Speak Your Piece

Daphne Bennick has been living on Ocracoke island for the past 35 years. And she's run Back Porch restaurant there for the past 21. Bennick she speaks to what she's looking for in this election as her island goes through a "double wammy" – Hurricane Dorian recovery, then COVID-19.

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Shecoria Smith, 15, reads an essay she composed about her journey to becoming a young activist. She discusses recent events in the U.S. and her community in coastal North Carolina. Smith talks about what protest means to her, and what she's doing to contribute to positive future change.

Narrated by Emmanuel Ngardinga.

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Jeff Mills, volunteer and Medicaid Ambassador with the North Carolina AIDS Action Network (NCAAN), reads an essay he composed with Lee Storrow, the Director NCAAN. Mills and Storrow note the positive changes to restrictions and limitations on Medicaid programs during COVID-19. They call on policy-makers to extend these considerations beyond times of crisis.

Mills is a volunteer and Medicaid Ambassador with NCAAN. 

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"Schools here have a lot of togetherness." Jaileea Knight is an eighth grader in Tarboro, NC. The small town is home to a large reimagining public schools effort. From her perspective as a student leader, Knight speaks to school redesign momentum during remote learning – tackling interactivity and broadband limitations. 

Broadcast from the Working Narratives studio, Speak Your Piece brings you the opinions of your coastal neighbors on today's pressing regional issues.

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Julia Narvaez didn't feel tied to her hometown, Wilmington, North Carolina. Instead, she felt disdain for the social and economic inequities in her community. But when Hurricane Florence hit, her feelings for the town changed. 

Broadcast from the Working Narratives studio, Speak Your Piece brings you the opinions of your coastal neighbors on today's pressing regional issues.

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Jonny Morales, 18, talks about what it was like returning to his hometown - Wilmington, North Carolina - after Hurricane Florence. And how he, his family, and his neighbors rebuilt the remains of their community together. 

Broadcast from the Working Narratives studio, Speak Your Piece brings you the opinions of your coastal neighbors on today's pressing regional issues.

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Morales knows the hospitals in his communities all too well - from Emergency Room visits for the asthma attacks he's had as long as he can remember to serving as a volunteer in his high school years. Now with the coronavirus outbreak, he's anxious that his local healthcare system will be overwhelmed. But thinking back to his experience of relief efforts after Hurricane Florence, he has high hopes that his community will come together and help one another through this trying time.

Broadcast from the Working Narratives studio, Speak Your Piece brings you the opinions of your coastal neighbors on today's pressing regional issues. This Speak Your Piece episode is brought to you by Coastal Youth Media podcast.

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Amari Poindexter, 17, says the indifferent attitudes and racism of people during the coronavirus in coastal North Carolina remind her of how her peers responded to the Ebola outbreak when she was in middle school. 

Broadcast from the Working Narratives studio, Speak Your Piece brings you the opinions of your coastal neighbors on today's pressing regional issues. This Speak Your Piece episode is brought to you by Coastal Youth Media podcast.

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Shecoria Smith was hunkered down with her mother as the wind and rain pounded her city when a call came making her realize that tragedy from the hurricane had hit close to home. Her friend’s mother and sibling were killed by a tree falling on their house.  In this essay, Shecoria shares his personal experience in comforting a friend and the questions it raised for her about how to make each other safe in the face of hurricanes.

Broadcast from the Working Narratives studio, Speak Your Piece brings you the opinions of your coastal neighbors on today's pressing regional issues.

Support the show