In an effort to increase access to journalism for BIPOC youth in the Duwamish Valley, journalists and community storytellers Bunthay Cheam and Jenna Hanchard are launching the first-ever Duwamish Valley Youth Storytelling Project. The project is in collaboration with the Port Community Action Team and sponsored by the Port of Seattle.
A series of four workshops, the project will help youth shape a story of community interest that will ultimately be featured in South Park Roots, on the Port of Seattle communications website, and on Hanchard and Cheam’s own storytelling platforms, Lola’s Ink and TnouT, respectively.
“Here we are. I finally pressed record. For 10 years I’ve been talking on someone else’s microphone. But this time around — I got my own.” Jenna Hanchard is an award-winning journalist who worked in newsrooms across the U.S. for a prolific decade. But after years of living what she calls a “muted version of my truth” in toxic news spaces, Hanchard finally found the courage to unmute and quit. She left commercial journalism last year and this summer launched Lola’s Ink, a heartfelt, personal podcast about Black girl liberation and “the risks and actions we take, big or small, to feel even a little bit more free.”
