In Remembrance of Dr. Demetria Rougeaux Shabazz: Former Amherst Media President

With the recent passing of our long time member, producer and director, the Amherst Media community sends our deepest and heartfelt love and support to the Shabazz family:

My dear friend Dr. Demetria (Dee) Shabazz was a righteous and visionary thinker and consummate doer.

Her passion for and connection to community driven local access stations wherever she lived, led her to seek out membership at Amherst Media nearly fourteen years ago when she and her family moved to Amherst.

Dee had her boots on the ground. She was in the trenches for Amherst Media. Dee believed in us, in our ability to connect, uplift, and to be hand in hand telling the stories of our lives. She believed local access is a platform to share these truths and she led Amherst Media through and out of our toughest moments when we had to fight inch by inch, tooth and nail, for our right to build a new home on Main and Gray.

As we endeavor to continue to lead this organization, we remain proud that she led us here to this place of sustainability, possibility and envisioning again. Still, it does not relieve us from the pain of losing a great one.

Submitted by: Vira Douangmany Cage, Board President 2023-Present

My heart is broken hearing this sad news. Dee was my mentor, colleague, and dear friend. She set the bar high in so many areas in my life. She lived life with enthusiasm, compassion, zest, thoughtfulness for her family, friends, community, especially her students. 

How blessed I was to be one of her many students at UMass in the communication department. She mentored me and encouraged me to intern at Amherst Media and go to graduate school. I can't count the many hours I spent working with her on projects, board meetings, and in community outreach.

Like so many others, I feel a hole in the fabric of life from her passing. However, I know the heavens are rejoicing welcoming Dee home. Sending prayers of peace, comfort, and love to the family and friends.

Submitted by: Patrice Crosby Wilson, Former Board President

Dr. Demetria Rougeaux Shabazz (Dee) was an extraordinary person. She believed in the power of storytelling and learning from other people's stories.She believed that all people should have the ability to be able to share their stories and that was one of the reasons she committed her time to Amherst Media. She wanted the community members to be able to tell their stories and how telling of the stories brings the community together. 

Listening to Dee's stories always gave me the confidence to share my experiences. Dee always wanted to hear from the community and made sure that the town government heard from community members, not just the powerful in the town. Dee would lift up the voices of all the community members to the town government so that many people felt their voices were being heard. Thank you Dee for being a model of how to listen to others and how to raise the voices of all townspeople. 

Dee also believed in government transparency and Amherst Media's ability to keep the townspeople engaged and aware of what was going on in town government. She was a consistent voice in advocacy that the town meetings be available for as many people as possible, especially those who couldn't attend the meetings in person, but still wanted to be informed of what the town government was doing. She constantly voiced support for the government transparency that Amherst Media provides so that town members may be informed and engaged in the governing process. 

I know that Dee was a role model to whom I looked up to. Admiring the way she shared her strength, character, and sense of what is right. I will greatly miss the ability to continue to walk with Dee on this earth, but know that she is supporting us as we continue to work to build a better community here in Amherst.

Submitted by Artie McCollum, Board Vice President and Board President, 2021-22

When I reflect upon Dr. Demetria Shabazz, my friend and colleague, I feel her compassion, laugh at her humorous and sincere outlooks and admire her steadfastness. She was indeed an educator, a motivator and an activist. Trying to list all of the organizations and committees she was associated with can be daunting, and I am fearful of excluding any here. The same goes for the various Amherst Media programs where she hosted or was a panelist. 

When it came to community media Dee always made herself available, sometimes demonstrating to others how they could host their own program. Dee herself was always willing to create new and engaging programming, where community residents told their stories, expressed their opinions and raised their voices. Archiving for Dee was in the now and present. Her mantra was tell and record your story or someone else will tell it for you.

How many lives did Demetria positively touch? We will never know, but those who listened, watched and followed her example will be recognizable. They will be the curious, engaging and thoughtful ones, entrenched in community dialogue, joining others in addressing issues of social justice, while being vocal agents for change.

Demetria wore her support for Amherst Media on her sleeve and told people wherever she was that Free Speech isn’t an abstract concept, but rather an organism, one that needs oxygen and constant vigil. Dee nurtured and practiced Free Speech and made Amherst a more dynamic community - one that questions injustice; advocates for programmatic changes and put forth policies to engage others to envision a Community/Society that met all of the people’s needs.

Dee’s Legacy within the community will be measured by how we move her work forward, collectively. Perhaps this adage can help us understand and emulate Dee’s path:

A person does as they must-in spite of personal consequences, in spite of obstacles and dangers and pressures- and that is the basis of all human morality.  

Submitted by: Jim Lescault, Executive Director, Amherst Media. 2007-Present