Interview With Activist + Actor Jenna Nolen

Words by Lelia Broussard + Photo Spread by by Emma Cole

+ Additional Photos by Donato Bragagnolo + Gareth Cheung

Jenna Nolen is a 22-year-old activist and actor with the kind of warmth and electrifying personality that draws everyone in her vicinity in closer. Jenna first came into our orbit through our work with Amplify LA. We had the pleasure of sitting down with Jenna to talk about who she is and what led her to where she is today.

Growing up, Nolen felt like she didn’t quite fit into any one group. Jenna was adopted into an all-white Irish-Italian family in the Philadelphia area, attended catholic school until high school, and found her passion early on in acting and theatre. She describes struggling with her identity throughout her time in school and feeling like she wasn’t white enough for the white kids or black enough to fit in with the black kids. Her family is well-meaning and most of them have been supportive of her activism work, but to say that they truly understand why she’s fighting so hard would be wildly inaccurate.

Following the murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Ahmaud Arbery, Jenna immersed herself in the protests that erupted all over the country. She describes the early days of protests in Los Angeles as vastly peaceful until police instigated violence and chaos by using smoke bombs to disorient, shooting rubber bullets directly at people, tear-gassing the crowd without warning, and enforcing sudden curfews. As the curfew approached the police began to block off every nearby intersection to effectively trap people in the street. After being directly hit with rubber bullets and tear gas, she describes using shopping carts as a barricade from the police.

“I remember at one point, we all pushed the Whole Foods shopping carts in a line as a barricade from the police. We shouldn't have to do that in 2020. We should not have to put a barricade of shopping carts so the police can’t hurt us. We're being pushed back, hit with batons, pushed back with tear gas and guns. It was just...it's very traumatizing.”

Realizing that without some kind of order or leadership, a peaceful protest could quickly escalate into a dangerous situation, We The Movement was born from strangers coming together with a common goal. No one in their group intended on becoming an activist but even so, a new generation of leaders and powerful speakers have emerged and come together out of the necessity they recognized to organize and mobilize their community in protest. They’ve met the moment of this movement with passion and positivity by organizing and leading demonstrations all over Los Angeles in the weeks and months that have followed.

Lelia Broussard got a chance to sit down with Jenna, she discusses her backstory, her experience and involvment in this monumental movement, and actionable ways in which we can contribute.

Did your adoptive parents teach you about Black history and Black culture and or was that something you had to find and learn on your own?

They kind of did and I'm not even shading them or anything, but I wish it was more like we had “the talk”? They had the talk with me of “you know what, you're not our color.” It was never about here’s what you do if you get pulled over. I had to teach myself that. I will always abide by the law, but as I'm seeing these things happen...people are abiding by the law and they still get brutalized by the cops. My family did teach me about it, but I wish they would have taught me more. I wish they had gone more in depth with it.

Can you tell me about the moment when you realized you needed to be especially careful in your interactions with the police?

It was scary because I was raised in a white family, so that didn't really happen. My friend and I got pulled over by the cops, for literally no reason. (In Los Angeles) I had my hands in my lap because I didn't know any better. I was just chilling in the car and they just said put your hands up and they pointed a gun at me and I was like, oh my god. They dragged me and my friend out of the car and slammed us on the hood of the car. I remember I talked to my mom about that incident. She asked “What did you do?” I'm like, Mom, I didn’t do anything. After that, I realized that even if I grow up in a white neighborhood and in a white family, that's not going to protect me. My parents really struggle with that. They support me 100% with the movement, and with everything, but there's still a disconnect there. There's still a lack of understanding in what they taught me growing up till now. I basically taught myself everything I know about this now. About Black Lives Matter and everything like that. I did my own research.

Were you involved with activism or protest before this?

No one in our group has a background in being an activist. I think it all kind of just fell organically and naturally. No one came out to these protests wanting to be an activist. Even to this day. I'm learning as everyone else is learning what’s going on. Because of my upbringing, I didn't know certain things that the other group members were talking about. I'm like, wow, that's happened? I didn't even know that. Every day everyone in this group is getting inspired by somebody else. Our group also ranges from the youngest being 20, and then the oldest is in their 40’s. We all come from different walks of life and have had different upbringings and everything. I think that's also what makes our group so special. This is very traumatizing, but our main priority is chanting peace and positivity, we're out on the front lines and everyone's looking at us like we’re the strong people, but at end of the day, we're also struggling with this. We're all trying to cope with this, but we have to be showing everybody else.

You’ve touched on it a little bit but what inspires you to keep going through all of this?

I don't want to have a kid in the society as it is now. My mom asked me, “When are you having kids?” I said, I’ll have kids when America changes. Hopefully it'll change by the time I'm still able to have kids. But if it doesn't, then I don't want to raise a child having to tell her or him “if you get pulled over, don't do this, this or this. People may not like you because of your skin color, but don't treat anyone else differently, though. Just because you're treated differently.” I see children at these protests. No kid should have to be at the protest. No mother or father should have to drive their kids out just to show them what's going on in the world right now. They shouldn't even have to chant for George. They shouldn’t have to champion Breonna Taylor. They shouldn’t have to chant any of this. Why is this still going on? We're in 2020. This is where we are in 2020. I don't want the generation coming up to have to deal with this still. I think that's probably the most motivating factor of this.

Is there anything else you wanted to add or share?

No one gives enough credit to one, the allies and the people that are on the sidelines giving out water. No one ever touches on that and they move the protest. I remember when there were protests every single day, there's people giving out water snacks, granola bars. Hydrate LA, The Recovery Station, AMPLIFY LA! Like hold on a minute, because the megaphones get tiring, the batteries are expensive. You guys provide a great system, you accept donations and you're doing it yourself. All of these groups are not getting enough recognition. I wanted to shout them out because honestly, it's such a selfless thing. That's what we need more of in this world.