{"id":49248,"date":"2026-06-19T16:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-06-19T23:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newmexicopbs.org\/productions\/newmexicoinfocus\/?p=49248"},"modified":"2026-06-18T18:25:38","modified_gmt":"2026-06-19T01:25:38","slug":"happy-juneteenth-and-a-blast-from-the-past","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newmexicopbs.org\/productions\/newmexicoinfocus\/happy-juneteenth-and-a-blast-from-the-past\/","title":{"rendered":"Happy Juneteenth \u2014 and a Blast \ufefffrom the Past"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Suffice it to say the nostalgia was flowing like sweet tea on a hot summer day in New Mexico in Focus Land this week.\u00a0

With this week\u2019s show airing on Juneteenth, Producer Antonio Sanchez set about looking for a story that could animate the holiday with some modern meaning. He recalled that just a few months back, the Albuquerque City Council passed a measure<\/a> that made permanent the African American Advisory Board \u2014 a move sponsoring Councilor Nichole Rogers said would give the local Black community a \u201cseat at the table.\u201d\u00a0

Perfect.\u00a0

Our team started mulling potential guests for the story \u2014 more on that in a moment \u2014 then the conversation turned quickly to who should host it. The idea came to us the way Hemingway said people go bankrupt: Gradually, then suddenly.
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Gene Grant hosted NMiF for 19 years, from 2004 to 2023. He was literally and figuratively the face of this show. His first gig in life after In Focus was as a program and policy officer for Animal Protection New Mexico and, since October, he\u2019s been running the state Office of African American Affairs for Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham.\u00a0

Gene sat with Nash Jones<\/a>, his successor in the NMiF host chair, last year to talk about his new state job. Viewers were thrilled to see him back in the studio. But would Gene be down to reprise his old role and host a conversation?\u00a0 When I called him last week, Gene skipped the first bit of Hemingway\u2019s analysis on how people lose all their money \u2014 his \u201cyes\u201d came suddenly.\u00a0

The rest of the pieces fell into place on a similar schedule. Rogers quickly agreed to talk with Gene about the advisory board, and so, too, did board member Patrick Barrett. (Want another hit of that sweet-tea nostalgia? Back in 2018, when I was working as an investigative reporter for New Mexico In Depth and an occasional NMiF correspondent \u2014 a full five years before I came to work here full time \u2014 I interviewed Patrick on the show<\/a> about a series of stories I\u2019d published documenting a federal law enforcement operation that targeted Albuquerque\u2019s Black community.)\u00a0

We are delighted to bring you this story on the Juneteenth holiday \u2014 and to have Gene back in the host chair for it.\u00a0

Also this week, Capital and Main reporter and NMiF Correspondent Jerry Redfern gets out the scalpel to dissect an industry-backed group\u2019s push to expand the use of oil and gas wastewater in New Mexico. And NMiF reporter Cailley Chella wraps up our coverage of LGBTQ Pride Month with a look at the event\u2019s pageant and its titleholders.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thanks as always for watching \u2014 and reading \u2014 and happy Juneteenth!\u00a0

– Jeff Proctor, Executive Producer<\/p>\n\n\n\n