Black Women Shine
An interview with Jessica Estelle Huggins
Written by Hannah Ruane | Posted by: NewEnglandFilm.com Festival
NewEnglandFilm.com spoke to 2019 New England Film Star award winner Jessica Estelle Huggins about her latest project, the Black Women Shine podcast.
For decades, Black women have positively impacted communities across Boston as well as Massachusetts at large. Boston-native filmmaker and producer Jessica Estelle Huggins is spotlighting some of these incredible women and their contributions to various industries including the arts, law and civic engagement through the Black Women Shine podcast. Jessica is the recipient of the 2019 New England Film Star Award, a grant given to a film project by a marginalized filmmaker residing in New England, for her Black Women Shine in Boston documentary series. Series production was halted due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but Jessica’s mission to highlight Black female Boston community powerhouses continues to take shape through the Black Women Shine podcast. Jessica spoke to us about the podcast and her mission to give Black women in Boston the “shine” that they truly deserve.
NewEnglandFilm.com: What are some major takeaways you gathered in talking with the incredible women featured in Season One of Black Women Shine?
Jessica Estelle Huggins: Some major takeaways that I was able to gather while speaking with each of these 10 incredible women are: 1) Even with lack of resources, you can pull your community together to create something special; 2) No matter if there are many other businesses, organizations or initiatives that are similar to yours, you can create your own unique entity; and 3) Partner with creative, cultured and affirming people who can assist in elevating the work.
All 10 episodes of Season One of the Black Women Shine podcast are estimated to be about five hours in total of storytelling. Each of these women is certainly unique in her own way. However, the common theme is that each of them saw a need in the sector that she worked in—arts, civic engagement and mental health—and each of these women decided to use her talents to not only fill that need, but to pour back into her own community in celebration of her cultural identity.
NewEnglandFilm.com: In Episode One, you mention that “there’s so much talent” in Boston. What are some areas of talent that you feel deserve to be highlighted, and that you worked to highlight through your podcast?
Huggins: There is absolutely so much talent in Boston that gets overlooked. Boston is an older city that holds onto tradition. For someone like myself who grew up here my entire life before moving to other cities in my adulthood, I can say that Boston still holds onto its accomplishments in education, medicine and sports. These three areas are worthy of continued celebration. However, there is a huge documentary film culture as well as hip hop music culture here. Most film and music artists leave—like I did—for other cities such as New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Atlanta, etc. to pursue the arts in places where there’s so much more opportunity and access to substantial funds to create artistic work. Episode One of the podcast features Catherine T. Morris, Founder & Executive Director of Boston Art & Music Soul Fest (BAMSFEST). BAMSFEST is an award-winning music festival that celebrates music produced and performed by artists of color while providing more opportunities for these artists to flourish right here in Boston. Episode Two of the podcast features Lisa Simmons, the Co-Founder & Director of The Roxbury International Film Festival. #ROXFILM has done so much in 25 years of film programming of Black and brown filmmakers. It’s New England’s largest and most diverse film festival that holds space for POC artists to share their stories from and about diverse cultures within the African Diaspora. Episode Eight of the podcast features Danielle Johnson, Founder of SparkFM Online, a radio platform for people and artists of color seeking music and having dynamic conversations about various topics that affect communities of color. And Episode Nine features Ayana Mack, visual artist whose work celebrates the uniqueness and complexities of being Black in America. This is just a handful of Black artists in the city that are “filling the gaps,” creating opportunities and spaces where people of color are either not aware of or not welcomed in, in the city. These are the types of people and areas that could be given much more love and support from our city.
NewEnglandFilm.com: What messages do you hope to send to listeners of Black Women Shine, and what are you hoping to accomplish with this project?
Huggins: The main message that I hope that listeners receive from listening to Black Women Shine is the various Black women in the city whose work continues to contribute to the culture of Boston, as well as elevating each of the women’s work who seek to make Boston the inclusive city that it can be, especially for people of color. What I hope to accomplish with this project is help to bridge the gap in our segregated neighborhoods, media and thoughts about communities of color. Black and brown people not only want to have seats at the table, but we want to be part of the process when decisions are being made around changes in the city: with education, housing, police reform, arts programming, etc. You name it—we want to be part of the contributions in all areas in Boston. This is our home too.
NewEnglandFilm.com: How does Black Women Shine tackle issues related to the intersection of race and gender that Black women face in Boston in particular?
Huggins: Black Women Shine tackles issues related to the intersection of race and gender that Black women face in Boston by default: the series highlights Black women. This is everyday work for us. Each of the 10 ladies in the series continues to come across barriers in her work that are sometimes due to her race and gender. However, just like most underprivileged people, these women have found a way to create their work, impact their communities for the better and continuously come up with community-first initiatives, projects and ideas that are personal and necessary for the development of the Black community in Boston. When hyper-focusing on the podcast, each episode concentrates on the individual woman’s origin story—how and why she came to do the work that she does; what the goals were/continue to be in the work and future plans to keep the work going. Rather than using their race and gender as an excuse to not do the impactful work that they do in the arts, health and wellness and civic engagement, these 10 women use their race and gender as part of their superpowers. Black women, Black people are multifaceted.
NewEnglandFilm.com: Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, you were working on a Black Women Shine in Boston documentary series. How did the pandemic affect your creative process, and did it open your eyes to new areas that need addressing in the series?
Huggins: The pandemic has highlighted many of the various systems that just don’t work in managing a country in terms of financial support, work culture and allowing space for those who are grieving from a loss (i.e. people, job, opportunities, trips, etc). It took me a while to come to terms with pivoting the original plan of the docuseries to a podcast series mostly because I think that it’s so important to actually see Black women doing the work, whatever sector that they are in. It was late 2020 when I had a conversation with Michele Meek at NewEnglandFilm.com to pivot the series. I was needing to figure out how to make use of the award incentives as well as completing the project. Michele was more than supportive and thought that I could still be creative in my approach to producing the series. I started to think about podcasts that I listen to, what I like about them, the format, music, etc. I became excited to structure the show in a way that I thought was fun, incorporating other creatives such as Michelle Nguyen, visual artist who created the artwork for the show, and Kadahj Bennett, a talented musician in the city to produce the theme music for each episode. Having the ability to take my four-part docuseries idea and increase the number of women featured to 10 for the podcast proved to be a success. Overall, I believe that this is a great series and hope with additional funding to produce and hire an editor, I would be open to a Season Two with a new theme and host—perhaps highlighting the work and contributions of Black men in the city.
A very special shout out to NewEnglandFilm.com for providing me with the inaugural New England Film Star Award which provided me with support and resources from Animus Studios—thank you Wendy, Arty and Mark! As well as support from Mark Maguire from Adobe and Luke Blackadar from the Arts & Business Council. I am very grateful for all of those who have contributed positively to the series and the important work of each of the 10 women highlighted in the show.
You can follow Black Women Shine on Instagram and Facebook. New episodes are released on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Pod and Amazon Music every Tuesday until August 17. Check the show notes of each episode on how to get in touch with each of the 10 women featured in the series.
You can also find more information about the New England Film Star Award.
