Yesterday I came across a wonderful quote from writer Ta-Nehisi Coates. In describing the first story he reported for Washington’s City Paper, he “found out that journalism is a done thing. In other words there is no ‘better than you.’ There’s just the story you produced. That’s what it is. Either you repeatedly asked questions or you didn’t. That was a deep sort of lesson – that the winner is the person who keeps asking questions. That’s the winner.”
Yes, a motto for folk journalism world over: Keep Asking Questions.
As a folk journalist, trying to create a space by invading someone else’s, you can connect. With the right question, you bring a moment to life that might help a fellow human find meaning. You can try to make room enough so a conversation can become as big as your subject’s world.
Ta-Nehisi Coates’ newest book is Between The World And Me, called a bold and personal literary exploration of America’s racial history by “the single best writer on the subject of race in the United States” (NY Observer)
http://www.randomhousebooks.com/campaign/between-the-world-and-me-2/
Here’s a link to his memory of first committing journalism, in a recent issue of New York Magazine where writers, musicians, and actors recall when they found their life’s passion: http://nymag.com/news/features/beginnings/ta-nehisi-coates/
The world is changed not by the self-regarding,
but by men and women prepared
to make fools of themselves.
P.D. James