00:00it's gonna be a very busy day today shout out to everybody that's from out of town if you're
00:15from out of town make some noise out of town is not baton rouge new orleans i'm just saying
00:22be quick to start saying they from out of town too i'll go by the name of roxy diaz welcome
00:28welcome welcome to day two of essence right now i would like to introduce two beautiful women to
00:33this stage zinga blake and porsha grant from abc own tv stations y'all please give them a round of applause
00:42hello essence fest thank you rossi hi everybody how y'all doing tough times i hope y'all yes
00:53we are so honored to be here with you today again we are from abc owned television stations
00:59abc owns eight stations across the country and what porsha and i were granted to do was tell
01:06stories of historically underrepresented and marginalized communities now that is huge for
01:12the news and so before we start we just wanted to toss to an id a video that we had that represents
01:19black joy in our communities roll it
01:32the secret cedrons that we have a great place that comes if you have and porsha and porsha and porsha and porsha and porsha and porsha and porsha and porsha so
01:39it's a great place right now uh
01:44that's about it
01:45oh
01:46oh
01:46so
01:47oh
01:50That's a little bit of what we do on a daily basis.
02:20So what I'd like to talk about is a little of how our news coverage kind of differs from everybody else's.
02:28It's really all about the narrative, right?
02:31We want to tell our own stories.
02:33We want to be able to have the communities have a voice for themselves and to not have other people speak for them.
02:40So that's really a big part of what we do.
02:43We are a team of journalists.
02:46There's eight race and culture reporters across the station group.
02:51New York, L.A., Chicago.
02:53Anybody from New York, L.A.?
02:55New York in the house!
02:56Chicago.
02:56Chicago!
02:57Philly!
02:58Philly!
02:59That's where I'm...
03:00Hey, Philly!
03:016ABC.
03:03Raleigh-Durham?
03:04Raleigh-Durham.
03:05Fresno.
03:06Fresno!
03:07Okay.
03:07Okay, Los Angeles?
03:11No, L.A.
03:13So we work as a team, and we get together, and we talk about, really, things that you would talk about at the dinner table.
03:21And, you know, so when we create the news, right, we produce the news, it's not all your shootings, your fires, your car accidents.
03:29It goes a little deeper than that.
03:31And that's really where our team comes in.
03:33That's right, and we also provide context.
03:37Portia always says context is key.
03:39So we give further information as to why certain things are happening in our communities.
03:45I'm going to tell you something.
03:46If you ever have a chance, go to OurAmerica.com, because what we have is a data...
03:51OurAmericaABC.
03:53That's right, OurAmericaABC.com.
03:55OurAmericaABC.com.
03:55That is our brand, and you will find documentaries there that we do,
03:59that reflects, again, historically marginalized and underrepresented communities from black to community,
04:07indigenous communities, Hispanic communities.
04:10So we also have the data report where you can see inequities, right?
04:16And if you ever need it, if you ever...
04:18And it represents 100 cities across this country.
04:22So we encourage you to know about what's going on.
04:25You know, housing is a huge issue in this country, right?
04:29And discrimination against that.
04:31Housing, education, health care.
04:33That's right.
04:34That's right.
04:35And so if you want to learn a little bit about what's going on in your communities,
04:38go ahead and go over to OurAmericaABC.com.
04:42You can also check out our...
04:44Like, all of our documentaries on Hulu.
04:47Who in here is into documentaries?
04:49It's the Golden Age of Documentaries.
04:51Hey, there we go.
04:53So the brand is called Our America.
04:56You saw some clips from some of our Our America stories.
04:59Living While Black has been out on Hulu.
05:02Let me ask you a question, Zinga.
05:03All right, ask me.
05:04So amongst the pieces that we have produced, what do you consider your favorite?
05:11Okay, my favorite has got to be when we worked with a spoken word artist,
05:16an indigenous spoken word artist by the name of Lila June.
05:21And she wrote all this original poetry to introduce the different characters
05:27from some of our communities.
05:29And it was so beautiful.
05:31And working with her was this...
05:33It was a different experience because, you know, as black people,
05:36sometimes, you know, media companies think that,
05:40oh, they can only do black stories.
05:42But that's the beauty about what we do because we don't only do black stories.
05:45We get to celebrate all of humanity.
05:48We celebrate everybody.
05:50But listen, we want to talk about black joy.
05:53Listen.
05:54Paramount.
05:54Black joy.
05:56That's what we're talking about today, right?
05:57So I would tell you that my favorite was Our America Black Freedom.
06:04Our America Black Freedom told the story of Juneteenth,
06:08the history of Juneteenth and how people celebrate, you know.
06:12It's not a performative thing, y'all.
06:14It's real.
06:15It's authentic.
06:16And it's important for these stories to be told.
06:19And so I do want to mention, too, our next Our America.
06:22Oh, my gosh.
06:23Very exciting.
06:24Anybody heard of the Montford Point Marines?
06:28Montford Point Marines.
06:29Anybody know about Montford Point Marines?
06:30Montford Point.
06:31Hidden stories.
06:32You heard of the Tuskegee Airmen?
06:34Yeah.
06:35Okay.
06:36The Montford Point Marines integrated the Marines.
06:40So from 1942 to 1949,
06:43black men stationed at Montford Point, North Carolina,
06:46adjacent to Camp Lejeune,
06:49built and were trained,
06:50built the base and were trained there to serve in the Marines.
06:54They were the first black Marines.
06:55And there was 20,000 of them that trained there,
06:57and a lot of people have never even heard of them.
06:59So we're going to tell that story.
07:01And on top of that,
07:03President Obama awarded the Montford Point Marines
07:07the Congressional Gold Medal in 2011.
07:10And they got those medals in 2012.
07:12And they couldn't find them.
07:16The Marines did not have the records of all of the 20,000 men.
07:19So at that ceremony,
07:21they were only able to give 200 of them out.
07:23And since then,
07:25only 2,000 of them have received the medal.
07:27So that's 18,000 of these men,
07:31these heroes,
07:33that have not been recognized for their achievement.
07:36Their descendants are still with us.
07:38Some of them are still with us.
07:39And our mission is to say,
07:41hey, we're going to find you,
07:43and we're going to make sure that you're honored
07:44in the way that you need to be
07:45with the Congressional Gold Medal.
07:47So that's our next Our America series
07:49about the Montford Point Marines
07:51that will be coming out in August.
07:53How many people have had people in service
07:59in your families who are Marines?
08:02Perhaps they might have been a Montford Point Marine.
08:05So how can people reach out to you, Portia?
08:08You know, if you know anybody,
08:10maybe they can reach out to you.
08:11Maybe they can tweet you, whatever.
08:13How can we help other people identify the Marines?
08:17So there are a couple of ways.
08:22I would get my email address out.
08:25Because I'm actually,
08:26it's almost as though I'm working as a secretary
08:28for the Montford Point Marine Association
08:30at this point, connecting these families,
08:32trying to get these medals,
08:33but Portia, P-O-R-S-H-A dot grant at abc.com.
08:39But a lot of cities have local
08:43Montford Point Marine Association chapters,
08:47and that's the best way to reach out.
08:49And they will do the research for you,
08:50and it doesn't cost you a dime.
08:51And if that person deserves that medal,
08:53they'll get it.
08:54They'll get it for you.
08:55So this is extremely impactful work.
08:57Portia has been at the, you know,
08:59she's been leading the charge on this project.
09:01We're really excited about it.
09:02So if any of you are interested,
09:04please go ahead and reach out to her.
09:07Download our apps,
09:08ABC-owned television stations.
09:10You can actually go to our website
09:11to see where we are located.
09:13You can download the apps.
09:15You can stream our content.
09:16Go to ouramericaabc.com
09:18to check out that data report, right?
09:22And also Hulu.
09:23So thank you so much for giving us the time
09:26to share our work with you,
09:29our joy, because it is a part of our black joy.
09:31We love telling our stories.
09:33Yes, we do.
09:34And continue to center joy in your lives.
09:38Thank you, everybody.
09:39Bless everybody.
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