When members of the Black Student Union “took the mic” away from Provost Richard Lyman at a 1968 colloquium and then read a list of their demands, it marked the dawn of Stanford students of color speaking for themselves. Soon, community-based publications emerged (frequently to fade, then reappear), voicing perspectives often not covered by more mainstream campus newspapers, such as the Daily.
The Colonist/The Real News
What started in 1969 as The Colonist and then became The Real News is to be revived this spring after more than a decade. Early issues featured the BSU chairman’s and other opinion columns, letters, news of upcoming events and plentiful coverage of black student activism. The new edition will be similar, says Miles Brinkley, ’18, co-editor with Ashlea Haney, ’18, featuring input from the BSU and students affiliated with the Black Community Services Center.
“As a black newspaper, the bulk of the content will be centered on our voices,” Brinkley says.
Underground
“Welcome to the Underground: A Voice for the Diaspora,” reads the banner on Aaron Barron’s brainchild: “a digital space for the advancement of the black identity” featuring videos, playlists of “vibes,” personal reflections and political commentary. Without a large staff, Barron, ’18, solicits contributions—such as from musician Muzz Shittu, ’17 (aka MZZZA), and blogger Astrid Casimire, ’19. The website also hosts commentary and information from the BSU.
“As long as there are black students here at Stanford, there are going to be stories,” says staff member Kendal Burkins, ’19.
STATIC
Holly Fetter, ’13, MA ’14, and Jovel Queirolo, ’14, MA ’15, launched the website in 2011 for “Stanford activists to connect and create.” They wrote: “Not all content needs to be political, but it should reflect a creative resistance to the norm.” Unlike its closest predecessor, the Stanford Progressive, Fetter wanted an outlet for more personal work as well as for journalism.
This year, STATIC published its first zine, a collection of art, poetry and essays under the theme of healing and growing. In a more political vein was last fall’s “Decolonizing climate activist spaces at Stanford,” an essay about Fossil Free Stanford that challenged that movement to be more inclusive of low-income students and people of color.
El Aguila
As a freshman, Ileana Najarro, ’15, alongside Edith Preciado, ’14, sought to provide a voice for the Chicano and Latino community. They revived El Aguila, a community newspaper dating back a couple of decades, in 2011. Najarro, now with the Houston Chronicle, wanted to encompass more than political activism. The Fall 2012 issue featured two fiction sections (“Plumas” and “Voces Inocentes”), an alumna spotlight (“El Nido”) and a feature on one student’s study-abroad experience.
“We imagined ourselves as talking about issues with a Latinx focus, which is different than saying we are the people who give the opinions of the Latinx community through [voluntary student organizations],” says former editor in chief Daniel Dominguez, ’16. “We may have limited the articles we would get.”
The quarterly folded in 2013, and efforts to revive it last year failed. Still, students approached Dominguez again to revive El Aguila, and Najarro is optimistic about the newspaper’s future.
“We joked that instead of El Aguila, we should have called it La Fénix,” Najarro muses. “Pretty much every time El Aguila has been on campus, it’s been reinventing itself.”
That seems to be the story of community journalism at Stanford. As STATIC founders Queirolo and Fetter put it, “We’re here to reclaim our power to self-narrate.”
Miguel Samano, ’19, is a Stanford intern.
