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Archive for darn good writing
March 1, 2010 at 9:18 pm · Filed under darn good writing
Before we hand out these statues tonight, we want to stop and say a few word about where these shining Oscars come from – Chicago.
That’s right, the statues that millions of people around the world are ogling were born at the R.S. Owens & Co. factory on Chicago’s Northside. They have been made there for the last 27 years.
And this year’s statues, going to the world’s most talented artists of the movie screen, come from the talented hands of workers like Jorge Marroquin, who is orginally from Quatemala and who is the production boss at this highly talented factory.
These statues were pressed and shined and polished to a wonderful gleam, passing through the hands of many, many of whom came to the U.S. from Mexico, among them Martin Vega, originally of Michoacan and Alvaro Lando, who comes from Guerrero and Josefina Godea whose roots go back to San Luis Potosi.
Sounds heart-warming enough for an award winning documentary, doesn’t it?
Well, the facts are right. They were spelled out last week in a wonderful two page spread with photos in Hoy. If only somebody in Hollywood would say a few such words for the folks who bring Oscar to life.
But it not too late to give an update to a story that will provide a very humane grounding for an event that has its eyes stuck on the heavens.
http://tinyurl.com/ylqoboz
Oscar Avila had another compelling first page piece last week on the front page of the Trib about the separate worlds of Chicago’s restaurants: white up front and black or Latino outback. But his story followed an equally powerful and personal piece written by Fabiola Pomareda in La Raza about the abuses Latinos suffer in our restaurants.
Antonio Olivo also did a wonderfully humane piece in the Trib about how Iraqi refugees and others, among them Bosnians who remember their days in such terrible plight, who have come to help the latest refugees. It is a story that needs to be told again and again in Chicago’s Arab news media, where it will most certainly have the greatest resonance.
But this is a story about refugees in a strange land and at a tough time and it’s a story almost any immigrant community will want to embrace.
The tragedy of the hollowing out of Chicago’s newspapers is the lack of reporters from Chicago’s mainstream papers on the ground in Haiti. They relied on others words. But Richard Muhammad, editor of the Final Call was there, and wrote both articles and an editor’s note about what he found.
He wrote: “The reality is simply incredible as is the resilience of the Haitian people.”
saludos, Stephen
November 13, 2009 at 4:50 pm · Filed under Latino newspapers, community reporting that matters, darn good writing
Every so often you come a story that makes you stop. Your eyes are stuck. You go back over the beginning and you keep reading.
You read because the words are powerful or the scenery is so strong or the message is so overwhelming.
I was scanning the stories in Extra when I came across this:
Miguel Pérez, 27, has boiled down his years as a gang member into three simple scenes.
• Act one: A conversation with a fellow gang member about his recent release from prison and the job interview his probation officer has lined up for him, his friend agrees to accompany Pérez to this interview.
• Act two: He is interviewed and denied employment based on his criminal record, lack of education and looks.
• Act three: Pérez and his friend argue about his loyalty to the gang and their neighborhood. His friend insists he should continue to sell drugs instead of looking for a way out. The confrontation escalates, a gun is pulled, Pérez gets shot, and the skit concludes with Pérez’ current reality. He was left confined to a wheelchair at age 19.
The memories are so vivid for Pérez, he leaves the room each time the play is performed and joins the cast to deliver the final message.
“You don’t have to hit rock bottom to decide to turn your life around. Take my word for it and understand the realities of gang life,” Pérez said.
The role he currently plays as Youth Family and Community Liaison for the local job readiness program Central States SER (Service, Employment, and Redevelopment) transcends the stage set by the three-act play. Pérez leads the Youth Empowered to Succeed (YES!) expansion project at SER’s South Side location in Ford City.
http://www.extranews.net/news.php?nid=5359
Isn’t that a good lede. It takes me there quickly and it also takes the reader to an issue that matters. The article was written by Adriana Gallardo.
Keeping in touch with your community is the secret power of the ethnic news media.
This Tuesday, Nov. 17 we are sponsoring a meeting with Radio Arte at the National Museum of Mexican Art, 1852 W.19th St., Pilsen. We will be talking about how the Latino press and Latino community organizations connect and how they can improve their links. The meeting is from 3 to 5 pm.
saludos,
Stephen
October 18, 2009 at 11:59 am · Filed under darn good writing, making the news local
Not all stories flow straight forward. Some stop. Some wander. Some feel like the talk that shapes our conversations. I like the way this story gives me a feel for the people and the neighborhood and makes me wonder about the bigger picture. Stephen
http://tinyurl.com/yf5c4zy
September 22, 2009 at 7:02 pm · Filed under African-American news media, darn good writing
The afternoon of April 19,1995 an editor at the Chicago Tribune called me over and told me to get on a plane and get to Oklahoma City as soon as possible. There was an explosion. Many were dead. A pseudo expert on cable television had already theorized that it had to be Arabs and since I speak Arabic I was on my way there.
In the next few hours, the anger spread across parts of Oklahoma City and Arabs or anyone who looked like an Arab felt it. The next morning I heard their stories but not long after I wrote another story saying that the police had arrested the bomber and he wasn’t an Arab, but a crazed man who would fit into any crowd walking down most streets in the U.S. It was too late to rescind the pain and stereotyping though.
I thought about this when I came across this column by Lou Ransom. I stopped and read it over. This is good writing, good thinking, good insight to who we are and what we sometimes forget or unconsciously file away as not so important. It is the kind writing that brings a newspaper alive: clear and powerful sentences and a vision that captures you because it is so darn perceptive you swallow up every word because you feel like they have grabbed you by your hand and are leading you to place you want to understand.
His theme was the lack of civility that lurks in some of us who “don’t need a passport” and “won’t get stopped at the border.” The lack of civility that so worries some of us today.
Here is a part of his column that ran on Sept. 16,
Steve
“But the most insidious aspect of McVeigh’s dastardly terrorism (until 9/11 the most terrible terrorist attack on U.S. soil), was that he wasn’t a Muslim, wasn’t an Arab, wasn’t a foreigner, wasn’t a communist, wasn’t part of the radical left, wasn’t a member of the ACLU, wasn’t Jewish, or Black, or Hispanic or Asian. There could be no racial profiling to find people like McVeigh, those who thought that America needed to be taught a lesson by “patriots” like him. Perhaps that is one of the reasons why he could drive a truck filled with homemade explosives right up to the building, get out, and walk away. He didn’t “look” suspicious, because he looked just like all the other white American men walking around in Oklahoma City.
Lou Ransom
June 25, 2009 at 1:37 pm · Filed under African-American news media, darn good writing
The first thing each week when the Defender arrives I read Lou Ransom’s column but this week my eyes hit on the one by Earl Ofari Hutchinson and they stayed there.
It was about the Rev. Jeremiah Wright.
And when I was done this is what I said.
I said to myself that this is good writing, good thinking and a good thing I saw it because the words were nailed in, nailed in so strong they pulled you along, and because it reminded me that this kind of writing comes from people who love words and know how to use them, people who care about ideas and what they can do to people and a community and from a paper that serves its community and that’s what the Defender does.
Read it and tell me what you think.
