The Front Row is our passion series offering an up-close look at the creators and cultivators that are reshaping Omaha’s Community. NOISE (North Omaha Information Support Everyone) is a community-led news organization developed to address the information gap within North Omaha. We spoke with Founder and Director Dawaune Hayes about diversity in news and being environmentally conscious.
Talk to us about the mission of NOISE and how it aligns with your involvement in the Black Lives Matter movement.
We are a community-led news organization working predominantly with Omaha to provide information, give back to the community, and do it differently. Omaha is a big city. It is also a segregated city that experiences life very differently depending on the region. Many people don’t know why Omaha is laid out the way that it is. Growing up in North Omaha and moving to a different part of the city, I recognized that they were different but I didn’t exactly understand what force was at play to make that possible. It wasn’t until I started working in journalism that I understood that there were deliberate actions taken to diminish information, and diminish access to government and support. Being two years old now, NOISE is providing the connection to the civic community through cultural news and doing it from within. We are connecting with journalists and storytellers in our community, providing them the platform to be able to tell our stories and our perspective, and have all of the fancy tools to do it. I went to school for journalism at Creighton University and I’m going to tell anyone that they don’t have to. I had a great experience and I’m glad I went. That was a bunch of money that you don’t need to spend to be a good journalist now, honestly. Resources are available online. Journalism and news are the way that they’ve been because when you limit the education to only be accessible in an institution and an academic setting, it prevents the story from being balanced. Our goal is to train and educate the community, train new journalists, and provide news to the community in an alternate way of communicating here in Omaha.
Photo by Taylor Glascock.
How has NOISE focused its efforts amid current protests?
A lot is happening all at once. A big part of it has been diversifying our team and tapping into the community because I couldn’t personally be at every single protest; our staff can’t be everywhere. As a community-led organization, we have the opportunity to lean on our community for information and support. It helps that we were able to raise some money over the last couple of weeks. We’re going to put that directly toward paying people because we want to be able to cover more, say more, and have deeper conversations. I feel like we’ve always had a goal to have deeper conversations with news. Now, with the momentum, we’re bridging the gap and that’s exciting.
Has NOISE had to make any hard decisions during this time?
Sometimes, difficult decisions are whether to forgo your comfort to make sure that the truth is told. We want people to have bold, dynamic stories and perspectives. Sometimes you have to put yourself in harm's way to do so. That’s a tough decision. We need people to do it because, otherwise, we won’t know anything. That comes with the territory of being a journalist. Especially right now, are you willing to risk your life in some situations to make sure that people know what’s going on?
NOISE has been a great resource for understanding current events. While we shouldn’t be fully depending on Black-led organizations to educate us on anti-racism, would you mind sharing some action-oriented ways that the community can get involved?
All of this unrest, injustice, oppression, is in the image of one thing. That is the trauma done to the land and soil, the very land on which we stand. The trauma that has taken place has fueled violence and, therefore, the retaliation of the acts done here. What I’ve been doing and something that I recommend is to get your hands and feet in soil. Plant, eat fresh food, take your shoes off and stand on grass, because it is going to require connecting to our environment to be able to have the tools necessary to reconcile. We became a product of our environment, correct? If our environment is constantly being harmed, exploited, neglected, and extracted then that’s what we do to ourselves and that’s what we do to other people. If you’re looking for a way to make a meaningful difference, plant a garden for yourself. Put some dirt in a pot and grow something. From what I’ve been able to study, people become more conscientious and empathetic when they are caring for plants. It can be a challenge, but learning that process can transform our mindset on our community and help us think reflectively. That’s something that we can all practice every day and it’s a principle that will influence all other parts, whether it be a reform or education or finance training. If it’s not rooted in the most essential and the simplest forms of life, then it will be a difficult time caring for complex issues.
I completely agree.
Plants affect your mind, how you spend your time, what you research, and what you learn. Children, especially, need plants as an outlet. If we’re talking about economic and social aggregation then, why aren’t we growing our own food? If we have our mind set in what we are capable of versus what we don’t have, then that’s where we’ll be able to see the partnership, cooperation, and growth.
We have a massive community focused around agrarian societies here and they have the desire to help villages and grow food. We could learn a lot from them. When we’re talking about what the future looks like, there are self-sufficient communities that were tossed into the urban core where they’re alienated from each other and the environment. We need to learn from our community members.
How can the community support NOISE?
Photo by Andrew Washington.
We are always open to donations because we are bringing in more people and educating them. In order to be community-led, we have to be community supported. If we want NOISE to continue to grow, we need them to meet us where we are.
Also, talk to people and ask questions. Be willing to have a dialogue and ask genuine questions when you have them. Don’t be afraid to do so. I understand the emotional labor conversation and the "it’s not my responsibility" thing. As an educator and an informant, I recognize that if I have the information because I have the experience of that information, then it should come from me. If what you’re doing is harming me and I expect you to not harm me by finding out third or fourth-hand how to do better, that’s not effective for myself or you. I think we should be humble but not carry around guilt and shame because we don’t know. Come at me and say, “I know I don’t know everything but I have a few questions and I’m willing to listen. If you aren’t willing to share, I respect that.” I feel like people are kind of in apology mode, which I understand. There’s lots of guilt and shame that’s sitting around but we have to get over that if we wish to have difficult conversations and be able to learn the things necessary to be able to advance more quickly. Wasting time in our guilt and shame doesn’t get us to the result that we’re looking for. I say, carry yourself with humbleness and the confidence that you will learn.
Are you associated with any of the groups that are involved in the Black Lives Matter movement in Omaha?
Yeah. For example, the folks at Black Agenda Alliance are good friends. We’re all connected and realize that everyone’s work ties into the same thing but we have different avenues. With NOISE, our strong suit is gathering people differently around culture, music, and information. Our work is just to inform the conversation. If we’re going to talk about protesting, let’s talk about the history of protesting, what was effective, and what was not. If we’re talking about what’s next, let’s look at other examples of communities that have done different things, talk about how to facilitate our mission, and how to do things locally. That’s our strong suit, bringing the information into the space. It can be easy to have these big conversations about what needs to change without having the details to get there.
Protestors hold signs during an Omaha Black Lives Matter March near 72nd and Dodge. Photo by Andrew Washington.
Are there any obstacles standing in the way of relaying information?
The non-profit complex is supported and funded by foundations who get their money from industries that exploit the communities that we’re trying to advocate for. That’s just how it’s built. When we’re talking about systemic change, we also have to recognize how we’re doing things differently, transitions of power, and influence. It’s not to say that every foundation is bad. The reason we have billionaires and trillionaires is because of exploitation, usually of black or brown communities. Then, we’re going to the same banks, if you will, to say, “Can you help me to help my community that’s being hurt by you?” There is a barrier there. You want to make sure that you have integrity but then, all of your community doesn’t necessarily have the resources that they need. Are we compromising? When I bring it up in circles and non-profit spaces, people don’t want to have that conversation. It’s a fundamental part of what’s happening. If we don’t address everything from this level, then we’ll just continue to perpetuate the very things that are harming us and that we wish to dismantle. I would say that’s the biggest challenge.
Do you see any avenues around that obstacle?
That’s where I come back to "community-led and community-supported". One thing that I know we can do better is articulating what our needs are and determining what specific resources we need to do that. Who knows, people could have those resources and be willing to offer them. It’s not as much about money as it is the resource; money is just access to that resource. If we’re able to get the things that we need without needing a ton of money to do so, then we’d be able to have support in anything that we do. It is going to require all people to identify what their needs are and identify what they can contribute. Earlier you asked, what can people do? Well, what are you good at and what do you need? Make a list and have that with you so that when people ask, “How can I help?” you can say, “This is how.” We’re working on that on our side. What I’ve been finding is, we all have needs but we don’t all spend the time to identify them so that we can articulate them to people. In this time when people are so quick to say, “I want to help,” we need to know what role we can give people. That will help everyone to move more effectively and feel like they have purpose, drive, support, and be able to contribute resources. I think that will do wonders for everybody.
How can the community get involved with NOISE?
Subscribe to our text alert system by texting "NOISE" to 33222. That helps us build our network. The more people that are on it, the stronger, more resilient the local retweet we can build and make sure more people are informed regularly. Challenge yourself to keep looking for a different perspective because NOISE is just one perspective. To rely on us solely as the only lens into the Black community would be irresponsible. All that we ask is that we are diversifying our sources and experiences. The more literate our community is, especially with media, the safer, the more resilient, and the more actionable we’ll be able to be.
Don’t miss out on the latest information about the Omaha community. Visit NOISE’s website and follow along on social media by clicking the links below.
Your support matters! NOISE operates as a community-led source for information and can do this successfully with contributions from the community.
Donate to NOISE by clicking the link below.
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