Coming home: The Monitor 8-3-23

BY CHRISTINA NORRIS

When the Birmingham Association of Black Journalists President Carla Wade relocated to Birmingham from Las Vegas in 2020, she didn’t realize that NABJ had chosen Birmingham as the convention site for 2023.

Steve Crocker, the former president of BABJ, was a part of the team that lobbied for years to bring the convention to the city, along with the current Treasurer, Roy S. Johnson. Crocker says the board’s decision to select Birmingham - a deviation from larger cities usually selected - for the convention was “God’s timing” along with affordability, the city’s progress, and, most importantly, its Civil Rights history.

“We can’t forget our ties to history,” said Crocker. “There are so many people who are still walking around who were integral parts of major moments of the Civil Rights movements of the ’60s.”

Wade, a transplant from Nevada, said a lot of African Americans in the West and Northeast have roots in the South.

“So they felt like this was a kind of a way of bringing those people back to kind of where a lot of their origins are from,” she said.

Although she is newer to the BABJ chapter, Wade was and still is excited to work with the NABJ convention committee and help convention attendees return to their roots. She says the NABJ board is BABJ’s “biggest cheerleader” in the planning process.

“Anytime we’ve had a question, anytime we’ve needed support, they have been like, beyond helpful,” Wade said. “I don’t think even as a host chapter if you really want to put your best foot forward, you can’t possibly do it without the support of the board of directors.”

Convention co-chairs Tia Mitchell and Glenn Rice are empowering the NABJ Task Forces not only to meet their members’ programming needs but also to reflect on Birmingham’s history.

Jump to page 4

NABJ elections heat up: Who’s running and why

Former Children

COMING HOME TO BIRMINGHAM

NABJ conference puts Black journalists in touch with Southern roots

PHOTO BY EDI H. DOH, NABJ MONITOR

Page 9

Crusaders recall brutal 1963 protest

Page 3

Dalia Colon, executive producer and host of the “Zest” podcast, smiles in a conversation during the career fair in Birmingham Alabama.

THE NABJ MONITOR

2023 STAFF

CAYLA CADE

LENTHEUS CHANEY

ALYSSA COOPER

MAIYA CREWS

EDI DOH

CASSANDRA DUMAY

COURTNEY HANCOCK

SHANAÉ HARTE

GRANT HINES

JASMINE FRANKLIN

KAYA FREEMAN

DEANNA GILES

SHANAÉ HARTE

GEORGE HOWARD IV

ASAR JOHN

ZOIE LAMBERT

MYA NICHOLSON

CHRISTINA NORRIS

TOLU OLASOJI

ELIJAH PITTMAN

CHARLENE RICHARDS

SYDNEY ROSS

MALEIKA STEWART

KATHRYN STYER MARTINEZ

ELAINA WHITE

CARLTON WIGGINS

KHENEDI WRIGHT

ELEAZAR YISRAEL

HUNGRY? 12 NEARBY HOT SPOTS FOR GOOD EATS

UPTOWN CANTINA

2301 Richard Arrington Jr. Blvd. N. Unit 200

Price Range: $11-$30

A five-minute walk

MUGSHOTS

GRILL & BAR

SOUTHERN KITCHEN + BAR

2301 Richard Arrington Jr Blvd N #300

Price Range: $11-$30

A three-minute walk

TODD ENGLISH P.U.B.

2221 Richard Arrington Jr Blvd N

Price Range: $8-$27

A three-minute walk

TEXAS DE BRAZIL

2301 Richard Arrington Jr Blvd N

Price Range: $31-$50

A four-minute walk

2311 Richard Arrington Jr Blvd N #100

Price Range: $11-$30

A two-minute walk

FIFE’S RESTAURANT

2321 4th Ave N

Price Range: Under $10

A 14-minute walk

K & J’S ELEGANT PASTRIES

2260 9th Ave N

Price Range: $10-25

A one-minute walk

Price Range: $11-$30

BY SYDNEY ROSS

SANTOS COFFEE

2100 Richard Arrington Jr Blvd N

Price Range: $3-$32

A three-minute walk

BAMBOO ON 2ND

2212 2nd Ave N

Price Range: $11-$30

A 16-minute walk

PIZZA GRACE

2212 Morris Ave Suite 105

Price Range: $11-$30

a 21-minute walk

CONVENTION HIGHLIGHTS

• Artificial Intelligence - It’s Impact on Our Industry, Our Newsrooms and Our Jobs

9:00 a.m. CDT

Birmingham Ballroom - Sheraton

• 10 Million Names, Plus

Free Family History

Discovery Sessions

10:30 a.m. CDT South G - BJCC

THE NABJ MONITOR

Former crusaders recall

led to the enactment of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

BY CHARLENE RICHARDS

When a call to action for Black children to march against segregation and unfair treatment in educational spaces and public facilities began in Birmingham, students skipped school in numbers, catching rides, running and walking to meet up at 16th Street Baptist Church.

“We left school to participate in the Civil Rights movement,” Paulette Roby, a Children’s Crusader, told the NABJ Monitor.

This year, Birmingham commemorates the 60th anniversary of the Children’s Crusade, in which thousands of Black children skipped school and marched hand in hand from Kelly Ingram Park to protest for their freedom and civil rights.

The efforts of these children, which were accompanied by horrific images that captured children being attacked by police dogs and officers, being knocked off their feet by high-pressure water hoses and put in jail for their presence, brought sympathy and attention to the landmark Civil Rights Act, which was signed into federal law and enacted in 1964.

A number of these children who gathered the courage and passion 60 years ago are still alive today, many continuing their fight by educating younger generations and encouraging activism and civic engagement for racial justice and equality.

Gwendolyn Sanders Gamble, Paulette Roby and Janice Kelsey recently talked with NABJ Monitor about their actions and hopes for the future..

“This was a fight for humanity, not just a fight for Blacks,” Gamble, a retired Birmingham Public Schools educator, said.

“When we were marching, it never hit me that we were making history because that wasn’t what it was all about for me at the time. I wanted a change, and I wanted to see a change because of the things I had experienced even at 15 years old.”

Growing up in the Jim Crow era was not easy for Black children as a result of segregation and racial disenfranchisement. Black children did not have freedom like their white counterparts.

They couldn’t attend schools with white children and received limited education resources in segregated schools with out-

dated textbooks and supplies. Black families couldn’t eat at restaurants or even sit in community parks.

The church filled up with determined students who sang freedom songs, helped with signs and learned from civil rights leaders James Luther Bevel, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King and the Rev. Frederick Shuttlesworth about non-violent strategies, Roby said.

“I was willing to put my life on the line along with others who were attacked by the police commissioner at the time, Eugene ‘Bull’ Connor,” Gamble said. “We were faced with dogs, with the water hoses and so many other traumatic things that you couldn’t imagine.”

As students protested, police officers flung their batons and released dogs, and many students were arrested and taken to jail or the Fair Park Arena, where they were isolated as a form of punishment.

“I remember getting at least a block away from 16th Baptist Church, and they loaded all of us in a school bus,” Roby said. “I was one of those they took over to Fair Park Arena, not only an amusement park but it was also used for livestock. They left us out there--it was raining. Those freedom songs really got me over, I can say.”

Janice Kelsey, a high school student who had been arrested during the protests, also recounted the memories of her efforts that

“It means a lot to me because I reflect on the feelings I had 60 years ago to right some of the wrongs that had been put upon me.” Kelsey said. “I still feel that we have not overcome. We’ve made progress but not sufficient progress. I’m happy to be here and I’m happy to see the changes that have occurred, but I think we need to be mindful that the job is not done.”

The efforts of thousands of children crusaders in 1963 have prompted a ripple effect that transcends time today and recognizes that the work is not done.

In 2013, President Barack Obama honored a tragedy that happened four months after the Children’s Crusade — a racially motivated church bombing in Birmingham, Alabama, that claimed the lives of four Black girls who were attending Sunday school. He honored the girls with the Gold Congressional Medal.

Many participants of the Children’s Crusade in 1963 are still fired up to this day with endless passion and determination. Roby continues her fight for justice as the director of the Civil Rights Institute, located across the street from the 16th Street Baptist Church, where students gathered. Voter registration and collaborating with businesses, churches and schools are ways she ensures that the legacy continues in the magic city of Birmingham.

“I will continue to serve this organization and continue to teach and reach back and make sure that the younger generation understand how important it is for them to vote,” Roby said. “Voting is a must and we must continue to educate our community about the process of voting and that’s what this organization is about.”

the day Alabama children left school and made history

60 years later, these elders continue their fight for racial justice and voter engagement

Walter Gadsen, upper left photo, is attacked by police dogs May 3, 1963, in Birmingham in a photo that ran on the cover of the New York Times. Terry Collins, left, and Janice Kelsey pushed the nation’s conscience in 1963 with the Children’s Crusade,

“This

was a fight for humanity, not just a fight for Blacks. … I wanted a change.”

AP Photo/Bill Hudson, File

Photo by Edi Doh | NABJ Monitor

GWENDOLYN SANDERS GAMBLE FORMER CHILDREN’S CRUSADER, RETIRED BIRMINGHAM PUBLIC SCHOOLS EDUCATOR

Jump from page 1

“We worked really hard on making sure that no matter what type of journalist you are, whether you’re print or broadcast or digital, no matter what your beat is, no matter whether you’re a student or early career or mid-career or late career, whether you’re an educator or a manager, we really want to make sure there was programming for everybody,” Mitchell said.

To them, an NABJ Convention means returning to a sense of friendship and family.

“You know, I’ve been a member for close to 35 years, and you get to see faces that you know, that you haven’t seen in quite some time,” Rice said.

Mitchell is always surprised by who she sees.

“You can’t keep track of who was coming and not coming on any given year,” she said. “But you’ll be walking down the hallway, and you’ll see someone you haven’t seen in forever, or like you might not have seen someone but hear a scream and a squeal, and someone has made a connection with someone they haven’t seen.”

Birmingham also offers proximity for the many NABJ members who live in the South, and it is less expensive than some bigger cities, Mitchell said.

“I’m hoping this year there are there will be a lot of people who either it’s their first convention in a while, or maybe their first convention ever, but having it in a city that’s a little bit more accessible and a little bit more affordable has allowed them to come to have that NABJ experience for themselves,” Mitchell said.

Not only are NABJ and BABJ working together to host this convention, but the city of Birmingham is helping through sponsorships and recommendations for visitors, such as the 16th Street Baptist Church and the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute.

Wade is aware that most people not from the South view Birmingham through the black-and-white lens of the Civil Rights Movement and the horrors that occurred there.

“We wanted people to get a chance to experience the new Birmingham that has so many Black entrepreneurs, the Birmingham that’s led by an African American mayor, and I think at one time the police chief and fire chief were both African Americans,”

Wade said. “I mean, there are major companies here that are headed up by African Americans. And I think that’s something that a lot of people just aren’t aware of.”

Wade also thinks there’s a place for Black journalists in “The New Birmingham.”

“As a Black journalist, I’ve gotten to do stories here that I have pitched for years in other newsrooms, and never -- you know, those stories got shut down,” she said. “The majority of our audience is white. They don’t care about that. So, I do think that there’s definitely a lot of support for black journalists in this market.”

Janet Pugh, a weekend morning producer for WBRC FOX 6 News in Birmingham, is excited to attend her first convention in the city where she works.

“For it to be in Birmingham, in my home city, like I said, it feels like I’m right in my backyard learning everything I can about the world,” she said.

University of Alabama student Kenneth Kelly said it’s an opportunity for him and his friends to make a convention.

“With it just being an hour up the road from campus,” he said. “It gives a lot of our students and members at our NABJ student chapter the opportunity to come in.”

Near right, a conference attendee talks on the phone outside the exhibit hall while friends pose for a picture in the background. Right center, Lena Pringle in green, an anchor at WISH-TV in Indianapolis, embraces Aleesia Hatcher ofWJXT-TV in Jacksonville, Florida. Far right, Karen Gray Houston, Craig Melvin of the “Today Show” and Sharon Stevens pose for a photo.

“We can’t forget our ties to history,”

STEVE CROCKER FORMER PRESIDENT OF NABJ

KATHRYN STYER MARTINEZ, NABJ MONITOR

Left photo, Brenae Seals, right, from California State University reacts after Natasha Thomas of Scripps News does her makeup Wednesday at the NABJ Career Fair in Birmingham, Alabama. Below top, Tekella Foster, left, and Natalie Bailey, middle, help a conference attendee find his destination. Below center, Mandala Louissaint, WVTM13,Brittany Dionne, WBRC Fox6 News, and Java Ingram of Tampa chat.

CASSANDRA DUMAY, NABJ MONITOR

KATHRYN STYER MARTINEZ, NABJ MONITOR

PHOTO BY EDI H. DOH, NABJ MONITOR

EDI H. DOH, NABJ MONITOR EDI H. DOH, NABJ MONITOR

Black-owned Art Gallery a Symbol of Representation

Born and raised in Birmingham, Willie Williams Jr. represents the resilience and milestones Black people and Black art have faced in the South.

“In the art world, for the most part, black artists have been the most underrepresented,” Williams said. “But also when it comes to ownership, not just of art collections, but of art spaces, that’s been a rarity, given our history in the art world in general.”

Studio 2500, Williams’ gallery, is at 26th Ave in Birmingham.

Williams, 27, claims to be Alabama’s first and only Black art gallery owner. Bill Dooley, Associate Professor of Art at the University of Alabama and director of Sarah Moody Gallery of Art said Williams’ gallery is the only black-owned art gallery of record in the state.

PHOTOS AND TEXT BY ELEAZAR YISRAEL

From left to right (clockwise): Featured art piece at Studio 2500; Williams welds together pieces of a unfinished trophy for NABJ awards ceremony; Williams looks up through the cracks of a abandoned building, Williams holds “Heavy the Crown” art piece in hand; Willie Williams Jr. poses, stands outside art gallery; Williams’ intern showcases piece. Tuesday, August 1, 2023, in Birmingham, Alabama. (NABJ Monitor/ Eleazar Yisrael)

NABJ Board Meeting Review: 2024 Chicago Convention, Finances and Kathleen McElroy

BY ELIJAH PITTMAN

BIRMINGHAM, AL – Board members gathered at the Birmingham-Jefferson Convention Complex ahead of the 2023 National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) conference on Tuesday, where they discussed the 2024 Chicago convention, finances and membership among other things.

NABJ Executive Director Drew Berry said the organization’s acting executive director made the choice to not have the joint convention between the two groups in Chicago in 2024, expressing the desire to celebrate the NAHJ 40th convention alone.

Due to ongoing legal matters, Berry stated that he could not go into details regarding NAHJ’s choice.

“NABJ is going to be in Chicago, and we [will] put on an incredible show,” Berry said. “NAHJ had signed a contract in Holly-

wood, now that means they’ve got two contracts going on there [and] we’re not going to absorb the cost alone.”

“[In ] 2021 NABJ had $4.4 million in revenue; in the same year, NAHJ had about half of that,” Berry said.

“We’re strong; we’re very strong.”

NABJ’s convention in Birmingham is expected to clear in excess of $700,000, according to Berry, while the 2022 Las Vegas joint convention had only $301,817 in surplus.

Berry also presented the board with the statistics of membership increase for this year’s convention. He stated that the 2023 convention would be the third-highest-attended convention and would be expected to surpass the 2017 numbers from New Orleans.

“Our membership is at 4,236 and growing,” Berry said. “Okay. I’ll put it in per-

spective; we are 34 away from a record membership. Stay tuned, and we’ll probably get it at this conference.”

Dr. Syb Brown, the academic representative for NABJ, briefly mentioned the Texas A&M hiring scandal involving prominent journalist Kathleen McElroy.

McElroy was offered a tenured professor position at Texas A&M’s School of Journalism, but due to her literary work on race relations, the offer was met with pushback by anti-DEI groups. The pushback led to the university reducing the offer to an “atwill” professor position for one year, which McElroy rejected.

Brown said NABJ backed down from getting involved in the matter due to McElroy saying she’s in the middle of a legal situation.

“So she said, stand down, I will let you know when I need you,” Brown said.

Brown cited a key piece in the article, which stated that Texas would conduct a systemic analysis of all hirings completed under diversity, equity, and inclusion or affirmative action initiatives. She added that if they let all of those people go, it would cause a “firestorm.”

The board also unanimously voted on a motion that approved the proposal to change the name of the Greater St. Louis Association of Black Journalists to the National Association of Black Journalists, St. Louis.

The meeting concluded with the mentioning of food trucks that would be available to convention-goers and a free concert on Sunday, Aug. 6.

Sydney Ross contributed to this report.

Board members gather for a group photo after the NABJ board meeting Tuesday.

Photo by Edi H. Doh/NABJ Monitor

MEET THE CANDIDATES WHO WANT TO

The final candidates forum is 2-4 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 3. Voting continues online through 5 p.m. Friday, Aug. 4.

BY CHARLENE RICHARDS

LEAD NABJ Anderson: NABJ needs to work for more people

BY LENTHEUS CHANEY

Presidential candidate Tre’vell Anderson says they are running to better serve more NABJ members.

“They’re freelancers, they’re independent journalists, they’re queer people, they’re trans people, they are younger people,” Anderson said. “I really felt like who better than me to try to bring some of that change to the organization [that] I’ve seen up close.”

Anchor/Investigative

“Being

Director/Production Manager CNN/Warner Bros.

“I’m doing this because I have a passion for helping people … I know what these local chapters and task forces need.”

to navigate.”

University of North Texas

Denton, Texas

“I love hearing people’s voices. I believe that everyone deserves to have a voice.”

Anderson, the first trans person to run for the seat, joined as an NABJ member nine years ago and is now a lifetime member. They have served as the Region IV Director (West Coast) for three years and chaired the LGBTQ+ Task Force since 2017.

Anderson wants to increase NABJ resources to make them more available to freelance journalists.

“I thought to myself, ‘What would it look like if I was president, right, to be able to prioritize those types of folks in our membership while still maintaining all of the work that we do for everyone else who we work so well for as an organization,’” Anderson said. “Especially now with so many layoffs happening, more and more members are going to be forced to be independent journalists.”

Lemon reaching out to new generations

BY LENTHEUS CHANEY

Ken Lemon, NABJ vice president of broadcast, is facing a younger candidate in Tre’vell Anderson, but he feels confident in his appeal to the next generation of journalists entering the field.

“Well, I do it every day.” Lemon said. “I’m with students at North Carolina A&T University. I’m with students at South Carolina State University. I’m with the Emerging Journalists Summit talking to them.

“I have worked with young journalists all of my life, since I started in this business,” he said.

Currently serving his second term as NABJ vice president of broadcast, Lemon joined NABJ 16 years ago. He is the current deputy chair of the broadcast task force and chair of Black Male Media Project.

High Point, N.C.

“If we can get Gen Z interested in the news and possibly get them in our industry working that would be amazing.”

Lemon also emphasizes his advocacy work with ESPN, the National Football League and the Golden Globes to promote diversity and inclusion in media.

“That’s the history that I do on a national level, even more on the local level, helping people in individual circumstances and most recently working in a situation with a young woman who had a racial slur yelled at her while covering the story,” Lemon said.

CANDIDATES FOR PRESIDENT

TRE’VELL ANDERSON

CANDIDATES FOR STUDENT REPRESENTATIVE

CANDIDATES FOR VP-DIGITAL

Los Angeles

“I think [my] experience allows me to lead in a very different way, in a more compassionate way.”

Chief Imagination Officer, Slayzhon

VICE PRESIDENT - BROADCAST

Charlotte, N.C.

engaged in working with young journalists is a key, not just helping them.”

Reporter, WSOC-TV

VANCE LANG

New York

“One of my main goals is working with the digital team to make the website a little more fluid

Director/Production Manager CBS News

AMIR VERA Los Angeles

ANTHONY COUNCIL

GRANT HINES

High Point University

ALEX PERRY Northwestern University

KEN LEMON

WALTER SMITH RANDOLPH, Investigative Editor & Director of the Accountability Project Connecticut Public Broadcasting, Hartford, Connecticut

SECRETARY

MADISON CARTER

Journalist WSOC-TV Charlotte, N.C.

REGION III DIRECTOR

EVA D. COLEMAN Lifestyle & Culture Editor Messenger Media LLC Charlotte, N.C.

AND LENTHEUS CHANEY

Photos courtesy NABJ

Oregon artist embraces her complex Black and Native American identity Starks works against white supremacy, lateral oppression

BY KATHRYN STYER MARTINEZ

Amber Starks, 42, owns three pairs of roller skates; her favorites are blue suede with turquoise flowers. When she glides around on eight wheels, she says, she skates in a dancey kind of way she adapted from her brother’s swaggy style.

“Roller skating is like my go-to. I love to roller skate,” said Starks, who was born in the ’80s and thinks she might have learned to walk and skate at the same time.

What she loves about skating is how connected it makes her feel to her Blackness.

Starks says at times, she has felt like she was not Black enough and sometimes, not Mvskoke enough.

Now, Starks is trying to dismantle what she calls internalized boundaries that separate her Black and Indigenous identities, things that might cause a person with intersecting identities to feel not enough.

“Like, if you didn’t grow up on the rez, you’re not Native. …That’s a very singular narrative,” she said. “Or if you grew up in the suburbs and not the ’hood, you’re not really Black.”

Starks says she wants it to be OK to exist in multiple identities, but when it comes to being Black and Native, “There are a plethora of identities and plethora of lived experiences.” She wants them all to be enough. She wants other Black Native people to feel enough.

Starks is a community advocate and artist. Since the pandemic, she works to create space for herself and others to embrace their Black Native identities through art.

A core aspect of her work is pushing back on lateral oppression within communities of color, conflating community identity with a singular experience.

While useful in helping communities create a shared connection, she said,

“Those shared experiences don’t have to exclude other people who are also from your community but experienced oppression in a different way.

“My hope is that we’ll find a way to shift that projection and do work that sets us all free and doesn’t create boundaries.”

Skating is an escape from that serious thinking. When Starks is skating, she said, “I don’t think of any of this stuff. I tell people that all the time...I’m not thinking about sovereignty, liberation, none of that. All I’m thinking about is rollerskating to my favorite songs and just being present in the moment.”

Born in Los Angeles, Starks moved with her family to Portland, Oregon, at age 10 where she still lives today. Growing up in Portland was a struggle, she said, but there was enough of a Black community to make her feel comfortable, safe and seen.

“I’m so very glad to be Black,” she said. Still she struggled.

Being seen is part of what Starks’ work is all about. She is an enrolled member of the Mvskoke Nation and a descendant of Cherokee, Shawnee, Quapaw and Yuchi communities. Her work affirms her Black, Native and Black Native identities. Her hope is that others will feel affirmed as well.

“I do work that I hope makes room and space for people whose background is both Black and Native and or Black or Native,” said Starks.

Starks said she regularly asks herself what it means to be Black and Native.

There were times when she said she didn’t know if she was allowed to be both Black and Native. She is both but she didn’t grow up in Mvskoke culture. She said it was expensive for her parents to take the whole family to Oklahoma to visit their Native family.

But she has always known where she

comes from.

“I come from two great peoples, both who have identities outside of our oppression outside of colonialism and white supremacy but have often been shaped by the trauma of both of those very real projects,” Starks said.

The federal government forced Native Americans from their homelands across the eastern and southern regions of Alabama and Georgia in the 1830s in order to cultivate their homelands. The Indian Removal Act signed by Andrew Jackson forced Choctaw, Creeks (Mvskoke) Chickasaw and Seminole to Oklahoma in what’s known as the Trail of Tears.

“I think about how my Mvskoke ancestors were forced off of our traditional homelands in Alabama and Georgia,” she said, “... and then my Black ancestors are displaced from Africa and forced on the middle passage onto the lands of my Native ancestors, right, and how that very real violence has affected both of us.”

Starks said she feels like the personification of her parents, “not only hopes and dreams, but fortitude and resistance and willingness to see themselves as worthy of being free, right? Worthy of being more than just defined by the systems.”

Starks reluctantly identifies as an artist. Her work challenges and tries to dismantle white supremacy, settler colonialism and racial capitalism, she says. On Instagram, that looks like an image taken in outer

space of stars, nebulae or galaxies and a message overlaying the image.

Her handle “Melanin Mvskoke” on social media is an embrace of her identities but also a way to stay safe from internet trolls, she said in an interview on the “All My Relations” podcast.

Her content is pro-Black, pro-Indigenous and pushes a discourse of dismantling white supremacy and lateral oppression.

From July 28 to Sept. 2, Starks will be part of the “Black History IS History” exhibit at the Multnomah Art Center in Portland.

Starks’ piece will be a self-portrait with a poem, “Little One, Black and Red,’’ overlapping the image. The portrait wears a red and black earring she beaded with accents of iridescent silver beads around the edge.

She shared a passage with NABJ Monitor.

“And though your two peoples come from [a] continent separated by oceans and currents, distance and chance, languages and customs, they are united in you by destiny and purpose.

“Remember, Little One, Black and Red, your existence is as important as the heart’s beat and the lungs’ breath. As the sun’s rays and the moon’s beams. As yesterday’s hope and tomorrow’s prayer.

“So be brave little one! Know that you never have to hide who you are, take sides, or abandon either of your peoples.”

The exhibit celebrates Black artists in Oregon, and they’re given free rein.

Starks hopes her piece will help Black Native American people give themselves permission to exist fully as both Black and Native and Black Natives, as she has given herself permission.

“Being Black and Native, is an honor for me. There’s so much potential in that identity for me, right,” said Starks. She adds that she’s no longer skeptical of who she is, if she’s enough of either. But even still, she said she struggles with being Black.

“In a white supremacist world, I struggle with what it means to be Black and who gets to define that, right? But I don’t let the systems define me. I let my peoples and cultures and my histories and my future define me.”

To learn more about the Multnomah Art Center exhibit in Portland, go to www. multnomahartscenter.org/gallery/

Meet WBD’s Early Talent Team

Birmingham, AL | August 2-6

Your future starts here at WBD. Come by and talk to us about our Internship and CNN News Associate Program at the NABJ Convention and Career Fair.

Taylor Mazzarella Early Talent Recruiter

Tyler Crowe Early Talent Recruiter

Gaby Bermudez Early Talent Recruiter