Grace Tucker

Multimedia journalist & Digital producer

I use my hard news reporting experiences + my digital shortform production skills to deliver real stories that really matter to wherever readers are — be it in a post to their social media feed or a newspaper at their doorstop.

My Recent Work

Cincinnati Enquirer •

How an LGBTQ+ concert band is making 'queer history in Cincinnati'

Jon Noworyta's conducting skills have landed him at Chicago’s Symphony Center, the Kennedy Center, the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and Carnegie Hall.

He's served as the band director at the University of Indianapolis and as assistant conductor of the Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra. He's trained among the best and brightest in Northwestern University's masters of music program and UC's College-Conservatory of Music doctor of musical arts program.
Cincinnati Enquirer •

Why Cincinnati is becoming a roller derby destination: 'It is kind of a crazy story'

It's 7:30 p.m. on a Tuesday and the sounds of roller skates scraping against concrete are trickling out from a seemingly unordinary brick-red warehouse called The Apex. Faint shouts from a coach executing drills float across the parking lot outside the venue, which sits at the south end of Northside and is a stone's throw from picnic tables buzzing with patrons at Urban Artifact brewery.Inside, The Apex doesn't look like much. There's blue tape resembling the shape of a roller derby track in the...
Cincinnati Enquirer •

Group behind Sacred Heart of Jesus billboards says they denounce 'sin of LGBTQ pride'

Greater Cincinnati motorists may have noticed billboards that read "June is devoted to the Sacred Heart of Jesus" peppering highways across the metro region this month.

The billboard language has sparked elation in some and frustration in others. Last year, social media users took to Reddit to proclaim, "There's a lot of Jesus on I-71 between Edwards and Reading," with users in the comments crediting the signage to bigots and an "anti-gay" agenda given that June is recognized as Pride Month.

A...
Cincinnati Enquirer •

Board of elections: Hyde Park polling location closes after 'suspicious bag' left outside

A polling location in Cincinnati's Hyde Park neighborhood closed Tuesday afternoon after a suspicious bag was left outside, Alex Linser, deputy director of the Hamilton County Board of Elections, told the Enquirer.

Voting at The Episcopal Church of the Redeemer, located at 2944 Erie Ave., closed around 4:15 p.m. on Election Day when the bag was discovered. It was unclear whether the bag contained a bomb or other hazardous materials, Linser said.

Election Day 2024: See live updates on voting, r...
Cincinnati Enquirer •

'No kings in the Queen City!' Over 2,000 anti-Trump protesters gather in Washington Park

Hands off the Constitution, personal data, Canada, the Department of Education, Social Security, Medicaid, the Department of Veteran Affairs, the economy, universities, science, reproductive care and national parks. These were some of the demands chanted over the hum of rain by a crowd that organizers estimated to be over 2,000 that stretched across Washington Park on Saturday. From the steps of Music Hall to the sidewalks on Race Street, the sea of people equipped with water-proofed signage, rain...
USA Today •

Swiftie who received Taylor Swift's hat at Cincinnati Eras Tour show dies at 16

A 16-year-old Taylor Swift super fan who received a gift from the pop star during Swift's Eras Tour stop in Cincinnati this summer has died after five years of battling cancer.

Ally Anderson was diagnosed with stage 4 alveolar rhabdomyosarcoma, a rare soft tissue cancer, in 2018. She died Nov. 13, according to People Magazine.The Sunbury, Ohio, native attended the July 1 show at Paycor...
Chalkbeat •

First lady Jill Biden, Education Secretary Cardona visit Detroit summer school program

“Don’t be nervous. You’re going to do what we do every day,” sixth grade teacher Adrienne Holloway assured her summer school students as they prepared for an English lesson on figurative language.

Except on this day, their six-person class at Detroit’s Schulze Academy for Technology and Arts would be joined by some new faces: a swarm of press, a huddle of security personnel, U.S. Education Secretary Miguel Cardona and first lady Jill Biden.

Holloway’s was one of three classrooms at Schulze Aca...
Cincinnati Enquirer •

Searches for 'JD Vance killed Pope Francis' soared. Why the meme went viral

In the hours after Pope Francis' death, many around the world mourned the humble reformer known for championing inclusivity within the Catholic Church. At the same time, another narrative started populating social media feeds: that Vice President JD Vance was to blame for the pope's death."JD Vance kill pope" and "JD Vance killed Pope Francis" were breakout Google search trends the day of the pontiff's death, with social media users generating false claims that the death was caused by Vance's vi...
Cincinnati Enquirer •

What religion is JD Vance? What religion is Usha Vance? They come from different faiths

Vice President-elect JD Vance and his wife Usha Vance kicked off Inauguration Day festivities Monday morning with a service at St. John's Church, a historic Episcopal church near the White House.

The service precedes a full day of events, as President-elect Donald Trump prepares to enter his second presidential term. Vance, the former Ohio GOP Senator and Middletown native, will also be sworn in Monday, taking the oath of office using a Bible that once belonged to his great-grandmother.

Here's...
Cincinnati Enquirer •

Why 'Jaja's African Hair Braiding' at Ensemble Theatre is a must-see immigrant story

Tuesday night was a gut punch that left me grateful for live theater.

That evening, I had the pleasure of joining the audience at "Jaja's African Hair Braiding," the vibrant comedic play with a big message closing out Ensemble Theatre's 2024-25 season after premiering on Broadway two years ago.

Ghanaian-American writer and Ohio State University alum Jocelyn Bioh flexed her talents in this poignant production, which earned Bioh her first Tony Award nomination for best play in 2024. A New York C...
MLive.com •

Sebastian, the bearded dragon, 2 cats reunited with owners following house fire

Two cats and a bearded dragon have been reunited with their owners following a Memorial Day fire that destroyed two duplexes in the 800 block of North Maple Road.

The bearded dragon, named Sebastian, was located in one of the units and has been reunited with its owners, a young Ann Arbor couple, according to an Ann Arbor Fire Department Facebook post on Tuesday, May 30. “Sebastian was in an aquarium and the theory is that…the aquarium had rubber material holding the glass in, and...
Chalkbeat •

Detroit struggles to solve its problem with math achievement

In a summer-school classroom at Detroit’s Foreign Language Immersion and Cultural Studies School, Aladdin Posey and his third-grade classmates were given a math problem to solve: Organize the digits in the number “36,892” into their respective place values — ones, tens, hundreds, and so forth.

Aladdin glanced at his seat partner’s paper, then hurriedly changed the numbers on his own table, before instructor Natalege Sims stopped him.

“I don’t want you to change it to what she put … ,” Sims sai...
Cincinnati Enquirer •

Sundance Film Festival isn't moving to Cincinnati. No word yet on final home

Cincinnati was not chosen for the Sundance Film Festival, according to the president of Film Cincinnati. In a statement sent Thursday, Film Cincinnati President Kristen Schlotman wrote: "While Cincinnati was not selected to host Sundance Film Festival, we are proud of how our city demonstrated its dynamic role within the film industry." Sundance officials had not officially announced their...
Cincinnati Enquirer •

Will TikTok still work in the US after its banned? Everything to know

It appears TikTok will meet its fate Sunday as the Supreme Court unanimously chose Friday morning to uphold President Joe Biden's legislation, which forces TikTok's Beijing-based parent company ByteDance to sell the app or go dark.

The SCOTUS decision comes after select lawmakers fought to delay enforcing the law, which they say violates the U.S. Constitution's First Amendment protection against government abridgment of free speech. President-elect Donald Trump also urged the court delay the deadl...
Cincinnati Enquirer •

Tate McRae's Cincinnati show proved she's much more than a TikTok star

Tate McRae commanded an LED-lit stage Wednesday night at Andrew J. Brady Music Center, still sizzling from the successful Europe stint of her Think Later World Tour.

I'll be honest, I wouldn't explicitly call myself a "fan" of McRae, the 21-year-old Canadian singer-songwriter. But, I appreciate her, I understand her and I respect the hell out of her. Why? Because I, a 23-year-old, grew up in the same world she did: the internet. Much like fellow pop princesses Sabrina Carpenter and Chappell Roan,...
The Columbus Dispatch •

Columbus community rallies behind teenage refugee who lost his leg

The posse of athletes that made up the July 10 Adaptive Sports Connection’s amputee soccer game were a disjointed bunch at first glance — some well into their 40s, others still in grade school, some playing amputated limbs, others completely able-bodied, some Ohioan born-and-raised, others hailing from as far as West Africa or the Middle East. 

But despite their differences, each player on the team had one essential thing in common: a need for speed. And 16-year-old Palestinian refugee Abdullah A...