Reagan E.J. Jackson's 'Still True' Is a Snapshot of Seattle During a Decade of Great Change

The writer and activist's new book brings together 10 years of articles reporting on various facets of the city and the world.

by Jas Keimig

Late last month, writer, artist, and activist Reagan E.J. Jackson released Still True: The Evolution of an Unexpected Journalist, an expansive book published by Hinton Publishing that brings together a decade's worth of stories Jackson has written for outlets like The Seattle Globalist, the South Seattle Emerald, and Crosscut.

Organized thematically, Still True is a greatest hits of some of Jackson's most impactful and thought-provoking articles. She discusses the effects of gentrification in Rainier Beach, reports from the ground on a political scandal in Honduras, recounts her time spent learning how to be a burlesque dancer at the Academy of Burlesque, spotlights Howie Echo-Hawk's boundary-pushing comedy, and dissects her time organizing Black Out at CHOP with Mary Williams. Taken as a whole, the book is just as much a portrait of Seattle during the 2010s and into 2020 as it is a portrait of Jackson herself.

The week after Jackson's official book launch at Elliott Bay Book Company, I got her on the phone to discuss what it means to be an unconventional journalist and her thoughts on the current media landscape of Seattle.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

What was the impetus that made you want to collate this book?

You know, I was actually having a conversation with [South Seattle Emerald publisher] Marcus Harrison Green, and we were talking about our journeys together as writers. He was kind of hyping me up, saying, "You've written so many essays, you've written so many articles. What's the difference between you and Ta-Nehisi Coates or Roxane Gay? It's a book that's the difference. What if we were to take out these articles and put them in a book?" And I was like, that's a really good idea. So that's kind of how it happened, for both of us, actually, because then he also put out his [2021] book, Readying to Rise.

In the introduction, you talk extensively about your unconventional foray into becoming a journalist. How did you think that really shaped your perspective, when it came to reporting and writing?

I never wanted to become a journalist because I just didn't see that people trying to be objective or just stating the facts was actually very interesting or very true. So when the opportunity arose for me to start writing for the Seattle Globalist, it came about in a way that honored my voice and honored my positionality to the city. That is how I began to think through being able to move into that form of self expression. It wouldn't have happened if I didn't have an editor who wanted to hear my voice and who encouraged me to write in a way that felt true to me and didn't make me conform to a form that wouldn't fit me but rather nurtured what was already there: this instinct to tell a nuanced story.

And the book spans about a decade of your life and career here in Seattle. What was it like to go back and look at a lot of your work where you write about gentrification, about your body, about arts and culture, about politics, about Black Lives Matter, and look at that in the context of the world in 2024?

It's really crazy, partly because some of it is so relevant still. I'm reading back articles I wrote about Black Lives Matter that it's been several years ago now and it still reads like I could have written it yesterday. That's kind of a mind fuck. [laughs] For as much as has changed, there's so much that … that doesn't seem like it changes. But also the way in which this book is a time capsule also has made me reflect on how much I've grown as a person and as a writer. In some ways, it feels really beautiful because I'm like, "Wow, I've really come a long way." And then there's times where I'm like, "Oh, I'm thinking about things differently than I was before." But rather than it feeling cringey, it feels like, "Oh good, I'm growing, I'm evolving, I'm continuing on my journey. I'm not stagnating."

You dedicate an entire section of the book to travel and your internationally focused articles. Why, as a Black American, is getting out of America and seeing the world an important endeavor?

Well, one, because it actually helps to contextualize who we can be. Because I think living in the States, growing up here, particularly growing up in a white community in Madison, Wisconsin, I had a very limited definition of what it meant to be Black that was handed to me. Not by my parents — I feel like my family has always been really supportive and really expansive in their thoughts on Blackness. But when you go to a white school and you go to school with also a bunch of Black folks who have internalized white oppression and are putting those standards on you on the daily … it can just really hurt your spirit. And for me, going to Senegal for the first time when I was 16 fundamentally changed who I thought I could be in the world. Because there I was in a country where everyone from the janitor to the president was Black and any kind of limitation was gone. It was an experiential learning that I could be whatever, and that was what Black was.

So fast forward into college, I went to Spain on a study abroad program. And even though I had some really complex experiences, I still feel like that was one of the best times in my life, just having the freedom to travel and to explore my identity in a context that felt less restrictive. I think that has inspired me to want to work with young People of Color to give them that type of opportunity during their identity formation. Because also I think it's really essential we start cultivating a global citizenship, because borders are fiction. It's a fiction that we believe in and that we uphold, but the reality is, for example, if there's a fire in Canada, we're having smoke season in Washington. We are global citizens whether we acknowledge it or not.

You worked for so many different outlets here in Seattle. How are you feeling about the state of media in the Emerald City in 2024?

I have so many thoughts about this. I would say, for me, the Seattle Globalist will forever influence my standard of what I think media should be and do. I'm super grateful that in the wake of [the Globalist] not being a thing anymore we have the South Seattle Emerald that kind of has absorbed some of that spirit as well and is a really community-generated space. The South Seattle Emerald has always stood out to me as a media outlet that is dedicated to amplifying community voices in a way that's actually really meaningful and provides skill and nuance and context and incredible content. So Seattle should absolutely be grateful that it exists.

In terms of the rest of the media landscape, I'm not here to like, rain on anybody's parade, but I still see some of the things that I was seeing earlier in my career where predominantly white organizations put resources towards tokenizing folks of color and providing small ways in which we can engage or participate that are not equitable. Because media is in some ways more accessible, it's easier for folks to get on Instagram or TikTok and then become a person that's disseminating media without needing to have, like, more traditional platforms, so it is changing the funding models. I don't know that journalism has really figured out what it wants to be or how to be sustainable or how to kind of meet this moment. For me, what is needed is for folks to maybe take a moment, take a beat, take a breath and reimagine what we could be doing.

I also found it interesting that you included a book club guide in the back. What was the inspiration and thinking behind that?

I've been trying to determine for myself, what are the metrics of success for this book? Because much in the same way that I'm an unexpected journalist, I'm also a bit of an unexpected author, so I've been really sitting with, like, what do I want this book to do? What is my purpose in putting this book out in the world? And when I think about my experience of being in community and writing these stories, what comes up for me is, even though it's partly a memoir and partly the story of me, it's also a memoir of Seattle. It's a memoir of community and of different people. I want people in community to read this book and to use it to have conversations about the topics that I'm covering. Like, what do y'all think about gentrification? When you were growing up, what were you taught about your bodies? How do you respond when Howie Echo-Hawk tells a joke? Have these conversations.

When I was preparing for the book launch, I was in conversation with [cultural leader] Tim Lennon and [writer] Jen Soriano, and during the Elliott Bay event, Jen quoted me to me and said, "I wanted to use this book to write communities into resistance." And I think it's true, but I want to contextualize what I mean by "resistance," because I feel like our communities are already resisting so many different things. So I'd like to direct that resistance towards the status quo and towards any limiting beliefs. So if there are folks who have ever wanted to write or to share their story, I want this book to be an inspiration for them and for it to motivate them to write it in a way that feels good to them, not to some prescriptive way they think it has to be. And then I want folks to resist the Seattle freeze and actually get together in community and make a party of this book. Have some wine, have some cheese, do a deep dive on these questions and think about it. I want it to resonate well after it's read.

You also spoke about how you only really write now when you feel like a story calls to you in a really specific way. Has Still True changed any of that for you?

No. I think that's still really true for me and maybe that's part of my process as well. There is always going to be something calling me to write, and it may or may not show up as an article. I think what's been coming up for me is that I'm really passionate about young adult fiction. It's my 100% favorite genre to read and I would like to start writing in my favorite genre.

Still True: The Evolution of an Unexpected Journalist is currently on sale wherever books are sold.

Editors' Note: South Seattle Emerald founder and publisher Marcus Harrison Green is also the publisher of Hinton Publishing.

Featured Image: Author Reagan E.J. Jackson at the Elliott Bay Book Company launch of her book, "Still True: The Evolution of an Unexpected Journalist." (Photo: Susan Fried)