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Hello readers, this month marks our one year anniversary as a publication. We launched last year on International Women's Day—and wow, what a difference a year makes! Many of you have been with us since the first issue, and we're so grateful for your continued readership, as well as all our new subscribers who have jumped into this passion project with us.

We wanted to take a moment to reintroduce ourselves and this newsletter. We are Niki Stojnic and Nia Martin, two Seattle-based freelancers who previously met in, and worked our way through, the print magazine world. Feeling like something was missing in the dissipating and shifting media landscape, we decided to create a publication with the aim of sharing womxn's experiences that we weren't seeing in other media. Parts & Labor is inclusive of as many womxn's experiences as we can reach in Seattle and the Pacific Northwest, and is meant for everyone to read and enjoy.


This newsletter, quite simply, is a labor of love and we hope it's a valued part of your local sources for news, in-depth stories, as well as small businesses and happenings. 

For the past year, we've been putting in daily hours, on top of our regular job hours, to put out original journalism every issue for free. The mission of our publication is to value the work that womxn do. Starting next issue, we will be providing an opportunity for you to contribute funds so that we can sustainably continue our work. If you are able, we'd greatly appreciate your donation, not only to show us that you value our work, but so we can continue to grow and have the resources to bring you even more stories and voices.

This issue, we're highlighting a few local womxn journalists whose work we admire and has been vital during the past year. You'll also meet the talented graphic designer behind P&L's very own logo.    

Seattle Storytellers

We're taking a moment to shout out a few of the local womxn journalists we've followed closely over this last crazy year who are doing great work.
Image by Photo Kozyr.
As journalists carving out our own space in the changing media landscape, we wanted to take an issue to spotlight womxn in local journalism. Whether on staff with a media company, or freelance, this isn’t a career path that any of us choose for its stability. And whether you’re an investigative reporter, a lifestyle writer, a visual journalist, an editor, or have carved out some spot in between (have we mentioned we often wear a few different hats?), it’s often a challenging career for womxn in a variety of ways. It also continues to be overwhelmingly white—Black womxn, for example, make up just 2.78% of journalists and 2.16% of newsroom leaders, according to the African American Policy Forum. That means we need to consider the massively biased lens through which we're seeing a lot of news—and support those who are refocusing it.

This list is by no means comprehensive, but we tried to highlight those who have launched something or been particularly busy during this pandemic year. Read all about them and support them. We also asked a couple of questions—what, in your view, is the most currently underreported story, and who are the womxn who inspired you?

We wouldn’t be nearly as well-informed on the minutiae of Seattle city politics if it wasn’t for Erica C. Barnett, whose detailed reporting and fact-filled missives are a balm to our news-loving souls. Catch her work on independent site PubliCola. Somehow, she also found time to write a book, released last year: Quitter: A Memoir of Drinking, Relapse, and Recovery.

Underreported story: “I think the most underreported story in the region is how difficult it has been to implement a truly regional approach to homelessness. ... Regionalism was a tricky sell from the beginning, since cities outside Seattle tend to think of homelessness as a 'Seattle problem' and want to adopt their own solutions that are often based more on NIMBY impulses than evidence about works to address homelessness. Cities like Renton and Issaquah, for example, have opted out of a countywide sales tax to pay for housing for people experiencing homelessness, and the city of Renton is actually suing to evict a homeless shelter from the Red Lion hotel this summer, arguing that homelessness is a 'Seattle' problem that has been forced onto Renton by the county. Meanwhile, the [King County Regional Homelessness] authority was supposed to hire a director months ago, and the person they finally picked ... just turned down the job. If the regional authority falls apart, it will be an immense setback, sending cities back to their siloes and leaving Seattle with a decimated homelessness response system and no real infrastructure left at the city level to address this growing problem.”

Influences: “The woman who inspired me to become the type of journalist that I am is Molly Ivins, an irascible Texan who I was lucky enough to meet once when I worked at the Texas Observer, a scrappy progressive news magazine in Austin. Along the way, the people who've encouraged me have mostly been women, from my first editors at the Austin Chronicle, Amy Smith and Audrey Duff, to my mom, who was always the first to point out when I was selling myself short (by staying in a toxic and sexist work environment, for example), to friends I've met through my work covering city hall, political consultants and activists and leaders too numerous to name. As a woman in journalism, you're always underestimated. Most women in journalism have been harassed, belittled, condescended to, and treated like window dressing. It's important to have other women who you can share those experiences with, and use as a gut check or sounding board when things happen that don't feel right. 

The ability of women to network and help each other get a leg up is also an amazing thing. One of the things I talk in my book about recovery, Quitter, is how a network of women just formed a cocoon around me as soon as I started trying to rebuild my life after getting sober (which I did, by the way, with the help of an amazing group of women). I got consulting gigs because of women, and then I got a job with the help of women, and I sold and marketed my book with help from women who walked me through the process because they'd been through it. In my experience, women really do help each other in ways that I think are totally invisible to men.” 


Real Change News editor Lee Nacozy worked as a journalist at the Austin American-Statesman while pursuing her law degree; once she got it she began to write about criminal justice for a variety of outlets. Real Change News has been bringing us social and racial justice stories with a focus on those who are houseless since 1994; Nacozy first joined as a volunteer copy editor, and became the paper's editor in 2019.

Underreported story:Lately I want in-depth reporting on vaccines. The reported stories are often broad strokes about groups’ access, probably because so much is happening, but I’d love to learn about individual experiences.”
Most women in journalism have been harassed, belittled, condescended to, and treated like window dressing. It's important to have other women who you can share those experiences with, and use as a gut check or sounding board when things happen that don't feel right.
Erica C. Barnett
The Needling is one of our (and probably your) favorite satirical news sites, and the woman behind it is a serious journalist, which is what makes The Needling’s sharp, hilarious, and crisply written observations all the more excellent. We’re still not revealing her name, but she did share a few thoughts.

Underreported story: “Earthquake safety, especially the urgent need for hundreds of brick and soft-story buildings to be retrofitted. Most of the people who would die or be severely injured in those buildings would be low-income and POC. Every geologist knows a giant quake is likely to happen here with the next 50 years and could happen at any moment. I grew up watching buildings getting retrofitted everywhere in California and it’s pretty terrifying how much this city has kept kicking that can down the road.”

Influences: I met Gwen Ifill when I reported in DC and she introduced herself to me! Why? She was a dedicated reporter who knew everyone’s names, every nook and cranny of that scene, and I also think she knew it meant something for young women in journalism to have support, kindness and mentorship from someone like her. Journalism on the whole is still very much a boys club, so that meant a lot. She wasn’t just well-connected, she was deeply connected to people. She was so omnipresent in DC that one time, when I thought I was escaping dreary political reporting to interview celebrities on the red carpet of Will Ferrell’s Mark Twain Prize Night at the Kennedy Center, she showed up on the red carpet itself and I said, ‘Gwen! You’re even here?!’ And she said, ‘Who do you think taught Will Ferrell how to be Anchorman?’ She literally was the person leading him around newsrooms to get a feel for what he would end up parodying in what is now a classic comedy about journalism and sexism. Total legend and inspiration gone too soon.” 

She also adds, “Michelle Wolf for her legendary roast of modern politics and journalism at the White House Correspondents Dinner, and Lady Gaga who so clearly gives 110% to her passions. She always leaves it all on the field and when I see it I just know that’s gotta feel good.”


Edited by Niki Stojnic
More Journalists to Follow
Jenna Hanchard worked a decade in newsrooms, leaving commercial journalism in 2019. Last year she launched Lola’s Ink, a podcast to “explore stories of Black girl liberation”; catch the first, five-episode season, as well as her reporting on KUOW.

Naomi IshisakaThe Seattle Times’ assistant managing editor for diversity, inclusion and staff development, with a weekly column on race, culture, equity and social justice, brings a much-needed perspective and eminent voice to Seattle’s only remaining newspaper.

Megan Farmer, as a KUOW visual journalist, has captured striking and moving moments of the past year, from family visiting loved ones through windows at Life Care Center of Kirkland to the summer’s protests for Black lives to children visiting Santa in a pandemic-safe snow globe—and everything in between. See her 2020 year in pictures here.  

Hannah Weinberger, Crosscut reporter—don’t miss her recent piece reflecting on the emotional toll, and relationships formed, over a year’s worth of reporting on COVID-19.

Melissa Hellmann, president of the Seattle Association of Black Journalistscovers South Seattle and South King County for The Seattle Times, hitting on crucial topics from local politics to unemployment to wildfire smoke and coronavirus—just to name a few.  

Sharon Ho Chang, recently became managing editor at the South Seattle Emerald. We also featured her photojournalism last year. She’s reported on youth activism and Black and Latinx womxn farmers, among other stories.

Corinne Chin, senior video journalist at The Seattle Times and founder of the newsroom’s Diversity and Inclusion Task Force; she has put together stunning and informative videos on a variety of stories from this summer’s protests to Hmong flower farmers in the pandemic to the women fighting femicide in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico.

Ellen Meny, lifestyle reporter for TV's “Evening Magazine.” Throughout this last year, pandemic and all, she has kept us connected to a world of ways to divert ourselves and stay engaged with local businesses, and she does it with energy and a ton of style.

Manola Secaira has been doing a lot of important reporting on issues affecting Native communities, from coronavirus to protecting the National Archives to the first Native Washington Supreme Court judge. 

Jackie Varriano, a food writer for The Seattle Times, has kept us informed of the hard-hit restaurant industry’s ups and downs—not to mention letting us in on important matters that kept us going, such as where to find the best take out. 

Patricia Murphy, KUOW radio journalist, hosts podcast Seattle Now, which launched as the city shut down for the pandemic. It offers snack-sized daily overviews of local news, with one topical deep dive featuring guest experts. Perfect over morning coffee.

She Made It

Who is the Seattle-based graphic designer behind our Parts & Labor logo? Give it a tap for all the details!
 

ATTN:

What to see or do this week/end

Washington state is currently subject to Governor Inslee's Healthy Washington—Roadmap to Recovery plan until further notice (be sure to check the latest Washington State Coronavirus Response Guidelines). We're highlighting ways to engage and support the community safely.
Niki 

Catch the last few days of the Asian American Film Fest,
through March 14, This year, there are 123 films and because it's virtual, most are accessible throughout the festival's run. Several local restaurants have partnered to create film-themed specials you can order as well.

Theresa Wingert and Jana Brevick explore the what, why, and how of satisfaction in
Make Believe, running through March 27 at SOIL collective gallery. The space will be transformed into three live film sets through the month, with rotating guest actors.
Nia 

Seeds of Culture: The Portraits and Voices of Native American Women opens on March 13th at the Whatcom Museum. The exhibit showcases 28 photographs with written and audio components by photographer Matika Wilbur, the Tulalip and Swinomish artist and social documentarian behind Project 562.

Experience online the world premiere of cellist and composer Ha-Yang Kim's the day is burnt, the night is calm with the Seattle Modern Orchestra. Grab your tickets through Town Hall Seattle to stream on March 14th
How can we support each other in the community? Let us know about your resource, event, or recommendation on Instagram, Twitter, or Facebook and ping us with the hashtag #partsandlabornews.
That's all for now! We hope you've enjoyed this issue of Parts & Labor—keep washing your hands, wear those masks, and look for the next issue in two weeks. Check out past issues here, and SUBSCRIBE!

Have an idea or comment? Send us an email at hello@partsandlabor.news 
 
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