To honor and celebrate Black History Month, I invited Chicago journalist and author Arionne Nettles to discuss her research and experience with Black Chicago’s long-lasting impact on Black culture through music, journalism, literature, politics, social justice, and so on. We talk about Chicago-based media magazine Jet’s impact on covering Emmett Till’s murder, which propelled the start of the Civil Rights Movement. From Buddy Guy to Gwendolyn Brooks, Kanye, to the Obamas, Nettles explains how Chicago has been the epicenter of creativity, innovation, and tenacity for Black creatives and leaders. We unabashedly talk about how Chicago is and will remain the best city in the world :-). Check it out!

Get your copy of “We Are The Culture” now:

Available on: Chicago Review Press , Independent Publishers Group , Barnes and Noble

Also, please support Black-owned bookstores in Chicago:

@ callandresponsechi @ semicolonchi @undergroundbooks @ slantoflightbooks

Bio:

Arionne Nettles is a professor, culture reporter, and audio aficionado who serves as the Garth C. Reeves Eminent Scholar chair and instructor for digital journalism at Florida A&M University. As a journalist, her stories often look into Chicago history, culture, gun violence, policing, and race & class disparities, and her work has appeared in the New York Times Opinion, Chicago Reader, The Trace, WTTW, and WBEZ. She is the author of We Are the Culture: Black Chicago’s Influence on Everything, published by Lawrence Hill Books/Chicago Review Press.

Instagram: arionnenettles

Website: https://arionne.com/