WHO IN THE HELL IS REGINA JONES? The Unstoppable Woman Behind SOUL Magazine
Regina Jones has lived many lives — visionary, mother, fighter, cultural architect — yet she still laughs at the title of the documentary made about her. “To tell the truth, I came up with Who in the Hell Is Regina Jones? because I couldn’t figure out why they were doing a documentary on me. I wanted to find out who she is […] The post WHO IN THE HELL IS REGINA JONES? The Unstoppable Woman Behind SOUL Magazine appeared first on Perception Magazine.
Black News 
Regina Jones has lived many lives — visionary, mother, fighter, cultural architect — yet she still laughs at the title of the documentary made about her. “To tell the truth, I came up with Who in the Hell Is Regina Jones? because I couldn’t figure out why they were doing a documentary on me. I wanted to find out who she is too,” she says with a grin.
If Angela Davis was the political firebrand of her era, Regina was her cultural counterpart — a woman who reshaped the landscape of Black music journalism from a completely different vantage point. Married and pregnant at 15, a mother of five by her early twenties, she refused to let circumstance define her. When the 1963 Watts Rebellion erupted, Regina and her husband, Ken Jones, found themselves thrust into the public eye as he pursued his dream of becoming Los Angeles’ first Black news anchor. That moment became the unlikely beginning of her legacy.
Less than a year later, SOUL Magazine was born. From 1966 to 1982, SOUL became the first publication dedicated entirely to Black musicians and their perspectives — predating Rolling Stone and Creem. At a time when mainstream media ignored Black artistry, Regina placed it unapologetically at the center. Aretha Franklin, James Brown, Diana Ross, Stevie Wonder, Gladys Knight — they weren’t just cover stories; they were relationships she cultivated with care and cultural fluency.
“It’s been a fun experience,” she reflects. “A gift. It wasn’t on my list of things I had to get done. It just came about — and a lot of my life has been like that. I’ve been blessed, and I’ve had a lot of falls.”
Those “falls” were real. Regina endured the collapse of the newspaper she worked for, bankruptcy, divorce, and the loss of her mother. Yet reinvention became her superpower. In 1983, record executive Dick Griffey invited her to dinner and offered her the role of Vice President of Publicity at SOLAR Records. Regina hesitated — she didn’t think she knew how to do publicity. Griffey insisted she did and offered to pay her for six months to prove it. She accepted.
“I don’t know how to give up,” she says. “My husband was a visionary. I’m a gifted implementer — if you bring me your vision, I will bring it together.”
Today, Regina’s contributions are finally receiving the recognition they deserve. Who in the Hell Is Regina Jones? has earned multiple festival honors, including the Outstanding Documentary Feature Award at the Greater Cleveland Urban Film Festival and a nomination for Best Biographical Documentary Feature at the Spotlight Documentary Awards. Produced by Weigel Productions Corp and executive produced by Academy Award nominee Sam Pollard, the film pulls back the curtain on a woman who shaped culture without demanding credit.
Weigel Broadcasting will debut the awardwinning documentary across Dabl, Start TV, and Story Television on Monday, February 16 at 8pm ET.
At 83, Regina Jones is still moving, still building, still refusing to be ordinary. Her story is not just about who she is — but about every Black woman who has ever fought to be seen, heard, and remembered.
The post WHO IN THE HELL IS REGINA JONES? The Unstoppable Woman Behind SOUL Magazine appeared first on Perception Magazine.
