Meet Jack Almeida, a Fall 2020 Lede New Orleans Fellow
Jack Almeida will be doing community reporting work in New Orleans this fall as part of the Lede New Orleans fellowship program.
By Jennifer Larino
Jack Almeida, a criminal justice student and vice president of student affairs for Delgado Community College student government, grew up in Harahan and Metairie. He currently lives in New Orleans. Almeida, 20, is interested in covering the queer and trans community in New Orleans, trans rights and politics.
What does equitable media mean to you?
I think that means people being able to see themselves in media. I know growing up — up until maybe last year — having trans people in media wasn’t a thing. There are still very little trans journalists who are spotlighted… They don’t have any part in media, whether they’re doing it or they’re the subject of it. That’s one of the most important parts of it. Just being able to see yourself in it.
If you got to design your own community reporting beat, what would it be?
Trans visibility. To make it smaller and more local, it would be how New Orleans capitalizes off of the queer community, especially during [LGBTQ+] Pride month… New Orleans loves to paint itself as queer friendly and profit off of that during more than just Pride month, but there’s no revenue going back to our community.
What is your goal for this fellowship?
Creating dialogue. The thing I’ve struggled with most in journalism is interviewing. In writing about political topics, you have to have everybody’s side. Sometimes that other side is just really hard to hear… But it’s your job to cover both sides. Just creating a space where people can just freely talk. That’s important.
What should the community know about you?
I’m one of those people who never really wanted to talk about being trans. It was never something I was proud of… Now I think it is important for me to speak up and say, “Hey, I’m trans and I’m in this space. You can do this.”
