What I’m Reading
January 2, 2024
In today’s What I’m Reading, I’ll share a story about the cultural divide in America and two examples that inspect the creative outlets in journalism. The first values the contribution that sports writing makes to creative nonfiction storytelling. The second is a photography podcast I recently discovered.
Growing Political Divide
I found today’s first recommendation while browsing The New York Times in October. It’s wonderful journalism that demonstrates the state of America, a country where the political divide deepens, and the two directions begin to impact society and the quality of life.
Writer Trip Gabriel and photographer Hilary Swift follow two families and their reasons for moving across the country.
In Two Families Got Fed Up With Their States’ Politics. So They Moved Out., one family left Portland, one of the most progressive cities in the U.S., in favor of “deep-red rural Missouri,” as the article describes their new home.
The second family departed Iowa and settled in Minnesota.
It’s a story of Americans making life-changing decisions because of the political climate, be it birth control, gun control, transgender rights, race, or what is and what isn’t allowed to be taught in schools.
The article includes data that shows the increasing role politics plays in where people choose to live. The families followed here show us that political differences impact the quality of life, no matter where one stands.
I hope you give this important slice of journalism a few minutes of your time; it’s worth it.
The value of sports for creativity in nonfiction
Today’s second recommendation is about writing and creativity in journalism. For the love of the (story) game is a short post on Nieman’s storyboard blog written by Jacqui Banaszynski.
She used the closing of The New York Times’s sports section last fall to highlight the value of sports journalism and the lessons she’s learned from sports stories for narrative storytelling.
It’s a fascinating read. It emphasizes that sports journalism is more than results. As Banaszynski put it, sports stories might be “wrapped in sports but, once opened, were about much more: emotion, relationships, struggle, striving — all those things that are part of elemental humanity.”
I’m fascinated by articles like this. Some of the tips I soaked up with great interest are that sports writers can teach us about “paying acute attention” and “banking ideas” for more in-depth stories that go beyond the sport. I found it well worth a read, and I hope you find value as well.
Photography Insights
The final recommendation for this week is a podcast on photography. The Black Shutter Podcast is a show that features conversations with Black visual artists. I discovered it only recently and enjoyed the conversational style and the insights about photography and life.
My starting point was episode 59 with Amanda J. Cain, a sports, music, and news photographer.
The first Black female Team Photographer in the NHL (San Jose Sharks) shares her insights and realizations from assignments ranging from political rallies to concerts and portrait sessions.
I find it fascinating to hear Cain speak about the comforting qualities of art that pulled her into photography. It’s also always reassuring to hear that “bumps and bruises are part of the journey” of a creative life. And her observations on breaking into the world of sports and music are as encouraging as they are interesting.
But instead of summarizing more of the episode, I hope you’ll give it a listen yourself. It’s a wonderful example of a podcast you can use to “keep your mind open,” as the show’s host, Idris Talib Solomon, puts it in the show’s introduction.
Those are my recommendations for this week. I’ll share a writing update on Thursday. Until then, enjoy your readings.
