24:59):
into what she found in thatmoment.
But hers is one of the onesthat we have featured at the
exhibit, because we have 70, butwe're only doing a preview of a
few of them and that's one ofthe ones that we're previewing
with folks okay, and, courtney,did you have an opportunity to
listen to any any of the uhnarratives from this exhibit?
Speaker 1 (25:21):
not in depth, not yet okay.
Speaker 3 (25:24):
so let me flip this on you, ladies.
Okay, um, if you were in thisexhibit and I mean some of you
could have been a part of thesethings in different areas that
was not Los Angeles, but whatwould your narrative be If you
had, even if you could imagineyourself there or when you saw
(25:45):
it, what would your narrative beIf someone asked you to explain
your part during thoseparticular uprisings?
Speaker 1 (25:52):
I'm about to put on some jeopardy.
Yeah, I mean, I know you had tothink about it for a minute.
Speaker 3 (26:00):
Yeah, I'm thinking like even if from a person who
why, you know, I'm watching iton television because the funny
part is, when the uprisings inPhiladelphia and Delaware were
happening, we looking at peoplelooting stores.
You know what I mean and mythought was actually why are we
doing this?
This is not the mission.
(26:20):
If you, if you out there andyour boots on the ground, what
could I have done to kind ofmake, kind of put it on the
forefront, to say this is whyI'm here, not for, not for that,
not for tearing up anything,not for getting any trinkets or
goods.
I'm here to make a statement.
What would that statement be?
This is my thought.
I'll put it back to y'all.
Speaker 1 (26:39):
Yeah, the first word that came to mind was activation
.
That was a moment for intenseactivation.
I had just graduated college in2018 and I was working, and
then everything happened in 2020, shut down wasn't working as
much because I was mostlyfreelancing, and once I had that
(27:00):
time and space, it was just anintense period of educating
myself, because you learn abunch and I had learned a bunch
in college.
But what was happening in realtime was something new, for me
at least, which was seeing moremutual aid pop up and solidarity
that I had never reallyexperienced from an organizing
(27:22):
perspective, and it came withstruggle, I would say.
I was in Chicago, living inPilsen, which is a predominantly
Mexican neighborhood, andaround the time that folks were
looting, folks in Pilsen took itupon themselves to defend, in
air quotes, their Black bytargeting Black people.
(27:43):
And that was a moment where I'mlike, wow, okay, like what we
thought came and left in the 90sis still here and is sort of
like dormant until it'sactivated again, and so what do
we do with that?
And what I saw happen wasmutual aid and solidarity.
Like brown people, who are notabout that Sorry, I cursed, not
(28:06):
about that Stepped in andcreated solidarity networks to
say, hey, if you need to walk tothe grocery store, we're going
to escort you.
In fact, we'll actually justdrop off your groceries.
What do you need?
And like watching theneighborhood, like, hey, don't
go down the street or thatstreet.
So, in the ways that we likecome back to one another.
(28:28):
I was reminded of that, I'd say,in 2020.
And I think that speaks to myvoice and my values.
And it also reminded me likepeople will get what they need.
You mentioned looting and wedon't have to go into it, but I
certainly took that moment tounderstand that people will get
(28:49):
what they need and I can't shamethem for that.
And we can refocus the movementto say, hey, let's get in the
streets and let's align on ourvalues.
But ultimately, people will dowhat they want and get what they
need.
And it speaks to the fracturesin our society to me, more so
than like individual wrongdoing,and that's my personal
(29:12):
perspective.
Speaker 2 (29:13):
In New York City when I seen, like you know, watching
that movement on television andI thought the wonderful part
about that movement is that, youknow, in New York City, because
I guess it's so multiculturalit's the first time I've ever
seen like white people and Blackpeople hand in hand marching
and being real serious.
I don't know how to you knowthe rest of the country might've
been a little bit off, indifferent areas, but New York I
(29:34):
thought it was a beautiful thing.
I was like the first time we'veseen the civil rights movement
and you see sprinkles of whitepeople and stuff like that.
But this movement I saw I waslike, wow, it's a lot of white
people, a lot of Spanish peopleinvolved in this movement and I
thought it was a good thing, itwas a good feeling.
Speaker 4 (29:54):
My question is now what do you feel about this
movement now?
Like, what do you think aboutBlack Lives Matter now?
Yeah, I think that takes in towhat I was going to answer in
terms of 2020.
Child, I had to remember whereI was and what I was doing
before I could answer that, butthat was actually what I was
writing in my notes just now.
It's like as the curator oflike the listening, so I had to
(30:16):
go through and listen to all ofthem and pick which ones are
going to be in the exhibit.
You could kind of see the gapbetween 2020 and where we are
now, and almost like a gap inhope, a gap in the promises that
we made and what we thought waspossible in 2020.
Because in 2020, to me, I hadbeen organizing for a little bit
(30:38):
, so it was dope to see it onthis larger scale.
But it really felt like anopportunity.
It felt like People were.
We were getting rent, like holdson rent, people weren't getting
evicted, we were gettingstimulus checks from the
government, like people wereable to work from home and be
(31:01):
able to have child care andthings like that.
So it seemed like OK, likelet's grab this up and keep it
moving into our future, futureand then, like you said, the
ways that we saw solidarity andpeople kind of start to begin to
understand the world from aBlack person's daily lived
experience, versus now, where Ithink we've been scared into
(31:29):
forgetting, like the promises wemade to each other in 2020 and
the promises we made like as acommunity, like, I think, fear
has stepped in on purpose tokind of dismantle what we
believe is possible and allow usto imagine those things.
And that's what we hope to dowith this exhibition, to be
(31:50):
honest, is to transport, likeCourtney said, people back to a
place and back to a time wherewe thought that more was
possible and available to us.
Speaker 2 (31:58):
So you're trying to pick that energy out?
Yeah, start it all over again.
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (32:02):
Yeah, like make them reflect on what it was that you
stood on the first, in the firstinstance, like right now, you
know, with everything that'sgoing on in the current
political climate and we only inthe first few months, god only
knows where we go from there.
But we should more now probablybe on the same page.
Everybody won't.
Speaker 2 (32:21):
I know you talked about fear, but do you think we
kind of dropped the ball withthe momentum or do you think it
was, like you know, regularsystemic racism falling back in
place and putting things back towhere you know the norm is?
Speaker 4 (32:33):
racism falling back in place and putting things back
to where you know the norm.
Is Y'all making me need to openup my books to prove that I've
been studying child?
I haven't, but I was actuallytalking with Tia, the senior
director of Media 2070, aboutthis.
I think it's probably both andI think you know the systemic
affects the individual and Ithink whenever we have these
(32:57):
movements, we have to get to theroot of things and the root of
it is anti-Blackness.
So, like we have to be honestabout you know how all over the
world, there are systems set upto like, hurt darker skin people
and we call them differentnames, but it's anti-Blackness
and I think that that's whatmakes us as individuals drop the
(33:19):
ball, because we don'tunderstand what it means to then
show up and combat that.
But then, at a systemic level,we were talking about this
theory called white lash, whereit's like every time Black folks
get like these majoraccomplishments or what seem
like they are in a front-facingscale, there's a huge, like this
(33:39):
pendulum swings back the otherdirection to try and push us
back to where we were and likethat's.
I sound like a walking ad forMedia 2070, but Joseph Torres,
the historian on our team talksabout reparations in that
context of reconstruction.
And so right at the end ofslavery, how reconstruction?
(34:02):
We had all these political wins.
We have Black folks gettingland, we have Black folks
leading towns and leading citiesand the backlash to that was
like black holes and Jim Crowand all these things.
And so reparation is part ofthis unfinished promise of
reconstruction.
So I think at the end of theday, it's just too smart.
Speaker 2 (34:28):
That's pretty deep that you said that Cause, when I
think about what you're talkingabout there and I'm like it
seems like every time we take athis huge step forward, it
seemed like it's a gut punchthat brings us back.
Because you know, like thenight Obama got elected,
everybody's like, oh yeah, wow,wow.
You know.
Then now we got Trump, you knowI mean, and then now we get a
(34:48):
female black vice president andyou know we figured Joe's gonna
be, you know, good democraticguy.
I was out there one night andeverybody was, because he was in
delaware and they had their,their little party in delaware.
So I was out there that nightand I was just sitting there
watching and everything likethat.
I was like, okay, this is nice.
And then now the gut punchagain and we got.
(35:08):
It seems like it get worse.
Every time, you know, we take astep forward.
And I'm glad you mentioned that.
Speaker 3 (35:15):
It's going to get worse as we take the step
forward.
Right?
So if you had to be thespearhead of this organization
and say, all right, this is whatwe need to do to move forward
and I know it's a broad questionbecause, again, do we really
know what we need to do to moveforward?
Do we really know what we needto do to move forward?
Like, how would you presentthat to say, look, this is what
(35:38):
we have to do, you know, to getour foot back up there before
they knock it back down?
Speaker 4 (35:42):
I really get this from my coworker, venecia.
We call her, like the pastor onour team because she's always
giving sermons and she kind ofreminds us of the not to get
swayed by the ways of the world.
Innocent, but if I was, if Iwas to tell the people anything,
um, it would be to rely on whatwe know like to rely on what we
(36:05):
know and who we know in theways that we're talking about
mutual aid, about you knowgiving to your neighbor when
they're in need, about havingthese connections so that when
these things do fall around us,we are already strong and we're
already rooted and justbelieving that we know how to do
that, so that we can moveforward with our agenda and with
(36:28):
our culture and with ourknowledge, instead of having to
play whatever game they'replaying.
We focus on our game and we doit well.
That's what I would say.
Speaker 1 (36:38):
To add to that, what I've been hearing in a lot of
different spaces and even withinfree press and media 2070 is
just continuing to repeat thetruth.
Because what I was going to addto the white lash that you were
talking about, diamond, what'scoupled with it now is the
misinformation ecosystem thatwe're in and the way that we're
(37:00):
all inundated with it.
On social media, particularlyplatforms like X, are just
spewing it out, and so whenyou're inundated with that
misinfo, it literally altersyour ability to recall, like
what's true, like your brain hasto do more effort just to
remember oh right, this is real,this isn't.
And so the fact that we're allkind of working overload to even
(37:24):
decipher the truth.
It's our job as storytellersand as organizers and anyone
with a platform to repeat thetruth, name it and just commit
to stating it in different ways,just so we remember it and
fight the inundation of misinfo.
Speaker 3 (37:42):
Just to speak to your point, Courtney, truth is
always kind of suffocated in thespaces of, like you know, X or
even YouTube to some degree.
Speaker 2 (37:51):
It ain't even suffocated, it is no true X is
crazy.
Speaker 3 (37:53):
Yeah, and that's what I was getting ready to get at
is that you know you can put outinformation as good and anybody
who you know knows this notice.
I mean you guys, being in, youknow journalism and all.
You can put out something asinformational, something that's
truthful, something that mighthave someone think, but, however
, it's suffocated by foolishness, because that's the one thing
(38:15):
that's going to get it.
You know the hits, the clicks,the views, the likes or whatever
the case is, and the shares.
Nobody's going to share goodinformation.
Unfortunately, this is where weare with it right now, you know
.
So I totally agree.
Just keep pumping it out asbest as you possibly can and you
know it'll grab the people thatit needs to grab.
Speaker 2 (38:34):
Let me ask you this question too.
I mean because, you know, withBlack Americans I'm going to
throw it out here we have a lotof different African people we
deal with.
You know Caribbean, you knowsome of the African brothers.
Maybe I might be wrong, but Ifeel like we don't really like
be on top of our news like that,like I know that, like my
african brothers and sisters,like they're deep into what's
(38:55):
going on in their country.
They're very, um, you know,informative about what's going
on.
They're very um, into what'sgoing on.
They're supporting what's goingon.
How do y'all feel about youknow here, you know us as
african-american people.
How do y'all feel about ussupporting uh, you know real
news outlets, not like you knowvlad tvs and you know real news
outlets, not like you know blackTVs and you know whatever other
(39:17):
you know urban media that youwant to say.
Speaker 4 (39:19):
That's a great question.
I don't know how I feel aboutus on the whole.
I have to think about it for asecond.
I know there's a couple ofpolls that I could pull from.
That just came out about, likehow black folks taking
information, but I think I canspeak to young people and then I
might be able to speak to likethe older generation too, um,
(39:40):
but I know young people are ontop of it from what I can tell,
um, they just get their news indifferent places than we would
expect, um, and we aren'tnecessarily accounting for that.
Like we, as in the news andjournalism industry.
Like people will be talking badabout TikTok, but kids be
(40:00):
knowing stuff because of TikTok.
I be knowing stuff because ofTikTok and like YouTube, and so
I think that, like the youngerpopulation is more informed than
ever about not only, maybe,what's going on locally but
what's going on globally andlike how what they do impacts
(40:21):
people elsewhere, like there wasa whole.
It wasn't just Black folks inparticular, but I remember when
people are talking about what'sgoing on in the Congo and we
found out that iPhones wereactually like being the things
that would be in mind in theCongo were in iPhones, like all
the youth were like I don't needa new iPhone, like I don't need
(40:42):
a new MacBook and things likethat.
So I think the young peopledefinitely have channels that
allow them to access thatinformation.
And then when we talk aboutelderly people, I don't
necessarily have an answer sohopefully Courtney does.
But like we talk about the waythat CNN be on repeat on their
TVs or how the news be on 24seven and that's kind of what
(41:04):
we're getting out of thegrandma's living room and like
why we do this work, becausesometimes it would be easier to
just like seclude off.
You're like we doing this overhere, we building our own things
, which is important, um, tobreathe life into the people
that are breathing life into ourcommunity.
But at the same time, like wehave grandmas that are watching
cnn.
So how do we make interventionso that that isn't harming them?
(41:27):
Because my grandma be watchingthe news every day, so I know
the older people being forced.
I've been telling her to turn itoff, please.
Speaker 1 (41:35):
I can't hear that so, but I don't know about
everybody else in between, somaybe for me it could be yeah, I
feel like my mom is on a fasttrack to being an elder like
that, just sitting in front ofthe tv.
Um, it's a really good questionand I don't have a perfect
answer, but I think the questionitself speaks to the need for
(41:57):
more media outlets thatrepresent the diversity of what
people look for, what blackpeople look for, because, like,
yeah, you may want a does dopeople want the CNN?
I don't know, but what I'msaying you might want to the
ratings.
Speaker 3 (42:13):
Do people want the CNN?
I don't know, but what I'msaying you?
Speaker 1 (42:14):
might want to the ratings, right, like you may
want something traditional, butyou may want something more
casual, like a Vlad and likethey.
We can get resources for thatand tell better stories in those
platforms.
I don't think we need totogether, right, I'll be like
shifting how we talk aboutthings within those media
(42:36):
outlets.
Speaker 2 (42:37):
Yeah, I think it's kind of important about what she
just said, because I think Iguess with the younger people, I
guess they get the informationin bits and pieces, Like they're
not like sitting down watching.
You know our news outlet, it'sjust like all right, well, we
saw this little short, we got it, you know we're moving on, you
know.
Speaker 3 (42:55):
So that's kind of deep yeah, and also like a lot
of the international outlets too, a lot of people are not paying
attention to, like the you know, the algeciras and things that,
like you mentioned, africandiaspora news and all these
things are like touching, youknow, topics that we don't even
know that is happening here inthe United States, like I was
(43:16):
watching one particular story wetalked about how the people are
gone are the ones that feed theAI, are the ones that plug in
the information for AI.
But the you know, and I say toyou, ladies, as well as the
listeners, please go look upthis documentary that Al Jazeera
did and it showed that theconditions that they deal with
(43:37):
is so horrible, you know, interms of their mental health,
because it's a computer, so whenyou feed in it the information,
they'll say like, well, what'sthis a picture of?
It's a picture of a cat, ok,all right.
Well, what's this a picture of?
A picture of a car?
This is how you feed an AI.
However, now you got a pictureof a dead baby up there.
What's this?
Child pornography, what's this?
(43:58):
And the company that employsthese people don't give them the
proper mental health that theyneed, because after you ingest
all of this horrific stuff.
Now you got to go home to yourwife, your kids, your husband
and all that horrific stuff.
Now you got to go home to your,your wife, your kids, your
husband and all that you know,and they say they're in a space
where they can't even functionmentally and they're not offered
(44:19):
any services.
The services that they'reoffered are go on, go on youtube
and watch some cat videos.
I kid you not, it was twoservice, two, two outlets that
gave it, uh, 60 minutes, did aspecial on it as well as I would
, just so I suggest thateverybody go check that out.
But it's stuff that you did notknow, that this is where it was
coming from and this is whyinternational news is very
(44:42):
important as well.
Ladies, in our final minutestogether, give us your final
thoughts on this particularproject.
If you want to give out, Ishould say, more information in
terms of where people can reach,you know you all, as well as
the project that's going to bepresented on May 2nd, you know,
(45:05):
just promote this thing.
Tell us.
You know, tell us in theaudience, like, what can we do
to kind of help support thecause?
Speaker 4 (45:17):
Yeah, thank you so much.
I had a great time.
These were amazing questions.
If you want to learn more aboutMedia 2070 and Media
Reparations, you can find us atmediareparationsorg.
You'll be able to find me, theessay, all my colleagues, the
discussion guide.
Everything's going to be there.
And then, if you want to learnmore about the LA stop, you can
go to blogfuturenewsstandcom.
(45:38):
You'll be able to find that oneand the past ones that we've
done as well.
Speaker 3 (45:42):
Okay, and Courtney.
Speaker 1 (45:45):
Yeah, if you want to learn more about Free Press,
visit freepressnet or Free PressAction on all platforms.
The Reparative Journalism videoseries is actually on the Free
Press YouTube channel, so please, please, watch that if you
haven't.
And thank you so much, okay.
Speaker 3 (46:01):
And, again, we could stretch this conversation as
long as we could possiblystretch it, but you know time is
time.
So again, I want to thank you,diamond, as well as Courtney,
really enjoyed the conversation,really enjoyed the conversation
, and you know the platform isopen anytime you guys have
(46:24):
something you want to report.
We really appreciate you both.
All right, so now we're goingto give our little pertinence.
All right, all right Again,thank you, ladies.
Thank you, and the Only One Mikepodcast is available on all
major platforms.
You stream your podcasts on.
Also, check out our Only OneMike podcast YouTube channel and
(46:44):
you can watch our past episodes, current episodes.
Don't forget to hit the likebutton, subscribe to the show,
share it.
Also, you can check us out onInstagram and X.
That's cesspool.
We call X at the Only One MikeP1.
Facebook and LinkedIn at theOnly One Mike Podcast.
You can also contact us viaemail at theonlyonemike00 at
(47:08):
gmailcom or call us at302-367-7219 to have your
comments and questions played onthe show.
We thank you once again, ladies, for your time and, as always,
we encourage you to speak thetruth quietly and clearly and
listen to others, even the dulland ignorant, because they too
(47:28):
have their story to tell.
So until next time, please keepin mind, if you never had to
run from the Ku Klux Klan, thenyou shouldn't have to run from a
black man.
Peace.
Brothers and sisters.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
Give me a moment with you, friend.
I've never been up to mythoughts before.
Speaker 3 (00:23):
Welcome to the only one-night podcast called Gerard
and Brooklyn Drake, joined byour special guest sisters
Diamond Hardiman of Media 27 andCourtney Morrison of Free Press
, here to discuss the Riot toRepair Soundscape exhibition
presented by Media 27's BlackFuture Newsstand.
How you doing, ladies?
(00:43):
Doing well, all right, okay,doing good.
Speaker 4 (00:45):
Happy Doing well.
All right, okay, doing good.
Happy to be here.
Speaker 3 (00:48):
All right, that's good.
So listen, before we get intoit.
We're going to talk about theRiot to Repair Soundscape
exhibition.
We want you to introduceyourselves to our audience.
We want to start with you,diamond, you know.
Let them know what yourbackground is.
We're working with Media 2070.
I have all your information.
(01:08):
Like I tell people all the time, I have your information right
here.
I can read your jacket righthere.
But I want you to be able totell your story to our audience,
and then we'll jump intoCourtney's story, and then we'll
jump into what we're here for,which is Riot to Repair.
Speaker 4 (01:24):
So go ahead, diamond tell us who you are?
Thank you so much.
That's a great opening question.
My name is Diamond Hardimanpronouns are she hers?
I am the Director of RepairativeNarrative and Creative Strategy
with Media 2070.
And so what that means is thatI work in the world of art and
(01:45):
culture to build narrativestrategies to transform society.
So how do we use our video,visual production like film, and
these installations like theone that we're talking about
today, to talk about theproblems in the world and what's
going on around us and then toimagine new futures?
(02:05):
So that's what I do with Media2070 is thinking about how can
we imagine the world on theother side of 2070, on the other
side of media reparation?
My background is in organizing,so I used to do housing
organizing, abolition organizing, and what I found is that story
and media is kind of thecentral line between a lot of
those things.
(02:26):
It connects to the people we'reorganizing with and what they
believe is possible.
It connects to us as organizersand what's possible in the
policy space, because thestories that we tell and the
media that gets told about thethings that we're doing kind of
sets the ceiling for what'spossible.
So that's where I'm coming fromand that's what I try to
incorporate into my work.
Speaker 3 (02:46):
And speaking of your work, you advocated for the
elimination of cash bail in StLouis, and I know this is not
the topic.
However, I was like, once yougot on here, I had to discuss
that with you, you know, and askyou a question what was that
like, working in that particularspace?
Speaker 4 (03:13):
And was there any turnaround in it?
Did you see any changes forcash reform, cash bail reform?
Yes, that was a minute ago inmy past life, in like 2018.
So don't quote me on thespecifics, but that was one of
those first places where I sawthis three pronged strategy of
narrative.
And so the place I worked atwas the Bail Project.
They're like a national orgthat has different setups in
each city and we bail people out, we put up funds and then we
(03:35):
give them resources in the cityfor folks that have just got out
.
And then we worked with thisplace called Arch City Defenders
, which is a legal org to kindof get through the legal
processes of you know why isthere cash bail in the first
place?
Because, especially in St Louis, in St Louis, a lot of people
are locked up for parkingtickets because of the way that
(03:56):
their parking ticket systemworks, the way that their
registration works for cars.
A lot of people are gettingwarrants for their arrest just
because they can't pay theirregistration fees for their cars
.
And then they're getting lockedup in this place called the
workhouse for 60, 90, 120 days,and the conditions in there are
terrible.
(04:16):
They're horrible no airconditioning, just violations of
everybody's rights, and so wewere kind of attacking all of
those things the jail, gettingpeople out of it immediately,
but also this longer termstrategy.
And that was definitely reallyinteresting in terms of seeing
the disconnects between thedifferent institutions in the
(04:37):
city, how we were kind of havingto hold that like why isn't
this org about jobs talking tothis org about housing?
But it was nice that peoplewere were holding that and
creating those webs for people.
As of today, the workhouse, Ithink, is actually on schedule
for demolition and so theorganizers which was Action St
(04:59):
Louis is like the organizerbehind it they did a lot of work
over a lot of years to, youknow, lift up the kind of abuses
that were going on in there, totalk about the ways that how,
if you're in jail just for 30days, how you can lose your job,
how you can get evicted, howthat messes up things in your
life, especially as black womenwith children, the kind of
(05:19):
effects it was having on mothers, on mothers.
So it was definitely a learningcurve that was when I was a
young organizer to see all thosethings.
But that jail is getting closed.
I can't speak for cash bail.
I know that there has been somereform in cash bail, but I know
even in forum conversations Ihad when I lived in Chicago for
(05:40):
a minute in Illinois recentlyhad like a cash bail campaign go
on and the media jumped on itLike corporate media jumped on
it with this misinformationabout what it means to bail
people out and you know whypeople even get put in jail in
the first place.
Speaker 2 (05:59):
There's been a couple of states that's been trying to
reform that whole situation.
Have you heard any state thatactually able to approve no cash
bail?
I think I thought I heardsomething like that One of those
states that actually havepulled it off where they don't
have cash bail.
Speaker 4 (06:12):
I think it might have gone through in Illinois.
Don't quote me I might be wrong, but I think it might have went
through Illinois and theefforts that we did in St Louis,
I think those did go through.
And the efforts that we did inSt Louis, I think those did go
through.
But then what ended uphappening is the judges kind of
did a backdoor thing.
So whatever we had set as apolicy legally whether it was
(06:34):
like this amount or this type ofoffense you could get bailed
out or you couldn't require cashbail.
Then the judges kind of wentaround it and just started
assigning stuff to everybody sothat they couldn't take access
or take control of that.
But I'm sure there are examplesof them.
I just don't know.
I'm sorry.
Speaker 1 (06:53):
I can recall that happening in Chicago.
Folks were pushing for it,especially around 2020.
More organizing happeningaround that time, so I can
recall a movement towardspushing for the end of cash bail
, and I believe we weresuccessful on some level.
I don't know if it wasstatewide, though, but Chicago
has definitely seen movementtowards that.
Speaker 2 (07:12):
Yeah, I think even Delaware was doing something
simple, like I don't think theywas putting you in jail for
traffic offenses Well, they were, but I think it was like a
weekend, like they had you onlike a weekend warrior schedule,
like you would work a a regularweekend.
Then you had to sign in thejail on the weekend or something
like that, you know, fortickets, parking tickets and
different things like that.
I think that was the case anddefinitely I know it was for
(07:33):
like drink drive, drunk drivingor any kind of offense like that
, you know, whereas you didn'thurt somebody, or something like
that, yeah, like bailing outmurderers and releasing back
into society and some peopleshould be in jail oh yeah, yeah,
yeah, I'm an advocate of thatTotally with that Destroying the
community.
Speaker 3 (07:48):
Yeah, you know you're a threat to the community,
definitely.
All right, and so, courtney,now on to you.
Okay, and can you tell us aboutyour work with Free Press?
Speaker 1 (08:05):
Again, I have your jacket up here, but I want you
to speak to our audience and letus know.
Yeah, of course.
So, yeah, my name is CourtneyMorrison, pronoun she.
They and I work for Free Press,an organization that advocates
for better policies around mediaand technology, and with them I
do creative content work.
So I'm strategizing around allthe creative for everything that
goes out, because largely ourcommunications are digital.
(08:26):
So working with different teamsto bring projects and campaigns
to life, one of those beingMedia 2070, working with them to
produce the Black Futurenewsstand and all the materials
that go with it.
My background lies infilmmaking and photography and I
found my way into marketingjust by way of necessity, being
(08:46):
a freelancer and just having towear multiple hats, and so,
along the way, I've reallydeveloped a, I'd say, value
around centering Black, queerand trans voices in everything
that I do, whether it's anexperimental documentary or a
photo series or something likean exhibit.
So that's the practice that Ibring to this work.
Speaker 3 (09:10):
All right, ok, so now we're going to jump into the
Black Futures Newsstand Riot toRepair Soundscape exhibition,
and that's going to be on May2nd of this year, 2025, in Los
Angeles, california.
Can you touch on what theexhibit is?
How did it come about, like theorigins of it, and what was the
(09:34):
?
What is the hope of theexhibition when presented to the
public?
Speaker 4 (09:38):
Yeah, I can jump in first and give a little
background.
So Black Future Newsstand is aconcept that Media 2070
premiered a couple years ago inHarlem, where we built a
life-size newsstand and filledit with Black media Black zines,
black magazines and Blacknewspapers with this question of
(10:01):
what does a media that lovesand cares for Black people
actually feel like?
And so we built this structureso that people could step into
it.
And so, since Harlem, we'vebeen to Austin, we've been to
Chicago and now we're going toLA and we're doing a different
rendition of it, where we'restill centering around how do
(10:21):
you step into this future wheremedia reparations exist, where
Black people are able to controltheir stories all the way from
ideation through the creation ofit and all the way out into
distribution?
And so this is just a play onthat history of Black future
newsstand, and what's specialabout this one is that we have
the Right to Repair CommunityArchive, and so we work with
(10:45):
Charlotta Bass, journalism andJustice Lab at USC and Dr Alyssa
Richardson to create an archiveof over 70 interviews of folks
from LA about their experiencesof 2020 and what it was like
being present during theuprisings and after the death of
(11:07):
George Floyd.
And so what we did is we mergedthese worlds of what is a media
that holds our stories welllook like, and we took that into
practice with those studentsand let them tell those stories
with those people.
And in LA, what we're going tobe doing is exhibiting them in a
multimedia exhibit for peopleto touch, see, hear all the
(11:27):
things, a full sensoryexperience of what we believe is
possible and inevitable for us.
Speaker 3 (11:34):
Hearing you describe it is kind of and I know it's
two different categories, butit's kind of likened to how the
9-11 museum was in New York,into how the the um, the 9-11
museum was in new york and theway that that was immersive and
more where you can go to.
This is just why I'm visioningit in my head.
You can go to a section whereyou hear people talk about their
experiences during thatparticular thing.
(11:54):
It was like individualexperiences also, um, things
that were displayed thathappened during that time, like
you might see a person's walletor something.
I mean, it's not the same exactthing, but the way that I'm
envisioning it is like havingsomebody sitting in front of
that camera and telling theirstory, or maybe having something
that was a representation ofwhat happened on that particular
(12:17):
day, whether it be a sign orsomething like that.
But that's just the way I wasenvisioning it.
And, courtney, what can youspeak to this?
What do you?
Can you explain to the audienceabout this exhibit?
Speaker 1 (12:30):
Absolutely.
I was going to say I can helpyou envision it even further
because we took a lot of time toreally adapt how people would
move through the space, whichwas really exciting for me
because we have all thesedifferent interviews that
Diamond has taken the time todigest and make sense of, to
then identify themes for theexhibit.
But as you're moving through it, we wanted people to feel like
(12:53):
it's something like tactile andit feels like something that
people can relate to.
We wanted to take people to aplace ultimately in this exhibit
, and where we're taking peopleis a grandmother's living room.
Everybody knows that feeling oflike going to grandma's house,
sitting on the couch, eatingsome food and having a good
conversation with your family,cackling, you know, sharing
(13:16):
stories.
Like creating that nostalgicfeeling of warmth but also
tension too.
Like hard conversations come up.
Who knows what's on the TV atthe time, whether it's a news
station giving a report onsomething that now we're all
reacting to.
Whatever comes of that being inthe space is kind of what we
wanted to recreate and givepeople an intimate experience as
(13:40):
they're navigating it, becauseone we can all relate to being
in a grandmother's living roomor a family living room.
But then the other element islistening to the interviews as
you're navigating the space,which we aim to do with
headphones.
So it'll be like a silent discoexperience where you have your
headphones on and you can switchchannels to hear, oh now I'm
(14:03):
listening to this on this topic,or now I'm listening to a
soundscape, to have people kindof have like a choose your own
adventure experience.
So yeah, that's kind of how wewant people to move through it.
Speaker 2 (14:17):
What are you interested?
Well, I want to know what youladies think about, like the
current state of Black media orurban media.
I mean, which term do you evenlike?
Do you of black media or urbanmedia?
I mean, which term do you evenlike?
Do you like black media orurban media?
Which term do you prefer?
Speaker 4 (14:28):
I like black media, capital B black media, because I
know urban media is the onethat most people use, you know.
Speaker 2 (14:37):
So I was just wondering and what do you think?
What are your ideas on thestate of what's going on right
now?
Speaker 4 (14:42):
Yeah, I can speak to that a little bit and then,
courtney, you can jump in if youfeel so.
I actually wasn't trained as ajournalist.
So, like I said, I come fromorganizing and then I'm an
artist, so I'm a storyteller inthat way.
But being in this field andtalking with journalists and
building relationships andcoalitions with them, it is
(15:03):
definitely precarious.
Time is what I would say,particularly when we think about
funding.
But what we say at Media 2070is the way that they set up the
media system has always made itprecarious for us.
The way that they have fundedus since the beginning, the way
(15:26):
that they have divested from ourknowledge, from the impact the
cultural and social impact thatour newspapers have had, from
the straight up theft, or theways that, like we even have
examples in the media 2070 essayof them burning down Black
newspapers.
So, even though that this is avery precarious time where you
(15:49):
know journalists are beingthreatened for telling the truth
, black journalists, blackpeople, black communities have
tools to know how to movethrough this time, because we've
done it before and we haveunderstood what it means to work
in community with one anotherand to have newspapers and press
(16:15):
and media that's actuallygrounded and rooted and then
supported by the people aroundit, so that it isn't as subject
to the whims of the governmentand thing.
Speaker 1 (16:27):
Yeah, totally 100% to what Diamond's saying.
Everybody's talking about thedeath of journalism, and it may
be true, and I think there is apublic media crisis happening
and folks can read all about itthrough free press, and I think
in this moment there's anopportunity to change the media
(16:48):
landscape, to finally centerBlack voices Going to look at
the media system and say thatthere's a problem and it's
failing.
The solution should be in whohas been left behind and left
out the whole time, like that'swhere we start.
So I do see this as anopportunity to rebuild from a
(17:08):
place where we're listening toBlack, brown, indigenous voices
first and laying a frameworkfrom there, because owning our
narrative will always berelevant, like in all of history
.
Owning our narrative as Blackpeople and changing the
landscape to center us willalways be relevant, and so we're
always going to have to pushfor the need for resources to
(17:30):
tell our own stories so thatwe're not waiting or letting
someone else do that for us,right.
Speaker 3 (17:36):
And I'm glad that you mentioned that, because even
the way that this exhibit is youknow you're describing this
exhibit when we watched theuprisings in 2020 and we seen
that I mean from us, from ourperspective as African Americans
, and all we've seen thereasoning for it, the reasoning
why it was done.
If you kind of probably goacross town and you look at it
(17:59):
from a white person'sperspective, it's just like, oh,
these guys are just destroyingtheir own neighborhoods and all
of that.
And it's good with that exhibitthat you give people the
opportunity to tell that story,to just not have us all be
looked at as you know, for lackof better terms savages.
That's just looking for areason to burn something down.
(18:20):
You know what I mean.
And this is kind of like, evenwhere you see the current
administration and the way thatthings are handled with
different, with people ofdifferent cultures.
You know I always say thattrain is not always going to
come back to us eventually, youknow.
I mean.
So, um, how can we like goingforward, like even if you say
urban media youtube is a bigspace, a lot of people out here,
(18:43):
they, you know their boots onthe ground with these type of
situations like.
So how would I mean, how can wedo this without putting
ourselves in a negative light?
If you get what I'm saying like, how can, how can the average
person get in here and do theirboots on the ground journalism
without showing all the negativeaspects and kind of putting
(19:04):
that up front?
You know what, what?
What would you suggest in thisspace?
Speaker 4 (19:09):
that's a great question.
I'm gonna um do a plug herebecause we did a reparative
journalism discussion guide.
So courtney and I worked on awith our other co-worker chain.
We did a three-part videoseries of reparative journalism
and it kind of looks at it atthese different levels of what
is it at a structural level?
(19:30):
But then what does it also justlook like from an everyday
black journalist to practice it?
And in that discussion guide wehave activities and questions
that get at what does it looklike for an everyday person to
do that?
So I have a few answers rattledaround in my head, but I think
the one that's coming up for meright now is giving context in
my head.
But I think the one that'scoming up for me right now is
(19:51):
giving context.
Like you said when certain newsmedia was discussing what was
happening in 2020 or in 2016 orin 2012,.
They're not telling the wholestory.
They're not telling the arc,the root of where these problems
come from.
So, as everyday people, whenwe're going to look to tell
stories, let's make sure that weunderstand the arc that it
plays within.
(20:11):
Where is the context?
What happened before you got tothis story?
What may happen after you leavethis story and then for me,
something about reparativejournalism is also always just
honoring being a storyteller,like it is very valuable for
somebody to sit with you andtalk with you and give you a
story.
(20:32):
And so how do we act ascaretakers of that and how do we
act as stewards of that?
And I think you know we call itin the space, we call it
citizen journalism, where, like,the everyday person takes
journalism tools and puts theminto community, takes journalism
tools and puts them intocommunity.
And now that we have, like yousay, youtube, we have iPhones,
(20:52):
we have TikTok, a lot of peopleare doing acts of journalism and
we talk about that within theexhibit and Dr Alyssa Richardson
also has a book about thatcalled Bearing Witness While
Black, and just thinking aboutthe ways that, how Black people
sit with one another, how Blackpeople are in community and can
(21:12):
continue to build community withone another, is how we do that
journalism that's preparativeand healing.
Speaker 2 (21:20):
Are we taking more like a worldview or is it more
like going to be like anAfrican-American thing?
What do you focus on?
The reason why I ask that isbecause recently I was turned on
this African diaspora news andI think I kind of liked it
because it was like not justfocusing on issues that we have
here in America, it was focusingon issues abroad.
So I was just wondering whatyou guys take on that.
Speaker 4 (21:41):
Courtney, you want to hop in or you want me to hop in
?
Speaker 1 (21:43):
I think you can speak to the video series.
Well, I was thinking about thesecond video.
Were we on the same page there?
Speaker 4 (21:51):
You had a better idea than me, I don't know.
But now I want to hear aboutthe second video.
Speaker 3 (21:56):
Yeah, let's go ahead.
Speaker 4 (21:58):
Tell them, Courtney.
Speaker 1 (21:59):
Tell them.
The second video highlights afew different reparations
movements across the countryLand Back reparations in South
Africa and the Truth Commissionsprocess that they went through.
Land back reparations in SouthAfrica and the truth commissions
process that they went through.
And reparations in the US forBlack folks.
And in doing that work we'reshowing folks how other people
(22:20):
have approached reparations, togive us the tools to think about
how we would go about that inthe media landscape.
And that's one way I'd say thatwe're reaching broader um to
draw the line between, likewhat's happening here locally
connects to across the worldmovements that are happening
okay.
Speaker 3 (22:38):
So what I also wanted to ask was we can have like
over 70 some was it 70narratives for, um, this
particular project that you did,and and if you could tell, if
you can pull this back out yourmental Rolodex, was there one
particular story or maybe twoparticular stories that might've
stood out from the 70 that youdid?
(22:59):
That says like wow, I did notknow this.
Speaker 4 (23:04):
Yeah, today was a great day to ask me that,
because I was in them todaytrying to put together a run, a
show.
There's this one by a 17 yearold, tiana, that really speaks
to me and she's talking abouthow she got her voice because of
(23:25):
this movement.
Because of this movement, shewas leading a protest and the
police paid a lot of attentionto her because she was a young
Black girl, versus wheneverybody else was grabbing the
mic, and so when she went up andgrabbed the mic, she kind of
felt the full force of all thepolice turn their directions
(23:46):
towards her and she was justreally talking about you know,
and their directions towards her, and she was just really
talking about, you know, being17,.
Little thing, I'm not a threat,but y'all clearly see me as one
.
So how do I understand my ownpower in that way and even being
able to take up space, and howmuch power my voice has, and so
(24:06):
I really liked hers because shetalked about 2020 inciting her
ability to speak, and I justreally liked hers because she
talked about 2020 inciting herability to speak and I just
really think about that on a lotof levels, including a
spiritual and artistic one, sothat was definitely my favorite.
I might have to come back to youon the second one, because I
got lost Just off of that one.
Speaker 3 (24:26):
It makes me think where she is now.
From 2020 to now, like, whattype of work or commitment is
she putting into the movement,you know, after finding her
voice?
Speaker 4 (24:39):
She started her own youth organization actually.
So, yes, she founded, I think,maybe a nonprofit, maybe an LLC.
That's Youth Media Advocatesfor Change and she works with
young people to organize, buildsolidarity and probably to tap
(24:59):
into what she found in thatmoment.
But hers is one of the onesthat we have featured at the
exhibit, because we have 70, butwe're only doing a preview of a
few of them and that's one ofthe ones that we're previewing
with folks okay, and, courtney,did you have an opportunity to
listen to any any of the uhnarratives from this exhibit?
Speaker 1 (25:21):
not in depth, not yet okay.
Speaker 3 (25:24):
so let me flip this on you, ladies.
Okay, um, if you were in thisexhibit and I mean some of you
could have been a part of thesethings in different areas that
was not Los Angeles, but whatwould your narrative be If you
had, even if you could imagineyourself there or when you saw
(25:45):
it, what would your narrative beIf someone asked you to explain
your part during thoseparticular uprisings?
Speaker 1 (25:52):
I'm about to put on some jeopardy.
Yeah, I mean, I know you had tothink about it for a minute.
Speaker 3 (26:00):
Yeah, I'm thinking like even if from a person who
why, you know, I'm watching iton television because the funny
part is, when the uprisings inPhiladelphia and Delaware were
happening, we looking at peoplelooting stores.
You know what I mean and mythought was actually why are we
doing this?
This is not the mission.
(26:20):
If you, if you out there andyour boots on the ground, what
could I have done to kind ofmake, kind of put it on the
forefront, to say this is whyI'm here, not for, not for that,
not for tearing up anything,not for getting any trinkets or
goods.
I'm here to make a statement.
What would that statement be?
This is my thought.
I'll put it back to y'all.
Speaker 1 (26:39):
Yeah, the first word that came to mind was activation
.
That was a moment for intenseactivation.
I had just graduated college in2018 and I was working, and
then everything happened in 2020, shut down wasn't working as
much because I was mostlyfreelancing, and once I had that
(27:00):
time and space, it was just anintense period of educating
myself, because you learn abunch and I had learned a bunch
in college.
But what was happening in realtime was something new, for me
at least, which was seeing moremutual aid pop up and solidarity
that I had never reallyexperienced from an organizing
(27:22):
perspective, and it came withstruggle, I would say.
I was in Chicago, living inPilsen, which is a predominantly
Mexican neighborhood, andaround the time that folks were
looting, folks in Pilsen took itupon themselves to defend, in
air quotes, their Black bytargeting Black people.
(27:43):
And that was a moment where I'mlike, wow, okay, like what we
thought came and left in the 90sis still here and is sort of
like dormant until it'sactivated again, and so what do
we do with that?
And what I saw happen wasmutual aid and solidarity.
Like brown people, who are notabout that Sorry, I cursed, not
(28:06):
about that Stepped in andcreated solidarity networks to
say, hey, if you need to walk tothe grocery store, we're going
to escort you.
In fact, we'll actually justdrop off your groceries.
What do you need?
And like watching theneighborhood, like, hey, don't
go down the street or thatstreet.
So, in the ways that we likecome back to one another.
(28:28):
I was reminded of that, I'd say,in 2020.
And I think that speaks to myvoice and my values.
And it also reminded me likepeople will get what they need.
You mentioned looting and wedon't have to go into it, but I
certainly took that moment tounderstand that people will get
(28:49):
what they need and I can't shamethem for that.
And we can refocus the movementto say, hey, let's get in the
streets and let's align on ourvalues.
But ultimately, people will dowhat they want and get what they
need.
And it speaks to the fracturesin our society to me, more so
than like individual wrongdoing,and that's my personal
(29:12):
perspective.
Speaker 2 (29:13):
In New York City when I seen, like you know, watching
that movement on television andI thought the wonderful part
about that movement is that, youknow, in New York City, because
I guess it's so multiculturalit's the first time I've ever
seen like white people and Blackpeople hand in hand marching
and being real serious.
I don't know how to you knowthe rest of the country might've
been a little bit off, indifferent areas, but New York I
(29:34):
thought it was a beautiful thing.
I was like the first time we'veseen the civil rights movement
and you see sprinkles of whitepeople and stuff like that.
But this movement I saw I waslike, wow, it's a lot of white
people, a lot of Spanish peopleinvolved in this movement and I
thought it was a good thing, itwas a good feeling.
Speaker 4 (29:54):
My question is now what do you feel about this
movement now?
Like, what do you think aboutBlack Lives Matter now?
Yeah, I think that takes in towhat I was going to answer in
terms of 2020.
Child, I had to remember whereI was and what I was doing
before I could answer that, butthat was actually what I was
writing in my notes just now.
It's like as the curator oflike the listening, so I had to
(30:16):
go through and listen to all ofthem and pick which ones are
going to be in the exhibit.
You could kind of see the gapbetween 2020 and where we are
now, and almost like a gap inhope, a gap in the promises that
we made and what we thought waspossible in 2020.
Because in 2020, to me, I hadbeen organizing for a little bit
(30:38):
, so it was dope to see it onthis larger scale.
But it really felt like anopportunity.
It felt like People were.
We were getting rent, like holdson rent, people weren't getting
evicted, we were gettingstimulus checks from the
government, like people wereable to work from home and be
(31:01):
able to have child care andthings like that.
So it seemed like OK, likelet's grab this up and keep it
moving into our future, futureand then, like you said, the
ways that we saw solidarity andpeople kind of start to begin to
understand the world from aBlack person's daily lived
experience, versus now, where Ithink we've been scared into
(31:29):
forgetting, like the promises wemade to each other in 2020 and
the promises we made like as acommunity, like, I think, fear
has stepped in on purpose tokind of dismantle what we
believe is possible and allow usto imagine those things.
And that's what we hope to dowith this exhibition, to be
(31:50):
honest, is to transport, likeCourtney said, people back to a
place and back to a time wherewe thought that more was
possible and available to us.
Speaker 2 (31:58):
So you're trying to pick that energy out?
Yeah, start it all over again.
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (32:02):
Yeah, like make them reflect on what it was that you
stood on the first, in the firstinstance, like right now, you
know, with everything that'sgoing on in the current
political climate and we only inthe first few months, god only
knows where we go from there.
But we should more now probablybe on the same page.
Everybody won't.
Speaker 2 (32:21):
I know you talked about fear, but do you think we
kind of dropped the ball withthe momentum or do you think it
was, like you know, regularsystemic racism falling back in
place and putting things back towhere you know the norm is?
Speaker 4 (32:33):
racism falling back in place and putting things back
to where you know the norm.
Is Y'all making me need to openup my books to prove that I've
been studying child?
I haven't, but I was actuallytalking with Tia, the senior
director of Media 2070, aboutthis.
I think it's probably both andI think you know the systemic
affects the individual and Ithink whenever we have these
(32:57):
movements, we have to get to theroot of things and the root of
it is anti-Blackness.
So, like we have to be honestabout you know how all over the
world, there are systems set upto like, hurt darker skin people
and we call them differentnames, but it's anti-Blackness
and I think that that's whatmakes us as individuals drop the
(33:19):
ball, because we don'tunderstand what it means to then
show up and combat that.
But then, at a systemic level,we were talking about this
theory called white lash, whereit's like every time Black folks
get like these majoraccomplishments or what seem
like they are in a front-facingscale, there's a huge, like this
(33:39):
pendulum swings back the otherdirection to try and push us
back to where we were and likethat's.
I sound like a walking ad forMedia 2070, but Joseph Torres,
the historian on our team talksabout reparations in that
context of reconstruction.
And so right at the end ofslavery, how reconstruction?
(34:02):
We had all these political wins.
We have Black folks gettingland, we have Black folks
leading towns and leading citiesand the backlash to that was
like black holes and Jim Crowand all these things.
And so reparation is part ofthis unfinished promise of
reconstruction.
So I think at the end of theday, it's just too smart.
Speaker 2 (34:28):
That's pretty deep that you said that Cause, when I
think about what you're talkingabout there and I'm like it
seems like every time we take athis huge step forward, it
seemed like it's a gut punchthat brings us back.
Because you know, like thenight Obama got elected,
everybody's like, oh yeah, wow,wow.
You know.
Then now we got Trump, you knowI mean, and then now we get a
(34:48):
female black vice president andyou know we figured Joe's gonna
be, you know, good democraticguy.
I was out there one night andeverybody was, because he was in
delaware and they had their,their little party in delaware.
So I was out there that nightand I was just sitting there
watching and everything likethat.
I was like, okay, this is nice.
And then now the gut punchagain and we got.
(35:08):
It seems like it get worse.
Every time, you know, we take astep forward.
And I'm glad you mentioned that.
Speaker 3 (35:15):
It's going to get worse as we take the step
forward.
Right?
So if you had to be thespearhead of this organization
and say, all right, this is whatwe need to do to move forward
and I know it's a broad questionbecause, again, do we really
know what we need to do to moveforward?
Do we really know what we needto do to move forward?
Like, how would you presentthat to say, look, this is what
(35:38):
we have to do, you know, to getour foot back up there before
they knock it back down?
Speaker 4 (35:42):
I really get this from my coworker, venecia.
We call her, like the pastor onour team because she's always
giving sermons and she kind ofreminds us of the not to get
swayed by the ways of the world.
Innocent, but if I was, if Iwas to tell the people anything,
um, it would be to rely on whatwe know like to rely on what we
(36:05):
know and who we know in theways that we're talking about
mutual aid, about you knowgiving to your neighbor when
they're in need, about havingthese connections so that when
these things do fall around us,we are already strong and we're
already rooted and justbelieving that we know how to do
that, so that we can moveforward with our agenda and with
(36:28):
our culture and with ourknowledge, instead of having to
play whatever game they'replaying.
We focus on our game and we doit well.
That's what I would say.
Speaker 1 (36:38):
To add to that, what I've been hearing in a lot of
different spaces and even withinfree press and media 2070 is
just continuing to repeat thetruth.
Because what I was going to addto the white lash that you were
talking about, diamond, what'scoupled with it now is the
misinformation ecosystem thatwe're in and the way that we're
(37:00):
all inundated with it.
On social media, particularlyplatforms like X, are just
spewing it out, and so whenyou're inundated with that
misinfo, it literally altersyour ability to recall, like
what's true, like your brain hasto do more effort just to
remember oh right, this is real,this isn't.
And so the fact that we're allkind of working overload to even
(37:24):
decipher the truth.
It's our job as storytellersand as organizers and anyone
with a platform to repeat thetruth, name it and just commit
to stating it in different ways,just so we remember it and
fight the inundation of misinfo.
Speaker 3 (37:42):
Just to speak to your point, Courtney, truth is
always kind of suffocated in thespaces of, like you know, X or
even YouTube to some degree.
Speaker 2 (37:51):
It ain't even suffocated, it is no true X is
crazy.
Speaker 3 (37:53):
Yeah, and that's what I was getting ready to get at
is that you know you can put outinformation as good and anybody
who you know knows this notice.
I mean you guys, being in, youknow journalism and all.
You can put out something asinformational, something that's
truthful, something that mighthave someone think, but, however
, it's suffocated by foolishness, because that's the one thing
(38:15):
that's going to get it.
You know the hits, the clicks,the views, the likes or whatever
the case is, and the shares.
Nobody's going to share goodinformation.
Unfortunately, this is where weare with it right now, you know
.
So I totally agree.
Just keep pumping it out asbest as you possibly can and you
know it'll grab the people thatit needs to grab.
Speaker 2 (38:34):
Let me ask you this question too.
I mean because, you know, withBlack Americans I'm going to
throw it out here we have a lotof different African people we
deal with.
You know Caribbean, you knowsome of the African brothers.
Maybe I might be wrong, but Ifeel like we don't really like
be on top of our news like that,like I know that, like my
african brothers and sisters,like they're deep into what's
(38:55):
going on in their country.
They're very, um, you know,informative about what's going
on.
They're very um, into what'sgoing on.
They're supporting what's goingon.
How do y'all feel about youknow here, you know us as
african-american people.
How do y'all feel about ussupporting uh, you know real
news outlets, not like you knowvlad tvs and you know real news
outlets, not like you know blackTVs and you know whatever other
(39:17):
you know urban media that youwant to say.
Speaker 4 (39:19):
That's a great question.
I don't know how I feel aboutus on the whole.
I have to think about it for asecond.
I know there's a couple ofpolls that I could pull from.
That just came out about, likehow black folks taking
information, but I think I canspeak to young people and then I
might be able to speak to likethe older generation too, um,
(39:40):
but I know young people are ontop of it from what I can tell,
um, they just get their news indifferent places than we would
expect, um, and we aren'tnecessarily accounting for that.
Like we, as in the news andjournalism industry.
Like people will be talking badabout TikTok, but kids be
(40:00):
knowing stuff because of TikTok.
I be knowing stuff because ofTikTok and like YouTube, and so
I think that, like the youngerpopulation is more informed than
ever about not only, maybe,what's going on locally but
what's going on globally andlike how what they do impacts
(40:21):
people elsewhere, like there wasa whole.
It wasn't just Black folks inparticular, but I remember when
people are talking about what'sgoing on in the Congo and we
found out that iPhones wereactually like being the things
that would be in mind in theCongo were in iPhones, like all
the youth were like I don't needa new iPhone, like I don't need
(40:42):
a new MacBook and things likethat.
So I think the young peopledefinitely have channels that
allow them to access thatinformation.
And then when we talk aboutelderly people, I don't
necessarily have an answer sohopefully Courtney does.
But like we talk about the waythat CNN be on repeat on their
TVs or how the news be on 24seven and that's kind of what
(41:04):
we're getting out of thegrandma's living room and like
why we do this work, becausesometimes it would be easier to
just like seclude off.
You're like we doing this overhere, we building our own things
, which is important, um, tobreathe life into the people
that are breathing life into ourcommunity.
But at the same time, like wehave grandmas that are watching
cnn.
So how do we make interventionso that that isn't harming them?
(41:27):
Because my grandma be watchingthe news every day, so I know
the older people being forced.
I've been telling her to turn itoff, please.
Speaker 1 (41:35):
I can't hear that so, but I don't know about
everybody else in between, somaybe for me it could be yeah, I
feel like my mom is on a fasttrack to being an elder like
that, just sitting in front ofthe tv.
Um, it's a really good questionand I don't have a perfect
answer, but I think the questionitself speaks to the need for
(41:57):
more media outlets thatrepresent the diversity of what
people look for, what blackpeople look for, because, like,
yeah, you may want a does dopeople want the CNN?
I don't know, but what I'msaying you might want to the
ratings.
Speaker 3 (42:13):
Do people want the CNN?
I don't know, but what I'msaying you?
Speaker 1 (42:14):
might want to the ratings, right, like you may
want something traditional, butyou may want something more
casual, like a Vlad and likethey.
We can get resources for thatand tell better stories in those
platforms.
I don't think we need totogether, right, I'll be like
shifting how we talk aboutthings within those media
(42:36):
outlets.
Speaker 2 (42:37):
Yeah, I think it's kind of important about what she
just said, because I think Iguess with the younger people, I
guess they get the informationin bits and pieces, Like they're
not like sitting down watching.
You know our news outlet, it'sjust like all right, well, we
saw this little short, we got it, you know we're moving on, you
know.
Speaker 3 (42:55):
So that's kind of deep yeah, and also like a lot
of the international outlets too, a lot of people are not paying
attention to, like the you know, the algeciras and things that,
like you mentioned, africandiaspora news and all these
things are like touching, youknow, topics that we don't even
know that is happening here inthe United States, like I was
(43:16):
watching one particular story wetalked about how the people are
gone are the ones that feed theAI, are the ones that plug in
the information for AI.
But the you know, and I say toyou, ladies, as well as the
listeners, please go look upthis documentary that Al Jazeera
did and it showed that theconditions that they deal with
(43:37):
is so horrible, you know, interms of their mental health,
because it's a computer, so whenyou feed in it the information,
they'll say like, well, what'sthis a picture of?
It's a picture of a cat, ok,all right.
Well, what's this a picture of?
A picture of a car?
This is how you feed an AI.
However, now you got a pictureof a dead baby up there.
What's this?
Child pornography, what's this?
(43:58):
And the company that employsthese people don't give them the
proper mental health that theyneed, because after you ingest
all of this horrific stuff.
Now you got to go home to yourwife, your kids, your husband
and all that horrific stuff.
Now you got to go home to your,your wife, your kids, your
husband and all that you know,and they say they're in a space
where they can't even functionmentally and they're not offered
(44:19):
any services.
The services that they'reoffered are go on, go on youtube
and watch some cat videos.
I kid you not, it was twoservice, two, two outlets that
gave it, uh, 60 minutes, did aspecial on it as well as I would
, just so I suggest thateverybody go check that out.
But it's stuff that you did notknow, that this is where it was
coming from and this is whyinternational news is very
(44:42):
important as well.
Ladies, in our final minutestogether, give us your final
thoughts on this particularproject.
If you want to give out, Ishould say, more information in
terms of where people can reach,you know you all, as well as
the project that's going to bepresented on May 2nd, you know,
(45:05):
just promote this thing.
Tell us.
You know, tell us in theaudience, like, what can we do
to kind of help support thecause?
Speaker 4 (45:17):
Yeah, thank you so much.
I had a great time.
These were amazing questions.
If you want to learn more aboutMedia 2070 and Media
Reparations, you can find us atmediareparationsorg.
You'll be able to find me, theessay, all my colleagues, the
discussion guide.
Everything's going to be there.
And then, if you want to learnmore about the LA stop, you can
go to blogfuturenewsstandcom.
(45:38):
You'll be able to find that oneand the past ones that we've
done as well.
Speaker 3 (45:42):
Okay, and Courtney.
Speaker 1 (45:45):
Yeah, if you want to learn more about Free Press,
visit freepressnet or Free PressAction on all platforms.
The Reparative Journalism videoseries is actually on the Free
Press YouTube channel, so please, please, watch that if you
haven't.
And thank you so much, okay.
Speaker 3 (46:01):
And, again, we could stretch this conversation as
long as we could possiblystretch it, but you know time is
time.
So again, I want to thank you,diamond, as well as Courtney,
really enjoyed the conversation,really enjoyed the conversation
, and you know the platform isopen anytime you guys have
(46:24):
something you want to report.
We really appreciate you both.
All right, so now we're goingto give our little pertinence.
All right, all right Again,thank you, ladies.
Thank you, and the Only One Mikepodcast is available on all
major platforms.
You stream your podcasts on.
Also, check out our Only OneMike podcast YouTube channel and
(46:44):
you can watch our past episodes, current episodes.
Don't forget to hit the likebutton, subscribe to the show,
share it.
Also, you can check us out onInstagram and X.
That's cesspool.
We call X at the Only One MikeP1.
Facebook and LinkedIn at theOnly One Mike Podcast.
You can also contact us viaemail at theonlyonemike00 at
(47:08):
gmailcom or call us at302-367-7219 to have your
comments and questions played onthe show.
We thank you once again, ladies, for your time and, as always,
we encourage you to speak thetruth quietly and clearly and
listen to others, even the dulland ignorant, because they too
(47:28):
have their story to tell.
So until next time, please keepin mind, if you never had to
run from the Ku Klux Klan, thenyou shouldn't have to run from a
black man.
Peace.
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