Thank you NABJ for recognizing my reporting on the people of my community. I work so others know their stories and voices are relevant, their ideas and contributions are powerful and their pain is real. Elaine Houston, reporter WNYT, Albany, NY
OUR STORY
I was a reporter who'd taken a new job at a television station when I felt the sting of corporate America doing what it does so often with women of color and that is try and marginalize me. It started very early; during probation that they began to insinuate I wasn't good enough. While that was management's belief, it wasn't mine. I knew I had the education, experience, solid reporting skills, the ability to project my voice in a professional public speaking manner and I knew how to be personable while giving the news.
However, I had to work harder than I'd ever worked in my life to fight against the box that my bosses put me in through their implicit bias.
It was because of that I decided that I had to tell the stories of women. I had to present a new perspective about women of color. I did that through my first book, THE FRIENDSHIPS BETWEEN WOMEN. It's a book of letters from women to women on perseverance. I next traveled to Africa and spoke to women in three countries on the challenges they faced and produced the documentary, TOUCH A WOMAN, TOUCH A ROCK. I returned home and started a new television series for women called TODAY'S WOMEN. All of these projects led me to start this website, www.SHEspeaks2me.com where I do stories on women of color from around the world. In 2017, I began holding an annual summit for women to help them transform themselves in the person God created them to be. That is what got us here, but what keeps us going is seeing women succeed. Elaine Houston
Elaine Houston
In the photo above, I am joined by Jamaica Miles (in black) who was awarded the 2018 SHEspeaks2me.com
"Activist of the Year' award for her community activism work on behalf of black and brown people in upstate New York. That year we gave out six awards to women who have been working in the vineyard, doing the heavy lifting and quietly changing lives. Women don't work out their passion to get awards. But, when someone says "good job" it lets the person making tremendous sacrifices on the behalf of others know that someone sees their labor and their labor is not in vain. It is called investing in others.We believe in investing in the success of women. When you invest in a woman, you change a cycle. Investing says to her, "You're worthy." When a woman feels worthy she changes her entire community. Why, because she knows what it is like to be invisible and never wants anyone else to share that feeling. I myself know that feeling all too well. I myself have been marginalized by people who had an image of who they thought I was and what I was capable of becoming. They were wrong. Judgements based on stereotypes are never accurate and are based in fear and misinformation. Stereotypes hurt women.So, I'm encouraging you not to stereotype women, support them, mentor them and invest in them. I'm on a mission, join me by reminding women of their greatness because WOMEN change this WORLD! Elaine Houston
Greatness rest in all of us...
But, greatness hardly surfaces during the good times, it's uncovered through struggle and challenges and that is a place where one can easily get lost. So, I've used my talents to tell stories on women on television, on this website and through my videos and books and our sell out women's leadership summit. It is through our stories we find our greatness and a woman 'feeling' her greatness is a dangerous human being.
What is your story?
So, please check out our stories and if you feel like it share your own, we'd love to hear how you found 'your' greatness.
Elaine
MY STORY: From subsidized housing to the White House
As a little girl living in a St. Louis housing project, I would have never imagined, I would one day be reporting from the White House. Certainly the odds were against it. The odds may seem to be against you too but there is greatness in you that your gender, race age or statistic cannot stop. I am living proof of it!
Elaine Houston
That's me, the cute little girl to the left in her Easter hat. My mom tells me that I was a reporter even at this age-always running in the house telling the news of the day....whose house caught fire, who got into a fight, who had a new bike,. Yep, I was born that way!
Sitting next to a history maker. Mrs. Coretta Scott King and I having a conversation in Albany, NY at the 100 Black Men dinner. I was the MC and she was the guest speaker. I had only read about her in magazines. I had only seen her in pictures in Ebony Magazine as she walked alongside her warrior husband, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. But, here I was know sitting beside her and she was graciously talking to me. ...'Your gift will make room for you', the Bible. Discover your gift and see your 'great' life unfold.
Elaine Houston
DATELINE: Washington, DC
JANUARY, 2016
A Sea of Women, changing the World! No one defines your life, you always have a choice and when you join hands with other women, this picture is the result. GREATNESS!
SHESPEAKS2ME.COM'S ANNUAL WOMEN'S SUMMIT
DATELINE: ALBANY, NY
IN 2019, I decided to work on income inequality and I knew I couldn't do it just through news stories, I had to hold a summit and bring in women who people only talk about when they provide services to them on the back end. What I mean by that is they are provided with welfare or help with drug addiction, or housing or food. While all those services are very important, I knew we needed to also have a conversation about front end services, pay equality, decent housing, affordable child care, education, etc. So, I held a women's leadership summit and brought in professional women who had information and stories of their own to teach workshops on how to write a book, advocating for your child in school, how to get a will, how to handle grief, how to start a business and more. It has been a sellout for the past three years. Below is a picture of women on a panel at the 2019
Shespeaks2me.com 'She Dreams Big' women's summit! I'm joined by a businesswoman and the President of a local university. We are discussing what it takes to lead. Women are born multitaskers, change makers, organizers, and leaders. When the world gets that, the world will change.
2017, Albany, NY I am standing next to the President of The College of St. Rose (right) and members of her committee after being presented with 'A Community of Excellence Award' for my work in the community. I remember being humbled that day and being reminded that your labor is not in vain. Even though it may sometimes look like no one is watching, someone is always watching your good works and in due season you will be rewarded. So, just keep working.
DATELINE: Tanzania, Africa, 2007
There I am with the fearless Maassi Warriors. I was shooting a documentary for my thesis in International Women's Studies and interviewing rural women. I vividly remember being somewhat taken aback when I interviewed some of the Maassi women and other women in rural villages. They all told me the same thing; they wanted financial independence, educational opportunities, and better futures for their kids. Sounds like some of the same things women in the United States want. But, I was surprised to hear this because of the preconceived notions I had about who they were. Those notions came from the negative press about Africa in America. It is narrow minded to think that people enjoy the predicament they find themselves in. No one grows up saying I want to be in poverty or I want to have to depend on men in a patriarchal society or I want to have to depend on another country's aid or a NGO. People are born wanting to be free and independent and we who live in more affluent countries would be better off if we understood that. I had to go all the way to Africa to learn that lesson, but it is one I will never forget.
DATELINE: 2007 Outside Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania, at the Mkokozi Primary School giving kids breakfast.
Book signing for my first book, 'The Friendships Between Women' in 2004. The writing of the book took me down a path that helped me discover my purpose and that purpose is to change the lives of women around the world! In 2001, I saw a series which discussed the hardship of the women in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. They were the victims of a protracted civil war. Rebel soldiers were kidnapping Congolese women and girls and raping them, mutilating them and sex trafficking them. I was horrified and in my attempt to help them, I wrote a book with a goal of sending the money to the women.
After writing the book of letters, I accidentally deleted it. I hadn't told many people what I was doing, so I toyed with the idea of just forgetting about it. But, my conscious wouldn't allow me. So, I began again. I tracked down the producer of the news series and told him what I was doing and he said I wouldn't be allowed to give one woman the money. He gave me the name of the non-profit group that helped him find the one woman in the video that I wanted to send the money to. Once the book was done, I called the non profit back and they never return my call. I tried on several occasions. I finished the book and sold it and put the money in an account. Fast forward to 2007 and I met a woman who lived in Tanzania which is next door to Congo, was that a coincidence? I think not!
I was now in graduate school and getting a master's degree in International Women's Studies and was being given a chance to go to Africa too. I went to Africa and saw women who looked just like me. They were warm, friendly, and had big dreams. But, they lived in abject poverty, without nearby water, funds to send their kids to school or to take their kids to a doctor. They were second class citizens. I fell in love with them and their strong work ethic. I met women who worked in the Indian Ocean harvesting seaweed and when speaking to them. I found out they were being cheated by a middle man and were making pennies for standing in waist deep water with the hot sun blazing down on them. What strong, resilient women. I laughed with them, I interviewed them, I helped feed their children. The next year, I traveled to Johannesburg, South Africa. I encountered the same great women.
When I returned to the U-S, I completed school and earned my masters (listen to an excerpt of my thesis video above) and realized even in this country there were few stories highlighting women. So, in 2011, in my capacity as a television reporter, I started a series for the NBC station I worked for. It was called Today's Women. https://wnyt.com/todays-women/ In 2014, I started a website, www.Shespeaks2me.com and started telling stories on women around the world. In 2017, I started a women's summit to inspire and motivate women. I thank the women of Tanzania and South Africa for inspiring me and setting me on a path of fulfilling my purpose. Elaine Houston
