Chattanoogans Online: C-Grimey

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COVID Convos with C-Grimey

A lot of conflicting information about coronavirus is traveling around news sources and social media lately. “Who can we trust?” becomes an ever-more-urgent question—especially true, perhaps, for people in Black, Latinx, and impoverished communities who have historically had reason to distrust authority figures.

We need a rational, source to help us sift through the swirl of information and tell us what it means for us in this specific place in time—for Chattanooga, 2020. And now, the artist C-Grimey is taking up that responsibility. C-Grimey, whom you can also find on Facebook as Cameron Williams, has been a public figure in Chattanooga for some time, but his focus in the past has largely been on entertainment—under the aegis of his production company, Goldfinger Production$, he had created an online arts and culture platform focusing on music. He was also in demand as an MC and DJ for live shows.

With the pandemic, C-Grimey has had to leave live venues behind for a while, but he’s expanded his portfolio to include public information, assurance, and advice, presented through his Facebook livestream.

“I’ve always been into broadcasting,” he says. “I emcee for live events, and I’ve always been into journalism. I stumbled into the podcast medium when RISE Chattanooga approached me in early 2018. They wanted me to do a radio show on Groove 93. At the end of 2019 I wanted to go to a podcast format. I discovered the freedom of podcasting, how you can pivot narratives … [it’s] a great way to have different dimensions of different topics.”

His Scenic City Underground podcast with cohost Brie Stevens was focused on Chattanooga issues from a Black millennial perspective. Combine the pandemic and a background in podcasting, and C-Grimey “stumbled into” livestreaming, as he says. “I wanted to convene, share our art, and come together,” he says.

“Livestreaming is a good way to share art and also to social network when we’re far apart.”

His restless intellect kept him actively pursuing knowledge about the virus, the social and economic circumstances around it, and what it meant to his communities. At the same time, as his modes of interacting with people were restricted in terms of public gatherings, he began to delve more deeply into Internet marketing and social media strategy. Around this point, the city of Chattanooga reached out to C-Grimey with a proposal:

“They recognized my platform as far as arts, music and culture, especially for the Black and Latinx community,” he says, noting that these communities needed more information about taking precautions with their health. “A big part of that is the distrust in government and policymakers and the divide about how information is being released. We wanted to give them information they could trust from Black and Latinx doctors, nurses, scientists, and public officials—getting information from them to bring to the community. So I’m using my platform and influence to replay information and topics … not only best practices and guidelines and testing, but also mental health, economics, education, what we will see moving forward, stuff like that.”

COVID Convos combines information, reassurance, and wry humor. C-Grimey’s style is relaxed and thoughtful. He lays down a music bed, gives listeners a chance to tune in, offers greetings and community news, then gets gradually down to the nitty-gritty. And while he emphasizes that his program is focused on communities that don’t often access news programming, in fact he’s got great information for everyone.

“The African American Research, Outreach, and Messaging Team with the city of Chattanooga and myself, we compiled a list of informational sources that we deemed not only to have the best possible information but also to be trustworthy to the community,” C-Grimey says. “We want people to be safe and adhere to the guidelines, but it’s going to go deeper than that. Our big concern was that people would be left behind in other matters.”

For instance, with schools out since mid-March and fall schedules anyone’s guess—but quite possibly going to incorporate some online elements—people from communities who have traditionally been poorly served by schools, or who lack Internet or other technologies, may see their children falling behind their peers. If schools have failed at teaching parents advanced skills, those parents will be less able to help students with online lessons.

“We’re trying to keep parents in tune with online resources, online tutoring, Hamilton County and volunteer tutors,” C-Grimey says. It’s just one component of a lot of information that is now or soon will be vitally important to have. Listening to C-Grimey, you’ll find information provided for Chattanoogans, by Chattanoogans. He takes his audience to the block level as he announces events and alerts. Working now out of East Lake, C-Grimey speaks with intimacy of the issues facing neighborhoods across the city.

Yet despite his seemingly endless activity (as we talk on the phone, he repeatedly answers his front door, where donations are arriving for a single father in need) C-Grimey has had to confront his own struggles during the pandemic.

“I’m an introverted extrovert,” he says. “I love being around people in social settings. I love being able to have brunch, go to shows, hug people…being forced to be introverted is a challenge.”

Like many artists, he’s lost his income from live productions, and is improvising to find workarounds. Still, despite a lot of restless prowling around his house, he’s discovered that his active mind is a blessing.

“I’m from a family where the search for knowledge and education was always promoted as the foundation of life,” he says. “One of my goals as a community person and as a Black man and a Black artist is to share the narrative that being cool is not just doing your art or being a tough guy or being misogynistic or having lots of material resources. Being cool is helping others, being smart, treating others as you want to be treated.”