Behind The Sound with Making Contact
This week’s show features a conversation among the entire Making Contact production team. Long-time producers Anita Johnson and Salima Hamirani and interim Senior Producer Jessica Partnow introduce our newest members, Lucy Kang, Amy Gastelum, and Jina Chung. Together, the team reviews highlights from shows aired last year and previews what they are each working on for 2023 and beyond. Along the way, they discuss their...
The Fallen of 2020
Making Contact · The Fallen of 2020 2020 was a tumultuous year rocked by two twin plagues: police violence which led to the George Floyd protests and continued discussions about police brutality and of course the novel disease COVID-19. Normally here at Making Contact, we look back on movement leaders we’ve lost over the year in order to pay them tribute and honor their lifetime of work. But this year, we’re commemorating...
Voter suppression in some communities is ‘by design’
By Emily Rose Thorne, Mercer University Center for Collaborative Journalism Voter suppression in the Native American community is compounded by the COVID-19 pandemic. Native American populations, who could tip the scales in several key states, testified before Congress about the voter suppression they experience. Prohibitive distances from voting locations have posed significant challenges for voters living on reservations, who have...
‘A pandemic within a pandemic’: Intimate partner violence cases rise during pandemic
By Emily Rose Thorne, Mercer University Center for Collaborative Journalism On March 23, residents of the United Kingdom were ordered to shelter in place to slow the spread of COVID-19. Two weeks later, calls to the domestic abuse helpline shot up by 110% within a single 24-hour window. As the pandemic continues to rage, experts say that the U.K. is not alone in seeing an alarming uptick of another public health crisis: intimate...
You’re invited!
Making Contact celebrates a new beginning. We invite you to celebrate with us! In June, we welcomed the third Executive Director in the organization’s 26 year history, Sonya Green. Her appointment is exciting for a few reasons. To start, we think Sonya’s great. You can judge for yourself at the soiree. However, we think you will agree. Additionally, her appointment adds to the list of great women leaders of the...
Hello and an Urgent Request from Sonya
Hello! It’s Sonya Green here, your new Executive Director, writing to you for the first time. I’m delighted to have joined Making Contact. I want to thank you for being a part of this dedicated and supportive community. Listen, if you told me six months ago that I would start as the Executive Director of Making Contact during a pandemic and uprisings for racial justice and social change, I would not have believed that. Yet, I feel...
