Terri Wisdom wears several hats, including media businesswoman, journalist, educator, and activist. As the founder of Harlem Network News, a digital news platform available on social media, she can regularly be seen at community events in Harlem.
Wisdom, 74, grew up in South Jamaica, Queens, and came of age during the civil rights era and Black identity movements of the 1960s and ’70s, and says the historic period of her youth greatly shaped her trajectory. “Everybody went from having straightened hair to Afros and fists raised in the air. That’s where I come from,” Wisdom said.
She attended Lincoln University, where she became friends with the legendary Gil Scott-Heron, who became a great inspiration for her, but transferred to Fordham University, where she graduated to pursue film and TV. However, she said she regrets the choice, noting the racism she experienced and that she even graduated a year early to get away.
“If I had it to do again, I would have stayed at Lincoln,” Wisdom said. “I really hated it at Fordham. … It’s a very racist institution, particularly at that time.”
In the early 1970s, Wisdom was involved in production with the Children’s Television Workshop, working on shows like “Sesame Street” and “The Electric Company.” Later on, she held several roles at numerous local news stations, including ABC, CBS, CNN, and PIX 11. She said she witnessed firsthand that there were very few Black faces behind the scenes in production, which meant stories related to Black communities would not get priority. She also said she experienced racism in the newsroom.
“I experienced a lot of abuses,” Wisdom recalled, including instances where co-workers lied about her.
“They’re not covering our kinds of stories,” Wisdom said of the major news stations, which she said was the case then and is just as bad today. “The only way they come in [for coverage] is maybe if somebody is murdered or something like that.”
With the encouragement of her husband, Wisdom created HNN in the spring of 2020 during the beginning of COVID, because she recognized a need to get medical information to Harlem’s Black community. Early on, she had Black healthcare providers, local political figures, and even funeral directors on her live shows to discuss how serious COVID was and correct misinformation.
A life-altering tragedy
In 2021, after her son Ali Sam Waymon Wisdom was shot and killed in an unsolved case on the Shinnecock Reservation on Long Island, Wisdom was connected to Harlem activist Jackie Rowe-Adams and her organization, Harlem Mothers and Fathers Save. The group works with parents who have lost children to gun violence. She would have Adams as a guest on her show and afterward joined the organization, in which she remains active.
Wisdom was intent on turning pain into purpose by using her media skills. “I don’t think people get past that trauma, but you have to do something, so something that I’m doing is in media, making sure more Black people and everybody [are] educated and informed on what’s going on,” Wisdom said. “I use media to fight the disparities that we are experiencing. I think I realized that this is not just me; this is many other mothers in our community.”
Wisdom has previously taught throughout the city and continues to hold workshops with students in District 5, which is mostly Black and Brown. She notes there are clear disparities she sees regularly. “To know what our schools look like, and to know that $42,000 a year is being spent on each child — are we seeing that money in our schools?” Wisdom asked, noting that one of the 20 schools where she has recently worked in the district didn’t even have computers for students.
“What’s Going On!” airs live on WBAI on Tuesdays from 7:00 a.m. and HNN shows are on YouTube. She is getting ready to build it out with a show on Manhattan public access, a podcast, and a new Substack.
Despite the grind, Wisdom remains motivated by the mission of serving her people.
“It can be very daunting, stressful, and depressing because you’re trying to do this work, but you have to just say to yourself that this is what it has always been,” Wisdom said. “Just like the great figures in our history, you have to pierce the veil and not get distracted or discouraged, and keep going.”
