Cassie Owens
Cassie Owens is a storyteller who works in journalism, filmmaking and organizing for more equitable media systems. She lives and works in Philadelphia, where was born and raised.
When she’s not working, she’s often gardening, cooking ancestral recipes, and finding new rabbit holes to fall through—especially if they’re related to pop culture or cultural history. A Fulbright scholar, Cassie studied comparative literature at Brown University and journalism at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.
She comes from educators, tradesmen, dancers, ministers, social workers, masons, sharecroppers, lawyers, singers, from-scratch bakers, liquor distributors, cooks, number runners, farmers, and seamstresses. She comes from people who hiked mountains to go work, who built new lives to escape death, and who didn’t shy from telling the truth.
For all of her studies and travels, her elders are her greatest teachers.
Her ancestors’ journeys deeply inform her life and work.
Journalist
Cassie was an assistant editor at Next City, a reporter/curator at Billy Penn and a staff reporter at the Philadelphia Inquirer. She’s freelanced plenty.
Below are some of her best clips:
This lavish North Philly prom send-off featured a live camel and a Lambo
Billy Penn
Meet the Philly genius who turned a dumpster into a pool
Billy Penn
Elmo went viral at the Kensington scrapyard fire
Philadelphia Inquirer
How this black-owned Philadelphia funeral home handles a community's coronavirus losses
Philadelphia Inquirer
Are Philly court reporters accurate with black dialect? Study: Not Really
Philadelphia Inquirer
Why the women in my family cherish fine china
Philadelphia Inquirer
Philadelphia pepper pot soup reclaimed by chefs, culinary historians
Philadelphia Inquirer
COME ONE, COME ALL!
Secret Menu Magazine
Filmmaker
Cassie began studying and working on video projects as a journalism graduate student. This supported her throughout her career collaborating with video journalists.
In 2020, a short film that she co-produced, Legendary, won the Shine award at the Blackstar Film Festival. She is currently directing and producing her first independent film, Dance Legends of Philly.
Organizer
At Free Press, Cassie works on organizing initiatives in Philadelphia to change harmful crime coverage. Here is Cassie speaking about race and crime coverage at the 2024 Crime Coverage Summit.
Her work has included:
JAWN
Supporting a coalition of local journalists of color, which Cassie facilitated from July 2023 through April 2024.
Public Safety Coverage Cohort
Facilitating an emerging collective of Black and Brown media makers and advocates who are creating or supporting community-led news projects. This cohort launch in 2024 and is ongoing.
Care
Co-developing a series of workshops, resources, mutual aid projects, and other care efforts with the communities we serve to respond to media harm. This work began in 2022 and is ongoing.