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Friday, May 5, 2023

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Today is Friday, and we're highlighting stories from across the URL Media network about innovative solutions for mental health care, the first Native American woman playwright on Broadway, and a nonprofit in Louisiana serving the trans and gender nonconforming community.

Be sure to keep an eye on your inbox tomorrow for reporting from across the network about Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month.

— Alicia Ramirez

Uplift. 🙌🏼 Respect. 💯 Love. 💛

Drones, virtual reality and other big dreams for Detroit’s Central Station: Five years after Ford announced its purchase of Detroit’s Michigan Central Station, its plans for a Corktown campus dedicated to mobility and innovation are near completion. Outlier Media has the details here.

NYC Mayor Adams releases revised executive budget, walks back some of his enthusiasm for budget reductions: Mayor Eric Adams released a revised executive budget last week that partially walks back his enthusiasm for budget reductions that elicited public outrage and is now more in line with the city council. Epicenter-NYC has more here.

This fast growing AAPI community in NYC has many urgent, unmet needs: Shekar Krishnan made history in 2021 when he became the first elected Indian-American councilmember in New York City. As the son of Indian immigrants, Krishnan secured a victory in District 25 of Queens, which represents Jackson Heights and Elmhurst. He said his hope is that the AAPI community is “finally seen and heard.” Read more here from Documented.

Innovative solutions for a growing nationwide mental health crisis: Guest host Mara S. Campo, anchor and managing editor at Revolt Black News, looks at the ongoing national mental health crisis and talks to people who are working outside the box to make a difference in the latest episode of Our Body Politic. Listen here.

Seniors in Calif.’s Inland Empire advocate for better care: Community members, healthcare workers and city officials gathered recently for a roundtable discussion about the state of behavioral health services for older adults in the Inland Empire. Many attendees shared that they have felt ignored by doctors who have neglected their health concerns. Black Voice News has more here.

Minn. Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan on combating the opioid crisis: From 2020 to 2021, Minnesotans experienced a 25 percent increase in opioid overdose deaths, relative to the rest of the country. Gov. Tim Walz and Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan’s “One Minnesota” budget proposal seeks to allocate millions of dollars towards combating opioid addiction in Minnesota with a focus on culturally specific care. Flanagan said the governor’s office wants to take an equitable approach to opioid addiction that administers treatment specific to different communities. Read more here from Sahan Journal.

Birthing the next generation of doulas: An essential part of making doula services accessible to marginalized communities are increased affordable or free educational opportunities for people who want to become doulas. New York City’s groundbreaking Citywide Doula Initiative program, which covers doula services for low-income people, is doing just that. palabra. has the story here.

Mom and son cooking duo open new shop in Tulsa: Ifaseyi Amusan may have inherited her love of cooking from her grandmother, but her son Onifade R.E. Amusan inherited her love of baking. At 15, he just opened his own brick and mortar location called Onifade’s Cookie Company. Read more here from The Oklahoma Eagle.

Critics say election efforts are fueling Haiti’s mass killings: Some observers say the Haitian government’s recent moves to organize elections are to blame for recent massacres by gangs around the capital, with an end goal of drawing the military intervention requested last fall. The Haitian Times has more here.

How trustworthy is the media?: Some media outlets have found themselves in the crosshairs of public scandal following serious accusations of spreading false information, defamation lawsuits and controversial commentary. All of this begs the question: How damaged is the credibility of the media? La Noticia tackles this here.

Are news organizations polarizing readers?: Nearly three-quarters of U.S. adults say the news media is increasing political polarization in this country, according to a new AP-NORC poll. Journalist Roxanne Jones joined Wake Up With WURD’s Solomon Jones this week to talk about it. Listen to the full interview here.

Larissa Fasthorse becomes first Native American woman playwright on Broadway: Larrisa Fasthorse found her voice and her gift through being a playwright, and on April 20, she became the first Native American woman playwright on Broadway with the debut of her original work, “The Thanksgiving Play.”

Native News Online has the story here

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An object is worth a thousand words: exploring creativity and connection through artifacts: In the latest episode of Immigrantly, host Saadia Khan talks with writer and photographer Shin Yu Pai about her newest endeavor, a podcast called “Ten Thousand Things: Artifacts of Asian American Life.” Throughout the episodes, Shin Yu explores a collection of objects and artifacts that tell us something extraordinary about very ordinary objects. Listen to the full interview here.

House of Tulip centers trans love, community and culture: Mariah Moore and Milan Sherry, two Black trans activists founded House of Tulip, the first housing refuge for trans and gender nonconforming people in Louisiana, as a response to rising violence against their community. Beyond housing, the nonprofit provides financial aid, a community closet, case management and community support. Prism has the story here.

As a community still mourns, music becomes tool for celebration and justice: In 2017, 27-year-old Jean Jimenez-Joseph died by suicide while detained by ICE. When musician Erik Garlington heard about Jimenez-Joseph’s death, he wrote a song celebrating his friend’s life while calling for change. PushBlack has more here.

A week of writing about the Stop Cop City movement: The week-long project by Scalawag invites the reader, the listener, and the viewer into a deeper understanding of what is happening with Atlanta’s #StopCopCity movement, and how it impacts people outside of Atlanta. Read more here.ICYMI: What is Cop City and why was a Latino environmentalist killed there? (Pulso)

Sahan Journal relaunches website and logo while remaining committed to its mission

Visitors to URL Media partner Sahan Journal’s website may notice some changes this week. There’s a new logo, a new nameplate, updated colors, fresh fonts, and an overhaul of the home page with a new layout and navigation system. Read more about the news outlet’s refresh here.

URL Media CEO S. Mitra Kalita talks about the importance of news partnerships

The Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle and the Pittsburgh Union Progress, a news outlet created by striking reporters from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, have teamed up to cover the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting trial. S. Mitra Kalita told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency about the value of content and revenue-sharing networks like URL Media on our news ecosystem. 

“Talking about who [the ethnic media outlet is] serving and why we’re doing it this way — the spirit of real collaboration is a bit of that give and take,” she said. “We make mainstream media way better because it starts to infuse mainstream media with aspects of community and thus redefine the mainstream.” Read the full story here.

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 currently a JSK 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.