You may have noticed some new-to-Generocity bylines recently.

We’re happy to say that our roster of freelancers has expanded to include a Philadelphia Association of Black Journalists‘ Lifetime Achievement Award winner, a Knight Foundation “Emerging Cities Champion,” a leading Latinx multiplatform journalist, and more.

They join a small but lively corps of freelancers who have been producing unparalleled coverage of the Philadelphia region’s social impact doings for the past few years at Generocity.

With a total now of 14 freelance journalists and five columnists (plus one staff writer/editor) producing daily, weekly and semi-regular content, Generocity has a virtual newsroom deeply engaged in local journalism; committed to the community- and resource-building power of media; with practices shaped by cultural competency and intersectionality.

While we’re not quite there yet, it is our intention to become wholly representative of the city we love to cover. Stay tuned for some intriguing new initiatives, projects and events upcoming from us in the fall and into 2020.

Meantime, read about our new freelancers here.

Bobbi I. Booker

Bobbi I. Booker. (Courtesy)

Bobbi Booker is an award-winning Philadelphia-based journalist, radio personality and blogger whose editorial experience includes news, culture, lifestyle,business, sports, politics and entertainment for diverse publications including The Philadelphia Tribune, Examiner.com, BlackAmericaWeb.com, Philadelphia Magazine, Philadelphia Weekly, Smooth Magazine, UBO.net and online at The Book Report.

Booker completed the 2008 Peter Jennings Project for Journalists and the Constitution, was a 2005 Fellow of the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) Journalism Institute in Classical Music and Opera at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism, a 2008 Fellow of the NEA Arts Journalism Institute for Dance Criticism at the American Dance Festival at Duke University, and in 2019 was the recipient of a Lenfest Next Generation Award from the Lenfest Institute for Journalism.

Before becoming a print journalist, Booker worked as a radio reporter, assignment editor and executive producer for Metro & Shadow Traffic Networks, WWDB 96.5 FM, WUSL-Power 99 FM, WHAT-AM and WHYY 90.9 FM. In 1981, Booker joined NPR-affiliate WRTI-FM 90.1 as an on-air personality and since 1999 has hosted the popular specialty music show “Spirit Soul Music on Ovations.”

Booker was honored by Pennsylvania State Senator Vincent Hughes with the 2008 7th Senatorial District Community Service Award and received four (2010, 2011, 2013 and 2018) National Newspaper Publishers Association Merit Awards for The Philadelphia Tribune Best Lifestyle Section. In 2016 she was accorded a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Philadelphia Association of Black Journalists (PABJ).

Read:

• PA becomes first state to institute Clean Slate law to seal old and minor criminal records
• A new exhibit at LCP focuses on ‘ordinary creativity’ of African Americans in early Philadelphia
• At #PTW19, encouragement for communities of color to consider lean startups
• Neighborhood gardens grow community as much as food. Now there is online tool to help

Khanya Brann

Khanya Brann. (Courtesy)

Khanya Brann is a 2019 Journalism and Spanish graduate from Temple University.

She’s drawn to reporting and storytelling centered around Black women and immigrants, the unique experiences they face and their contributions to culture and society.

When she’s not Pinterest-planning trips for her extensive travel bucket list, she’s wandering around the city. Brann has lived in Trinidad and Montreal and is proud to also call Philadelphia home.

Read:

• These three young African immigrants are changing the game for girls in Liberia
• At Tech in the Commons, nonprofit pros learned about using data to maximize impact

Hanae Mason

Hanae Mason. (Courtesy photo)

A Montgomery, AL native, Hanae Victoria Mason earned a bachelor’s degree in journalism and communications from Hampton University and a master’s of public administration at the University of Pennsylvania.

After working in different capacities in the communications field, she was drawn to a new professional path: community advocacy and development. As the community programs manager for Mt. Airy CDC, Mason spearheaded the organization’s public life and placemaking initiatives — the most notable being the launch and activation of Lovett Park.

Her public space advocacy work has been nationally recognized, and she was named an “Emerging Cities Champion” by the Knight Foundation and 8 80 Cities in 2018.

Mason is currently a self-employed writer, consultant, creative, and activist based in West Philadelphia.

Read:

• Netroots Nation opened its gathering at the Convention Center yesterday. Today, it’s #NNActionJawn
• Day two of Netroots Nation brings crowds to the streets and fireworks to the panels
• On the final day of Netroots Nation, four presidential candidates showed up

Emma Restrepo

Emma Restrepo. (Courtesy)

Emma Restrepo is freelance journalist focused on Latinxs living in the U.S. She aims to connect Latinxs throughout the Americas.

Restrepo hosts Dos Puntos, a weekly radio program on independent radio WPPM 106.5FM and is a member of the Broke in Philly collaborative journalism project. Previously she was a member of The Reentry Project collaborative journalism project; the host of the internet radio show Para Tí Mujer; the host of a live call-in show on El Zol radio, and a freelance print journalist producing work in both Spanish and English.

In 2016 she was nominated as one of the best freelance journalists by the Pen & Pencil Club of Philadelphia, and in 2017, she received an I Am An American Immigrant Award from AL DÍA News.

Keep an eye out for Restrepo’s Generocity articles upcoming in late July and August.

Krystine Sipple

Krystine Sipple. (Courtesy photo)

Columnist Krystine (Krys) Sipple has over twenty years of experience in the nonprofit sector; her expertise is with creating development programs and governance infrastructures for small, grassroots nonprofit organizations.

She currently serves as the interim executive director of Oxford Area Neighborhood Services Center in southern Chester County, and is on the board of Barclay Friends, a senior living community in West Chester.

In the past, she has served on the national grants selection committee for the American Medical Association Foundation in Chicago, the board of Association of Fundraising Professionals’ Greater Philadelphia chapter, as secretary of the Health Care Access Board in Phoenixville, foundation chair of the Phoenixville Rotary Board and on the board of the National Association of Free and Charitable Clinics.

Read:

• Leadership transitions — is your nonprofit ready?
• These are the questions you should be asking about your nonprofit’s management