Fund Black Creatives to Realize Reparations - YES! Magazine Solutions Journalism

Jul 26, 2023

Hundreds of movement leaders, activists, organizers, funders, and journalists gathered in Atlanta in June 2023 at , an invitation-only conference on reparations organized by the . As the conference鈥檚 media partner, YES! Media spoke with more than a dozen prominent organizers, activists, and leaders, among them, actor and activist Kendrick Sampson, known for his work on television shows like Insecure and The Vampire Diaries. He has been active with Black Lives Matter and is the founder and president of , a nonprofit organization that engages with athletes and entertainers to use their platforms to advance radical social change and dismantle systemic oppression.

Sampson spoke with YES! Racial Justice Editor Sonali Kolhatkar in Atlanta about how Hollywood has begun to include Black voices but needs to do much more in terms of supporting and funding Black-led storytelling that fosters racial equity and reparations.

This video is part of Realizing Reparations, an exclusive digital series exploring the leading edges of the reparations ecosystem鈥攁nd revealing a path toward healing and reconciliation.

This series was funded by a grant from Liberated Capital, a fund of the , which is led by Edgar Villanueva, of the Lumbee tribe, and works globally to disrupt the existing systems of moving and controlling capital using education and healing programs, radical reparative giving, and storytelling. Reporting and production of the series was funded by this grant, but YES! maintains full editorial control of the content published herein. Read our editorial independence policy.

Sonali Kolhatkar joined YES! in summer 2021, building on a long and decorated career in broadcast and print journalism. She is an award-winning multimedia journalist, and host and creator of聽YES! Presents: Rising Up with Sonali, a nationally syndicated television and radio program airing on Free Speech TV and dozens of independent and community radio stations. She is also Senior Correspondent with the Independent Media Institute鈥檚 Economy for All project where she writes a weekly column. She is the author of聽Rising Up: The Power of Narrative in Pursuing Racial Justice聽(2023) and聽Bleeding Afghanistan: Washington, Warlords, and the Propaganda of Silence聽(2005). Her forthcoming book is called聽Talking About Abolition聽(Seven Stories Press, 2025). Sonali is co-director of the nonprofit group, Afghan Women鈥檚 Mission which she helped to co-found in 2000. She has a Master鈥檚 in Astronomy from the University of Hawai鈥檌, and two undergraduate degrees in Physics and Astronomy from the University of Texas at Austin. Sonali reflects on 鈥淢y Journey From Astrophysicist to Radio Host鈥� in her 2014聽聽of the same name.