I just got back from the playa, or the Black Rock desert where the festival is held. It was a somewhat truncated trip because work beckoned. I say “somewhat truncated” because one of the things you learn from being on the playa is that everything may not be right, but it’s right where it needs to be and right on time. So the fact that I flew a couple thousand miles and drove another three hours to be in a place with no running water for four days was exactly as it had to be, and totally worth it. While I was there, I helped build a bunch of structures for my theme camp, and for the first time I also did some reporting, on black participants at Burning Man.

To say that black Burners are a minority is beyond obvious, but as I found out many of the African-Americans (and Afro-Brits, etc) who come have been taking part in Burning Man for over a decade. I saw more color than ever before among the participants, which is to say not a lot but a noticeable uptick since I last attended three years ago. The people of African descent I spoke to included a man who did live event radio broadcasts to one who taught fire arts to another who helped run the media tent. They were there to dream, and to do.

It strikes me, and not for the first time, that Burning Man is resonant with metaphors for American life and politics. America is a shared dreaming, a place with rules and codes that are constantly being challenged and re-worked. Our Constitution was re-worked by debates over slavery and gender, among others. We have re-coded our laws to suit our changing morality, sometimes, as with California and Proposition 8, crossing the same line many times using different branches of government.

Although Burning Man is designed to be and is a place of, as they put it, “radical self-expression” as well as radical self-reliance, it has rules. No firearms, for example… You used to be able to bring guns and shoot out over the vast open lands. Now you can’t, because, among other things, it’s simply not practical to have fifty thousand people in various states of self-expression and also have weapons around. (Some will argue that point, but most agree to that rule, and others, including the rule that nothing other than coffee is to be bought or sold within the festival circle.)

One of the reasons I go to Burning Man, and I think one of the reasons many people go, is because every single moment you are forced to check in with your own relationship to other people’s choices, and your own. As Burning Man has swelled from a gathering of hundred, to thousands, to fifty thousand people, space is literally mapped out and negotiated, and the negotiations themselves are one of the most interesting parts, to me, of watching the city’s drama unfold.

What is politics but a literal negotiation of space, in forms including Congressional redistricting, as well as allocation of resources? Some negotiations are not pretty, and right now America is pulled taut by a mix of economic stress and tensions over ethnicity, immigration, and identity. We are growing as a nation and feeling the growing pains.

On Tuesday, I head off on my next reporting adventure, which I’ll talk more about later. For the online, radio, and multimedia specials “Pop and Politics with Farai Chideya,” I’ll be going on a multi-day road trip through Florida with multi-media journalists. We’ll be interviewing Senate candidates, citizens, and undocumented immigrants. We’ll be hosting a meetup in Miami. And we’ll take a look at the ways in which people use political tools — from activism to running for office — to negotiate resources and space.

I’ll leave for my reporting trip inspired by my trip to the desert, which, as every time I go, opened my mind and my heart. Driving to and from the festival, through miles and miles of open country with open sight lines, past Tribal lands and small towns, I saw a part of America that the New Yorker in me rarely sees. Is it any wonder we sometimes misunderstand each other, or take each other for granted, in this vast land? How do we come to an agreement of what is the common good? Those are questions I’ll take with me on the road.

Newsmaker Shirley Sherrod to Address Black Journalists at Annual Convention in San Diego
SAN DIEGO, Calif. (JULY 27, 2010)- Newsmaker Shirley Sherrod is set to appear before thousands of journalists on Thursday, July 29 at the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) Annual Convention in San Diego, Calif.
TIME: 8:00 a.m. PST July 29- Newsmaker Plenary
LOCATION: Manchester Grand Hyatt, Room TBA
NOTE: *Members of the working press who wish to cover this forum will need to obtain press credentials. To obtain credentials please contact the NABJ Convention Press Office, nabjpress@gmail.com.

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I continue to get great feedback from guest hosting WUNC’s The Story. Linda in Indiana sent the folks at WUNC this email: “Thanks for having Farai Chideya on the show. We miss you Farai Chideya.”

I miss having a relationship with all the people who have supported me. But I will be back on the radio soon! Big announcement later today. Thanks Linda!

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I can’t make this but would love to peep the action at Uni-Tea, United Tea Party for All Communities, a multi-racial tea party gathering….

http://www.uni-tea.com/

I believe in listening to many points of view. If you are secure in your beliefs, why not take a moment and just listen? Sometimes its important to listen to people for subtext and context, not just the literal text of the words they are saying. Right now America’s political discourse can be so rage-filled when people feel they are not heard or that they are misunderstood. Of course there are a lot of people selling snake oil, but I listen even to them… again, for the subtext and the context.

I’ll be traveling, listening, reporting this fall. More soon.

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Finally, this from the folks at TedXOilSpill:

Hi Farai,

Before I get into the news, I want to thank you for your support of TEDxOilSpill last month. It was an incredible day that led to much discussion and ongoing initiatives in the Gulf and beyond. I am writing to let you know about a couple of important announcements related to TEDxOilSpill and the crisis in the Gulf.

First, Dr. Susan Shaw has issued a Consensus Statement, signed by numerous scientists, to stop the use of dispersants in the Gulf. We heard at TEDxOilSpill the dangers of dispersant use, and how they have only made the situation worse. The ongoing effects of this massive science experiment will be felt for years, and Susan Shaw is calling for more research as well as a ban on their future use. More information about the Statement can be found here:

http://www.meriresearch.org/Portals/0/Documents/Press%20Release%20-%20Scientists%20on%20Dispersants.pdf

Second, the X PRIZE Oil Spill Cleanup Challenge that was announced at TEDxOilSpill is officially launching this Thursday, July 29! This is an important step to incentivizing the development new technologies to fight this and future oil spills (China recently had a huge spill) around the world. The multi-million dollar Challenge will be announced at the National Press Club in Washington, DC on Thursday at 1pm. More details can be found here:

http://www.xprize.org/media-center/press-release/x-prize-foundation-to-announce-multi-million-dollar-incentive-competition

Third, TED is now posting Talks from TEDxOilSpill. Please help spread the word and share these videos!

Carl Safina: http://www.ted.com/talks/carl_safina_the_oil_spill_s_unseen_culprits_victims.html

Susan Shaw: http://www.ted.com/talks/susan_shaw_the_oil_spill_s_toxic_trade_off.html

More talks are coming soon!

Kind regards,

Nate Mook

This week I was struck by two very different tales about job-seekers.

One is Debra Dickerson, a writer who I respect and who I had the pleasure of having as a guest on News and Notes many times. Following a divorce, she has moved to Atlanta with her children and is broke: straight up, hardcore, broke. She is not hiding the fact and her writing is really wonderful, hard to read, and honest. From, “Brother, Can You Spare a Cone”:

I have the receipt from the returns in my hot little hands. My purchases total exactly $24.63. Tax included, thank you very much. Yet the clerk assures me that the card doesn’t contain enough money. How short am I? He can’t tell me. I should have told him I was using a store card. So the nightmare process of figuring out what to return begins. What good is bread without butter for the toast they consume by the loaf? Peanut butter or jelly? The claritin which allows me to breathe normally or…never mind.

It’s a recreation of that scene from Terms of Endearment when Debra Winger runs short at check-out, her kids are acting out and the cashier is New York City-rude. John Lithgow saves her but the kids and I are on our own.

Unemployment lines are shorter than the ones at Wal-Mart, with all it’s unmanned registers, and those snaked behind me are audibly angry at me and my unruly kids.

I want to cry. I want to give up. They kids won’t settle.

But I hold on. I hold on to moments of grace.

It is rare to see Americans write about struggles with money in this way, in part because of the way not having money is often framed as a moral sin. It is prosperity gospel turned inside out. If you are poor or broke, public policy and media debates often frame you as being deeply and inherently wrong in your behavior and perhaps in your being.

But in America today (as always) there are many people who are doing everything right… applying for jobs and working to save and still facing extreme hardship.

Then, there was a wonderful story by the New York Times’ Louis Uchitelle, who profiled a man who is floating, happily, on the bubble of his family’s money. Maybe a little too comfortably:

The daily routine seldom varied. Mr. Nicholson, 24, a graduate of Colgate University, winner of a dean’s award for academic excellence, spent his mornings searching corporate Web sites for suitable job openings. When he found one, he mailed off a résumé and cover letter — four or five a week, week after week.

Over the last five months, only one job materialized. After several interviews, the Hanover Insurance Group in nearby Worcester offered to hire him as an associate claims adjuster, at $40,000 a year. But even before the formal offer, Mr. Nicholson had decided not to take the job.

Rather than waste early years in dead-end work, he reasoned, he would hold out for a corporate position that would draw on his college training and put him, as he sees it, on the bottom rungs of a career ladder.

Future Darwin award winner? Maybe not, if his folks keep paying the bills.

I also think he does NOT represent his generation’s passion or common sense.

Like many people, I have had to make my own decisions in this economy. I chose to roll the dice and freelance while exploring new business opportunities. I have been lucky enough to find various ways to pay for what was essentially a year of learning to be an entrepreneur. In this past year I have done everything from earning money doing social media consulting for media companies and nonprofits; lecturing at universities on the future of journalism and the role of participatory culture and social media in journalism’s evolution; taking technology classes; moderating events of many shapes and sizes and constituents (including TedxOilSpill); and taking a LOT of meetings just to inform myself about the business environment and what role I might play in it. What I have not been doing a lot of is journalism. I found it was actually harder to support myself doing journalism than it was to admit that I could make more money in less time doing other things and to focus on raising the capital for my new project.

Our new media project is in process. I don’t want to jump the press release someone is probably generating but it will be in public radio and be very much multimedia, participatory, and social media-enabled.

The nonprofit which initiated the project is called Pop and Politics, the same name but not the same organization as the blog I started many years ago. This organization is focusing on covering a changing America, particularly issues of race, diversity, and community. Our content will reach people where they are, on multiple platforms, and we’ll encourage people to participate in how we select and report stories. We have raised money for the pilot phase; are working on the actual project; and are gearing up to raise more money. I have an amazing business partner; organizational partners in this work; advisors; and supporters. We are building the machine. (We will ask you for money, too, dear public media supporters! More information will be online soon about our project once the Top Seekret label comes off of the storage crates).

I look forward to being a working journalist again, but this decision to turn my full attention to business was deliberate. I realized after turning down a few jobs that I really wanted to create my own organization. Then I realized that doing that was going to take at least four times longer than I thought. I have no regrets and I’m really excited. But it is no joke! It takes focus (and savings!). For a time at least, I had to focus on the business side and not worry I was missing covering THE BIGGEST STORIES OF OUR LIFETIME like the oil spill. Okay, I did worry about that but I remained on-task.

It strikes me that we are in the middle of a huge landgrab in journalism, and who has the money to stick out the unpaid entrepreneur phase of both for and nonprofit company-building will have a huge influence in what journalism looks like, feels like, and how it serves us. I would like to see more support for non-traditional entrepreneurs in media, and not just for my own selfish reasons.

By the way, Debra Dickerson is both applying for jobs and looking for new ways to do her work. She is launching a drive to get her readers and fans (and new ones) to fund her next book. To wit:

I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but the internet has body-slammed traditional journalism and publishing into gibbering madness. No one knows anything about what’s going on, and in an atmosphere like this, my options are a) to continue writing for free (see: blogging/writing for websites none of which can pay a living wage), b) get a real job (believe me, I’ve tried), c) or hope that my DIY attempt to self-publish will succeed.

So, here’s my brilliant plan: raise $75,000 to support three or so months of reporting then six-nine months of writing, exploit a college kid as a part-time, minimum-wage research assistant (plus all the coffee he/she can drink), hire an editor to save me from myself before it’s too late and — TA DA — master the mysteries of self-publishing and the beast of technology.

You can read more about how she’s going about this and her hybrid free/paid distribution model in different media. I wish her good luck in all of it.

I talked a bit about my new journalism project, Pop and Politics Radio, which will start this fall. I’m really excited. More on that later.

I also was talking with my mother, who is a family genealogy sleuth today, that my great-great-grandfather was nine years old and his mother was sold away to another “owner.” We are documenting the stories of our family as best we can before the people who know pass on. My great-great-grandfather was always described by my grandmother as someone who read a lot, and who, as he was older and blind, would ask my grandmother to recite the Bible. He knew it by memory by then and would correct her if she didn’t get things right!

Both of my grandparents were avid readers and book-buyers (and library supporters); as is my mother; as am I. And having the chance to both write books and read them is one of the great joys of my life.

We have come far as a people… black people; Stokes people; American people. When I celebrate with my friends of all races this July 4, I will thank the people who built the foundation of my family for their hard work in always living the true American dream… freedom, even in the face of unthinkable injustice. I am glad to be alive today when my struggles are much smaller and my options much wider.

Enjoy your weekend… enjoy your friends and family and every breath.

(A slideshow from the TedxOilSpill Expedition…. independent documentation of what’s happening in the Gulf.)

I remember that a decade ago, Gerry Laybourne of Oxygen sat me down with one of the founders of TED and every part of her being just vibrated with how great her experience at TED was. I didn’t quite get it. I get it now.

I’ve never been to TED, but of course I’ve listen to the TED Talks, and watched ones from other Tedx conferences. These kinds of talks are about connections, idea sharing, status, and validation. I had a chance to speak tonight with John Francis, the remarkable mind and spirit behind the book Planetwalker and the organization Planetwalk. Y’all can read… go to these links and read his story. He made a series of ethical, spiritual, and emotional decisions that completely transformed his life and his relationship to what we consider normal modern consumption of fossil fuels and to what we consider normal human communication. He sought connection through silence. He spent years on his own path.

Now, he is one of the very few globally well-known African-American environmentalists. At the sound-check for TedxOilSpill today, we spoke about that fact. Rooms like the TED and TEDx conferences are places where people are not only exposed to ideas, but they recruit fans and funders and patrons. Still relatively few African-Americans make it into these spaces; nor, by and large, do we seek them. Yes, there are questions of resources — it costs six thousand dollars to attend TED, and there is a waitlist — but I also think it’s a question of what kinds of power people value. The minimum contribution for this Tedx conference was only fifty dollars. There are plenty of African-Americans and other people of color who could afford to be in rooms like this, or to to press to be put on the agendas, but I’m not sure if we are making the connection about how influential events like this are in bringing together people with money and power and the will to make change.

Dr. Francis and I also reminisced about our time spent crabbing with our parents… both of us grew up on the East Coast and he went to the docks with his father; I with my mother. Those waters are more polluted and less fertile for crabs, oysters and fish these days. It hurts me to think of the Chesapeake being as damaged as it is, and still the Chesapeake is in splendid shape compared to the Gulf.

Dr. Francis mentioned the enormity of what is happening. This is not a situation that can be reversed in a generation. Even under the best of circumstances, it will take decades to mitigate the effects of this oil spill… if it is ever mitigated. (Remember it is not only the oil but the dispersants that are changing the ecosystem of the sea and wetlands).

It all seems tragic, but it’s just life. What I mean by that is part of the human experience is that we often have more power than we have good sense. We fumble forward through history, destroying and rebuilding. That is part of what we humans do.

We’re in this together…. how few people don’t use some form of fossil fuels? The questions that face us are not just how to solve this disaster, but how to raise our appetite for honest discussion of where we are today.

I look forward to tomorrow. Having seen some of the presentations, I can already sense that it will be both emotionally draining and spiritually renewing… as well, of course, as informative. I look forward to sharing more.

You can tune in all day tomorrow, from 9am to 7pm, for talks at TedxOillSpill.com

P.S.: The team of photographers and videographers who went out and did independent, self-funded photography and documentation of the oil spill are still thousands of dollars in the red… paying expenses out of their own pockets. They’ve done some great work and deserve to break even on it. Consider making a donation. (You can learn more about their work at the same part of the site.)

As a reporter who didn’t want to just focus on my own family’s needs — who wanted to remain impartial if not “objective” — I stayed out of the fray. And then, I just got tired of ignoring the needs of the community I had grown up in. So I am working on an article about the situation, and preparing to do a series of reports that may take video as well as text/photo form.

I owe an editor the first of my articles, so I won’t go on too much. However, I wanted to bring up this Wall Street Journal article on Detroit.

It’s a heavily documented, personal-story-focused narrative about black middle class flight from Detroit. There are elements of it that remind me of the situation in Baltimore, particularly the triage of enforcement. But it is also a different city with a different set of issues.

As I began discussing this story with folks on Twitter (which is where I got the link, via @danamo), a few questions came to mind:

1) How can journalism help make government more accountable for its decisionmaking about communities?

2) Do stories like this one over-personalize one citizen’s experience and create false generalities, or is the one-as-example-of-many mode the best way to tell the stories of evolving neighborhoods?

3) How do you deal with the emotional fallout of journalism? If you are living through the changes in your neighborhood or job situation, a story like this can produce a lot of emotional turbulence. How can journalism acknowledge this emotional resonance and prepare people to keep reading/viewing/responding despite the pain?

I’ll leave it there for now. All thoughts appreciated.

In my novel Kiss the Sky, each chapter begins with a song. Over the course of the book, I compile a 91 song playlist that parallels the mood and story of the main character, Sophie “Sky” Lee, a black rock musician trying to make it in New York at the turn of the Millennium. I’ll blog a song from the playlist each day until the playlist is complete. Enjoy.

The Story Behind the Song….. Chapter 16: Musafir, “Ninderli”

The strange thing about You Tube culture is that you can find the most random stuff online. Like this version of this song… fairly poorly filmed but good audio. So far, 51 views. Let’s get it to 100 folks.

In my novel Kiss the Sky, each chapter begins with a song. Over the course of the book, I compile a 91 song playlist that parallels the mood and story of the main character, Sophie “Sky” Lee, a black rock musician trying to make it in New York at the turn of the Millennium. I’ll blog a song from the playlist each day until the playlist is complete. Enjoy.

The Story Behind the Song….. Chapter 15: The Smiths, “Shoplifters of the World”

It’s just ridiculous. That’s all. Guilty pleasure.

Videoed:

And live:

In my novel Kiss the Sky, each chapter begins with a song. Over the course of the book, I compile a 91 song playlist that parallels the mood and story of the main character, Sophie “Sky” Lee, a black rock musician trying to make it in New York at the turn of the Millennium. I’ll blog a song from the playlist each day until the playlist is complete. Enjoy.

The Story Behind the Song….. Chapter 14: James Weldon Johnson, “The Negro National Anthem”

This is from one of my favorite movies of all time, Wattstax. Though very different in format, this film stands with Latcho Drom as one of the best explications of a people through music. Wattstax is a live concert interspersed with historical footage and sketches, and it’s about black American life. Latcho Drom is more art film-meets-music video, and it’s about the Rom people of Asia and Europe. If you follow the link above and get a free Veoh account, you can watch Latcho Drom in its entirety.

I highly encourage a viewing of Wattstax done with a group of friends with a screen or home theatre. Some friends of mine did this and it was perfect. Here’s the Negro National Anthem, from Wattstax.

In my novel Kiss the Sky, each chapter begins with a song. Over the course of the book, I compile a 91 song playlist that parallels the mood and story of the main character, Sophie “Sky” Lee, a black rock musician trying to make it in New York at the turn of the Millennium. I’ll blog a song from the playlist each day until the playlist is complete. Enjoy.

The Story Behind the Song….. Chapter 13: Cyndi Lauper, “Money Changes Everything”

Celebrity apprentice has been a fabulous distraction from/addition to my life. Folks from Holly Robinson Peete (@hollyrpeete) to Sharon Osbourne to Bret Michaels (recovering from the frightening but gloriously named subarachnoid hemorrhage) submit to the claims of fame willingly and with gusto.

Oh, Cyndi, I was rooting for you. But you’re a winner in my book just for playing the game with grit and that voice.

Also, this voice:

The audio is warped… old tape digitized? It’s all in the past now… except with things like reality TV, folks keep coming back, and back, and back…