Where to find Dallas Free Press this week: Sept. 9-15
Behind the Story Clarifies for the public how a story was reported.
Good afternoon! Here’s what the Dallas Free Press team is working on and where we’ll be this week.
Coming soon from Dallas Free Press
Sujata Dand is working on a follow-up story about what happened to Malcolm X Plaza. Two years ago, the parking lot was turned into a neighborhood gathering space. Today it’s back to a neglected parking lot. What happened?
Brenda Hernandez is reporting about community members becoming part of the Citizens Police Academy and what the program does for them. The program piqued the interest of residents at the La Bajada Neighborhood Community Association community meeting, leaving attendees curious as to what they could learn from the academy.
Brenda also will be on site at the new DART Next Generation bus shelter in South Dallas near Billy Earl Dade Middle School to gather community feedback. She is awaiting responses from DART representatives on how these new shelter locations and styles were chosen, as well as goals and expectations. Are these new bus shelters accommodating the needs of bus passengers?
Keri Mitchell has been waiting on data from Dallas ISD to publish a story on how several Dr. Martin Luther King Arts Academy students were admitted this fall to Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing Arts.
Brenda and Keri will visit Southern Methodist University this afternoon to meet with journalism professor Annette Nevins and her feature writing class to listen to story pitches regarding Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard corridor.
Catch up on recent content from our reporters, including a story on Ideal neighborhood residents wanting a zoning change to protect their community from industrial development.
Dallas Documenters at public meetings
Our Dallas Documenters will cover several public meetings this week:
Tekisha Hobbs will document the city’s Community Police Oversight Board meeting on Tuesday, the first meeting since hiring a new police oversight director.
Other Documenters will be assigned to the DART Committee meetings on Tuesday, the City Council Environmental Commission meeting on Wednesday, and the Dallas ISD board briefing meeting on Thursday.
Scan our Documenters’ notes from recent public meetings, including the August DISD board meeting.
Dallas Free Press in our neighborhoods
Jeffrey Ruiz will attend the South Dallas Classic Community Unity Walk this Saturday to join neighbors and connect residents to our free South Dallas texting service. It’s a free two-way texting service that notifies neighbors of community news, events and resources for West and South Dallas.
Brenda will be at the Eagle Ford Community Garden Night on Tuesday to learn how residents are gaining hands-on experience gardening and growing their own produce, and also Builders of Hope’s “A Right To Stay” South Dallas Anti-Displacement Toolkit preview session on Thursday.
Marlissa Collier will be at the Legendary Lincoln High School on Wednesday working with students in an after-school program focused on civic education and news literacy training. This week’s session is an intro to journalism and a biography writing activity. On Friday Marlissa will be at The “Great” James Madison High School where students will redraft the personal bios they completed last week.
Some of these journalism pathway students will attend Saturday afternoon’s South Dallas Super Bowl, the annual Madison vs. Lincoln football game, with press credentials for a first look into covering live sporting events.
Dallas Free Press wishes all of our neighbors and readers a great week!
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Keri Mitchell has spent 20+ years as a community journalist, including 15 years dedicated to community and civic journalism at Dallas’ Advocate magazines. She launched Dallas Free Press in early 2020 with the belief that all neighborhoods deserve reporting and storytelling that values their community and holds leaders accountable.
Mitchell says she is energized by “knowing our work is making an impact — listening to people, telling their stories with strong narratives paired with compelling data that leads to change. I also love spending time in our neighborhoods and with our neighbors, learning from them and working to determine how journalism can be part of the solution to their challenges.”
Mitchell is proud to be the winner of multiple awards during her journalism career including: Finalist in Magazine Feature Reporting (2018) and Finalist in Magazine Investigative Reporting (2017) from Hugh Aynesworth Excellence in Journalism, Best Feature Story (2011) from Texas Community Newspaper Association and Best Magazine Feature (2011) from Dallas Bar Association Philbin Awards.
Areas of Expertise:
local government, education, civic issues, investigative and enterprise reporting
Location Expertise:
Dallas, Texas
Official Title:
Founder + executive director
Email Address:
keri@dallasfreepress.com
