Keith Owens

Over the course of a journalism career that has spanned 35 years and eight publications, Keith Owens has demonstrated journalistic excellence and achievement that meet the highest standards. As a reporter, editor and columnist he consistently wrote with passion and a strong sense of social justice and was willing to go from the byline to the picket line on behalf of his fellow journalists.

Owens’ work has shined at every stop along the way in his career, including big major dailies like the Detroit Free Press to weekly publications like the African- American owned Michigan Chronicle and Michigan Front Page and the Metro Times. Equally impressive is his writing on a wide range of issues.

Boogie Chillun was an incredibly in-depth two-part exploration into the history of the Detroit blues written for the Metro Times as someone who was not only knowledgeable about that history but as a working local blues musician.

Is New Orleans the New Detroit? uses the havoc wreaked by Hurricane Katrina as a focal point to dissect the true meaning of the woeful federal response to the historic disaster as the unmasking of America’s purposeful disdain for its Black poor.

And in Epigram on an Epithet, as well as Is Farrakhan Still the Black Peoples’ Messenger? Owens tackles two extremely controversial topics within the Black community; the popularity of Louis Farrakhan amongst a much wider range of African Americans than many would expect – and whether that popularity was on the decline – and the toxicity of the so-called ‘N’ word and its complex meaning and relationship within the African American community.

But never content merely to fight with his words, Owens also co-founded the Mid-Michigan Association of Black Journalists (now-defunct) together with a colleague at the Ann Arbor News more than three decades ago while just a cub reporter at his first newspaper job. He and his colleague realized the venerable Detroit Association of Black Journalists wasn’t equipped to service the needs of Black journalists at papers such as the Ann Arbor News, the Flint Journal, or the Grand Rapids Press.

Today, Owens has found a way to continue sharing his opinions in unique fashion via We Are Speaking, a Substack newsletter founded by he and his wife, Pam. Together they continue to tackle a wide variety of topical issues using the standard OpEd format, a weekly podcast, and Detroit-centered science fiction via Keith’s SciFi Musings.