Who else is really bad at taking their own advice?
This is my last official week as a student. This Friday the 18th of December, I graduate from the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism with my MA in Social Journalism.
I’ve never heard anything crazier.
I’m not sure if I didn’t realise how serious this all was during the application process, but, now that we’re leading up to it, I truly cannot believe it.
I joined the J School in 2019 because I had no idea who or what I wanted to do or be. I knew that I loved speaking, writing and people, but I didn’t really know what that mean’t. I attended an all girls Catholic high school where anything that wasn’t super academic or super sporty didn’t exist. It wasn’t until I attended University for my Bachelor’s degree that I realised that loving speaking, writing and people could be a full time thing. But, it wasn’t until I read the description of the Newmark school’s Social Journalism program that I truly realised. Kind of like finally reaching an inch on your back.
I come from Johannesburg, South Africa. South Africa has a very violent history that lingers through the air to this day. Don’t get me wrong, SO much has been done and there, but the people who were being ignored in 1992 are the same people that are being ignored in 2020. My interest in journalism and rooting for the underdog started there. Everything I do and have done is simply building on that.
Anyway, when I came to the J School I decided relatively early on that my love for Black women wouldn’t allow me to work with anyone else. My previous work and interests lay very clearly with Black Trans women, and once that decision was made, I hit the ground running.
With the help of one of my lecturers, I started scouring the internet for spaces that Black trans women (BTW) would frequent. This was Facebook groups, looking through the Twitter followers of popular BTW and looking at who they were then following.
In May, my ✨Higher Self✨ told me to start keeping a record of all of the individuals I would be reaching out to and God is a woman because she was right. The spreadsheet allowed me to keep a really good record of who to follow up with, whether or not I had already tried to reach out to someone and it also just looks great.
In the end, I reached out to a total of 37 women, and received responses from about a 15 of them. Though the numbers don’t look as good as I had hoped, the 15 women that I did meet were so attentive, helpful and eager to be apart of my project that I truly have no complaints. In our entrepreneurial class, our professor said something along the lines of, “It’s better to have 10 active participants, than 100 passive,” and he was RIGHT.
In the beginning, I thought I was going to build a website that would host the original works of BTW. I had plans to host in person community events where communities gathered within their neighbourhoods to meet each other, set the agenda and figure out how to make New York safer for all.
But! I got to explore and really understand some of our favourite platforms from a different perspective. I finally decided on Instagram as my project and product would rely heavily on images, video and visual storytelling. I then created TAG 2020 or Trans Artist Group.
Trans Artists group is an online space dedicated to making Black Transgender women feel seen, safe and beautiful. As of right now, it has manifested as an Instagram account that keeps up with news in the community and has weekly posts highlighting a member of the community.
The platform exclusively posts Black trans women, but it’s made to serve the LGBTQ+ community at large as well as allies in the US and around the world. I decided to create this space on Instagram because I found that my community is drawn to the platform as it allows people to show or share their beauty, their art, and who they are.
Overall, I featured 5 community members during my third and final semester. After a much needed mental and intellectual (lol) break, I plan on keeping the page going and continuing to write stories for and about the trans community. I’m really in it for the long haul.
One of my most NB goals throughout the process was to build quality, trustworthy relationships, which I did. I really did. And, my impact may not have been world changing, but I made a few BTW feel beautiful and I’m happy to walk away with that.
I am so grateful for my time at the J School, and for this community. The lessons and experiences will shape me for many years to come ❤
