A Conversation with Erinn Knight

I had the pleasure of sitting with Erinn Knight, creative strategist, community builder, and co-founder of Where Y’all At Though?! and Build Your Own Dreams. We talked about belonging, building community, Black Austin, and what it means to make a home in a rapidly changing city. Here’s an excerpt from our conversation.

“ …I started feeling under appreciated in Atlanta, but I was also just dealing with a lot of tough emotional stuff. So I was like, "Let me go to Nashville," 'cause I have friends there, I have a place I can cry. But Nashville never felt like home, it just felt like a safe place. You know what I'm saying? But Austin, it just was like, there was always space for me here. You know what I'm saying? So it's, like, in a very micro way. Not the whole city.

The city was interesting, but I had people here, so I was like, "Let me just make the plunge." So even now it becoming home to me is new, but if it wasn't for B and his family I would not be here. It would just be a fun place that I'd be still flying into. I'd still be building stuff, one foot in the door, one foot out the door.

But for me to commit is because I had community, like intimate community, like people that I can cry with. I have little nieces and nephews that are excited to see me. I have places I can cook. Like, the things that... I'm not talking about the, "Oh, we can turn up, we can... But yeah, I, I moved here 'cause I had community, in an intimate sense.”

A CONVERSATION WITH LEON HOLLAND

Leon Holland is one of UT Austin’s precursors -among the first Black undergraduate students to attend the university following integration in 1956.

Originally from San Antonio, he came to Austin for two simple reasons; it was close to home and tuition was $25. What he encountered, and what he built here, tells a much deeper story.

This conversation is part of You Are Here ATX, an ongoing project exploring presence, belonging, and lived experience in Austin.

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Building Presence

Where are the Black people in Austin?

I’ve seen this question pop up online more times than I can count. People saying there aren’t enough Black people here. Saying there’s no Black culture. Telling others they need to move to [redacted city]. Others push back, saying the Black people are here, we just don’t go out like that, or you have to follow certain pages, join certain groups, know where to look. Someone mentions a walking group on the weekends. Someone else lists events like a running thread you have to piece together yourself. The responses overlap, contradict, circle back. It never lands in one clear answer.

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A conversation with Dereion Toussaint

We met at one of his current favorite spots in Austin, LoLo Wine Bar in East Austin, where our conversation carried into the evening as the light shifted. He’s been here since 2018 and reflected on how the city has changed, and how it’s shaped him along the way.

The first in a series of conversations.

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The Geography of Belonging

Before I say yes, I check the time.
I open Google Maps.
I check the route.
Thirty minutes, plus traffic.
Then parking.
Street parking. Paid garage. Rideshare suggested.
I zoom out to see what else is nearby since I will already be in the area.
Slight detour. Total time: 55 minutes.
It’s late.
I will just stay for an hour.

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Arriving Mid-Conversation

I grew up on the East Coast. Living in Texas came later, sometime in my mid-teens, folded into my life through family and circumstance rather than choice. I’ve lived in several Texas cities since then. Long enough to understand that each region has its own pace. Long enough to know Juneteenth before it became a headline. Long enough to feel how history lives in families, not just landmarks. Long enough to know that having roots somewhere doesn’t always equate to feeling rooted.

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