Once upon a time in Atlantic Canada, two passionate individuals, Clinton and Hillary, embarked on a journey to redefine the narrative surrounding Black lives in the region. Their story unfolded through the creation of BlackLantic, a revolutionary media channel dedicated to uplifting the East.
Can you tell us about your journey as a Black content creator sin the media industry? CLINTON: As a lifelong visual artist and performing musician, content creation has always been a part of my life. When I began visiting New Brunswick in the late ’90s and then moved there in 2009, I became acutely aware of the stark differences in tolerance. There was a noticeable presence of willful or unintentional ignorance, and, to be blunt, rampant racism towards other cultures in New Brunswick compared to Toronto and other larger cities, or even other Maritime provinces. After years of observation and increasingly speaking out about these issues, I found podcasting to be a useful tool to spread awareness.
HILLARY: I started my career three years ago by accident. I graduated from Université de Moncton with a Bacc es Arts in English. I then moved to Toronto to pursue Fashion Communications but dropped out due to my mental health struggles and lack of sobriety. I spent all of my life until moving to Toronto living with my white family and in a white community. After two years of attempting to complete my degree, and then dropping out, I finally went to live with my Black father. I started posting on social media about learning to love my Blackness. I was approached by a podcast to be a guest, then co-host and blogger with them which led to partnerships with CBC and writing for other media outlets. Since then, Clinton and I founded BlackLantic and I have continued to host other podcasts, write for other outlets as well as continue my partnership with CBC.
Could you tell us about the mission and goals of Black content media channel? We are an online and digital social purpose organization focused on providing platforms of perspective towards the diversity of being Black in Atlantic Canada, while challenging common stereotypes. Our mission: To amplify Black voices and share stories that encourage the understanding of Black Atlantic lives while hiring Black content creators, working with organizations on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion initiatives and working toward a more inclusive community. Our Purpose: Through achieving our social purpose, communities spread apart through Atlantic Canada will feel more connected, and less segregated and siloed. We will have brought together community leaders, entrepreneurs and youth to both be inspired and inspire the Black Atlantic community. Paying contributors will contribute to their economic well being. The conversations, education around and exposure of the Black experience will work towards the goal of reducing hatred, misinformation, stereotypes and negative biases towards BIPOC through conversation, education and engagement. Through continued outreach and engagement our Social Enterprise will have educated allies, bolstered community and created safe spaces in the Atlantic region while also using story telling as a means to educate. Black Atlantic communities will have better connection, an outlet to be heard and a growing community to rely on for years to come.
What is the core theme or focus of your media channel, and how did you decide on it? Our core theme is to “uplift the east” – and what that means to us is through increasing the amount of stories that breakdown stereotypes in many ways, and sometimes just by existing. BlackLantic’s themes include stories, changemakers, guests, topics on current issues through a “Black” lens, and more. While many groups before us have worked to increase awareness, none have presented in our particular kind of platform before now. Having both lived in the East Coast and Ontario we knew what diversity looks like, the lack of representation around the entire diaspora of cultures we place under the umbrella of being “Black”, and how it compares to other provinces that have representation, and not only have it when it involved mining Black stories for their traumas. We include Black joy, Black honesty, Black truths, history, and filled a niche we saw as well as a gap within the media, especially East Coast media.
Could you share the story behind the creation of your podcast? What inspired you to start it? As previously mentioned, we were already part of another podcast and things didn’t pan out as we expected. It was a no brainer to us to continue to do the work we loved but as a duo with similar morals, values, goals and dreams for ourselves, our company, and to do our little part to help improve the future of young Black Atlantic Canadians, and by extent all visible minorities.
Who is your target audience, and how do you tailor your content to their interests and needs? Though our target audience is Black Atlantic Canadians, we recognize and appreciate that many Eurocentric English and Acadian peoples and allies, and members of the BIPOC community listen to our podcast. Some of those groups enjoy the podcast for education, some for inspiration and some for relatability (and a few to spread hate and troll our work, which is to be expected). We try to keep our content focused on topics and stories that impact the Black community which sometimes entail politics, entertainment, local news, and more.
How do you come up with ideas for your episodes, and what is your content planning process? It’s a lot of work to put out 30 episodes of weekly content every season, but we bounce ideas back and forth on the regular. Various spreadsheets, calendars and lots of chatting help to keep us organised. We can’t give away all our content planning secrets, but in general, we alternate between guest episodes, topic episodes and larger panels when possible. Living in different provinces, we take advantage of every opportunity to work and film together in person. unless there is high demand or events that allow us to be together in person to do more interviews. We’ll need more outside help to scale, but thankfully, the two of share the proper set of skillsets to pull it off and make sure this work has gotten done so far.
How do you prepare for interviews or discussions on your podcast? We research our guests, share our questions with each other and then with the guest. We love guest input and really use their vibe to gage the energy of the podcast. We will often also share websites, graphics, even videos during the episode for video viewers so it is more engaging. For topic episodes we try to have one of us be more well read on a topic than the other but we try to know where the discussion is going and always plan a minimum of three topics per topics episode.
What has been the most rewarding or memorable episode or moment in your podcasting journey?
HILLARY: What I find most rewarding is meeting people who have such compelling stories but reinforce why we do what we do. Our guests are sometimes immigrants just learning they are ‘Black’ because in their native country they were just people being people. Sometimes we hear horrible stories of racism, that resonate with us. Almost always all stories end in stories of success and triumph. Most specifically I am proud of the work we have done to help build the Black histories curriculum with the New Brunswick Education Department.
CLINTON: It’s rewarding every time someone tells me they’ve felt less alone out in here in the Maritimes, after hearing about experiences or truths they’ve had to live alone, especially those living in isolated communities. It’s rewarding every time someone tells me we changed a view, a perspective, an outlook.
How do you engage with your listeners, and what role does listener feedback play in shaping your content? We encourage comments, emails, rates, reviews. Most often we get Dms with questions, comments, or thoughts. We take all of these comments very seriously and always try to respond, and even shift according to our listeners feelings. If people appear hostile, we usually make an attempt to respond once, and if it seems there is no desire for intelligent conversation, we move on.
What are your future plans or goals for your podcast? We want to expand so that we are able to pay a small team to be our eyes and ears in all Atlantic provinces to increase our coverage and ability to share interesting stories, talk to and learn from different individuals. We also would love to produce even more content with a producer, media monitors and other hands on deck. Long term, we want to shake up the media industry by changing the way people perceive Black people and Black news.
Are there any upcoming episodes or projects you’d like to share or promote? We do have to save our exciting stories for a little while longer. We are always working on bigger and better content for BlackLantic Media.
Can you share some of the challenges and opportunities you’ve encountered as a Black content creator? HILLARY: Our biggest challenge and opportunity simultaneously is always Black History Month. The weeks leading up to February are always the busiest as corporations and institutions want our services but often either wait until the last second to reach out or they all only reach out in February so we are swamped for only one month and the other 11 hearing crickets. It would be amazing if during all of the other months of the year some of this attention could be spread out so our voice can be amplified year round and we can experience less burnout.
CLINTON: Fundraising. The truth is, there of course isn’t a lot of money in podcasting when you don’t have a million views a week. We receive outside opportunities that help us continue this work, as we seek to secure funding to grow this platform. After Geroge Floyd’s murder there was an outpour of support for this type of work, but as is with people’s attention, the media cycles, and the number of things to work out and work on in this world, financial support and grants can be reallocated as well.
What are some of the key themes or messages you aim to convey through your content? Our key messaging is that Black people are Not a monolith. We share a lot of the same experiences but come from different places, live different realities and don’t all hold the same values – but we are all humans who deserve respect and human decency,
In your opinion, what can the media industry do to better support and promote diverse voices and stories? HILLARY: There should be more representation in media, more funds for independent media and more opportunities to recognize the good that Black, and even BIPOC/Diverse communities are doing. Again, we are more than a trauma narrative or stories about racism.
CLINTON: There are many organisations that do similar work. It can be hard being under this umbrella of so many different cultures and countries simply referred to “Black” once living in Canada, but the Black Industry needs to work more together before looking for an outside industry to help us do what we all already have the power to.
What advice would you give to aspiring Black content creators looking to break into the industry? CLINTON: Don’t overthink your talent. Start now. Some things you do want to perfect before putting yourself out there. Sharing your truths though, whatever those truths are, that can start today. Our content and quality continues to improve over the years, but if we hadn’t have started when we did, we wouldn’t be here where we are today. Start now, not tomorrow.
HILLARY: Don’t be afraid to tell your truth your way. Don’t feel ashamed for saying yes to a cheque because you are the diversity hire if you can use that opportunity for good or to inspire more change. Network, collaborate and remember to uplift your community.
Rest is good? How do you rest as a content creators? Hillary: For me, I rarely rest, but when I do it’s with music, a cup of tea and some online shopping.
Clinton, For me, COVID was the catalyst that taught me more about work/life balance. I’ll admit I’ve forgotten some of those lessons this past year, and I’ll get back to that this winter season. I rest by turning the media news cycles off, putting my phone on do not disturb, and spending time with the loved ones around me.
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