Introducing Imari Burton, the Newest Voice at the Dayton Weekly News
By RoShawn Winburn, Dayton Weekly News
Imari Burton grew up in Westwood, a community on Dayton's west side. She says that shaped how she sees the city. She learned it as someone living in it, not someone looking in from the outside.
Her mother's and grandparents' generation remembers when Dayton was a significant, prosperous city. The gap between then and now left her with both pride and a critical eye. "I love Dayton because it feels like home," she says, "but I'm also able to be honest about the things that aren't working."
Her path to writing was not a straight line. She holds a degree in media and also studied psychology and criminal justice. She spent about seven years in auto sales, moving up from sales into management, finance and operations, then worked in lending and banking. She has had more jobs than she can count and believes each one made her more well-rounded, since each put her in front of different people, industries and communities.
Outside of work, she danced for twelve years, ballet and jazz, and fitness is now a big part of her life. She is into spirituality, personal development and learning, and she also enjoys art, anime, finance, astrology and pop culture.
Writing was always there. English was her strongest subject, and as a kid she wrote stories, poems and songs. She just never saw it as a career. Sales taught her that communicating was one of her strengths. Then she stepped away from everything for a while to reflect, research and figure out who she was becoming. She dug into politics, social issues and current events, and started a Substack to document what she was learning. That work led her to DWN through a shared mission.
She says she didn't so much realize she wanted to be a writer as realize she has things to say. She sees herself as a teacher and communicator, with writing and speaking as vehicles for that purpose.
What drives her is people, and how we can get better, individually and together. She is most passionate about the Black community and the issues affecting Black Americans. She wants conversations about how to improve, challenge ourselves, examine what isn't working and build on what is. She credits her grandmother for showing what is possible when you start with very little, and her mother for teaching resilience and perseverance. She has been through hard things she keeps private, and says they taught her to keep going without all the answers.
Readers can expect her to take on economic inequality and the working class, government power versus individual rights, systems that aren't working, and the hidden stories underneath the ones we are handed. She is drawn to controversial topics and gets curious when people seem to be steered toward accepting or rejecting something. A good story, she says, takes real interest, deep research and reflection, and more than one point of view. She is comfortable putting her own perspective in her work.
Her beat is culture, controversial ideas within the Black community, media narratives, Black political life and spirituality. She sees herself first as an opinion commentator and columnist, then a podcaster and conversationalist, then a storyteller. One thing she won't cover is sports.
She wants to launch a podcast, The Elevation Exchange, and is interested in video interview series and moderating community conversations and live events. She is new to podcasting and video and wants to learn as much as she can.
To her, a Black newspaper means power, representation and ownership of our narrative, and she points out that DWN is the only Black-owned newspaper in the Miami Valley. She wants coverage that shows how the news affects Black readers, with resources and calls to action, along with Black history and how we got here. She also doesn't want DWN to choose between longtime readers and younger ones. She wants to connect them.
What excites her about Dayton is the talent and uniqueness. What concerns her is the future of the local Black community, poverty and population decline.
There is one subject she says she hasn't had a platform for yet: what it feels like to not fit into one box. She wants to talk about ambition, being overlooked, reinventing yourself and identity. She believes many people feel the same way but have no space to talk about it honestly.
Follow Imari here and on her Substack page:
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