Meet Marguax Lovely, who has been covering everything from politics and crime to health and community. Lovely is now part of our Mickey Flacks Fellowship, partnered by SBCAN, a program to support research and reporting on environmental and social justice issues. This week, we got to know the woman wordsmith who’s been working our pages.
How long have you been with the Independent? Have you written anywhere else before?
I’ve been with the Independent for about seven months now, first as an intern and now as a Mickey Flacks Fellow! When I started, I had never written for a newspaper before … or anywhere, for that matter. Not even a secret diary in elementary school. By some stroke of luck, the Independent took a chance on me, and I couldn’t have asked for a better outcome!
What interested you about the Mickey Flacks Fellowship?
Simply put, Mickey Flacks was a powerhouse, and having her name in my title is something that I don’t carry lightly. I’ve deeply valued the opportunity to pursue my interests in social justice and share them with the broader Santa Barbara community. I love reporting on how national and international conflicts — which can seem so distant — affect our small Central Coast home.
Where are you from originally? What brought you to Santa Barbara?
I was born in Chicago and moved to Telluride, Colorado, when I was in middle school. Colorado taught me how to play outside, and I wasn’t willing to give that up when I was figuring out where to move. Now, instead of skiing, I’m surfing and swimming — can’t ask for much else! The lovely people who pour my coffee at Old Town know my name now, so I think the law says I’m not allowed to leave.
What do you study at UC Santa Barbara? What’s been your best experience there so far?
I’ll be graduating from UCSB in the fall with degrees in economics and sociology. I’ve met wonderful people, pet wonderful dogs, learned how to surf (sort of), eaten GREAT food, seen incredible sunsets, and crashed my bike — character building! UCSB is truly unique, and there’s nowhere else I’d rather be!
What are some of your favorite things to do around town? What are some hobbies you do in your free time?
You can generally find me with a cup of coffee on someone’s patio. I’m also a big runner, yoga-attempter, pasta-cooker, grass-toucher, and overall frolicker. I occasionally bake cookies in my most prized possession — my toaster oven air fryer. And yes, you can cook a whole pizza in a toaster oven.
Where do you hope to go career wise? How has the Independent helped you?
I still change “What I want to be when I grow up” on a weekly basis, and I’ve already gone a lot of different directions careerwise. But Jean Yamamura once told me that being a reporter means getting to know a little bit about everything — sounds good to me!
