Black History Today: Traeanna Holiday, Emmy-winning communicator with deep Seattle roots
/Black History Today, created by Marcus Harden in honor of Black History Month, pays tribute to the living legacy of Black history in our community and beyond and recognizes the people among us who are boldly shaping the future.
“The privilege of a lifetime is being who you are.”
By Marcus Harden
Context matters.
And the one thing we all share is time.
In a moment when storytelling and storytellers, particularly journalists, are under attack by those who prefer tyranny over truth and harm over humanity, we need people courageous enough to tell the truth through story.
Not just headlines. Not just facts — which are hard enough to find these days — but stories that move hearts. The kind rooted in dignity, care, and love for community.
Traeanna Holiday is both truth-teller and storyteller.
A true 206 original, born from a bloodline of service, her father, Michael, and her mother, Tracie (Tracie Mae to her friends, lol), Traeanna has forged her own path as a voice for the seen and unseen, the heard and unheard. She doesn’t just report on community; she belongs to it.
Her vibrant light fills every room she enters. You feel it in the way she approaches every subject she covers, never extracting stories, but honoring them. Her work is dripping in humanity and grounded in love. Whether as an Emmy-winning journalist, producer, or filmmaker, she consistently shines a light on others while somehow remaining a light herself.
Yet perhaps her greatest gift isn’t only in telling stories, it’s in helping create them.
Her commitment to equity, racial equity, economic equity, housing equity, is not performative. She is not a voyeur of struggle; she is a cultivator of community. She shows up. She listens. She invests. And she moves with purpose.
I’ve had the privilege of knowing Traeanna since she was a teenager, and some of our most meaningful conversations haven’t been about careers or accolades, but about her deep love for community, and her even deeper love for family.
The light she amplifies in others through her work pales in comparison to the love she radiates as a daughter, a sister, and in her most beautiful story told yet, as a mother.
Many will debate where they stood when this chapter of history is retold. Some will hesitate. Some will doubt. But people like Traeanna don’t wait for history to define them.
She takes it into her own hands;
through her vision,
through her heart,
through her light,
and through her service to all.
And that, among many other words that still fall short, is why Traeanna Holiday is not just Black history remembered.
She is BLACK HISTORY TODAY.
Original artwork created by Devin Chicras for the South Seattle Emerald.
