“…[it’s] the opportunity to tell our own story instead of it be told through someone else’s lens and someone else’s platform…”
For Nikkita Oliver, teaching artist and anti-racist organizer, South Seattle Emerald offers an essential platform for the stories of South Seattle told by the people of South Seattle themselves.“It is really beautiful to see a community I’ve loved since I moved to Seattle get the opportunity to tell our own story instead of it be told through someone else’s lens and someone else’s platform.”
Oliver points to Jerrell Davis, regular Emerald contributor and life-long South End resident. “I knew Jerrell when he was in 6th grade,” she says. “As someone born and raised in the South End to tell his story the way he would tell his story and not the way KIRO or KOMO or King would tell his story is…the most powerful thing about the Emerald.”
For Oliver, the Emerald is a crucial tool for a community embracing its power exponentially. “We were always empowered,” she asserts. “Now it’s us actually manifesting what that power looks like…”
In addition to her organizing work and personal artistic pursuits, Oliver is a writer-in-residence with Writers in the Schools at Washington Middle School and Franklin High School. She also leads writing workshops with Arts Corp at Garfield High School and is a teaching artists and case manager with Creative Justice, an arts-based alternative to incarceration.
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Featured image: photo by Alex Garland, adapted for this campaign