On Sept. 21, Coloradans joined in for a two-hour panel discussion and community conversation centered on the newly-released report, ‘The time is right now:’ A call to action from Black Coloradans for anti-racist and just local news. The report came out of the Black Voices working group, led by Diamond Hardiman, project manager for News Voices: Colorado — a collaboration among the Colorado News Collaborative (COLab), Colorado Media Project and Free Press. The working group, made up of Black leaders, storytellers, journalists, funders and community members, focused on how to improve access to trustworthy news and information for Black residents throughout the state and sought tangible ways for communities, philanthropy and newsrooms to acknowledge and address the harms — historic and ongoing — local media coverage has inflicted on Black communities.
The event was moderated by COLab’s Tina Griego and featured the following panelists:
- Ammiee Brown, (formerly) AmeriCorps Vista, Open Media Foundation: Brown (she, her, hers) graduated from Centenary College of Louisiana in 2016 with a major in mass communication: film/TV/video and a minor in psychology.
- Diamond Hardiman, manager for News Voices: Colorado: Hardiman (she, her, hers) manages the News Voices: Colorado project. She has worked as a tenants’ rights advocate and abolitionist.
- Gloria Neal, director of public affairs for the mayor of Denver: Neal (she, her, hers) is a former TV-news anchor and reporter, a columnist, a radio reporter on NewsRadio 850 KOA, talk-show host, and the host of UC Health’s The EVRE Woman’s Podcast.
- Tiya Trent, Project VOYCE program facilitator: Trent (she, her, hers) is a community activist, organizer, mentor and mother to two young men.
View the event here:
To join the Colorado Black Voices Working Group or to receive more information about this work, click here.