Letter from the Editor
Dear readers,
I am excited to serve as Nommo’s Editor-in-Chief for the 2023-2024 academic year. I feel extremely privileged to lead a magazine with the sole purpose of telling Pan-Afrikan stories, owning our narratives, and sharing our art, accomplishments, struggles, and truths to reimagine mainstream media from a Pan-Afrikan vantage point. As Nommo approaches its 55th anniversary, the presence of Pan-Afrikan media has proven to be evermore important. Amid the reinvigoration of national and international Pan-Afrikan diasporic resistance and liberation movements, the ongoing violence, hyper-surveillance, and oppression of the Afrikan voice and body, attacks on news personnel at protests, calls to abolish police apparatus and fascist terror, climate equity struggles such as the #StopCopCity movements that have spurred in Atlanta and all over the nation, and the ongoingly disproportionate harms that are caused by the racist medical care systems that Afrikans are subject to, the dissemination of truth and transparency in media becomes a growing necessity for Afrikan people.
As I come into this position, I am dedicated to upholding Nommo’s mission and values as they reflect those of the community. Additionally, I vow to represent the Pan-Afrikan diasporic Bruin community with honor, establish open communication with leaders, and reflect the needs, wants, goals, and objectives of the Black Bruin community in this publication.
When I’m not writing articles and proofreading essays, I study Political Science, Sociology, and African and Middle Eastern Studies. I’ve been writing for Nommo since Fall 2021, but my roots are in poetry and political commentary. I’m interested in Pan-Afrikan political writings, poetry, feminist writings, organizing to provide tangible liberation and survival resources to the Pan-Afrikan Community, spoken word, and self-discovery, and I know my articles will do this! I hope to bring positive energy and Pan-Afrikan diasporic unity and revitalization of our collective political consciousness and autonomy to Nommo and the broader Pan-Afrikan diasporic community, emphasizing the intersectional identities of our staff and readers. I look forward to seeing this magazine adapt and change as our views, understandings, and representations of diasporic identities do, and I’m proud to be a proponent of that change through my contributions to the magazine.
Once again, I am so grateful for this opportunity and I look forward to embracing the responsibilities, struggles, and accomplishments to come. Thank you to UCLA Student Media, Doria, and Jose for helping to foster our ideas into reality.
With love,
Nicole Crawford
[email protected] | [email protected]
“Our children are our futures and I believe in the future and in the strength and rightness of our struggle”
-Assata Shakur