WEOC Recap #5: Growth and Guest Speaker: Hal Harris Talks Writing His Pub, Est. 1865

Writers and Editors of Color Rock — 3 in 1 Special

February has flown by and so many great things has happened:

WEOC Clubhouse Chat #5: February 7, 2021

Theme: Orientation Our first WEOC orientation sessions were held during Clubhouse Chat #5 and the Clubhouse Recap — Wednesday, February 17, 2021 - We will make that presentation available to members on Slack

WEOC Clubhouse Chat #6: February 14, 2021

Theme: Telling our stories — #Hidden History Allison Gaines, Adrienne Samuels Gibbs and I hosted the Clubhouse chat that centered on the importance of telling our story because our history has and continue to be hidden on purpose. Here a few of the highlights:

• The members discussed how our #HiddenHistory and HerStory connects to the present and Hal H. Harris added that “our stories help force society to face racism” in all aspects of American life — from business to education.

Pro-Tips for Twitter promotion & the tech alphabet URL, SEO, etc.

• Tinu Abayomi-Paul has mastered Twitter stories — she schedules her Tweets to drop facts and commentary on current events. This method can help you promote your Medium stories, too. You can schedule links and story quotes from Medium pieces. An added bonus is if you use #WEOC it will signal members to support your piece.
• Johnny Silvercloud suggested that we “shorten our URL links” in our advanced settings and use it as a way to add a “3rd title”. The shorter the better, 3–4 words helps with Twitter promotion and SEO searches. Please remember you can only do this before you publish — it cannot be changed once you publish and standard links often take up a lot of characters.

Tags and Hidden Black History 365

• Tag “WEOC” in your Medium pieces so they can be found in a search and Allison Gaines gave us an update on the #HiddenHistory project and encouraged submissions. The project can be found in Afrosapiophile.
• Remember the #HiddenHistory and HerStory project doesn’t end after February. Black History happened everyday — so we’re going to tell the stories all year long!

We welcomed new members Q U I N T E S S A, Bih, Joshua E McCoy I who introduced themselves to the group.

WEOC Clubhouse Chat #7: February 21, 2021

Our special guest speaker was: Hal H. Harris, writer and editor of the publication Established in 1865 — “I write to explore Black personhood, the life we have built in the shadow of full citizenship”

I’m going to start by saying that this interview summary is not and will not do him justice, but it’s not on purpose…I’m not a trained journalist and Hal was such an engaging speaker — I got caught up in his story and I forgot to take interview notes and we don’t record on Clubhouse. Here a snapshot of this fantastic interview (Hal co-edited this section):

What are your favorite topics to write about?

Hal writes about how “Black people live and love in the West, a civilization that did not have us living and loving each other in mind when white people created it through the triangle trade and slavery.” His favorite piece so far is:

What projects are you working on?

Hal has some really interesting pieces:

• The rages of whiteness — from birth to current day looking at gun control in contrast of his life since 1986
• The slave story and the immigration song, and exploring how both white and Black people view native African Americans and Black immigrants differently.

What made you join #WEOC and what are some things you’ve learned or accomplished as part of the collective?

Hal said he joined #WEOC to feel a part of a movement and collective and have writing peers because he’s a little introverted. He added that he “would love to put words in the world and transform it”.

Hal added that he is gamer and would like to explore more sci-fi stories? because “Blackness does not persist in the future [it’s] window dressing”.

Hal’s writing can be found on his closed publication, Established 1865, Gen and his personal blog. When Hal isn’t writing, he works in school leadership development and is enjoys his life with his wife and baby boy in Arkansas. Lately, he’s had some challenges with the snow — but that’s nothing a brother in some Tims, a truck and newfound country life skills can’t handle.

#WEOC Culture — Support and chill

WEOC is growing leaps and bounds and new writers join everyday. The Slack channel helps us highlight our pieces. However, with 50+ family members posting fantastic pieces on a daily basis, we know we can’t “catch em all” (shoutout to Pokemon & my WEOC gamers) and we don’t expect you to. We all want to share the love and support each other so Allison Gaines and I offered some tips to help us read and relax:

• Allison suggests that you read a couple new writer’s work a week and I suggested alphabetical order — I’m on C. We both think reading a new and old piece from an author is a good practice to get to know their work
• We both suggest you Read, Comment, Tweet or RT and #50ClapThat we all work hard on our writing and it feels good so see claps and comments from #WEOC folk —
• I grin from ear to ear when I see my WEOC fam read my work. I even love your private notes for my typos (thank you :) — that’s how you critique with kindness which is part of our culture — positivity is key. We’re here to build each other up and help us become the best writers and editors on Medium “and beyond” (from Slack Queen Ally)

We also have a regular guest: Ms. Benét J. Wilson and she gave us the benefits joining the NABJ — National Association of Black Journalists — check out their information:

Thank you for reading and sorry for the delay —

Stay tuned for our next recap with the tea from our first town hall and interview highlights from Q U I N T E S S A

Shoutouts to our other participants

Alisia M. Shelton Cicely K. Dyson L.A. Justice Devon J Hall Casira Copes Lucy Dan 蛋小姐 (she/her/她) LaToya Baldwin Clark Marlon Weems Tinu Abayomi-Paul DarkSkyLady Parris Baker Zuva