Virginia Beach Based Podcast To Tell Stories Of Historically Black Neighborhoods

Part of the beauty of our society’s access to podcasts and podcasting equipment is that when a story comes along that you feel you need to tell, you can do it the way you want to.

The Virginia Pilot from Virginia Beach, Virginia reported on the story of a new podcast in pre-production that aims to tell the stories of historically black neighborhoods in Virginia Beach. If that doesn’t sound ambitious enough, the podcast, called Truth Be Told, will be a walking tour with site specific signs with QR codes that people can scan to learn the story of the area in which they’re standing.

The project is the result of a collaboration between audio producer Hannah Sobol and Virginia Delegate Jackie Glass. The pair had previously worked together on a show called Your Neighbor’s Hood that they described on Apple Podcasts as “Two humans from different cultures getting really uncomfortable about any and everything.” They described at in other places like Spotify as “Uncomfortable Cultural Conversation (specifically about race).”

They applied for and got a grant from the Virginia Tourism Corporation of $152,000 in funding in cooperation with the Virginia African American Cultural Center. They hope the project gives people a way to think deeply about the roles that race play in their home communities by helping them feel more connected to the place they live through someone else’s story.

Delegate Glass told the Virginia Pilot that “I would hope that from this people gain a little bit of self awareness – of themselves in their own spaces and places…and gain a bit of empathy for whatever the stories are, for better or for worse.”

They plan to launch the show next fall and are currently asking people to submit their stories here. They are looking for stories of historically black neighborhoods in Virginia Beach and are hoping that friends and family can gather together to record their memories and upload them so the project can share as many voices as possible.