Niketa Reed
Niketa Reed founded the Fayetteville media nonprofit Arkansas Soul with a mission beyond inclusion. Her idea felt more like immersion.
An offshoot of Reed’s work recruiting Black and brown students to the University of Arkansas’ journalism program, Arkansas Soul sees Black and brown news as its “main story, not as a special topic,” said Reed, a teaching assistant professor and the nonprofit’s executive director.
“It’s our lives,” Reed said in a phone call last week, a 20-minute gusher of information, humor and fervor. A former marketing pro in Memphis, Reed is an evangelist for the news, culture and history of Black, indigenous and people of color in Arkansas.
She wants Arkansas Soul and its website, argotsoul.com, to go beyond storytelling and be a resource for reporters, content creators and documentarians. “That’s naturally our world, not just when something happens like a high-profile trial, or a tragedy. We’re here 365.”
A glimpse at the website reveals a podcast and five broad content categories: news, business, arts and culture, politics, and health and fitness. Stories carry headlines like “$3.9 Million Grant to Reduce Health Disparities Among Minority Populations” and “Little Rock March to Honor Black Women and Girls.”
Reed’s right hand in the endeavor is Antoinette Grajeda, editor in chief and host of the “Affirmative Action” podcast.
Grajeda has given notice at her old job as a news producer at KUAF public radio, and she’s helping Reed to build a digital media world “geared toward BIPOC, and primarily by BIPOC.” They say now is the time to amplify voices, mentor young journalists and elevate minority reporting by mainstream outlets.
“Across the nation there’s a call to social justice, and a growing awareness of some of the things that are happening to Black communities,” Reed said.
Born and raised in Peoria, Illinois, “home of Richard Pryor,” as she’s often told by elders, Reed got her bachelor’s degree at the University of Memphis and a master’s at UA before stints in branding and marketing back in Memphis.
At St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital, she helped shape messaging to reach Black audiences. “I knew how to write and communicate, so marketing was a good fit,” she said. “It was my bread and butter, and it paid well. But the University of Arkansas said, ‘Come on back and teach these kids what you’ve learned out there.’”
She gives the university kudos for supporting Arkansas Soul from the start.
“In the beginning, when this was a strategic media project at the university, a lot of faculty were involved. I mean, we’re a family over there. But since we’ve moved over to a nonprofit platform as our own 501(c)(3), we have three to five core team members.”
The project has partnered with The Idle Class magazine of Fayetteville, an art, fashion and culture title that will offer print potential, as well as the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff and the community incubator Thrive in Helena-West Helena. Other partners include the Arkansas Cinema Society and the Arkansas Scholastic Press Association, which envisions journalism training for high school students of color.
“We’re focused on web content, visual content, video and different types of media emphasizing Arkansas,” Reed said. “We’re going to take care of the home team, elevating BIPOC Arkansas news, culture and history. When you talk about neighboring states like Tennessee, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, Arkansas is too often left out of the conversation.”
Spotlighting Black narratives and challenging privileged perspectives these days means confronting a firestorm whipped up over critical race theory, a graduate-level idea positing that racism is built into the American systems of justice and commerce.
“At Arkansas Soul, we are about uncovering truth and telling the truth,” Reed said. “We need a more accurate narrative than what we’ve been fed for years and decades and centuries. I can’t speak for Arkansas Soul, but personally I think these attempts to discredit critical race theory are the epitome of racism.”
The nonprofit wants to go beyond simply creating content featuring Black and brown people, Reed said. “It’s about supporting writers and creatives of color. It’s about opportunities and jobs. It’s about providing training. We want to be a source for BIPOC journalists, writers, filmmakers, content creators, helping them pitch their projects, find funding and get this stuff out there.”
