Open Mic Rochester

Open Mic Rochester, Rochester's leading online black magazine, is raising $15,000 to help cover the costs of leasing a newsroom in downtown Rochester, purchase appropriate media equipment and invest in the community to offer local youth internship opportunities.

But we need your help! By donating, purchasing an ad, or subscribing on Patreon, you are helping us grow and keep local journalism competitive! But you’re also helping the larger community. When you donate $50, we give 10 books to a local youth group. When you donate $40, we head to local classrooms and read to the children. So not only are you helping local media thrive, your donation gives to two causes at once!

About Us: Open Mic Rochester is your new favorite online black magazine. We relaunched in 2016 with Shappelle Thompson as Publisher and Tianna Mañón as Editor-in-Chief. Determined to give you true and unbiased reporting, we shifted our focus to hard news because we noticed a lack of credible reporting of Rochester’s black community. Whether it’s sports or politics, we saw our story consistently muddled with stereotypes or pushed to the end of the newscast.

Not at Open Mic. Here, your stories are central. Here, your stories are on the front page. We have quickly grown to become a trusted news source through our coverage of the Black Lives Matter rally, gun violence, and a profile of Mayor Lovely Warren.

We accept donations through GoFundMe. If you’re interested in placing an ad, please email [email redacted] to arrange payment and placing. Our fundraising campaign ends mid-summer but we are accepting advertisements and subscriptions permanently, starting March 2018.

We can't have a true community without accurate and unbiased information but Open Mic Rochester can’t provide next-level reporting without help from the community.

P.S. For donation levels where you can select what community organization also benefits, we will email you after receiving your donation.