LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — All month long we're highlighting Black-owned businesses and the people making a positive impact on our community.
13 Action News reporter Kay McCabe recently sat down with the owner of Black Image Magazine to talk about their story as one of the only Black-owned publications in our city.
"We don't publish negativity, we publish positivity, we publish progression. We started back in 2008, when President Obama was elected," said Kimberly Bailey Tureaud, owner and publisher of Black Image Magazine.
BLACK LIFE IN LAS VEGAS
For the last 15 years the, Las Vegas "Black Image" Magazine has showcased the life of Black people in and around Las Vegas.
"We keep pushing along, spotlight families, we spotlight people that are doing progressive things in the city. People that probably don't get a light shined on them. We shine it," Tureaud said.
Tureaud grew up in the valley. Her dad starting the first Black-owned publication and her mom working at the Moulin Rouge, the valley's first integrated hotel and casino, located in the Historic Westside.
She was raised during a time when segregation was at its height. However, she says it also was a time when the black community stood more together than ever.
"With segregation, we had more of a unification within the Black community. The Black culture was very profound when I was growing up in the 60s," Tureaud said.
Since then, she believes the Black community has drifted further and further apart.
"It's dissipated some. Now people are coming from all over the world. They don't know other people, and everyone stays in their own cubby hole," Tureaud said.
REBUILDING UNIFICATION
The goal of the magazine is to help rebuild that unification within the Black community. But of course, a Black-owned publication came with its problems.
"They wanted us to not come out so bold with the name 'Black', and I said, 'No.' We will be bold and it will be called Black Image Magazine," says Tureaud.
It worked. Year after year, Tureaud features powerful Black people; from community leaders to international household names.
"Sidney Portier, Mary J. Blidge were great interviews, Chaka Kan, Jill Scott, Chris Brown," Tureaud said. Not to mention showcasing important valley causes and attractions.
"We've done major events, the Caravan for Mammogram for Black Women, Taste and Sounds of Soul. We've done a lot of things to compliment Black Image Magazine," Tureaud said.
Now the magazine is looking to expand to Southern California and eventually the entire western region.
Tureaud says she hopes whenever you pick up an issue of Black Image Magazine, you remember this:
"There will be people that will try to deter you. But the thing is, you have to keep pushing and don't let it turn you around. It's not easy, but like my father said, 'Who said it was going to be easy?"
