Next City is pleased to welcome Barry Greene, Jr. as our Equitable Cities Reporting Fellow for Reparations Narratives.
He will join Next City, a nonprofit news organization covering solutions for just and equitable cities, for a one-year reporting fellowship based in Richmond, Virginia, in a multi-platform journalism partnership with the local NPR affiliate, VPM News.
“I am filled with great enthusiasm as I embark on this unique opportunity, joining both Next City and VPM, where I’ll have the special chance to both expand my knowledge and make meaningful contributions,” says Greene, who has previously written articles for Streetsblog USA, Fatherly, People For Bikes as well as Next City. “Covering such delicate subject matters here in my hometown of Richmond, Virginia definitely comes with its challenges but I believe I’ve been primed to handle this moment with care, courage and consistency.”
Greene is a native of Southside Richmond, where he works as a community advocate and urbanism journalist. Through his newsletter, titled after his moniker ‘density dad’, Greene works to spread awareness of the necessity to think of families with young children as well as seniors within the built environment.
A recent NACTO Transportation Justice Fellow, Greene is currently enrolled in the Sorensen Institute Political Leadership Program at the University of Virginia. His aim is to help Richmond return to its glory days of leading the industry in public transportation.
“The VPM News team is thrilled to amplify Barry’s voice and perspective as part of the Equitable Cities Fellowship,” says Dawnthea M. Price Lisco, VPM News managing editor. “Richmond’s history is complicated, and the way that continues to impact its present and future remains of great importance to our audience and newsgathering here in Central Virginia.”
Greene will receive training in robust solutions journalism to help tell the important stories of a city still grappling with its history as the capital of the Confederacy and the diaspora that resulted. Over the next year, he will cover reparative work to address Richmond’s racial wealth gap, food deserts, environmental justice, social determinants of health, small business growth and other aspects of urban life.
“As a Richmond native, Barry has the background knowledge needed to report the solutions stories we will publish over the next year,” says Deonna Anderson, editorial director at Next City and herself an alumna of Next City’s Equitable Cities reporting fellowships. “We also believe he will bring care in covering the reparative work happening across the city, where he has been embedded in various capacities.”
Established in 2014, the Equitable Cities Fellowship offers journalists of color a one-year freelance position to report on solutions that level the playing field for those who have long been denied equal opportunity because of power structures based on race, gender and sexual orientation.
Supported by generous grants from the Mellon Foundation and Liberation Ventures, the fellowship is designed to bring underrepresented voices to the forefront of the conversation about cities and their future.
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