While working as the feature editor for a campus magazine, Ibet Inyang suggested the publication write an article about natural hair, a growing trend among African-Americans.

The editor-in-chief shot down the story idea. The topic was “too controversial.”

Puzzled by the editor’s reaction, Inyang decided to create a place where she could run that type of article. Last spring, Inyang launched The Renegade, a magazine focused on black culture. The magazine is now a registered student organization and will print its third issue this semester.

“We cover topics that other publications quite literally will not cover,” said Natasha Amadi, The Renegade’s editor-in-chief and a staff writer for The Daily Orange. “(The Renegade) celebrates black culture on campus. Not only does it shine a light on it, it celebrates it. It’s something to be excited about.”

In the past year, students have started or restarted two publications that focus on the black experience at Syracuse University. Both The Renegade and The Black Voice newspaper, which relaunched this past fall, work to publish stories that reflect the black community at SU.

“We really made a huge effort to give black students a voice,” said Inyang, who graduated last December. “That’s what it was about. We felt like there was no one really telling our stories.”

• • •
Danielle Reed was ready to sign up as soon as she heard the name: The Black Voice.

Reed, a junior African American studies and Spanish major, didn’t know anything else about The Black Voice at the time but the publication has been active on campus — as both a newspaper and a magazine — at various times since 1968. When Reed became editor-in-chief last fall and the publication relaunched as a newspaper, The Black Voice had been absent from SU since 2010.

Anthony Buissereth, who was editor-in-chief of The Black Voice from 2001–03 and helped relaunch the newspaper this semester, said The Black Voice adds an important perspective to campus media.

“Black student activism at Syracuse University has a very strong and storied tradition,” he said. “It’s important for black students to document that and to document the black experience at the university.”

The first issue of the latest incarnation of The Black Voice was published last September during Coming Back Together, a reunion for African-American and Latino alumni held every three years. The newspaper is now a registered student organization and, with funding from the co-curricular fee, will print four issues this spring.

“We want The Black Voice to be taken seriously as an informative publication,” Reed said. “We want students to read The Black Voice and truly come away educated and with more knowledge about the black experience than before.”

• • •
Just a year ago, there were no student publications on campus that specifically focused on black culture and the experience of black students at SU.

Now, two of the 14 print publications that are registered student organizations are devoted to the experience of black students at SU. Black students number more than 1,340 and make up 8.8 percent of the undergraduate population, according to the SU Office of Institutional Research and Assessment.

The presence of black student focused publications has waxed and waned through the years, reflecting demand and changing times on campus, said Timeka Tounsel, associate director of recruitment and diversity at the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications and editor-in-chief of The Black Voice from 2009–10.

“I always knew that if this student body wanted The Black Voice, then they would start it,” she said. “It sort of responds to shifts on campus, a shift in mood, a shift in demand and population. So that’s the beauty of it.”

***

When Amadi, the editor-in-chief of The Renegade, went to the publication’s first general interest meeting last spring, she had no idea the magazine was new to campus. Though she was unsure at first about joining a new publication, three semesters later, Amadi has worked her way up to editor-in-chief.

“We all kind of see little bits of ourselves in Renegade,” said Amadi, a junior magazine major. “Even though I was a little scared of helping bring it up, that’s what made me fall in love with it. It’s kind of my baby.”

More students have gotten involved as the magazine has grown and The Renegade’s content has improved with each issue, Amadi said. The magazine covers topics such as black organizations on campus, lesser known black historical figures and issues in the black community such as the acceptance of black actresses. Following the shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, The Renegade gathered first-person accounts from students on campus about their own experiences with racial profiling.

The magazine is also starting a radio show this semester as part of its goal to reach more of the campus community, said Elen Marie Pease, The Renegade’s managing editor and a sophomore communications and rhetorical studies major.

“I think the ultimate goal is for people who are not minorities to read it,” Pease said. “We tend to self-segregate based on certain things at Syracuse University, so it’s maybe like a gateway to see that this is the black community, and we want to do our best to represent that accurately.”

• • •
Last Thursday night, members of The Black Voice gathered around a table in Slocum Hall for a board meeting. An architecture studio isn’t a typical meeting place for a campus publication, but most members of the newspaper aren’t in Newhouse. Many don’t plan on becoming journalists.

Instead, what attracted Reed and others to the publication was the chance to relaunch The Black Voice and create a lasting space for the stories of black students on campus.

The next Coming Back Together weekend will take place in Fall 2017, the same school year that will mark the 50th anniversary of The Black Voice. The long-term goal is make sure the publication will still be active then.

But with the next issue less than a month away, Reed has more immediate concerns. The Black Voice has received more interest from students but still wants to grow its writer base. Reed quickly ticked off all the topics the newspaper hopes to eventually cover: the Bill Cosby allegations, intersectionality, race and gender, President Barack Obama’s State of the Union ideas, black excellence on campus.

One common theme among all the articles is unity, Reed said, not only among the black community at SU but with the black community in the city as well. The goal, Reed said, is to have the magazine take an activist role on campus and lead by example.

“It’s highly appropriate and greatly needed for people of all colors and backgrounds to begin to understand how it feels to be black in America,” Reed said.

Published on February 4, 2015 at 12:01 am

Contact Jessica: jliannet@syr.edu | @JessicaIannetta