We were lucky to catch up with Damita Miller-Shanklin recently and have shared our conversation below.

Damita, appreciate you joining us today. Let’s start with the story of your mission. What should we know?

Ujima Magazine’s mission is to tell positive stories of the “everyday heroes” in our Black Community in Austin and the surrounding areas. In telling these stories, our hope is to inspire, educate and leave a legacy for future generations. It has become even more important that we share these stories because there are people who feel our history, as a Black culture, is not important.  But the stories we tell show our community is vibrant with people who work to make a difference through giving back, uplifting others and showing that you can do what you set your mind to. You can reach your goals.

Our mission is important to me because I know it is what I am meant to do. It is my give back. This will be my legacy to my community. I love being a storyteller and sharing the lives of people that look like me and want to contribute to our community and this world in a positive way. When I created the magazine, I wanted people to know that Black people have dreams and goals as anyone else. I did not want to buy into the negative stories that seem to be the only thing we hear about. I knew there were a lot of positives in our community.

Damita, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I am an Austinite. I was born and raised in Austin on the East Side between MLK and Manor Road. When I was growing up, we had many black businesses and people making changes in our community. I was young so I did not understand it all, but now as an adult, I see Austin had a strong black community. I started Ujima because I was looking for something different. I was burned out in my job as a caseworker, and I knew I wanted to do something in writing. I have always journaled since I was in elementary school. Once I started writing for Nokoa Newspaper, I realized I wanted to create something where I told the stories I wanted to tell. In looking at what was available to our community, my husband noted we did not have a magazine with black people on the cover every month. So, Ujima Magazine was born on September 15, 2008.

I always felt our community was slow on getting information, so I wanted Ujima to not only tell stories but provide community information so people could participate in activities around the community. I think what sets Ujima apart from other magazines is that we are a niche magazine. We are a small staffed publication and we don’t follow the rules of what and how a magazine should be or look. I don’t have a background in journalism or media, I learned how to build a magazine through speaking with people, googling and just deciding what I like.

I am most proud of my team and the contributing writers. My team is a core group of four people. They have worked with me from the beginning. They believe in Ujima and what it stands for and how it showcases the Black community. We work hard each month to provide a digital magazine that is as strong as a printed copy. We put hard work into how it looks, the colors, the words and photos that show black people. We did print at one time and it was hard to let that part of the magazine go. But now I see, we reach more people and the stories we tell are impacting more people than we could in print. The main thing I would like our readers to know about Ujima Magazine is its connection to the Black Community. The stories are written with the black person in mind, especially black women. It is a way to spread information that is positive and productive for our community.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

As I mentioned before, Ujima Magazine started as a printed magazine on beautiful glossy paper and it was thirty-two pages. But due to funding, I soon realized I was going to have to change or quit. I will admit I did cry and I was hurt. But after having a pity-party and making a decision to keep going, I met with my team to see how we could move forward and still keep the integrity of the idea of Ujima. We did several things such as writing stories on our website, going to a printed newspaper style. But neither of these changes felt right for me. It just didn’t excite the mission of Ujima.

I then made the decision we would do the same type of layout as the printed issue and go completely digital. Another thing that stung was having to lower our page count. But my team and I feel the eight pages we put out each month are the best and powerful pages we do and it feels like a printed magazine when I see the final issue. I get excited every month when the issue comes out.

One thing I learned from this pivot was you can’t give up on your dream. It may not look like what you envisioned when you started but don’t give up. You always have options. Look at all your options and make a decision and move ahead and always do your best and give your best. When I embraced that mindset, I was surprised how great Ujima ended up being as a digital online magazine.

Do you have any insights you can share related to maintaining high team morale?

I am grateful for my team. As I have mentioned, we have worked together from the beginning. The advice I would give about managing a team is to listen. Your team can have ideas that may or may not work but you have to listen and have an open mind. We also have open communication. We communicate mainly through a group chat or phone call. I make sure we are all on the same page.

When it comes to morale. Our team does brunch on a regular basis. This is where we relax and don’t talk shop. We catch up on vacations, how we are each feeling, and just fun girl stuff. We work hard and we like to spend time together just having fun.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.ujimamagazine.com
• Instagram: @ujimamagazine1
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/UjimaMagazine