Emma Newbery: Community conversations worth listening to

Emma Newbery joined the Jewish Alliance of Greater Rhode Island in April as a branding and engagement associate. Originally from New York, she studied religion and anthropology at Bowdoin College. Her work will be featured in Jewish Rhody Media podcasts as well as at Jewish Rhode Island’s website, JewishRhody.org, and in Jewish Rhode Island. This profile is second in a series of first-person essays by staff members.

In January of 2020, I asked Boston’s Poet Laureate Porsha Olayiwola what it means to be radical as part of a creative community.

“Radical means not accepting today’s naming of how things should be as the sole naming,” she said. “Not necessarily thinking about how I talk about the past, but how do I carve out the future?”

When I am given a platform for stories, my own or those of others, I often come back to what Olayiwola said. From my work profiling creative people in the Boston arts scene to my new work in podcasting, I always try to approach storytelling as something prismatic. The pull to go beyond the easy questions, to dig beneath the surface, is what drives my creative work. Everyone brings something of their own to a narrative, and building stories together means honoring each angle that comes to the table.

Whether I’m reading, writing or recording, my motivation is to draw out excitement and passion in others – to find out what they care about most.

I started my own podcast, “All Alone with Something to Say,” at the height of the pandemic. I figured, if social norms have declined anyway, why not push myself to connect with people I might never speak to in my day-to-day life?

My favorite episodes include a two-part series on the intersection of American sports and nationalism, an interview with acclaimed photographer Jinwoo Hwon-Lee, and an ongoing series on the history and future of Puerto Rico.

In journalism, I have most recently worked with Black and Pink Massachusetts, an organization that advocates for LGBTQIA+ individuals and people living with HIV/AIDS in the prison system. I first wrote a piece interviewing two transgender women who had recently been released from male prisons, and later worked on a more long-term basis with gay, trans and gender-nonconforming individuals who were incarcerated in MCI-Shirley, in Massachusetts. The latter feature was published in the alternative weekly newspaper DigBoston.

My work and interests have always been centered on creative approaches to the many facets of our culture that require real and lasting change. My aim is to use creative media to spur conversations on creative solutions to pressing social inequities.

My role at the Alliance is particularly special to me, as it combines my work in podcasting with my core motivation of community outreach and social action. In addition, I have really enjoyed the opportunity to connect more deeply with the contemplative, creative and deeply compassionate values of Judaism that I have long aimed to practice in my own understanding of the religion.

As always, the meat of my work, and the most rewarding aspect, is the creation of a sonic space in which conversations on culture, consciousness and critiques can be held openly and with respect. It is my belief that conversations started in this realm have the power to fuel actionable change.

So please keep your ears open for our upcoming podcasts, which include “Chutzpah!,” a series that explores the personal side of leadership and is hosted by Alliance CEO Adam Greenman, and “Breaking the Glass,” focused on multifaith relationships and the constellations of community. You can find more of my work on Spotify and Apple Podcasts, as well as in Dig Boston, The Boston Hassle, and through Kingston Gallery.