New podcast investigates the killing of Black lesbian Sakia Gunn
In May 2003, 15-year-old student Sakia Gunn was murdered in her hometown of Newark, New Jersey. She was young, Black, and queer. And her unjustifiable death ignited an urgency for LGBTQ+ activism in her hometown, but earned little attention nationally.
Now, After Broad and Market, a new 5-part investigative podcast hosted by The WNET Group’s award-winning journalist Jenna Flanagan, digs into why it’s so easy for us, as a country, to dismiss and forget Sakia Gunn.
In 2003, WNET journalist Jenna Flanagan reported on the murder of Sakia and now, 20 years on, Flanagan revisits the story to examine what progress might have been made in protecting Newark’s queer youth—and how exactly justice was served in one of New Jersey’s first prosecuted LGBTQ+ hate crime homicides.
Flanagan sits down to talk with those whose lives intersected with Sakia’s—from her classmates and friends to the wide community of academics, artists, journalists, and politicians that got to know Sakia only after her death. Join us as we explore the impact of one person’s life on a whole community in WNET’s original multipart documentary podcast series.
To see out Pride month, give the debut season of After Broad and Market, which launches June 26, a listen.
Listen to the podcast here.
About the reporter
Jenna Flanagan is a writer, reporter, journalist, producer, and current on-screen host for The WNET Group’s MetroFocus. Jenna grew up in New Paltz where her interest in journalism began after attending a journalism camp at SUNY New Paltz at age 12. She went on to study communications and journalism at Seton Hall University in South Orange, NJ where she was on the staff of the college newspaper, The Setonian.
After graduating with a B.A. in communications in 1999, she took her first job in the business as a news production assistant and Engineer for 1010 WINS. She spent over six years as a reporter, writer and producer for WNYC’s All Things Considered, with her work airing nationally on NPR. In 2012, Jenna left her full-time radio production job for a chance to produce and report on-camera for the PBS member station in Albany, where her reports aired statewide on New York NOW. The WNET Group took notice of Jenna’s work. In 2015 she was brought on as a correspondent for the newsmagazine MetroFocus, eventually joining the show as a journalist and host.
