Newark, NJ - The U.S. Department of Justice still has its sights set on U.S. Representative LaMonica McIver. Over a week after Newark Mayor Ras J. Baraka was arrested for allegedly trespassing at Delaney Hall, the DOJ dropped their charges against Baraka, only to charge McIver for reportedly assaulting two federal agents as the Newark Mayor was arrested on May 9th.

Philadelphia, PA - When our circle of collaborators first began this work together, we didn’t know that we would be creating our own form of journalism. We had convened a cohort of brilliant, principled media workers to manifest these goals, and found ourselves lucky that more than 20 journalists, media ethicists, mutual aid organizers and other subject-matter experts joined us for the journey. Making space for Black and Brown storytellers in news, looking at new models for coverage on crime and public safety, planting seeds for the news projects we wanted to see— this was all on our to-do list. Co-creating what we now call safer journalism happened along the way. 

Newark, NJ - In Part 1 of our interview with Newark native and Howard University filmmaker Opoku “OpotheBoat” Boateng, we sat down with Set Designer Lillian “Phoenyx” Ojo, and Gaffer and Sound Mixer, Isaiah “Konté” Conte. Together, the trio discussed their goals and approach in developing their first 20-minute short film, "Apple Cider - A Parable of Black Love", a character-driven drama that explores ideas of Black love as three youths face their shared family trauma.

For Part 2 of our interview, Opoku stuck around with Phoenyx to reveal more about himself as an artist and upcoming work with their production company,Opo’s Canon. They also shared the challenges they faced making “Apple Cider,” the lessons they learned about themselves and each other during the production, and what film and storytelling mean to them as young artists living in New Jersey.