This Chicago storyteller and trained dramaturg is joining our team to build community across City Bureau’s socials, newsletters and website.
By Caroline Olsen
Portrait of Yasmin Zacaria Mikhaiel taken by Caroline Olsen
We’re thrilled to welcome Yasmin Zacaria Mikhaiel to the team as City Bureau’s new Digital Producer!
Yasmin brings years of experience as an audience engagement manager and editorial producer connecting a variety of audiences to journalism. Previously, she was the Chicago Reader’s Audience Engagement Manager where she developed strategies to expand the reach and impact of the Reader’s coverage across the city. As our Digital Producer, Yasmin manages our social media, newsletters, and website while supporting the promotion of City Bureau projects.
We asked Yasmin to share a little bit about her experience, her life, and what she’s bringing to the role. Here are some of the highlights.
Your work in the past has spanned a lot of different worlds, including theater, journalism, and oral history. How did those experiences bring you to this world of participatory media at City Bureau?
I grew up in and around Chicago and I graduated from DePaul’s Theatre School, so storytelling in this city has always been top of mind for me. My theater training in dramaturgy is a field that is steeped in researching, writing, and talking–some of my favorite things. The dramaturg does so much of the behind the scenes work of supporting a playwright on their script, resource-gathering for the creative/design team, and creating materials for audiences about the play. As a student, I was really interested in what stories didn’t make it to the stage.
I saw a lot of gaps in the stories we were telling and I wondered where else I could find more perspectives from folks whose stories often fall to the margins. For better or worse, this led me to museums–another kind of institution struggling through what it means to amplify narratives despite a legacy of exploitation. I found oral history to be one of the most democratizing practices of storytelling, and I worked across Chicago to consult on projects that put everyday people and their experiences first.
A lot of my work is very much about shaping stories and shaping narratives. My experience with social media is very personal, because I had to market myself as a working artist and as a journalist. City Bureau’s audience also holds a multitude of backgrounds, and when I think about connecting that to my work here, it's always people-centered.
What communities do you see yourself as part of and how do you think about community?
Well, I move through space as a queer, brown, fat, femme. Once I grew into these identities with confidence, it became easier to find friends and collaborators with similar interests and questions around building intentional and supportive networks. As a theater artist, I find refuge in working with other SWANA makers, and it’s only been in the last few years that stories about people like us (that don’t center harm and terrorism) are being produced in Chicago.
My apartment is a gathering space I love and it serves as a hub for my friends to eat and laugh and dream. Simply listening to music or painting rocks or playing Uno is super fueling, especially as we still navigate the pandemic and figure out what safety looks like for us. I feel that I've had to get creative about how to fully take up space but sharing it with community that’s got me makes it easier.
Can you speak a little more about your relationship to Chicago? What keeps you around?
It's definitely the people and my family’s roots here. My mom grew up in Rogers Park. My dad emigrated here from Tehran before the revolution in the late 1970s. He ran an antique shop on Michigan Avenue and later Devon Avenue. I have so many memories that endear me to here. I live on the north side but my work and friends have always had me commuting all over. I appreciate that neighborhoods across the city have spots that feel like home.
What are some things from these past experiences that you're looking forward to bringing to your role here?
What I appreciate about City Bureau is that our team is dedicated to very specific programs that aim to build skills and community. As an educator, I also enjoy facilitating conversations about people’s needs and finding creative ways to meet those needs. I'm excited to find new ways to answer the questions of who is City Bureau, what do they do, and who do they serve. These are some of the first questions that I encounter when chatting about our work. This new digital producer role points to growth opportunities for people to know City Bureau is a hub of information resources made by and for Chicagoans.
To connect with Yasmin, feel free to reach out at yasmin@citybureau.org.
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