N. Jamiyla Chisholm - The Community: A Memoir

In this episode of Footnotes on Crime, we are joined by N. Jamiyla Chisholm, journalist and author of The Community: A Memoir, a powerful and deeply personal account exploring identity, memory, family, and the hidden complexities within community life.

Through her work as a writer and reporter, Jamiyla brings a fearless and compassionate voice to stories that sit at the intersection of lived experience, social history, and personal truth.

About the Episode

How do we tell the truth about the places and people who shape us?

In this compelling and deeply reflective conversation, N. Jamiyla Chisholm discusses the personal journey behind The Community: A Memoir, examining how memory, journalism, and lived experience come together in shaping narrative.

Drawing on both investigative rigour and emotional honesty, she reflects on writing about her own past, confronting difficult truths, and navigating the responsibility of telling stories rooted in real lives and intimate histories.

Memory, Identity, and Narrative

Jamiyla’s work explores the tension between personal memory and documented truth, revealing how storytelling can both uncover and complicate our understanding of identity. In this episode, she shares insight into the process of transforming her own and her mother's lived experience into narrative, and how this can become a powerful tool for reckoning, healing, and social reflection.

Our conversation is candid, searching, and deeply moving, challenging how we think about truth not only in writing, but in how we understand ourselves and the communities we come from. One not to be missed.

What We Cover

• The story behind The Community: A Memoir
• Writing memoir through interviews with her mother
• Memory, identity, and contested truths
• Ethical responsibility when telling personal and communal stories
• The intersection of reporting and lived experience
• How storytelling shapes understanding of place and self
• Identifying cult behaviour

Why This Episode Matters

This is more than a conversation about memoir. It is an exploration of how stories help us confront hidden histories, reclaim voice, and examine the narratives that define us.

N. Jamiyla Chisholm offers a profound perspective on truth telling, identity, and the courage it takes to write honestly about the worlds we inhabit.

Listen Now

🎧 Tune in to hear N. Jamiyla Chisholm’s extraordinary story and reflections on Footnotes on Crime.

[Listen to the episode at the links below or wherever you listen to podcasts]