From the Editors: February 2026

Erin Phillips

Feeling comforted and inspired by the past, the students of the Erie School District, who represent our future, created unique portraits of prominent elder Black community members for the Erie Reader's Black History Month cover.

At this time last year, I was writing my first From the Editors column after the second inauguration of Donald Trump. What I wrote concerned the stripping of DEI initiatives and the assault on government agencies and programs at the hands of Elon Musk. And, now, just a year later, I'm writing this one amidst chaos: American citizens being executed in the streets by a masked gestapo, while thousands of hardworking refugees and immigrants are being ripped from their families, churches, and schools and disappearing, alongside the thousands of now publicly published allegations confirming what dozens of women have been telling us for years – that a disturbing number of rich, powerful men have been routinely and glibly participating in the trafficking, raping, assaulting, and murdering of children.

That really escalated quickly.

It is psychologically exhausting – the rage at injustice and hypocrisy, the frustration that no consequences ever seem to fall upon those who are flagrantly breaking the law and ignoring the constitution, and the unabashed racism that permeates it all.

These feelings, however, are nothing new to the Black community.

Right here in Erie we have, pretty recently, witnessed the murder of a Black man at the hands of law enforcement and saw just how slowly the cogs of justice move (if they, in fact, move at all) when the victim of state violence is a person of color.

But as our cover model this month, local educator and advocate Gwendolyn Cooley reminds us, "There is power in being you." And it is that power we try to amplify in our annual Black History Month issue – sharing the voices and vision of those currently making Black history in our community, as well as remembering the stories of those from the past who have held the door open for them.

Last year's issue featured cover art from local artist Nicholas Cardell Gore, one which showed the difficult push and pull of emotions – of trying to find balance between the rage of injustice and the joy of living. It was Gore again who came up with the idea for sourcing this month's cover – but this time, he arranged for three inspiring Black female elders in our community to be put in a room with our community's future – high school art students from Erie's Public Schools – to draw their portraits. The result was generational and genuine connection – the aforementioned Gwendolyn Cooley, along with Dorothy Smith-Frazier and Candace Battles (all featured within) spent their time telling their life stories, sharing their experiences, their hardships (and the boldness they all displayed at overcoming them) along with their joy, to three classrooms of high school students.

The results of this project were unforgettable for a number of intangible reasons, but also because the resulting art the students created will be captured in time, here in this issue. The cover, created by Collegiate Academy senior Rory Gardner, attempted to capture the radiant joy of the subject, Ms. Cooley, as Gwendolyn emphasized during her portrait session: "Life brings me joy. I'm thankful to be alive – loving life, loving who I am, respecting who I am, and realizing that I can make a difference."

May we all be so bold in overcoming, and so grateful for the one life we get to live.