Together As A Collective: ‘We Live In Color’ and Seattle Gay News Announce Season 4 Partnership
Deaunte Damper stands over Madison Jones (left), Mattie Mooney (center), and Calvin Jay Emerson (right) in the Black Media Matters Studio. (Photo: Erik Kalligraphy)
“We Live In Color” returns for Season 4 this Thursday. This year, we're taking our mission to the next level with the Seattle Gay News (SGN) Community Brief. In partnership with Seattle Gay News, one of the country's longest-running LGBTQIA+ publications, “We Live In Color” is set to make a greater impact and forge more meaningful community connections than ever before.
The core of “We Live In Color” remains the same: introducing strong leaders, celebrating the Black Queer community, and providing a respected platform for vital stories. But in Season 4, our collaboration with SGN deepens our focus on local action and systemic change.
“It's only right that we partner with SGN,” Damper said. “Community needs to know the news, and who better to uplift the news and our community story than them?”
The SGN Community Brief is your dedicated news block, providing timely, hyper-local information directly from the prime source of LGBTQ+ news in Seattle. Each episode, the brief will deliver relevant policy updates, report on recent events and urgent calls for public safety, and spotlight long-form coverage, brought to you by SGN’s team, including columnist Mattie Mooney, Managing Editor Madison Jones, and Associate Editor Calvin Jay Emerson.
Established in 1974, SGN evolved from a community center newsletter to an essential voice for Seattle’s queer community, most notably under the editorship of activist George Bakan from 1984 to 2020. During this time, the paper provided critical and life-saving information, particularly as the first local publication to consistently report on the HIV and AIDS crisis.
SGN's legacy is marked by its deep involvement with local activism, its role as a historical record, and its continued, though evolving, presence in the Pacific Northwest media landscape. Since July 2024, Editor-In-Chief Renee Raketty holds down the fort with her team, ensuring Seattle’s gay news is for the community, by the community.
In 2020, Raketty worked side-by-side with Converge co-founder Omari Salisbury, covering the Black Lives Matter protests. Bonded through the imperative work, Raketty and Salisbury developed mutual respect and admiration for each other, sharing a vision for local media that could reach across different marginalized communities.
“We believe in a simple mission: A rising tide lifts all boats, and as a newspaper representing a diverse community that spans across identities of race, gender, sexuality, and class, we have the responsibility to serve everyone who sees themselves as part of the LGBTQIA+ umbrella,” Jones said.
Jones and Damper shared a similar sentiment of unity in troubling times.
“We know that our community is currently under fire, which means that we need to be moving together as a collective,” Damper said.
Catch the “We Live In Color” season premiere on Thursday, February 5 at 8 p.m. on all Converge Media streaming platforms.
