NOISE

What do you do when you see your community changing without everyone involved aware of what is happening? My response was to leave the comfort of my first full-time job to embark on a mission of building communication lines in the community that raised me but that I had been away from for a number of years. I did this without a definitive plan, just a report compiled by a pair of ambitious journalists and an internal call to serve people with the knowledge I had been privileged to receive.

January 15, 2018 was my official last day at the Union for Contemporary Art. I served as their first communications manager over 2017, and it was a valuable experience. I got to combine my love for art and culture with my communication abilities in an effort to inform the greater community about the many art-making opportunities the organization had to offer. 

Motivated by the mission to inspire positive social change through art, I took it upon myself to be in as many spaces as possible to advocate for the integration of creative culture in all aspects of civic life. Whether discussing crime reduction or walkability, I felt creativity and communication ought to be the undercurrent to make the desired outcomes possible. 

The more present I became, the more I realized how little people, especially residents of North Omaha, actually knew about the functions of city government and services and what people were doing to affect change across all sectors of industry including community development. Few neighbors were coming to the Union and even fewer were attending public meetings or community gatherings because of a severe information drought.

Jesse Hardman and Burgess Brown of the Listening Post Collective were invited to Omaha by Lizzie Kountze of the Hitchcock Family Foundation to conduct an information ecosystem assessment of the North Omaha community. The goal was to evaluate how people were getting their news and devise ways to increase the information flow across the region. They interviewed 15 individuals, including myself, in various community-based positions and compiled a report. That report outlined some very glaring disparities in how people in the northeast part of Omaha are not well represented by commercial media nor did people feel they were receiving information that had significant positive impact on their lives. 

There have been many challenges along the way, but our presence is growing and our work is beginning to make an impact.

Get more content from this Story in Issue 1. Buy Now.

In response to the report, the Weitz Family Foundation gave $25,000 to support an effort that utilized the findings and recommendations to strengthen information creation and distribution across North Omaha. As a participant during the original compilation, and aware of challenges within my position at the Union, I saw the incubation grant as an opportunity to share the civic knowledge to which I had become privy during my time.

In January 2018, one year after starting my work with the Union, I left to direct my time and energy toward devising a plan. I worked unpaid, meeting new people, compiling research, asking a lot questions and virtually living in coffee shops until I submitted a proposal in February. Once the proposal was accepted it took another two full months of planning, with the help of John Heaston from The Reader, a local monthly news magazine, before the money actually came through. 

Since the budget was limited, I had to put my student loans, that I had been making regular payments on when I was salaried, into indefinite deferral. I haven’t made a single payment on my federal loans since that spring.

After funding came I was able to assemble, and compensate, a team of folks from around the community to build a bench of writers and content. I didn’t start by seeking “journalists” because most people in North Omaha did not have the same opportunity to study or practice journalism in a formal setting like I did - nor did they have to. I sought people who showed a sense of passion for getting information and sharing it with others. Everyone is capable of storytelling because everyone has a story to tell, all I needed to do was work with people to help them shape and sharpen their voice. 

With the help of a coordinating team of community engaged individuals including Paul Allen and Leo Louis, I put out a call for contributors online, in print, and on the radio. Others were referred to us directly. Once we had a sizable and reliable team, we began meeting to discuss our vision and devise story ideas. 

April 20, 2018 we formally launched with a one-page insert in the Omaha Star and a TEDx presentation I gave at Creighton University, my alma mater. I told the story of Omaha’s segregated history and how a local Black newspaper, The Omaha Star,  worked in tandem with students, community members and a Jesuit priest to combat segregation in our city. We work to honor that legacy today through the creation and propagation of North Omaha Information Support Everyone (NOISE).

Schmeeka Simpson, Doug Paterson, Bradley Whitmore, Maria Corpuz, Dalamar McTizic, Kiel Harmon, Ashley Salem, and Luis Jimenez were individuals that I began to draw closer to as we learned how to build media together. We would meet every Wednesday afternoon to discuss the next stories and community engagement approach.

Our first major edition was our POWER issue pertaining to the May primaries for the 2018 midterm elections. We created a voting directory and featured articles providing information about the upcoming races and political climate. The print came as a six-page insert in the Omaha Star with additional copies that were hand distributed across the city and direct mailed to a precinct in North Omaha that had the lowest voter turnout since 2008.

A few weeks after the release of that edition my mind and body began to experience a total collapse. A whole part of me felt that I had taken on too much and that I was not good enough to do the work. I had written a few articles before but this was a whole new world. That doubt coupled with limited time and income left me feeling like a shell of myself.

So like a millennial, I turned to social media to share my journey and my village came out in droves to support me in any way they could. I was overwhelmed - my work really mattered to people and they valued it enough to help me in a time of utter desperation. That was a reminder that no work can or should be done alone and to always ask for help. Being “self-made” does not mean by yourself, it is impossible to be for the community if you’re not with the community.

Once reset, I re-engaged with the team and we kept working: showing up at as many public meetings as possible to get coverage and provide commentary online, slowly building our following each time. We didn’t even have business cards then, we still don’t actually, but that’ll be changing soon.

I remember in September, after our second print had come out talking about urban farmers, I was at NeighborFest on 24th Street when a group of us heard gunshots. I immediately pulled up the police scanner app, followed the sirens, and rode my bike to the scene on Florence Boulevard at B&T Liquor Store. The whole perimeter was taped off by police and neighbors were out on the street watching as the lights flashed. Schmeeka was on the scene too and she and I worked together to gather information from residents, police, and possible witnesses. I remember at that moment feeling like a real reporter. We were getting the people’s perspective on what was happening! That day we were able to capture the joys of bringing people together at the festival while being reminded of the challenges we all still face. 

Since then, we have covered political debates and town halls and other community-oriented activities. In October we published our third print edition with an updated voting directory and a major story about the possible construction of a juvenile detention center in downtown Omaha. 

As NOISE grew louder, people and organizations across the country began inviting me to speak at various conferences related to community journalism, something I still don’t feel I am very good at. Are we doing enough? Is this really what the community needs? How do we measure our impact? 

NOISE works with the Malcolm X Memorial Foundation who supports us as our fiscal agent. In November 2018 we were awarded a $50,000 grant from the Sherwood Foundation, who had never funded journalism work in the past. Today we use this funding to continue to move through uncharted territory but we believe building multiple income streams and dedicating our time to quality, community-centered journalism will lead us in the right direction.

What we need now are more volunteer editors and content creators. Our grant funding allows us to compensate a few people at a time while covering technology and distribution costs, so volunteers who are passionate and knowledgeable about certain subjects are truly valuable. We also would appreciate if you spread the word by following NOISE on social media and noiseomaha.com. Community journalism is only as good as the people who make and support it.

There have been many challenges along the way, but our presence is growing and our work is beginning to make an impact. People have told us that they are proud we exist. That NOISE is being made in North Omaha. That good journalism is more important now, more than ever. I couldn’t agree more.

FYI Newsletter

Sign up for a behind-the-scenes look at these stories, links we find useful, and notes from the community.