by Sandra Beckmeier

Covering this story a month late seems practical. Why? Folks are bombing Austin for the Babylon of music, film, "personalities," and multi-media mayhem-gospel-depending upon the size of the readers hard drive I suppose. No pun intended.

Regardless of what kind of media is new, global and hip, there is a certain amount of satisfaction in unwinding this story of the the reality surrounding publications that fashion themselves in newsprint while creating alternative content. It's a symptomatic response to what most of us know as traditional print media -- not in form or content, but the art of resisitance is a movement in itself.

Without a sign of life in the threaded world of "info-tainment," as I half-jokingly define what I watch and refuse to read as news/alternative, progressive media is as satisying as stumbling upon a rare image of a black Jesus. It is a form of cultural truth, proving that as a culture we are evolving -- slowly, but at least the shit is moving away from "historically speaking."

East Austin's The Villager was founded by a group of folks led by Tommy Wyatt in May of 1973, just after affirmative action began, while heroes of the community like Wyatt began structuring a general challenge to support African American owned businesses. Here we are, 25 years later as The Villager remains true, and proudly celebrates with the community proof that the impact of positive journalism versus the marketable world of tragedy works. Improvisation is journalism.

ADA: Individually, how did you enter the world of newspapers?

Wyatt: Well, I was in insurance for 14 years. Basically I started out writing a small column. Eventually we tried to buy the paper, because it was fairly illegitimate and wasn't maintained like the publisher wanted. But after we approached him, and he refused to sell I decided to start my own with the help of others.

ADA: You had another publication prior to The Villager, is that right?

Wyatt: We still produce the Black Registry, which is basically a classified directory of black-organized businesses in the city. We started it as a way to have a composite list because we were moving into the '70s and people were responding to us with the "well, we don't know where to find black businesses for things," so we decided put it together and have it ready.

ADA: It's a comprehensive directory.

Wyatt: Yeah, just like the yellow pages.

ADA: Except this says "Hello Pages." That's cool.

Wyatt: We did two issues before we began to produce the newspaper. We started realizing that most of our businesses normally didn't advertise because the advertising was too expensive. After we continued talking with people about a need for a more frequent source of advertising we found we could provide something lacking in the community.

ADA: You mentioned a number of "special projects" within the publication. Of those you mentioned, there was one called the "Youth Brigade." It is a voice for kids?

Wyatt: We organized it in 1986, intending to introduce students to the world of journalism early. It was our first priority because there weren't many opportunities for our youth to learn about different careers. There are fewer people going into print media, and the other thing there is something like 400 of us across the country but when you look up with the dispersement of our communities many kids aren't even aware there are African American owned newspapers. We provide a service for a lot of these kids because it's their first job. The reason we need this in Austin is because black students are all over the district. At one time we had predominantly black schools like Anderson High and all our kids went there, but after integration our kids were all over town and sometimes the parents didn't even know what was going on. The kids don't know what's going on with each other, and they don't get a chance to talk, so what they can do through the Youth Brigade is share information about their schools. Besides, black kids are oral and don't well on tests. What this teaches them is logic and logically putting a story together is an important tool for them to carry along.

ADA: While using their voices.

Wyatt: Exactly. We have 15 kids in the program right now and seven who have come through and are working journalists today.

ADA: Yeah! I had breakfast with Akwasi Evans of Nokoa, which we both know is a progressive paper. What is The Villager's slant politically?

Wyatt: Well, it depends on the issue at hand. What we do is strictly from an African American point of view, and we try to put a positive spin on African American news and African American experience in a sense so that everything you read about and hear about isn't negative. We make the front page of a newspaper and it's because a black person killed somebody, robbed somebody, raped somebody. Politically speaking, we support those programs and candidates who support our point of view.

ADA: A positive shift.

Wyatt: Yeah.

Nokoa is well-known as Austin's progessive weekly, built from the ground up by Akwasi Evans, who lives and understands the struggles including losing "the house" but keeping the paper. He's built Nokoa from faith and politics, keeping the dream alive while ensuring a "progressive newspaper" and a strong safety net for organizations fighting forces.

"I've seen a lot of changes within the progressive movement in Austin," Evans said. "How could it be any different? We don't represent the black community exclusively. We represent everyone who is seen as progessive: the gay community, Hispanics, women. We are political and always there when folks need us."

Nokoa could be stream-lined with national publications like The Nation, Mother Jones, and In These Times, explicitly pushing through what is commonly understood as mainstream media because of the point of focus with news. Innately humanist, these all hail from outside of what we know as "mainstream society," who (all too often because of pressure) turn their backs on anything outside of their reality. Dr. Manning and Ron Daniels are nationally-known, first-rate columnists and also contribute to Nokoa.

Evans points to a primary concern of the paper, which maintains a large encompassing arm for social consciousness, but oddly enough the publication doesn't receive economic support for its efforts. They get enough to grow, which is a familiar problem for grass roots publications, including ADA.

"The progressive part of the population represents 760 billion that's a 'b' with a lot of zeros behind it." Evans said. What that means for all of us is a built-in frustration for publications representing "b"'s, without any kind of financial support, which ironically would in turn support so many people. "So it's doubly frustrating to approach, say, car dealerships about advertising and they won't," Evans said. "What does that say to us economically? We are the consumers. This year is a make it or break it for a lot of folks, and Nokoa is no different. We're trying to get online, get more advertising and continue to grow."