Christina Sturdivant Sani

You can help build billionaire-free local news.

Repost this -> I give $1
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Donate -> I match your gift

Let's fight misinformation, help good journalists to make a decent living, and stick a big ol' finger in Jeff Bezos' eye.

Is D.C. still Chocolate City? These native Washingtonians have found "proof of life."

📬 This week's special edition newsletter:

PROOF OF LIFE, in partnership with The Pack World

🍫 Is D.C. still Chocolate City?
✊🏾 Two D.C. natives fighting to preserve the city's Black culture
💃🏾 The history of D.C.'s official dance style

Get the next edition in your inbox: www.51st.news/signup

We gotta come up with a better system than “everything rests on whether these twelve billionnaires are nice”

Join The 51st The 51st is a worker-led nonprofit news source for D.C. Our reporting is rooted in our conviction that local journalism is meant to make people’s lives better — no paywalls, ever. But that's only…

6/ The Post has lost over 375,000 subscribers in just over a year. If 10% of those readers subscribed to The 51st instead, we could hire 10 reporters and five editors, dramatically scaling our coverage of the city at this critical time. 51st.news/signup

For the record, focusing resources on reaching marginalized readers doesn’t come at the expense of serving the broader city — our default audience. It’s about closing gaps in local news coverage, not creating them. Support @51st.news 51st.news/signup

Anyone know how we can reach her?

I like that @51st.news is being built from the ground up, and with support from individual readers. But that we are building something this way makes what Jeff Bezos did to the Post even more shameful. He has endless resources to sustain a great newspaper. He chose not to.

Today is a GREAT day to support @51st.news, a worker-led nonprofit local news source for D.C. with top-notch staff including the amazing @maustermuhle.bsky.social

This sounds familiar... 🤔 But growing a newsroom from the ground up takes time and money — and frankly, we need way more resources than we have now to fill this massive gap.
You can help us build the newsroom D.C. deserves: 51st.news/signup

What. A. Year. It. Has. Been.

Locals have lost jobs because of the slashing of the federal workforce. D.C.'s local laws and budget have been targeted by the GOP. And Trump flooded the streets with federal troops.

I can't imagine a more important time for independent media.

Join The 51st The 51st is a worker-led nonprofit news source for D.C. Our reporting is rooted in our conviction that local journalism is meant to make people’s lives better — no paywalls, ever. But that's only poss...

This COULD be the first time we don't meet a goal for @51st.news 😰

Our nonprofit has been working to reach 3K new email subscribers (free or paid) by 2026.

But we're only 1/3 of the way there: we'd need 2K new people in 2 days.

Can YOU help? 51st.news/signup

(More on the why and the how ⬇️ 🧵)

The 51st Information with representation, by and for District of Columbia residents. A worker-led, independent nonprofit newsroom.

For our end-of-year campaign, we’re setting a Big Goal that anyone reading this can help us achieve.
We need your help finding 3,000 new newsletter subscribers by the end of the year — paid or free.
⬇️
51st.news/signup

How we're making space for D.C. natives in local media Dwayne Lawson-Brown has been learning about longtime residents’ information needs — and, in the process, about their own relationship with local news.

"D.C. natives are living newsworthy lives that are not being recognized by traditional news media," Dwayne Lawson-Brown writes.

As a community connector for The 51st, they're making space for these stories, while de-centering trauma and working from a place of celebrating communal success.

Thank you SO MUCH for doing this!!

Time to Grow The 51st Help us hire Christina and Martin Full-Time!

Tomorrow is the last day of the @51st.news campaign to raise $125k to help, well, hire me as a full-time reporter! We've raised just over half our goal from almost 1,000 amazing people, and I'd love for anyone and everyone else to help us build a new local newsroom! givebutter.com/SsQ8CG

Now through this weekend, I'll donate $1 to @51st.news for each:
- person who reposts this post
- new follower @51st.news ws gets
- new follower @maustermuhle.bsky.social gets
- new follower @christurdisani.bsky.social gets
- new follower I get

And tag/DM me your donation = I'll match it 1:1.

How to defend your neighbors (or yourself) from ICE enforcement in D.C. Trump has threatened mass deportations, but D.C. residents still have rights. We've rounded up strategies to protect yourself and your community.

Re-upping our explainer on how to defend yourself and your neighbors from ICE. Plenty of resources linked in here; share far and wide with your networks. 51st.news/how-to-defen...

Having a tough time right now? Same. But for her latest Ask A D.C. Native, @christurdisani.bsky.social shares what she's hopeful for. It might inspire you to find some hope of your own.

What happened to all the weed shops? Plus, what could it look like for the feds to take over D.C.?

We just landed in your inbox! This week:

1. What's going on with D.C.'s weed market?
2. Some historically informed speculation about what a fed takeover could look like.
3. Bowser wants your tax money for the new stadium!
4. Where to find hope (!?)

DAMN MADDIE THIS SUBJECT LINE

"We Can't Rely on Algorithms, Can We Rely On You?"

Another killer email from @51st.news—get on their list 51st.news/signup

Two days in and some things we know for sure I can’t shake the image of the president being sworn in, flanked by some of the richest men in the world. The tech billionaires surrounding Donald Trump on Monday have all had a hand – some more than ...

The billionaires who gutted the media industry got front row seats to the inauguration.

We hate it. It doesn't have to be this way. The 51st is D.C.’s antidote: local, worker-led, and funded by people who care.
51st.news/two-days-in-...

Local federal workers react to Trump's new work policies: 'People were sobbing in the halls’ Many of D.C.'s civil servants panic as they face job losses, hiring freezes, and return to office mandates.

“People were sobbing in the halls. It was upsetting to see."

We checked in with federal workers as they face job losses, hiring freezes, and return-to-office mandates in Trump's first week in office.

Ward 7 Community Connector Survey Greetings friends! This survey is part of The 51st's Community Connector Program, which was launched to engage D.C. residents on a hyperlocal level. Our first Community Connector, George Kevin…

Ward 7, we want to hear from you!

Our Community Connector is running a survey to help us understand the news and information needs of Ward 7 residents. If you submit it by Feb. 28, you have a chance to win dinner on us!

Ask a D.C. Native: Who do you consider a D.C. native? If you had asked me this question a decade ago, my inflexible response would have been: born in a D.C. hospital, raised in D.C., and graduated from a D.C. high school. For example, I was born at…

In this week's Ask a D.C. Native column, @christurdisani.bsky.social picks the brains of other D.C. natives to answer the question, “Who do you consider a D.C. native?” Are you one? Tell us your bonafides!

A screenshot of the newsletter. Under the section heading "You Street," it says: "Are you a federal worker thinking about your job differently under a Trump administration? Worried about the promises to gut the federal workforce? Furious about back-to-office mandates? Fearful about the future of your work or career? Actually happy that perhaps some bureaucratic hoops may be eliminated? We want to hear from you. Email hello@51st.news with your thoughts and we may reach out to you for a story."

The @51st.news is seeking to connect with federal workers in DC!

How Drug Overdose Deaths Have Plagued One Generation of Black Men for Decades In dozens of cities, the recent rise of fentanyl has put older Black men in particular jeopardy.

An investigation into millions of death records reveals the degree to which older Black men are dying of opioid overdoses. Proud to have contributed @51st.news reporting, along with reporters from seven other local newsrooms, to this @nytimes story on the crisis.
www.nytimes.com/2024/12/20/u...

@51st.news is trying to reach 2,000 paid subscribers by the end of the year, so we're funded through mid-2025. We've got about 650 folks to go ... who can help us get there!?

51st.news/signup

Thanks in advance!

Help The 51st Grow—for Free! We’ve been publishing for almost two months (!) and growing The 51st with you has been thrilling. Our progress has been heartening, and each day this dream of growing a sustainable worker-led newsroom...

If you think independent local journalism is important, here are some free ways you can help The 51st grow 🌱

Do you have burning questions about life and culture in D.C.? Submit them for our Ask A D.C. Native column, and maybe we’ll answer them for you!
Email questions to: christinasturdivantsani@51st.news

With more than 250,000 readers canceling their Washington Post subscriptions...if only 5% of them became members of The 51st, we'd be fully funded. 51st.news/signup