Oh, we’re talking 2016?
Let’s take a trip down memory lane.
TL; DR: You have three more days to answer the Community Core Open Call.
February
My love and I are walking around Lake Merritt in Oakland, CA. I’m interviewing him about his life. He starts dropping gems so I pull out my phone to record him. The idea for a podcast is born!
March
I had no idea how to start a podcast, and up to that point I hadn’t listened to many. So I did what you did back then when trying to figure something out: I made a call out to my friends on Facebook.
I talked to a few people, which led to more lightbulb moments, and the concept for the podcast started to take shape… I hit up my sister, Britney, and she agreed to help me with producing and editing. When I told my friends Adizah and Tashana about the idea, they volunteered to come on board, too 🖤.
April
It was time to find some storytellers.
Storytellers recruited, we started recording!
Go back and listen their stories (and please excuse the audio quality. I was brand new to this 😅): Darkening Up, Can I Take It Apart?, Lit As a Feather, Where Are My Shoes?
May
You Had Me at Black premiered on May 18, 2016 everywhere you could get podcasts. That weekend, we hosted our very first Kickback at SoleSpace in Oakland to a sold out crowd. Over 100 people came through!
August
On a high from our first season and Kickback, we kept going, recruiting interesting people in the Bay Area and New York to share and record their stories with us.
Listen to their stories: Before the Truce, Black Cinderella, Peons and Peacocks, Cosmic Bat Mitzvah, Serendipitous Report, Party Through The Punches, Golden Pursuit
October
Our listeners, family and friends nominated us, and Britney and I were invited to President Obama’s South x South Lawn festival at the White House.
A few days later, Season 2 premiered, and we celebrated by holding a second Kickback at Regulars Only in Oakland! Britney flew out from NY to experience You Had Me at Black live for the first time.
December
We closed out a full and eventful first year with a photoshoot ft. some storytellers and friends of the show sporting our merch.
Setting the Stage for the Next 10 Years
We did all this as a labor of love and continued that way for five years.
In the future I’ll share reflections on our first year. What it meant to create something beautiful with a lot of heart, but no infrastructure to sustain it.
For now, I’ll say this: I learned that love and vision can get you far. But to build a storytelling home that lasts, one that can hold and support the work and the people contributing to it? That requires community committed to building together.
The Community Core is the first act of building that infrastructure for You Had Me at Black’s next chapter. It’s how we make sure our future isn’t just held together by sheer will, but a foundation fortified by the collective.
You have three more days to answer the Open Call. If you’ve been waiting for your sign, this is it.
Peace,
Martina
Catch up on what the Community Core will do, who makes a good fit, what success looks like, and why this program, now:
