I once tried to write a travel diary and it was the most boring writing I’ve ever seen in my life. Hopefully this won’t be quite so bad. In just over a month, I will be moving from the US to the UK. I realized it might be useful to document some parts of this process like:
- getting a visa
- getting ready socially
- oh my gosh, all the life admin stuff
- moving an 18-year-old cat across an ocean (some of the existing documentation pointed us in the direction of taking the cat over on a boat)
- taking a boat across the ocean, and how the hell you pack your stuff to take it on a boat
- how the hell you decide what, of the absurd amount of random things people have bought you and you yourself have accumulated over several decades, you actually take to another country
- and probably other, maybe even emotional (gasp) things about moving for the first time in nearly twenty years
Part of my preparation (/procrastination) appears to be re-watching both Slow Horses and Industry, and enjoying the Paralympics! We’ll see how this goes. If you have any advice, or requests of things to document, please reach out. (I had to turn off comments on this site years ago cause of runaway spam, but welcome conversation always!)
(originally published in JSK fellows)
In Philly’s activist circles, heading to the Allied Media Conference in Detroit was an annual tradition. I accompanied colleagues from the Media Mobilizing Project there one year and on one of the many field trips throughout Detroit, we visited an enormous abandoned factory. It was astonishing in its vastness and emptiness. We were the only ones there in the shell of a building that used to be part of what made Detroit Motor City. In our travels, we also learned about the unionization efforts at factories like that one and organizing efforts led by Grace Lee and James Boggs. It was a really formative trip for me, witnessing both the ravages of capitalism as well as the perseverance of the communities that remained.
(originally published in JSK fellows)
Change can be hard. This is not news, but I was shocked to learn that major change efforts in companies fail about 60–70% of the time. I actually found this to be a huge relief. It’s not just that journalists are uniquely terrible at change. Everyone is!
My JSK Journalism Fellowship itself is an experience in embracing change: like many other fellows, I moved thousands of miles and returned to a college campus for the first time in decades. In such an unfamiliar setting, I’m always looking for commonalities.
(originally published in JSK fellows)
What makes a journalist? Is it reporting or editing or strategizing or coding? Is it an action, or the end to which the action is in service? While the simplest answers to these questions seem to be found in the byline, that single metric may obscure more than it reveals both in terms of the multifaceted team effort that journalism is and in regard to the wider ecosystem of support on which many journalists rely.
So much of how we get to know each other at in-person gatherings takes place specifically in incidental, unplanned spaces like waiting in line for a coffee or the few minutes before a speaker starts. How can virtual spaces, which are often more structured and less semi-private, replicate these interactions that are core to getting to know each other?
In a recent discussion with other meeting planners and facilitators, we grappled with this question.
I get rejected for plenty of stuff. Jobs, conference talks, fellowships. Sometimes, the organization doesn’t even bother with the bare minimum–a response email. The rejection comes when the event starts up and I’m not included, so I can pretty well figure out what happened. Sometimes I apply for something as a fluke, get a form email. And, well, there was no harm in trying.
But then sometimes, I really give a shit. I apply for something I’m excited about. I put a lot of effort into the application or talk proposal. I may even discuss my application with people involved with the organization. And then….a stock email rejection.
