Melvin Johnson
From 1996 to 2011, teenagers in Harlem ran their own newsroom. The book opens with four of them.
Nyiesha Showers came looking for somewhere to be after school. She was twelve. She ended up covering President Obama’s inauguration, then graduated from Howard and became a published author.
Melvin Johnson grew up in the South Bronx and taught himself JavaScript and HTML out of textbooks. He became one of the anchors of HarlemLIVE and guided the kids who came after him, Nyiesha among them. Melvin died in 2020. In the book, his sister Wanda speaks for him.
Kelvin Christie arrived while we were working out of Bloomberg’s offices. His first piece was an essay about growing up inside the mental health system. He has since earned four master’s degrees.
Miriam Velez goes back further, to my fifth-grade class at P.S. 206 and Kids’ Newsday, the paper where HarlemLIVE’s ideas first took shape. She sold the ads.
Nyiesha Showers recalls her first day, covering Obama’s inauguration, and what came after. Recorded late 2019.
In their words
Nyiesha Showers: “HarlemLIVE was a lifesaver.”
Nyiesha Showers: “HarlemLIVE helped me raise the bar for myself, and since then I have yet to look back.”
Wanda, Melvin’s sister: “The exposure he received opened his eyes to a world that I don’t think he ever imagined was there or was accessible to people like us.”
Miriam Velez: “He treated me, and all of his students, as if we were capable of making adult decisions and self-advocating for our wants, needs, and futures.”
Miriam Velez: “It was always a way to give us the tools needed to mine the depths of our own strength and power.”
Discussion
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- Nyiesha came for somewhere to be after school. What would make a young person in your community stay once they walk in?
- Melvin taught himself to code from textbooks. What would your students learn on their own if someone handed them the right book and the room to use it?
- Miriam’s parents said “no” often, but “yes” enough. How do you earn that “yes” from families?