{ our cover story } BY CHERYL KATES-BENMAN I PHOTOS BY LUSH LIGHT PHOTOGRAPHY
ynette ad
we are our brot
To speak with her about her job as a News 10-NBC news reporter and anchor was fascinating. With each bat of her eyes, the sparkle shone through someone who is hedonistically content with the place she created for herself as a journalist. Let’s face it, Lynette Adams is a woman who has been reporting live through our televisions for the past 25 years, in the limelight, as a local celebrity. This wasn’t my first time sitting down with Ms. Adams, except the last time she was the interviewer asking me about local parolee issues, so I already knew what I am now sharing with you. This is definitely a woman who cares about our community.
The Unspoken Word Leads To The Truth. As a fellow fashionista, I don’t know if I was more impressed with Lynette Adams in her choice of her outfit which was fantabulous or the unrushed 4 hour interview and lunch we shared. One truth rang throughout: Lynette Adams is real and she genuinely cares about her community. Some of us drag ourselves to work every day clocking in hoping the day quickly passes until it’s clock out time. We do this day-in and day-out because we’re adults and we need our paycheck on Friday to do the adult thing, pay bills. Only a select few of us love what we do, look forward to going to work, and use our work to help people. Lynette Adams is definitely one of those people.
So often, as Americans we sit glued to our televisions nightly after dinner begging for entertainment. A pretty face, well-dressed to a T, gorgeous smile, upto-date hair styles, and flawless make-up; a small fraction of the true essence of Lynette Adams, a wife, mother, pioneer, an activist, a role model for youth and a phenomenal woman. Lynette hits the streets in the sun, rain and snow, on location, in the trenches and often at less than pleasurable locations dealing with highly emotional issues. Not everyone is someone she likes and just some are people you work to move mountains for. She is often first on the scene, capturing the moments, the raw emotions and the first
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look at things we need to know about what’s happening in our community. Sometimes it’s paying tribute to someone who deserves recognition for their courage, commitment and work in the community and other times it is to capture the grief of a mother who lost her child to senseless violence. All day, every day it is something important Lynette shares with all of us. She goes beyond and in every report she gives, she gives a little piece of herself. When asked: “What is the most important aspect of being a reporter in the Rochester community?”
Lynette impressed even me by the genuine and thoughtful answer; “One story can ruin someone’s life. These aren’t just words”. To recognize the responsibility a journalist has to report the truth and know often at times the truth may not always set everyone free becomes a large burden to bear. To be objective at all times, fair, unbiased despite the personal feelings one has is not an easy thing to do.
Rochester, New York was not always the place Lynette called home. She is actually a Syracuse native. At age 14, Lynette left Central New York to begin schooling just outside of Philadelphia at a historically black boarding academy for young men and women. It is here that she began to develop her sense of self as an African-American and as a woman and developed some of the skills and characteristics that she uses in her job every day, like recognizing the need for assertiveness; a deepseeded self-confidence and an unrelenting urge to seek the truth. She has also experienced the ugly face of racism and remembers waking up to crosses burning on the front lawn of her school campus. After graduating, Lynette left the east coast altogether settling in for her next four years in Huntsville, Alabama, again attending an HBC (historically black college). Lynette wanted to be a lawyer, the voice for the underdog. After three years of school, however, Lynette decided she no longer wanted to be in school. She majored in communications and then added business