Tamara Leigh

Advocate and activist, Tamara Leigh has dedicated her life to championing for the BIPOC, QTPOC & LGBTQ+ Communities. Starting her career in Public Relations with the formation of Roc Candy Media, an urban PR firm specializing in media management, brand development and event coordination in Rochester, NY in 2010. Leigh went on to become the Director of Operations and Public Relations for Out Alliance and the Editor of Empty Closet Magazine (the longest continuously published LGBTQ+ publication in the nation). Tamara has spoken and provided educational services around the topics of Implicit Bias, All Black Lives Matter, Queer and Trans Rights and the Intesectionality of QTPOC at rallies, in board rooms, and for classes and companies nationwide. In 2020, Leigh launched Blaque/OUT Consulting and Blaque/OUT Magazine to further educate and create space for Black and Brown Queer Voices.

Dr. Katrina Overby

Dr. Katrina Overby is a communications professor at Rochester Institute of Technology. As a self-identified activist scholar, her interests surround media, race, sexuality, and gender. In 2019, she graduated from The Media School at Indiana University where her dissertation studied black culture on social media. Dr. Overby currently teaches Reporting and Writing to journalism majors.

Dr. Overby was as a mentor for this project.

Tianna Mañón

Tianna Mañón is the owner and founder of Mañón Media Management, a full-service press relations firm. By utilizing social media, traditional media and micromedia, we are able to spark necessary conversation between communities, bolstering discussions for healing and long-term relationship-building.

Mañón was as a mentor for this project.

Follow Tianna on Twitter.

Tina Yee

Tina Yee is a multimedia journalist at the Democrat and Chronicle in Rochester, New York. Over the last year, she has frequently covered Black Lives Matter rallies and protests through live-tweets and photo galleries.

“I love protests. There’s a lot of things that go on. It’s where the American principles of freedom of speech really take place. To me, it’s just another protest,” Yee said. “In covering any other protest, I try to find balance between who is attending, who is being represented, who is being shown. Am I shooting the same people? Sometimes you have to because they’re organizers, but I’m always looking for all the different things that happen in a protest: people praying, people meditating, you know, the whole range... Also, sticking true to what’s truly happening.”

Follow Tina on Twitter.

Brandon Stroud

Brandon Stroud is an educator and activist in Rochester, New York. As a yoga instructor, mentor and residence coordinator at Rochester Institute of Technology, Stroud is passionate about celebrating Black culture and gender identity.

“We know that there are headlines that talk about savage negroes back in the day and how that savagery really built the slave patrol. You know, ‘We don’t want those savages harming our wives and children’ really from a white narrative,’” Stroud said. “I think your project is really talking about the white narrative and how we’ve sat here for years looking at how news reels and media can literally change people’s lives.” 

Will Cleveland

Will Cleveland is a journalist and beer columnist at the Democrat and Chronicle in Rochester, New York. Cleveland is one of a handful of journalists that frequently covered local Black Lives Matter protests and rallies. As a former sports reporter, he compared covering these events similar to basketball games.

“Covering them [protests], for lack of a better term, it’s almost like you’re doing a play by play. I spent my first six years at the paper in sports so it’s almost similar because you’re live tweeting it. It’s similar to a basketball game because you’re trying to gather as much information as you can quickly,” Cleveland continued.

“You make observations, get video and it’s really important because people need to see why—in this case for these rallies—it drove thousands of people downtown and Jefferson Ave. Journalists need to be the eyes and ears of the community.”

Follow Will on Twitter.

Avis Reese

Avis Reese is a musician and activist in Rochester, New York. Reese became involved with activist group Free the People ROC in 2020 after attending a protest in honor of George Floyd.

“I really just appreciated their knowledge and patience that came across at the protest,” Reese said. “Historically, I’ve just never been a protest person for a variety of reasons and attending theirs was the first time that I’d saw teaching. It wasn’t just about being angry. Even though that is very much a part of it, it wasn’t this reactive thing. It was about breaking down cycles and it opened my eyes to a lot of things. I appreciated their thoroughness in what this movement requires and I just really wanted to be a part of it in whatever capacity.” 

Listen to Avis’ music on YouTube.

Ravi Mangla

Ravi Mangla is an author, community supporter and journalist. He has previously worked for Citizen Action of New York and The Appeal covering politics and criminal justice. His work has been published in The Atlantic, The Nation and many other organizations.

“My expertise is in community organizing and then I transitioned into communications work,” Mangla said. “I’ve done a lot of press strategy and press relations type of work—mostly for nonprofits and social justice organizations. Currently, I work for a media outlet that specifically focuses on criminal justice reform. I would say that criminal justice reform is probably my second biggest passion. I’ve done a lot of working with local reporters here, trying to pitch different stories to them around a lot of criminal justice issues.”

Mangla’s novel Understudies was published in 2013.

Follow Ravi on Twitter.