On Oct. 5, Jai Washington hosted a pilot for her new talk show, All in a Day, at Mr. Pitiful’s in Over-the-Rhine. After working with friends to produce a professional sampler of the pilot, Washington submitted it to “philanthropic lab” People’s Liberty as a nominee for its Haile Fellowship. The fellowship will grant $100,000 to two locally based applicants who have, according to the organization, “identified a major local challenge and have an ambitious plan for addressing it.”
Washington worked in sales for 20 years before restarting her life as a community advocate 10 years ago. Her work included a stint as the executive director of nonprofit InkTank and as an outreach coordinator for the historic preservation firm Gray and Pape. Washington has also appeared as a spokesperson for her Over-the-Rhine community in forums and fundraisers dealing with diverse issues like the streetcar project (she recorded a PSA for Cincinnatians for Progress) and has worked with Over-the-Rhine Community Housing on multiple projects.
Washington’s friend and All in a Day attendee Lisa Howe is continually impressed with Washington’s commitment to community advocacy. “Developing herself as a public figure, that’s something that she’s done entirely on her own,” says Howe. “She’s been involved with just about every major nonprofit.”
Washington sees All in a Day as a culmination of this mid-life career change. It’s a forum for the “citizen celebrities” of Cincinnati, including nonprofits, businesses and the creative industry, to speak about their experiences with Washington in an engaging and professional format.
For Washington, a citizen celebrity is anyone that has a stake in community involvement. She came up with the term in conversations with youth about the importance of community over celebrity culture. In the pilot of All in a Day, Washington interviewed Dr. Tammy Schwartz, the director of Miami University’s Urban Teaching Cohort, and Daphney Thomas, co-founder of OTR shop/community center Sweet Sistah Splash. She also hosted performances from DANCEFIX, a part of the Heather Britt Dance Collective, and music from Hip Hop/Jazz collective IsWhat?!.
Washington believes that public conversations with these longtime Cincinnati community members can open up a space for honest reflection that she felt was lacking in the sales world.
“In my old life, I’d come to people in power with a very sincere and genuine interest in opening dialogue,” Washington says. “Many in those positions said, ‘We’re not doing it, because what’s working right now is what we’re doing.’ This show allows me to say that I’m not in competition with what you’re doing; it’s an alternative … We need to stand our own ground as nonprofits, and if we did that, we could speak in terms that the business sector could understand.”
In addition to her interest in challenging a business sector that she believes struggles with community engagement, Washington also sees the talk show as part of a long tradition of quality local television that engages with the issues she cares about.
“Growing up in Cincinnati, I’ve been exposed to a rich history of broadcast content,” she says. “I watched The Uncle Al Show, Ruth Lyons, Bob Braun, Nick Clooney, Al Schottelkotte … I started to see from these Cincinnati examples that I could take my ability to talk to anyone seriously, to bring realistic perspectives to issues.”
After watching the show, Howe believes that Washington’s facilitation skills make her an ideal host.
“I didn’t see it or experience it as [the show] is all about her developing her brand to further her career,” Howe says. “She has ideas and opinions herself, but she’s always really interested in other people’s opinions.”
If All in a Day doesn’t receive a People’s Liberty fellowship, Washington plans to take the show to a public access television station. She wants to continue the show not only to highlight citizen celebrities, create a space for difficult conversations and extend the history of Cincinnati broadcasting, but also to expand her reach beyond Over-the-Rhine, which has been the focus of her community engagement work for the past 10 years.
“What I’ve found interesting shooting this pilot is that folks came out of the woodwork to offer venues once they saw the professionalism of the pilot, once they saw the level of commitment,” she says.
“One of the ideas is not to film in just one place but to travel throughout the Tri-state so we can get different perspectives.”
PEOPLE’S LIBERTY will announce its Haile Fellowship awards Monday. Follow Washington on Twitter @jaiallday.
