Unity: The Story Part 2

Although Sheila Brooks was the single most important person to meet, I had the very good fortune of meeting some of the high profile sports journalism figures in the game.

At the career fair I had the opportunity to meet Stuart Scott. For about 45 minutes Scott candidly conversed with two other aspiring sportswriters, Spanky, and me. Scott was particularly impressed with Calvin's presence at the convention, as he is just entering his senior year of high school, but in general took an interest in the conversation with the four of us. By conversations end, he offered us his contact information, and more importantly an ear to listen.

On a stroke of chance, my uncle, cousin and I stumbled upon a baseball forum that Unity had partnered with the Chicago White Sox and Major League Baseball to produce. The event featured Kenny Williams, General Manager of the Chicago White Sox and Minnie Minoso, the first black player for the Chicago White Sox.

The setting for the event was very intimate and low key, so when Williams walked in, I was able to introduce myself and congratulate him for robbing the Mariners for a trade back in 2004 in which Freddy Garcia (along with Ben Davis) was sent to the White Sox for Miguel Olivo, Jeremy Reed, and Mike Morse. Sidenote: If a front office is willingly robbed, is it robbery?

Minoso, delivered a speech about the importance of embracing people for who they are and not the color of their skin. Later on, as he enjoyed hors d'oeuvres, he spoke to Spanky and me for about fifteen minutes about his life and his work as a black Cuban.

Over the course of the MLB event, I got to meet several writers/broadcasters I have looked up to including, Michael Ray Wilbon, David Aldridge, and J. A. Adande. I love DA and J.A., but meeting Wilbon was everything I expected and more. When I grow up I want to be like him LOL.

I also had the pleasure of meeting Justice B. Hill, senior writer for MLB.com, Ruben Luna, Sports Editor for the Detroit News, and Coley Harvey, a sportswriter a the Telegraph in Macon Georgia. Each individual had something of great value to impart to a young wannabe sportswriter who has yet to really make a splash in sports writing. I always have felt like you can never know too many people, a philosophy which was reinforced by meeting journalists from the beat writing level to the mega TV stars of widespread fame.

Very little time during the convention was devoted to interaction with students, so I jumped at the opportunity to go to a student forum on Saturday. There I got to meet a few journalism students from around the country and get some new ideas, such as a place to study abroad, an idea to help charter a student NAHJ (National Association of Hispanic Journalists), and some ways to get NABJ @ UK to be one of the award winning student chapters.

At the request of the magnificent Sheila Brooks I got to attend the NABJ Hall of Fame Banquet and the NABJ Salute to Excellence Awards. Both events celebrated great accomplishments of individuals and groups working to inform the people. Most people would have looked at it as a free food, but I saw a glimpse of what I need to be working towards… and I got free meals.

Unity ended with a night of parties including NABJ's Kick off to Tampa '09 party. I'm not much of a partier so I won't judge the overall shindig. But I will take this opportunity to say that Funkmaster Flex may be one of most respected DJ's in hip-hop, but he can ruin a party. He dropped songs (starting them and stopping them) repeatedly, played only small portions of songs, and missed some of the songs people love to hear at parties. Still, it was Funk Flex, and I was at a party he DJed so I ain't too mad. I also got to meet Kevin Frasier, formerly of ESPN currently of Entertainment Tonight at the party.

In general it was fun to get to be around family with Uncle Joe and Calvin who attended the conference. I also got to spend some unexpected time with Aunt TaRessa and my cousin Mariah. It was nice.

Overall I would say I'm satisfied. But, I still haven't recovered from flying out so early on Sunday morning without sleep… and I missed Barack L. Maybe next time.

Salute

Unity ’08: The Story Pt. 1

I'm back!

Last week I went to Chicago for the Unity '08 Journalism Conference and let me tell you, it was splendiferous. Unity is the quadrennial meeting of the Asian American Journalists Association, the National Association of Black Journalists, the National Association of Hispanic Journalists and the Native American Journalists Association. It was one of the best experiences of my life. Thanks to some convincing by my Aunt TaRessa, Uncle Joe Calvin, and cousin Calvin, along with funding from the mother, I was able to partake in the glory that is minority journalism.

The following is part 1 of my "assignment" for my Uncle Joe, which is several days late. I think he would agree me working, contacting individuals about financial aid, and squaring away my academic future is worth the delay… at least I hope.

To start off the city of Chicago seemed great. I say seemed because I didn't really get to experience Chicago. The schedule and structure of the conference did not lend itself to exploration, yet it gave enough of a taste that when I get the opportunity I will definitely return to create a unique set of Chicago adventures. Sidenote: Niketown in Chicago SUCKS—God awful. Niketown Seattle kills the Chicago version, and if I remember correctly, as it's been over a decade, the one in Portland puts the both combined to shame.)

The vast majority of the time at the conference with Calvin (aka hurt Spanky, just Spanky, Baby Barkley and any other random name you see in this blog), and we tried to do everything that Unity had to offer, while pelting each other with insults. So from day one we took in all the networking, learning sessions, and freebies we could find.

I am not a big fan of crowds and I anticipated being daunted, by such a large gathering of people. I was right. But it wasn't necessarily the crowds as much as it was the women. They were everywhere. It was like....hmmm. How bout this, imagine the greatest thing you can imagine and multiply that by a very large number. Yep, THAT good!

Lucky for me, I had a wonderful mentor to keep me in line and make sure I was in the right place at the right time. Sheila Brooks founder, CEO and President of SRB productions MADE the trip for me. She introduced me to the most important people in NABJ, made sure I got to see and do everything valuable Unity had to offer, and made sure I dotted my I's and crossed my T's when it came to networking etiquette.

The main "happening" of the conference was the continuous career fair. Schools, broadcast companies, newspapers, online news entities—even the WWE showed up and showed off their interests to a large diverse portion of the journalism workforce. I bounced around the expo center, jumping from booth to booth and gathering all the information I could, while bouncing my ideas and thoughts off of the various representative agents.

I must say, even though it looks like the job market is shrinking in journalism I feel like there is something for anyone who chooses to embark in "professional gossip," as the great Gabriel, who speaks on everything, eloquently calls journalism.

As the expo hall was laid out, the major corporations and bigger news entities (ESPN, NBC, CNN, USA Today, etc) held the prime real estate in the center of the fair. On the outside perimeter, the less glamorous elements of the media (Poynter Institute, USA.gov, smaller schools, and environmental journalism) beckoned for those who seek training, and a channel to meet the needs of specialized groups. So for all you young journalists, there are opportunities if you seek them out.

That's it for part 1. I think that's enough to digest for one day. Part 2 and more posts coming very soon!

Not that anybody cares but...here

I'll be gone next week and will either blog once about the whole UNITY (all the minority journalism people under one roof) Conference at once when I get back, time release some dry old thoughts to keep you going, maybe blog while I am there, a little bit of all three, or nothing at all.

By the way. That new Batman is hot, I want so bad to say Heath Ledger didn't kill it to be a non-conformist but he did. He was excellent. For that matter the whole movie was excellent. There wasn't a wasted minute, a wasted scene, a twist that didn't have an explanation..... It was an all around good movie. I would like to thank the writers, because for whatever reason writers f*ck up a lot of sh*t when it comes to movies and just do stupid a$$ stuff, but they didn't here.

Worth the hype, worth the time, worth the crowded theater. Back to the performances. I am a firm believer that any decent actor can pull off a good job if the script is good. Take Butterfly Effect. Ashton Kutcher looked like a real actor. On the other side of the spectrum Denzel Washington, who is a great actor has been cast in terribly written movies which has made him look less credible as an actor i.e Training Day, Inside Man, and from what I hear American Gangster. So Heath Ledger had an amazing performance, but lets give the screenwriters their due.

Also, if you read this and you know me give me suggestions of what to blog about. I'm running dry and trying to save ideas for my column as well. Thanks