Ariel Worthy on her lesson from Pittsburgh’s Hill District: Trust takes time

Ariel Worthy, a reporter for WESA in Pittsburgh, spent 2020 as one of StateImpact Pennsylvania’s embedded journalists as part of the America Amplified initiative.

Ariel Worthy is a city government reporter and when she was asked to choose a community to cover for America Amplified, she knew she wanted to focus on a Black community.

She chose the Hill District, Pittsburgh’s oldest Black community and home of the famous playwright August Wilson. 

From its heyday in the 1950s as a center of Black entertainers and entrepreneurs to its decline as a victim of urban renewal, the district spent 30 years without a local grocery store. One finally opened in 2013.

“I felt they have such a rich history and they are so overlooked sometimes that I felt it was important to bring their story out,” Worthy said.

She wrote several stories out of her engagement with the community. Here, she talks about how she found the stories and how she earned people’s trust. 

Starting with the newsroom

Her colleagues at the station put her in touch with former City Council and School Board member Sala Udin.

“I think we talked for about two hours and he just gave me the entire history of the Hill and he told me about some of the key playmakers in the Hill District and he told me who to connect with. He did give me a heads up that people might be resistant but he said just to tell them that he sent me and they would probably be a bit more receptive if they heard his name,” said Worthy.

“A lot of Black residents in Pittsburgh don’t exactly trust the media because of the way they have been covered in the past. Usually it was there was a shooting or somebody went to jail or got arrested or something and that’s it. So they often don’t like talking to (the media). So when I heard that I was like ‘OK, this is going to be a bit of a challenge’ trying to get to know people in the Hill District and it kind of was.”

Lunch with the barber

Udin gave Worthy a list of people to reach out to in the Hill District. The first person Udin mentioned was a barbershop owner. 

She said he gave her the runaround for a while, until she decided to ask him to lunch.

That lunch meeting allowed the barber to open up, to talk about his personal history in the Hill District, and other aspects of his life and the life of the community. After that, the barber gave her another list. 

“He gave me a long list of names of people to connect with and I just started working down that list and as I went down that list they would give me more names. So I just kind of built up my network that way,” Worthy said. 

Answering ‘Why are you here?’

“One thing I really emphasized is that they tell their stories from their perspectives and it’s not just me coming in, grabbing something, and leaving, and that I was going to be there for a while and they were going to hear a lot from me and I would probably get on their nerves, honestly… they actually seemed more welcome to that. A lot of them did have the question ‘why the Hill District… why are you covering us… why are you here?’ I told them that I felt this was a community that was overlooked… there’s so much happening here it needs to be told because they kind of operate on their own. There’s such a sense of community in the Hill District and they thrive so well that I kind of wanted to highlight those stories, highlight how they are really a community that is very united,” said Worthy.

This was all before the pandemic. 

After COVID-19 hit, Worthy turned to social media. She followed people on social media, checking in with them to see how they were doing, how their businesses were doing, and the state of the community.

“They have been very welcoming to me and have even checked on me and asked how I was doing. It’s actually been working out quite well,” Worthy shared.

An activist providing masks; a mom on a hunger strike

As she got to know the community, she started to tell its stories. When the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis sparked nationwide demonstrations, Worthy saw the Hill District respond with intimate community gatherings.

“The Hill kind of has its own way of dealing with these kinds of tragedies,” Worthy said.

She published a story about Lakeisha Wolf, a local activist who worked to get masks and food to those in need in the Hill. 

Worthy’s engagement work led her to Dannielle Brown, whose son fell 16 floors to his death in 2018 at Duquesne University. Brown started a hunger strike and set up at The Hill District’s Freedom Corner, demanding records and reform from the school. 

The story was about Brown, and also about how the community started taking care of her during her protest. Worthy followed the story throughout the fall and at the end of the year, Worthy updated Brown’s story again. The grieving mother was still at the Hill District, now living in an apartment, and still on a hunger strike.

Building in time for engagement

Worthy said her station management has been very supportive of her engagement efforts and often checked in with her. While her priorities were still on city hall, Worthy said she built in time for engagement.

She often set aside Fridays for her Hill District work.

“I wasn’t always there… but, I just made sure to kind of prioritize. I scheduled times to talk with people… I would make sure I was on their calendar and they were on mine,” Worthy explained.

Lesson: ‘You’re getting a lot’

Worthy said community engagement work is time consuming because it’s about establishing and fostering trust. Reporters and editors need to be prepared to accept this.

“When you are simply trying to build trust with a community that sometimes means you will not interview, you will not record anything, you will literally just be there to listen and get to know a person,” Worthy said. “As a reporter sometimes your whole goal is to get the story so sometimes you feel like ‘I came out there and I got nothing from it.’ But you’re actually getting a lot because trust is such an important factor in a story.”

Worthy’s advice: “Be patient.”