Advancing Equity In Local Audio Industry

Access to tech and creative industry employment

Expand existing project, program, or initiative (expanding and continuing ongoing, successful work)

The audio industry is a space that can be unwelcoming to historically underrepresented voices. The term “underrepresented” applies to both the creative practitioners and the topic of stories/subjects. Our mentorship program is designed to support audio journalists & storyteller who have a background, life experience or perspective that has been historically marginalized, as well as audio story proposals that center communities and community voices that are underrepresented in audio. There’s a history of homogenous individuals (white, cis, male) occupying the professional audio storytelling space. We are counter-programming against the gatekeeping practices that have long dominated the field by offering essential professional skills and support to a diverse cohort of emerging artists.

The LA2050 grant would go towards supporting the LA Radio Club mentorship program. Our vocational mentorship program was designed with the goal of increasing equity in the audio field. In Q1+Q2 of 2024, we piloted an initial mentorship cohort who all have an identity, background or perspective that has been historically marginalized in the field. During our program, each mentee is supported as they lean into their valuable life experience to make a short-form audio story about a lesser-known local community. Both the storytellers and the stories they’re telling are from the margins –– all in need of a spotlight that we are able to help provide.

The LA2050 grant would go towards our mentorship program, which supports the media projects of underrepresented artists in audio storytelling. Ultimately, these are all stories from the margins. These are stories of people, communities and topics that deserve more attention –– attention we’re helping to manifest by supporting the production and release of these short-form audio stories. One example from our current mentorship: Stella Hartman, a queer audio storyteller, who made an audio documentary about Oil Can Harry's, one of the oldest gay bars in LA, and how its closure affected the local LGBTQ+ community. Stella’s story captures not just the story of this one space, but explores the idea of what it means for a place to be truly inclusive to all members of their community. We already can see the impact these stories can have. For the subjects and listeners with a shared identity, seeing yourself represented in media can give you an immeasurable sense of joy and pride.

As we come to the end of our initial mentorship cohort, we are scheduling one-on-one conservations with all the mentorship program participants –– i.e. all the mentors & mentees. We are planning a months-long evaluation period so that the program leaders, advisory board & fiscal sponsor can all digest the feedback and use it to shape future programs. We want to make sure that we're doing everything we can to best serve our community, especially in supporting the mentees.