All media inquiries and requests for interviews should be directed to:
MEDIA CONTACT
Melanie Feliciano
mel (at) kwestonmedia.com
NEW YORK, New York, August 30 — Kwest On Media, a journalistic platform created by alumni of Youth Outlook Magazine and New America Media, is celebrating the birthday of its namesake Kevin Weston. Kwest On Media carries Kevin’s legacy with its mission to train, educate and support the next generation of writers, videographers, artists, web developers and podcasters. The market needs this platform NOW to combat Fake News. The crew is inviting journalists, teachers and influencers to promote its web site and weekly “Margin Call” podcasts via Instagram, Twitter and Facebook (see suggested posts here).
Some of the podcasts include:
- The Struggle is Real: Female Empowerment, From Pro Wrestling to Cardi B
Kwest On contributor Krista Bryant shares the story behind her video profile of a female wrestler. The rest of the show is a heated discussion on the merits of Christina Aguilera’s music, and the high art of Cardi B’s “oral history of a woman scorned by an iPhone.”
- “Rick and Morty, Take Me With You!”
The Margin Call crew share their current pop culture favorites, or as we’re calling it: what to watch when the world has got you down. Josue Rojas shares the power of Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood, Melanie Feliciano goes full sci-fi nerd on Rick and Morty, and Amelia Gonzalez explains the classist and ethical elements of Westworld. With special appearances from Mexico City correspondent Sheerly Avni and Margin Call producer Eming Piansay.
- XXXTentacion’s music removed from Spotify for violence towards women, put back on after falling victim to gun violence
The Margin Call crew, with guest Miami reporter JJ Colagrande, discusses the shooting death of 20-year-old South Florida rapper XXXTentacion, discovering that his death sits at the eye of a storm created by three recent political mass movements: Black Lives Matter, #MeToo, and gun control.
- RIP Rock & Roll
The Margin Call crew gathers to discuss the waning relevance of rock and roll music in the age of Cardi B and Post Malone. The crew welcomes special guest Presley Luis, a young rock musician who argues that the death of rock and roll has been greatly exaggerated.
Kwest On Media Editor-in-Chief Russell Morse, who was one of the many young people Kevin Weston guided at NAM’s Youth Outlook magazine, wrote about his mentor: “I started writing for Youth Outlook, and early in my time there, Kevin came in as the head of the magazine…He trusted our impulses and gave us the tools and encouragement to tell the stories we deemed most pressing.”’
Weston was named a John S. Knight journalism fellow at Stanford University, served as editor-in-chief of YO! Youth Outlook Magazine, executive producer of YO!TV and was a social justice activist, poet, youth advocate and hip-hop entrepreneur. His writing appeared in the Los Angeles Times, the San Francisco Chronicle, the Oakland Tribune and the Sacramento Bee.
He was married to Lateefah Simon, director of the Rosenberg Foundation’s California’s Future Program. Simon was recognized by the MacArthur Foundation in 2003 for her civil rights work.
In a San Jose Mercury News report celebrating Weston’s life, friend and colleague Dori Maynard, president of the Robert C. Maynard Institute for Journalism Education in Oakland, said: “He was always a generous soul…Kevin inspired community around him. He created community, and he nurtured community, and community rallied around him,” Maynard said. “He was a huge impact on Bay Area journalism. He was a mentor to so many people.”