‘Jenisha from Kentucky’ is coming home to Lexington | Opinion
Jenisha Watts was already an extraordinary Lexington success story.
Back in 2020, I wrote about how the Bryan Station High School graduate, who grew up in poverty in Charlotte Court, ascended to one of the top jobs in journalism — senior editor for special projects for The Atlantic, one of the oldest and most influential magazines in the country.
Since then, she’s gotten married, had a baby and worked on many projects at the magazine.
Including her own.
“Jenisha from Kentucky” the Atlantic’s October cover story, detailed in haunting prose much more about that childhood, showing exactly how extraordinary her ascension was.
Watts details growing up in Charlotte Court with a mother, Trina, who was addicted to crack, how she tried to protect and raise her young siblings until they ended up in foster care. She spent a year researching and writing, using her reporting skills to excavate a childhood dominated by a mother she loved and hated, a woman that she never called momma.
Part of the essay also explores how a child and young person can escape such trauma, and Watts attributes much of that to the mentors she found at the University of Kentucky, which she attended after two years of community college.
She’ll be back here on Nov. 1 to talk about mentorship with one of them, former UK professor and National Book Award winning poet Nikky Finney.
The conversation between Finney and Watts will be moderated by another one of Watts’ mentors, Lisa Higgins-Hord, UK’s Assistant Vice President for Community Engagement. The event will be 5-6:30 p.m. in UK’s Harris Ballroom. A reception will follow the event, 6:30–7:30pm.
This event is free and open to the public, with free parking in the Cornerstone Garage. Watts will also be teaching a master class to UK journalism students during her visit.
In a recent interview, Watts told me she’s been amazed by the reaction to the essay.
“The feedback has been incredible,” she said. “I was extremely nervous, but people have written to say, ‘It’s brave’ or, ’I was moved by the words of you being so honest.’
While Watts’ essay explores the many adults who let her down, the UK event will focus more on the people who helped her. People like Finney, who told her to read everything she could, or Higgins Hord, who told her how she needed to act in corporate America and took her shopping for the right kind of clothes.
“Mentors are what helped me get to where I am,” she said. “That’s important to emphasize to students — it’s a variety of people who can help you, and they can have their reason and place in your life.”
Higgins Hord says she hopes to outline Watts’ journey and “do a deep dive into the concept of sisterhood and its connection in turning Jenisha’s dreams into a reality.”
Watts said she will also visit Crawford Middle School to talk to students, something she always makes time for on trips home because she wants them to know how much is possible.
“It is something, it really is, I still pinch myself,” she said. “I can’t believe it — teaching a class and talking to students and to be on the stage with Professor Finney. It always feels good to be home, but it feels better to be welcomed.”
