Letter from the Editor
Dear readers,
I am proud to be serving as NOMMO’s Editor-in-Chief for the 2023-2025 academic years. 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 and storytelling from an authentic and truthful perspective point. In a society plagued by oppression and destruction, the presence of Pan-Afrikan media has proven to be ever more 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 journalists at protests, calls to abolish police apparatus and fascist terror, climate equity struggles such as the #StopCopCity movements which have spurred in Atlanta and all over the nation, and the ongoing 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 hold this position, I continue to be dedicated to upholding NOMMO’s mission and values as they reflect those of the community. Additionally, I vow to represent the pan-Afrikan diasporic community with honor, establish open communication with leaders, and reflect the needs, wants, goals, and objectives of our collective futures in this publication.
When I’m not writing articles and proofreading essays, I am studying Political Science and Sociology. 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. 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 local and campus 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 our writings.
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 provide a platform for us 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