Host: Shalaka Jadhav

Fitsum Areguy is a Black activist and writer who grew up in Kitchener. He draws on years of experience as a community worker and advocate for youth rights and disability justice. Voted Waterloo Region’s "Best Local Writer" in 2020, he has published in Canadian Dimension, The Waterloo Region Record, Briarpatch Magazine, The Community Edition and Korea Expose. His interests focus on human rights, misuses of power, and community development, connecting local stories to provincial, national, and global issues through reporting and analysis. Fitsum is also the co-founder and project director of Textile, a literary publication and writing mentorship program, where Fitsum and Shalaka Jadhav work together.  

As the pandemic has impacted workers across every and any industry, CKMS talked about the importance of upholding the complexity of local stories, finding a rhythm as a journalist during the pandemic, and of course, the launch of InsideWaterloo, an independent media initiative publishing investigative and personal stories of identity and belonging not otherwise covered by traditional media in Waterloo Region.

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This program is a part of the “Local Journalism Initiative” grant program and is funded by the Community Radio Fund of Canada, the Government of Canada, and the CKMS Newsroom.

Check out the archived versions of  this program and other episodes on radiowaterloo.ca/news., and other stories commissioned under the Local Journalism Initiative at canada-info.ca.

You can  follow us on twitter @RadioWaterloo. If you want to get in touch with comments, or ideas about stories to cover, email us at news@radiowaterloo.ca.

Music for this episode was courtesy of Dylan Prowse.