By AFRO Staff
The AFRO is happy to welcome Tashi McQueen as the new political writer. McQueen will serve as the second writer to join our team from Report for America (RFA). She joins our business writer, RFA intern Megan Sayles, who has filled out our coverage with excellence.
McQueen is currently a graduate student pursuing a degree in cultural sustainability at Goucher College’s MACS program. She’s a Western High School graduate, class of 2017; and in 2021, she finished her bachelor’s degree in communications with a political science minor at Goucher College. She hopes to graduate from the MACS program in 2023.
While in College McQueen contributed to and eventually ran The Goucher Eye, the first online news source for the Goucher Community student-run and staff-supported.
McQueen brings journalism experience from working as a freelance journalist for the Baltimore Sun.
“I’m excited to be working full-time in the Baltimore Community, helping my community stay informed and well-rounded voting citizens,” McQueen said. “Since my freshman year of college I knew I wanted to give back to the Black community that helped shape me.”
“I owe a lot of my character and drive to working in Baltimore,” she added.
McQueen’s strongest interests are church, politics and video creating. She serves as a missionary, usher and sings on two choirs: Bibleway Youth Choir and Bibleway Voices of Praise. McQueen attends Bibleway Community Church of God led by Rev. Willie B. Tripp faithfully every Wednesday, Friday and Saturday.
“Our legacy at the AFRO is supporting young people as they embrace the curiosity that drives them and the hunger for justice that infuriates them enough to demand it,” said the Rev. Dorothy Boulware, AFRO managing editor. “The AFRO has been the training ground that provides a stepping stone to larger media and greater exploits. We could not have a better partner than Report for America in this venture.”
Since her studies in politics in college, McQueen keeps up with national and international political happenings. She followed the COVID-19 story from the beginning and is always looking for political issues she can bring to light in her surrounding communities. She is excited to bring this energy to the AFRO.
McQueen is passionate about documentaries and created her first official short documentary in 2019, highlighting the slavery past of the land Goucher College currently owns.
“Institutional Awareness” provided a platform for the outraged Black students on campus in response to the controversial announcement of the “Hallowed Grounds Project.” She plans to do much more with documentaries in the future of her career.
Although she’s covering politics, she’s also interested in education, podcasting, investigative journalism and culture journalism.
Her hobbies are dance, singing, acting, youtube, playing the flute, and social media creation, and McQueen has always expressed a love for the arts- to including dance and acting. She was a member of the PolyWestern Marching Band and the Western High School Band, and occasionally plays the flute for her church. McQueen became social media management certified this past year and plans to use her skillset to increase the AFRO’s readership and virtual presence.
Tashi was born in Hampton, Va., but was primarily raised in Baltimore. She moved to Baltimore in 2013 and has been here ever since. She has also lived in Georgia and Long Island, N.Y.
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