Arionne Alyssa Nettles

Professional Storyteller

Arionne Nettles is a university lecturer, culture reporter, and audio aficionado. Her stories often look into Chicago history, culture, gun violence, policing, and race & class disparities, and her work has appeared in the New York Times Opinion, Chicago Reader, The Trace, Chicago PBS station WTTW, and NPR affiliate WBEZ.

She is a lecturer and the director of audio journalism programming at Northwestern University’s Medill School as well as host of the HBCU history podcast Bragging Rights and Is That True? A Kids Podcast About Facts. Her book, We Are the Culture: Black Chicago’s Influence on Everything, will be published by Chicago Review Press in 2024.

What's been up?

A look at my recent work and projects

New York Times Opinion And The Trace: Black Mothers On Gun Violence

For eight months, I interviewed women from around the United States, including a mix of mothers who have lost kids to violence, mothers whose kids have been injured by bullets, and mothers who have not experienced either of those but who worry about it constantly and are trying to keep their kids safe.

The project was co-published with New York Times OpinionThe Trace, Flint Beat, MLK50: Justice Through Journalism, and The Oaklandside.