Reviving my inner light
How an affirming space helped me recover my passion for journalism
I didn’t realize it at the time, but the week I started my John S. Knight Community Impact Fellowship, I was burnt out. I had started the fellowship after more than two years of planning and co-launching the nonprofit newsroom Canopy Atlanta with several other journalists. I was paying myself for less than half the time I worked, crash-coursing my way through fundraising and IRS filings, budgets and contracts, and dealing with challenges I felt ill-equipped to navigate. I was tired. My bright passion for journalism that better served communities and helped them thrive, and my willingness to learn and to do anything to make that mission happen, had dimmed when faced with ugly realities and the pressures of what this work takes — and, without it, I was left running on fumes, without a safety net. During my first one-on-one meeting with a JSK Fellowship program mentor, he didn’t beat around the bush: We’re the most concerned about you.
Nearly 10 months later, I feel replenished (and hope the JSK mentors are at least a little less concerned about me). My approach to journalism has evolved, as has the way I relate to work. I’ve learned to slow down a bit, both for myself and for others, and gained skills that have helped my relationships both professionally and personally.
Much of that change is thanks to inspiration from every single one of my fellow JSK Fellows, whose work across the country addresses information desires and needs in underserved communities in innovative ways. For example, I’ve learned more about what care looks like from David Rodriguez Muñoz, who has addressed critical information needs for central Californians who speak one of 60 indigenous languages native to Mexico with such clear love and intention. I’ve learned about persistence and true citizenship from Jodi Rave Spotted Bear, who’s working to create greater access to information for the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation, the Three Affiliated Tribes. And I’ve learned about the power of affirming spaces, especially for those of us who have rarely experienced them, in helping sustain this kind of work.
The JSK Fellowship has created that affirming space for me, as well as a space that has challenged me to grow. Seminars such as those on employing different leadership styles, coaching others, and better giving and receiving feedback have taught me skills that I employ on a near-daily basis. Beyond a collection of tangible skills, one of the most unexpected yet valuable gifts I received from this program was encouragement from the program mentors to rebalance my life, helping me spend more time on side projects and with the people and places that make me feel whole.
I feel incredibly lucky and grateful to have had the opportunity to spend the last year as a JSK Community Impact Fellow, and this experience has helped shape what I see for my future in this field. I am (often subconsciously) drawn to building networks, or communities of practice that support work creating a more equitable society. A networked approach to solutions around information needs discourages a “one size fits all” approach, and can provide support to helping each member of a network succeed and be responsive to its stakeholders. As I continue my journey with Canopy Atlanta, I am also working with Sophia Qureshi, founder of the metro Atlanta newsletter 285 South, to intentionally lay these types of grassroots networks, identifying the people and organizations that help inform and empower metro Atlanta’s immigrant communities to figure out what we can do better together, and how to design solutions informed and built by the people who need them. That work is slow by nature — something I’ve only recently felt more comfortable with — and I’m excited to see what shape it may take in the months and years to come. Most of all, I’m proud to say my passion, my inner light, feels not only replenished but more resistant to flicker when I’m faced with the inevitable winds of life.
