{"id":968,"date":"2016-01-08T22:10:55","date_gmt":"2016-01-08T22:10:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kjzz2017.nextgenradio.org\/?p=968"},"modified":"2017-03-27T04:07:06","modified_gmt":"2017-03-27T04:07:06","slug":"blog-trenae-nuri-next-generation-radio","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kjzz2017.nextgenradio.org\/2016\/01\/08\/blog-trenae-nuri-next-generation-radio\/","title":{"rendered":"Trenae Nuri: Horse culture"},"content":{"rendered":"

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There is horse culture is my blood. My grandfather was a former member of the Federation of Black Cowboys in Harlem, New York, but I haven\u2019t been on a horse since I was about six years old. Covering this story made me reflect on my grandfather\u2019s life and his passion for cowboy culture.<\/p>\n

[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_image admin_label=”Image” src=”https:\/\/kjzz2017.nextgenradio.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/30\/2016\/01\/photo-1.jpg” alt=”Trenae’s Grandfather” show_in_lightbox=”off” url_new_window=”off” animation=”left” sticky=”off” align=”left” force_fullwidth=”off” always_center_on_mobile=”on” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid”]<\/p>\n

[\/et_pb_image][et_pb_text admin_label=”Text” background_layout=”light” text_orientation=”left” text_font_size=”14″ use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid”]<\/p>\n

As soon as I saw the sign \u201cArizona State Prison Complex Florence,\u201d my heart sank.<\/p>\n

[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_image admin_label=”Image” src=”https:\/\/kjzz2017.nextgenradio.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/30\/2016\/01\/photo-2.jpg” alt=”AZ State Prison Sign” show_in_lightbox=”off” url_new_window=”off” animation=”left” sticky=”off” align=”left” force_fullwidth=”off” always_center_on_mobile=”on” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid”]<\/p>\n

[\/et_pb_image][et_pb_text admin_label=”Text” background_layout=”light” text_orientation=”left” text_font_size=”14″ use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid”]<\/p>\n

This was my first time in a prison. The thought of the seeing men locked up behind bars and prison guards toting guns made me anxious, but once I got to the horse stables, that feeling changed: I saw inmates cleaning the pens, petting the animals and grabbing saddles to ride the horses. I felt calm, and I kicked into reporter mode and began capturing the sounds of horses chewing hay, neighing and men walking on muddy pathways.<\/p>\n

I met Dashonate Abdul-Wakil \u2013 the protagonist of my story. He walked out to the round pen and greeted me with a smile. I asked him to tell me his story – how he ended up in prison – and he shared it.<\/p>\n

He was a former gang member, but didn\u2019t tell me which one. That was off limits. And I didn\u2019t ask too many details of the crime he had committed that landed him in prison. Abdul-Wakil served 17 years for second-degree murder. Although his past was bleak, he said he was optimistic that he\u2019s not going back to his old ways upon release. And after being in the horse program for over a year, he has plans to buy a horse when he gets his freedom. Check out Abdul-Wakil\u2019s complete story of how he found the wild horse program<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Transcribing my story took me awhile, but my mentor Tristan Ahtone introduced me to software that allowed the process to go a lot faster. After transcribing the story details, Tristan challenged me to come up with themes that came up in the interview and group those ideas into chunks of dialogue to organize the script. Even though I knew I couldn\u2019t fit everything in the story, it did hurt that some information was removed.<\/p>\n

I have been out of my comfort zone this whole week. I’m 27, married with children, but this week, I grew up. My experience in Arizona put me in uncomfortable situations, made me think critically, and forced me to be humble. I’m grateful for the people I was surrounded by who taught me so much about myself.\u00a0I\u2019ve met some really interesting people in the program. Ericka Guevarra does\u00a0intercollegiate speech and debate\u00a0in San Francisco. Maggie Freleng did an internship for the same station as me. She has two cats; I have two children – it\u2019s like the same thing.\u00a0 Abhilasha (Abby) Madan is a part of an interesting housing co-op in California. And Tristan travels to various states covering Indian country.\u00a0Cheryl Devall shared some journalism industry wisdom.\u00a0I will never forget the conversations, interesting foods and laughs we shared. The Next Gen Radio, powered by KJZZ, training just elevated my confidence to a new level.<\/p>\n

It feels strange to me that I\u2019m free to tell Abdul-Wakil\u2019s story, but he\u2019s still locked up. My hope is that his story is shared by many people and they see him as a real human being: a man who made a lot of mistakes, but found redemption through his work with wild horses.<\/p>\n

I will never forget Abdul-Wakil. Meeting him made me think of Willie \u201cBitter Creek\u201d Malone–my maternal grandfather. The man I knew for six short months, but left the biggest impression on my life. I dedicate this story to you, Pop Pop. Love, Trenae.<\/p>\n

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[\/et_pb_image][et_pb_team_member global_parent=”467″ admin_label=”Person” saved_tabs=”all” name=”Trenae Nuri” image_url=”https:\/\/kjzz2017.nextgenradio.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/30\/2016\/01\/trenae.jpg” animation=”off” background_layout=”light” twitter_url=”https:\/\/twitter.com\/trenaenuri” linkedin_url=”https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/trenaevnuri” header_font_size=”18″ body_font_size=”14″ use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid”]<\/p>\n

Trenae V. Nuri is a multimedia journalist. Since 2010, Trenae has written articles and produced news packages on the lives of underrepresented communities and issues. Her maturation as a journalist and advocate for community journalism has been cultivated through her work at several media outlets in the Philadelphia region. She is a certified investigative reporter, certified producer at Philadelphia Public Access Media, and first place recipient of the 2013 Youth Writer Section Merit Award from the National Newspaper Publishers Association. Currently, she\u2019s a producer\/reporter and pursuing a master\u2019s degree with a concentration in journalism and public communication at Drexel University.<\/p>\n

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My grandfather was a former member of the Federation of Black Cowboys in Harlem, New York, but I haven\u2019t been on a horse since I was about six years old. Covering this story made me reflect on my grandfather\u2019s life and his passion for cowboy culture.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":296,"featured_media":1047,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[65,54,5],"tags":[55,64,52,11,53,17],"coauthors":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kjzz2017.nextgenradio.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/968"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kjzz2017.nextgenradio.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kjzz2017.nextgenradio.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kjzz2017.nextgenradio.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/296"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kjzz2017.nextgenradio.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=968"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/kjzz2017.nextgenradio.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/968\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kjzz2017.nextgenradio.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1047"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kjzz2017.nextgenradio.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=968"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kjzz2017.nextgenradio.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=968"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kjzz2017.nextgenradio.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=968"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kjzz2017.nextgenradio.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=968"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}