When KBIA Engagement Producer Kassidy Arena joined the KBIA team in 2022 she set about connecting, learning, and listening to traditionally underserved communities to see how her skills and her microphone might lift up the voices and efforts of people seeking to address historic systemic racism and oppression. What she found was innovation, courage, and hope by community members actively working for reparations of all kinds, and in a range of places.
This entry provides some key moments in Arena's reporting from the year 2023. All of it involved weeks and months of relationship-building and time spent listening in communities, to document and report on these efforts. Arena only published or aired her reporting when she was able to tell the story through the community's own voices, and each piece involved exhaustive engagement, fact-checking and consultation at every stage of reporting.
Above you can find the audio that makes up the submission for this category. Below you will see time codes to denote where you will hear which stories in the audio, with links to the original stories posted online, and descriptions of the station's work. Thank you for your consideration of Kassidy Arena's collaborative reporting and producing in our community on these important topics.
(00:00-04:00) Reparation means transformation in Missouri towns big and small
(04:00-05:31) Public humanities lab takes on reparative memory to uncover the legacy of slavery in Missouri
(05:35-09:34) 'The continuance of care': Complexities of repatriation and return, for Indigenous ancestors and human remains