DECISIVE ISSUE 5
The Let Out | Stay Streaming | Media Highlights | Worth the Watch |
The Let Out
“Network, network, network” is what they say, but let’s be honest the real opportunities and advice come when the networking events let out. The Let Out section of the DECISIVE newsletter features three media professionals who offer their unique perspectives as they answer the same three questions. For this issue, I caught up with a creative producer and two journalists, respectively — Maura Chanz, Tre’vell Anderson and Anika Reed.
Maura Chanz
Maura Chanz is a creative with a rare ability to connect with all audiences. Beginning her entertainment career at the age of 13, Maura has appeared on Disney’s A.N.T. Farm and numerous national commercials. Today, Maura can be found in the city of Los Angeles, creating for herself and others. She is the Director of Creative Media for 7th Sun Productions; and the founder of TRIBE, a women’s empowerment organization dedicated to reigniting the spirit of tribal community amongst women.
Q: How did you get your foot in the door in the media industry; what was the defining moment for you?
Maura Chanz: I got my foot in the door in media, a roundabout way. I was a performer. So, I guess even the defining moment for me wanting to enter the business was I met KeKe Palmer when I was nine. We're both from Chicago, and we have a mutual mentor whose name is Asha Kamali. And I think KeKe was the first realization [for me], both [of us] being young girls from Chicago, that entertainment media was a possibility. From there, I started researching any opportunity for kids. I was finding agencies for my parents to take me to, went to a camp at UCLA. So, I began pursuing media, probably around 10.
Moving on to my profession, in the producer capacity, that started probably around 13. I launched a blog called Lips Unsealed. And that was in the Blogspot days, it was so long ago, but it started like that. From there, my friend, Kofi Siriboe, who's on Queen sugar, and I, we created a Black sheep TV platform. And we started doing producing actual video content on YouTube in 2010/2011.
So I think the entry point was me and my curiosity and desire to make things and tell stories after seeing this is a possibility. All of the things I've gotten to do in my career have resulted from just being a self-starter. It was just like, ‘Oh my God, this looks cool. I don't know how to do it.’ Let me Google it and figure it out. Let me figure out how to edit a video. Let me figure out how to write this. [Because] people recognize and see when you're already doing the work. So my entry point for the longest was exploring my curiosity.
Q: What would you say has been your most meaningful or favorite piece of work thus far in your career? Explain why.
Maura Chanz: Oh, my goodness, that's a hard one. My favorite piece has been Unguided with Yara Shahidi. It is my favorite [because] it was a really out of the box idea. And I remember when I first pitched the idea was kind of [unsure]. I remember within literally seconds of sending it to Instagram, they were like, ‘We've never seen anything like this. We love it.’ I think that's my favorite just because it was a piece where I just trusted my instinct. And I'm thankful to have had a team that although it was like, a, we're going to let you try it. It was the first time getting to one play, not only with a budget, which was fun. I mean, I've had budgets before, but it was a budget, and I also got to go to Paris. That was my very first time going to Paris. Our very first episode, first two, we shot in Paris. It’s so many pieces of that that make it something that I'll never forget; the affirmation I received once it was out in the world and just the experience and making it happen with people that I love.
Q: What does your dream job role look like? Explain why that role is ideal for you.
Maura Chanz: My dream job role is a non-writing producer. I'm a person who loves storytelling, and I love ideating ideas. I like the macro picture. I'm not the person all the time who wants to oversee all the components, but I enjoy figuring out, ‘Oh, whose vision speaks to this story?’ I want to tap those people, and as that producer, you get those days, like ‘Who's writing this? Who's going to direct this? Who's going to do the set decorating?’
I get to recognize other people's talents but ultimately tell stories that are important and meaningful to me. And it's like you're the puppeteer. That's what I love about producing is the puppeteering aspect. That's my dream, to be able to have ideas, see a story, see some interesting IP (intellectual property), and be given the resources to bring it to life.
Tre’vell Anderson
Tre’vell Anderson is an award-winning journalist, social curator, and world changer who always comes to slay! Named to The Root’s 2020 list of the 100 most influential African Americans, the former Director of Culture and Entertainment at Out magazine has dedicated their career to centering those in the margins, grey spaces, and at the intersections of life through a pop culture lens. Prior to Out, Tre’vell got their start in journalism at the Los Angeles Times, where they created the beat of diversity in Hollywood with a focus on Black and queer film. They are currently president of the Los Angeles chapter of the National Assn. of Black Journalists and the organization's Region IV Director.
Q: How did you get your foot in the door in the media industry; what was the defining moment for you?
Tre’vell Anderson: I started on my high school newspaper, my senior year. [I] went to Morehouse [College], and got started on the school newspaper, my freshman year, did that all four years, never really wanted to do journalism, it was just like something that I knew I was good at. Then [during] senior year, I was majoring in sociology, didn't know what the hell I wanted to do with my life. I [was] managing editor of the newspaper, [and thought] ‘maybe I should try out this journalism thing.’ So senior year, I had my first actual journalism internship at Atlanta magazine, while in school, that was cute or whatever.
[I went] to [graduate] school for journalism. Then, I started at the Los Angeles Times in their Metpro program, the minority editorial training program, their diversity fellowship. I'm super lucky and privileged to come straight out of school and start at the LA Times. Because it doesn't work like that for everybody, but I would say the defining moment for me was while I was in the Metpro program at the LA Times. The way the program works is you do these; I think it's 10-week rotations. You do these rotations in three different sections of the newspaper. And then, at the end of that process, you choose one of those three sections to stay in for the program's duration. I did the feature section, which was like fashion and food and books. I did the metro section, which is like local news reporting, covering protests, etc. Then I did the entertainment section, which at the LA Times is called ‘calendar.’
While I was in 'calendar,' I think the defining moment was Empire. Empire was about to debut on Fox, and I got the opportunity to screen it in advance. I was telling my editor, the television editor at the time, [a] white man, that, ‘Oh, I really think this show is gonna be super big and, not just big for Black folks, but like, beyond that.’ He was like ‘No, who wants to watch a show with you know, Terrence Howard from Hustle & Flow, and this person named Taraji P. Henson.’ Because they always forget that Taraji got an Oscar nomination for Benjamin Button. He didn't think it would be interesting. Then the week that it premiered, It premiered to like with like, record ratings. The week after that, it premiered with record ratings, and the ratings were higher and higher for like eight or nine weeks straight, which is like the first time that something like that had been done since like House or something like that, right. Long story short, I think my editors in that section saw that I had a particular perspective and vantage point that wasn't perhaps represented in the team. That was necessary to round out their coverage. I started doing recaps for the episodes. I did a live interview over Facebook with folks from the show. It opened up the opportunity for me to start doing those stories. This allowed me to branch out and specifically cover Black film and queer film without having editors really second guess what I was saying. Because there was already like a proof of concept in terms of what went down with Empire. So I would say that was like the defining moment for me.
Q: What would you say has been your most meaningful or favorite piece of work thus far in your career? Explain why.
Tre’vell Anderson: A couple of different things come to mind. I'll start with the LA Times and say, when I was there and when Oscar so white first became a thing. My colleagues and I were doing interviews with the Film Academy members, who happened to be white. They all kept saying this idea of like, ‘Oh, the reason why, you know, there aren't a lot of folks of color, folks with a diverse background as members of the Academy. Therefore, the reason why certain types of films are getting recognition at the Oscars is because, you know, women, people of color, LGBTQ folks just weren't as qualified to be members, or their work just wasn't as good as some of the others.’
I decided that I wanted to put together a list of folks with diverse backgrounds who deserve to be members of the Film Academy, kind of a retort to that statement that we kept hearing. That was my first big kind of enterprise effort in which I put the list together of 100 folks. 20 of those 100 folks, we did mini-features on; I wrote the majority of it. I had to pull people from different departments in the paper to make it happen. That was the first journalism project that I got recognition for in terms of awards and stuff. I think we got second place at the Online News Association for that piece.
There’s also a piece I did on Black comedic actresses around the time of Girls Trip. Everyone from Tracee Ellis Ross, Lunel to Lonnie Love, Regina Hall, etc. I love that piece. Then I would say the last piece that sticks out to my mind was my first cover story that I wrote for a magazine for the Out 100 issue of Out magazine; I profiled Young MA. That was the first time that a queer rapper had been on the cover of the publication. Little Kim was on the cover back in the day, but I really enjoyed that story, that experience, etc.
Q: What does your dream job role look like? Explain why that role is ideal for you.
Tre’vell Anderson: So not to sound cocky or whatever. But, I'm supposed to be in charge. Okay, I'm supposed to be the one, figuring out who we put on the covers, figuring out who we feature, who to work with, in terms of visual narrators, stylists, etc. The role of Editor-in-Chief or Executive Editor for a magazine that unapologetically centers, Black folks and brown folks and queer folks and trans folks is what I was made to do. I say that because I think that I have both that Traditional understanding of the need to create interesting stuff that makes people want to subscribe, that makes people want to click on it. While also balancing, I think ingenuity and innovativeness are necessary to push this industry forward and get, ultimately, people to want to buy magazines again and make them want to pay for content. The journalism ecosystem is one in which people feel entitled to great journalism for free because so many sites are free, and they're built off of that click or page view model. But I'm a firm believer that the model does not service Black publications; it does not serve queer publications, it does not help any publication with a niche audience, right. Folks leading these publications end up finding themselves just up against the wall because of that lack of ability to grapple with both sides of the industry. That's not to say I wouldn’t struggle as well, to be clear, because maybe I would, but I promise you the cover is going to be cute.
You're not going to look back on my tenure as an Editor-in-Chief or an Executive Editor and say that, you know, 98% of the covers were, you know, white folks. It’s imperative to me to make sure that the reporting that I do, the things that I'm involved in, is an accurate reflection of our communities' vastness. We need a little bit more of that. So, I would say that is my dream role, the role that is for me, probably won't ever happen, because, you know, I'm a little too radical for these [publications]. I want to put Black trans women on the cover every month, okay? So I’ll probably never get the job, but I think that is something that I'd ideally love to do. So, if you know, any rich people who want to, you know, give me some money to put a publication together. Let me know!
Anika Reed
Anika Reed is the deputy editor for trending life, entertainment and travel news at USA TODAY. Originally from South Florida (and a proud University of Maryland alum), she now works in New York City and has covered everything from the Oscars to the Met Gala. She enjoys all things pop culture, brunch, and a good late afternoon nap.
Q: How did you get your foot in the door in the media industry; what was the defining moment for you?
Anika Reed: I always knew in my heart that I wanted to do something with writing [because] that's where I found the most joy. I made sure that I was putting myself in an arena where I could continue to do that and start to get better at things and, and ended up becoming Editor-in-Chief of my [high school] yearbook.
[During my time in] high school, I did a summer [journalism] class at Brown University. And on my second to last day there, I met with a recruiter for the University of Maryland, which is where I ended up going to college. So, in college, I studied journalism at the Philip Merrill College of Journalism. And that was a great boot camp in many ways for me, and I knew exactly what I wanted to do, [journalism].
When I graduated, I ended up working for an academic publishing company for a little bit. I knew that that's not what I wanted to do long term. I worked for their two journalistic publications, so I was still doing journalism work, but I wasn't the most excited about everything I was doing. That’s not what got me out of bed in the morning. So, I knew I needed to figure something else out. I started trying to cobble together a network, and I reached out to one of my college professors because I remembered that one of her friends had come to speak in my class and worked in the Washington Post sales section. I met up with her friend, and we had coffee and just talked about Britney Spears and Lifetime [Network] movies for like an hour. It was amazing. I said, 'If nothing else, that was fun.'
A few weeks [later], I got an email from one of my now-co-workers who said, ‘Hi, I’m at, USA Today, we potentially have a job opening. And my friend mentioned that you might be interested in doing this and that you might be a really good fit for the role.’ In my life, I've had a lot of luck and a lot of blessings. But I've also tried my best to be very prepared so that when those positive things come, I'm ready for it. I think that was a perfect example of that kind of divine timing and meeting preparation. I went in, and I interviewed, and I ended up getting the job as a digital editor for our Life section at USA Today. And that's how I got my foot in the door.
Q: What would you say has been your most meaningful or favorite piece of work thus far in your career? Explain why.
Anika Reed:
I've had a lot of moments and things that I've done that I've been ‘pinch me moments’ where I'm like, ‘Oh, my God, I — what, me, are you sure?’ I have [been able] to work on things that I've just loved, that meant something to my heart. So it’s tough to think about this and narrow it down; I have two things.
One story is one that I worked on recently that was such a labor of love. It took me a lot of time because I just wanted to make sure I was getting it right and doing justice. I did a story on farming, gardening, and black communities and people who are giving back to the land and tending to the land and doing it in a sustainable way that provides for their families and provides a space in that community. [Because] for quite a while, many Black people, Black Americans, have been separate from [that conversation]. Again, it’s divine timing. It was Father's Day, and I was having a conversation with my dad. He brought up the fact that his father, my grandfather, was this master at farming and agriculture, [who] had this little garden in their backyard. He [would use] the [Famer’s] Almanac to figure out when was the right time to plant things. It felt very personal, so I was happy that I could use that story [to talk] about this larger trend and amplify voices that aren't typically amplified, especially not in that space of farming and gardening. So that's a story that meant a lot to me.
Another thing that was just a favorite was last year, 2019, I was able to go to LA to cover the Oscars and all of the events surrounding the [awards]. That was truly a ‘pinch me moment’; it was a whirlwind going into it. I didn't even really know that I was going until a couple of weeks before. So you're trying to find a dress, and you're trying to figure out everything and book your tickets, figure out how you're going to cover everything and who's going to help you at work while you're doing these things. But, I covered the Essence Black Women in Hollywood luncheon and the Film Independent Spirit Awards. Those were my first two red carpets that I had ever worked on, it was so exciting and such a blessing to talk to all these fantastic people [such as] Regina Hall and Jenifer Lewis. It was just a surreal moment, and I could do a story of like everything you didn't see on TV. So even just catching some of those little moments behind the scenes was just cool. It was an exhilarating experience that I'm so, so grateful to have had.
Q: What does your dream job role look like? Explain why that role is ideal for you.
Anika Reed: I think I am kind of in my dream role in some ways. I'm not as concerned with a dream role as I am with meeting goals for myself; I don't necessarily think that those goals all fall into one job. One goal is to write a big in-depth profile, like a celebrity interview, a celebrity profile, a cover story, that kind of thing. It's stories like that that made me get into journalism and get into entertainment. Those are some of my favorite stories to read. They're in-depth; they're well done. They're well-edited and well written. I still take a lot of inspiration from that now. Doing a big story like that is a huge goal for me.
Potentially writing a book one day is the goal for me. I don't know what about, yet. I think that's something I need to sit down and really drill down on. But I've always loved writing, like short stories and stuff. When I was 10, I kept a journal. All through high school, I'm always writing things. So a book could be a fun next step. Then maybe as I'm just getting better at editing and writing, maybe teaching. I always like to give back in whatever way I can reach back and pull up the people behind me, even if that's something small. [For example], telling someone how much I paid in rent, so they don't get overcharged or helping someone get an internship somewhere or whatever. I always want to reach back and help the younger folks than I am, in whatever way I can, so maybe adjunct teaching or something could be a fun next step.
*This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.*
Stay Streaming VOL. 5
Stay Streaming is a collection of music that has been getting nonstop streams from me as of late. Some artists featured you'll know and love, while others you soon will. Of course, some songs may be old but hidden gems, but one thing's for sure they're all tracks I stay streaming.
Media Highlights
Check out some of my latest music reviews and feature pieces.
Ariana Grande sixth studio album ‘Positions’: Review
Ariana is in a position in life where she is healed and ready to share that healing with fans. READ MORE
Singer-Songwriter Lizzy Cameron isn’t ‘Faking It’: Feature
USC Thornton Sophomore Lizzy Cameron is finding her melodic niche with new single “Faking It.” READ MORE
The Black experience through documentary film with Stanley Nelson
This week, Annenberg Media’s Daric Cottingham interviewed Documentary Filmmaker and Co-Founder of Firelight Media Stanley Nelson. READ MORE
Worth the Watch
I've been a big film and TV buff since the first time I opened my eyes. To escape into a world with a little box as I gaze on the screen is my favorite pastime. I grew up watching old black & white films with my grandmother and clung to every line of these fictional worlds from "A Streetcar Named Desire" to action films like "Planet of the Apes." And TV was no different, binging classics like "I Love Lucy," "Good Times," and "Knight Rider." Since growing up, not much has changed, and I still love a great film or TV show, and in this section of the DECISIVE newsletter, I'll be sharing what's worth watching.
Grand Army
The drama series tells the story of five high school students as they struggle with sexual, racial and economic politics and fight to succeed and become somebody. No spoilers but this a great series that will get you worked up and yelling at the TV screen. The first episode is a little slow but after that things pick up quickly.
Where to watch: Netflix
Dash & Lily
Opposites attract at Christmas as cynical Dash and optimistic Lily trade messages and dares in a red notebook they pass back and forth around New York City. If you love the holidays, mystery, drama, and laughter this is the perfect series for you. The series is based on the novel Dash and Lily’s Book of Dares, by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan. I enjoyed the series so much I finished the first season in a day; definitely worth the watch.
Where to watch: Netflix
Thank you all for subscribing and sticking with me through my first quarter of the DECISIVE newsletter. I’m currently working on a very special music edition for Issue 6, dropping in December to close the year out with a bang that I hope you all will enjoy! Until then, stay DECISIVE!