The media has done irreparable damage to the Black community, and reparations are a must to repair the irresponsible stereotypes placed on them. While the task is tall, the work is not, and organizations have decided not to wait for the public or mass media to fix their mistakes. Instead, they have taken matters into their own hands. Media 2070 has created the Black News Stand Tour to celebrate, honor, and fix false narratives about the Black community by letting Black media tell their story.
“Our whole theory and philosophy is built around the idea that Black people should have the resources, time, and power to own our narrative from ideation, through production to distribution,” Diamond Hardiman, the Reparative Narrative & Creative Strategy Director of Media 2070, said about the creation of the Black News Stand. “We should be able to tell things from our perspective and not correct false narratives. This tour shows the power of storytelling in the hands of Black people and Black media.”
The idea of media reparations started a few years ago when Media 2070 did their first Black History Month project, themed Black Narrative Power. This project encouraged people to use X (formerly known as Twitter) to create future news headlines for the Black community in 2070 using the hashtag Black future headlines. Within the hashtags, Black-owned newsstands were mentioned, and the team used that idea as a stepping stone for the tour.
The first-ever Black Future Newsstand was born in Harlem during the week of Juneteenth 2023, created in partnership with Alicia Walters of the Black Thought Project. The second activation was at the AfroTech conference as part of the Center for Cultural Power’s Mixed Media Mixer, a gathering for technologists, artists, and creatives whose voices are redefining how we see the past, present, and future of Blackness.
The third activation took place in Chicago using an immersive public art exhibit that highlighted the role of media in both suppressing and advancing justice for Black communities. This event featured a groundbreaking panel discussion, live music, and an interactive virtual tour showcasing the historical media and stories of Black activism in Southside Chicago.
The fourth activation takes place on May 2, in Los Angeles, with the theme being Riot & Repair. “Every stop we have, we always want to pay homage to the history there, and for L.A., we wanted to highlight the race riots that took place here,” Hardiman said. “The Black experience is different everywhere, and we want natives to be able to tell their story and show how the media manipulated the public to believe the atrocity was appropriate, but we all know that the extreme measures our government took were unnecessary.”
To learn more about the event and to receive tickets to the exhibit, visit www.blackfuturenewsstand.com.