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SALT LAKE CITY — With a Black population of 1.5%, Utah might not seem like the ideal place for a magazine founder and editor-in-chief to focus on empowering, encouraging and educating Black people.
So, when IMPACT Magazine editor Tunisha Brown was first faced with the idea of moving to the Beehive State, she didn't seriously consider it.
"I was like, 'I'm not coming to Utah; I'm not doing that,'" Brown remembers thinking. "There's no Black people there."
She eventually realized that was a misconception and is now working to connect Black Utahns with each other and to available resources in the state.
Brown, who grew up in Trenton, New Jersey, lived in Atlanta for 11 years prior to coming to Utah in 2021. The Georgia capital had served as a hotbed for Brown and IMPACT Magazine. The online and print publication started as a passion project for Brown, who was working full time at Merrill Lynch and raising her son as a single mom. She had seen the success of a local neighborhood newspaper and realized people wanted to see themselves represented in a publication.
"So, I just kept at it, and I learned that being consistent (meant) people would trust you," Brown said. "I just knew that this would work. I just knew that this is what the community needed."
The hard work and consistency paid off. She launched her first issue in 2007 with an email blast to a couple hundred, as well as an event of about 75 people — 50 of whom, she said, were family and friends.
IMPACT went from being a local publication with about 500 copies per issue to reaching tens of thousands of individuals across the country, including about 20,000 website visitors each day.
Although Brown said going to Atlanta was the best thing that ever happened to her and her business, by 2020 she felt like it was time to move on and relocate out West.
Utah, however, was not the location she had in mind. When an executive from Young Living, which had partnered with IMPACT Magazine, encouraged Brown to move to Utah, telling her there was a thriving Black community in the state, Brown said no. She also turned down the executive's invitation to the Sundance Film Festival.
Brown realized the decision was the "worst mistake I made in 2019," after seeing the likes of Oprah, Ava DuVernay and Essence magazine had attended. She promised herself that she wouldn't miss another Sundance and the next year her magazine hosted a screening of Black indie film "White Rose." It was her first glimpse into Utah's Black community.
"It was amazing. The Black community came out," Brown said. "(I met) some amazing people who were doing the work here in Utah."
She resolved to put an event together to highlight Black leaders in Utah and launched a networking mixer called Who's Who of Black Utah in 2020. She flew to Los Angeles and Las Vegas shortly after the event, but her opinion of Utah had already started to change.
"I said there's something to it here," Brown said. "There's a need for Black media here to not only talk about the people locally, and let them see each other locally, but to also introduce them to my national audience. And so, that's what made me move here."
A year-and-a-half later, Brown still doesn't regret the decision. She said, unlike Atlanta, Utah has given her the opportunity to pay attention to herself and the women who support her magazine.
Earlier this year, Brown launched "IMPACT Black Women: Mind, Body, Soul Summer Experience," to help bring Black women and their supporters together and give them opportunities to improve themselves and their businesses.
Brown shared the experience of two Black women who attended the same high school in Utah. Despite being the only two Black girls in the school, the two didn't interact. Brown said the women didn't have a problem with each other but felt like they had to compete "to be the Black face in a white space" during school. Her event allowed them to finally talk and connect. Those types of connections were part of what made the event such a success, Brown said.
"People always say that these things are what they need — and when it's here for them, they don't access it," Brown said. "But they should, even if they don't like who's bringing it, or even if sometimes they want it from people who don't look like them."
"But sometimes the people who don't look like you — that's the reason why they're not giving it to you. It is important to receive and be receptive, and get an understanding of what is here for you and try it out," she continued. "But the person who is making you feel like you're not wanted or don't belong is not going to liberate you from that feeling. When something comes along where you're saying you're not feeling seen, you're not doing this and you're not doing that, and you're looking for the resources and then the resources show up and you don't participate — then who are you looking for liberation from?"
Brown is holding another IMPACT Black Women event Aug. 26-28 in Salt Lake City that features networking opportunities, motivational speakers and workshops on politics and business. Registration ranges from $55 to $199, with about 10% of the proceeds going to Curly Me!, a nonprofit supporting families with children of color. Brown said there are also scholarships available for two of the three days.
"To receive these things, you have to invest in you. You really have to invest in you and your personal and professional growth," Brown said. "We attend other people's events and there's no problem with paying. So why not invest, as a Black woman or woman who supports Black women?"
