Involvement

February 2018 brought my re-election to a second term as secretary of the Detroit Newspaper Guild, Local 34022. I’m also a Guild rep in my newsroom and on the bargaining committee as the News and Free Press fight for new contracts.

I try to volunteer where I’m needed. Most recently, I kicked off my fourth year coaching my son’s little league team in the coach-pitch division for the 2019 Red Sox of Dearborn Baseball. (Hey, the Tigers were taken).

 

Unfortunately, life gut-punches like having my mother, three aunts, and a cousin all battle cancer means I’ve put in the most time helping others fight to live. I’ve helped organize fundraisers, social media support campaigns, and more. I am also often the go-to events planner for work gatherings.

I’ve taken part in canned food drives for the needy and tutored children in need. I delivered lunches to campaign workers in Detroit who were on site protecting voter’s rights. I volunteered as a stage hand for Detroit actors and poets who performed a play about black empowerment.

I’ve returned to UM-Dearborn in-between degrees for events like speaking on a writer’s panel and talking to classes of my former professors about either my hip-hop project or journalism. While earning my bachelor’s degree, I was nominated to join the group WILL — Women In Leadership and Learning. WILL aims to help provide better opportunities and support for women.

Projects

I graduated from the University of Michigan’s campus for the second time in April 2018, earning my master’s degree. For that, I spent about four years documenting Detroit’s hip-hop community. With the educational requirements complete, I’m now aiming to produce a public, multi-media capsule of the project by 2022.

Project highlights:

— Organized a press event for Detroit’s DJ Dez and DJ Butter’s album release party in September 2014.  They named their collaboration, “A Piece of the Action.” Teaching myself “the dark side,” I created a budget and recruited local journalists to attend the event. I had folks show up from Fox 2, Channel 4, the Detroit News and Free Press, the Metro Times, and more. The goal was to get the album reviewed and get more media attention on the community. It worked.

— Helped hip-hop artist and local business owner Clifton Perry when his Motown Mural in the now-shuttered Northland Mall got threatened. I helped him set up a GoFundMe account. I contacted pals at both major Detroit dailies, and Jim Schaefer reported on it in his Sunday page 2 column. I helped Perry write press releases, updates and more. Eventually, the mural got saved. The battle, which aired on local TV news outlets, reached the Southfield mayor’s office. It led to more opportunities for the artist, who lost his store when Northland closed. Perry found a new place to house his air-brushing shop on Detroit’s Iron Street, where I helped him launch his grand opening on Oct. 17, 2015. (There were no notable college football games that day, so put your Google down, please.)

 

Work-related things

— On and off for the last decade-plus, I have helped local journalist and pollster Tim Kiska on several election-related projects. I’ve put together packets to mail workers, called city clerks across the state and have answered phones on election night at Channel 7 studios. I helped vet an impartial audience for one of the gubernatorial debates held in Michigan, then helped host and work the event. On some election nights, I have raced around Detroit for poll numbers to call in. Whatever Kiska needed, I’d do — including assisting him on independent projects and even correcting his students’ homework.

— I’ve also worked for the Associated Press on election night, reporting numbers from an assigned district.

— I have survived off of freelance writing, editing and have edited and/or ghost-written a few speeches for local politicians — while not on a newspaper’s payroll, of course!

(Modest) awards summary

My breaking news reporting has been recognized by the Michigan Press Association, and I’ve also been on staff at the same papers for blanket awards from the MPA recognizing general excellence. The Detroit chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists has awarded me for sports design work, too. I won multiple research grants for my hip-hop project, and placed in a creative nonfiction essay writing contest at the University of Michigan-Dearborn. I’m also the proud, nerdy winner of multiple fantasy football championship titles, thanks to my Dad’s teachings starting at age 5. My biggest honor to date has been becoming the first female owner of a fake football team — taking over my Dad’s squad following his Jan. 6, 2018 death at the age of 64.