VOICES: It’s my mission to give my community a voice

Mary Evans is a journalist, radio producer, and social justice activist. She uses her platform to provide space for underrepresented communities. (CONTRIBUTED)

Mary Evans is a journalist, radio producer, and social justice activist. She uses her platform to provide space for underrepresented communities. (CONTRIBUTED)
Ideas & Voices
By Mary Evans
Feb 27, 2023
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I came to live in Dayton after paroling to a liberal arts school in Greene County, which held classes inside my prison institution. The readings assigned in this Inside Out class gave me a whole new perspective. Growing up in Gallipolis, I wasn’t taught about Angela Davis. I never heard of bell hooks, Audre Lorde, Basquiat, or Gordon Parks. Seeing these different artists and activists using their art to advocate for rights changed my life forever.

I’ve always had a love for journalism and for talking to people. I was able to convince a professor to propose creating a newspaper for the prison institution I was in. The proposal was approved and “The Symbolic Interruption” was born. The newspaper became a hit with the other incarcerated women and even ran an issue after my release. From that moment on, I knew it was my mission to help give my community a voice.

When I was released and I arrived at the college campus I was given the opportunity to interview for a year-long position with a local radio station, WYSO. I took my chances, interviewed, got the job, and have been there ever since.

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At this time, I first met Peter Benkendorf from The Collaboratory in Dayton. He helped me shape an idea I had to give voice to returned citizen issues into a proposal for my own show at the radio station. WYSO loved it. Before I knew it, I was researching about returned citizens in the Miami Valley. I learned that more than 1,500 returned citizens come back to the Dayton area each year and struggle for housing, employment, mental and medical health care, and so much more.

My show, ReEntry Stories, is in its fifth season and it truly has been a privilege to listen to and be trusted with these stories. My greatest honor so far in Dayton has been the Bob and Norma Ross Community Leadership Award from the NAACP Dayton Chapter. To know that people recognize my forms of art, journalism and audio editing has been so humbling.

I often meet people who have a preconception of formerly incarcerated individuals and think prison is this magical place where there are many opportunities to better yourself. They fail to realize all the restrictions that keep incarcerated people from receiving these opportunities. My mission is to bring awareness to the needs of returned citizens in this community, give them a voice and to let them know about resources available.

Early in the pandemic, Peter Benkendorf again presented an opportunity for me to utilize my love of journalism as a form of activism. I co-founded The Journalism Lab along with three other seasoned journalists. We share our skills in the hopes of creating community correspondents who can use journalism to tell the stories important to them.

How can we come together as a community if we don’t know what is important to those in the community? Share what’s important to you by becoming a citizen correspondent. The Journalism Lab’s next round of free online training classes begin in March. Learn more about them in our March 2 virtual information session. Register online at thejournalismlab.org/the-bureau.

Mary Evans hosts ReEntry Stories on WYSO and is a co-founder of The Journalism Lab.

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About the Author

Mary Evans