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Friday, January 5, 2024
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Today is Friday, and we’re highlighting stories from across the URL Media network about Minnesota’s growing Afghan community, a documentary that spotlights queer climate stories in Florida and a year to remember in Trenton, New Jersey.
In tomorrow’s newsletter, we delve into a breaking news story from this past week. Harvard University President Claudine Gay, the Ivy League institution’s first Black woman president, announced her resignation on Tuesday. We’re breaking down the events that led up to her resignation and more. — Alicia Ramirez
Uplift. 🙌🏼 Respect. 💯 Love. 💛
Uplifting our Communities
🏳️🌈 Queer climate stories from Fla.’s front lines take center stage in new documentary: In the feature-length documentary “Can’t Stop Change,” the word queer is a noun, a verb and an adjective. Queerness, in this context, is an opportunity to think differently about the way environmental harm persists in the lives of queer and trans people. Prism has more here.
🇦🇫 Minn.’s Afghan community establishes deep roots a year after resettlement: The Taliban’s takeover of the Afghan government in August 2021 sparked an unprecedented emergency evacuation of Afghan civilians. According to the Minnesota Department of Human Services, more than 1,300 evacuees came to the state between September 2021 and September 2022. Sahan Journal has more here.
💵 Parents of missing exchange student become victims of cyberscam: A missing Chinese exchange student was found hiding in the woods of Utah, where anonymous scammers convinced him that he would put his parents in harm's way if he didn’t disappear. In a cyber kidnapping scam, the student’s parents paid cybercriminals $80,000 for his release. AsAmNews has more here.
Join us in celebrating the launch of URL Media’s new hub for independent journalism by Black and Brown publishers! Discover the stories and perspectives that matter. Check it out here.
🕰 Reflecting on triumphs, challenges, and community resilience in a year to remember: In 2023, the Trenton Journal saw a growth in its readership across platforms, but for publisher Kenneth Miles, measuring the outlet’s impact is about more than numbers — it’s about creating a lasting connection with the community. Read more here.
🏆 Outlier Media’s favorite stories of 2023: Outlier Media closed out the year by looking at the stories that continue to resonate with readers across Detroit, and highlighting recent pieces that might have gotten lost in the holiday shuffle. Read more here.
Respecting & Honoring Arts & Culture
🗣 Not all Latinos speak Spanish – and they don’t need to: Alejandre Aguirre reflects on her challenges speaking English as a second-grade student in the U.S., as a reminder that too often people feel they must “disguise” or abandon parts of their identity to speak the dominant language. Aguirre writes, “We’ve seen high-profile Latine individuals who go on to achieve great things only to be asked, ‘Why don’t you speak Spanish,’ as if their Latinidad is only valid if they speak Spanish.” Luz Media has more here.
👗 How Cindy Castro is setting the standard for responsible fashion: Fashion designer Cindy Castro shares how her childhood in Ecuador — and the waste and labor practices she witnessed in her early years in the industry — shaped her commitment to building her responsible luxury brand in the latest episode of Latina to Latina. 🎧 Listen to the full episode here.
Centering Love
💔 ‘Land Defender, Warrior,’ Klee Benally walks on: Activist and musician Klee Benally (Diné) died at a Phoenix hospital on Saturday at the age of 48. His cause of death was not immediately disclosed. Native News Online has more here.
What We're Loving This Week From Our Partners
🥇 Scalawag’s top stories of 2023: From Cop City to Gaza, Scalawag’s editors reflect on the most popular must-read essays and articles of 2023. Read more here.
🎧 More: Looking back on some of the best books of 2023 (Our Body Politic)
Our Founders
Sara Lomax-Reese, CEO of WURD Radio, media entrepreneur for almost 30 years, served as Program Lead for the inaugural Facebook BIPOC Sustainability Accelerator and is a former John S. Knight Fellow.
S. Mitra Kalita, former SVP at CNN Digital, current CEO & Publisher at Kalita Mukul Creative Inc., which publishes Epicenter-NYC, The Unmuted and The Escape Home has worked at The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, The LA Times, and has launched brands like Mint and Quartz.
Our Partners
