Instructors

A native of the Washington D.C. metropolitan area, Désirée Bayonet was one of those maladjusted teenagers that lamented growing up in the suburbs. Now she reps her “MoCo” (i.e. Montgomery County) card often and hard. Désirée made her on-air debut while serving in the Peace Corps. She helped found a radio show on the Kedougou community radio station, which led to her notoriety across Senegal as the American on the radio who spoke Pulaar (badly). She caught the bug and got involved in several grassroots radio projects, teaching audio storytelling to young producers. She contemplated rising to the top of the radio ranks while living in Paris and New York, but finally decided to come home to be close to family, friends, and good Ethiopian food. She is looking forward to producing content for From Block 2 Block as she feels there are many stories to uncover in this area. She is especially excited about teaching community journalism classes.

Tatyana Safronova studied journalism and sociology at the University of Illinois in Champaign and has written and edited for print, web, radio, and television. Working with an investigative news website, Tatyana helped create and lead a multimedia workshop for youth at a public housing development in Champaign, where she also created a weekly interview show on a low-power FM radio station. She works on many projects in D.C., including Takoma Radio.