Tennessee Voices, Episode 253: Kyra Watts, columnist and HBCU graduate
A core part of Kyra Watts' identity is her connection to historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs).
The Atlanta native and Florida A&M University graduate talked to me on this episode of the Tennessee Voices podcast about the large family she found in college and how studying with other students like her served to uplift her.
Last summer, she moved to the Nashville area and started as an intern for The Tennessean. Her interest in opinion writing brought her to the opinion and engagement team as a full-time writer and editor.
She edits her fair share of guest essays, but she has also contributed her own writing on issues such as commemorating 9/11 on behalf of her generation who was too young to remember the attack on the United States on Sept. 11, 2001.
Her top read column of 2021 focused on celebrating homecoming at HBCUs, why it is a big deal and how COVID made the festivities challenging.
Watts' most recent column is about how Americans should do more to curb gun violence. She recounts active shooter drills at her elementary school and how she lost a dear friend at his pre-high school graduation party to an assailant with a firearm. She supplemented those anecdotes with the hard facts about rising gun deaths.
Please welcome Kyra Watts to the team and share your ideas for what she should write about.
Column by Kyra Watts: Gun violence is a public health emergency that requires urgent action
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About Tennessee Voices
The Tennessee Voices videocast is a 20-minute program, which started in March 2020 and invites leaders, thinkers and innovators who have written guest columns for a USA TODAY Network Tennessee publication to share their insights and wisdom with me and our viewers.
Please email your ideas for future guests to me at [email protected]. Thank you for watching.
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Watch past episodes: Tennessee Voices videocast
David Plazas is the director of opinion and engagement for the USA TODAY Network Tennessee and an editorial board member of The Tennessean. Tweet to him at @davidplazas.
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Tennessee Voices: Columnist Kyra Watts on HBCUs, gun violence and 9/11
