liberty city liberator

so next semester i'm taking "Print News Reporting", a course into my journalism major. it's hella interesting and not like your average reporting class, but then again I really don't know what an "average" reporting class is. but the professor is taking on a new, experimental curriculum. the goal for the class is to create an online newspaper where students will report and write stories for the publication. what will we be covering exactly?

Liberty City, Miami.

it's kind of a dangerous area in the city, but it's ignored by major newspapers and television news stations. the only kinda of newsworthy headlines that come out of the area are shootings or corruption.
so my professor feels that someone should give voice to Liberty City. a voice that isn't completely interested in crime and shady business. i mean he's right. Americans live in this impoverished little community and they've got a story.

but FUCK.

it's exciting but terrifying. i don't like to talk to strangers and i'm gonna be forced to do just that. especially in a city that's predominantly black... i just wonder how people will react to me. a hipster talking with impoverished citizens. i don't know what to expect.

i mean look at me!



i can't show my whole face now! cmon!

at the same time, how awesome is it gonna be to hang out in a really poor part of town?! i'm gonna feel like the journalist in the fifth season of The Wire who writes a feature story on Bubbles, the crackhead. maybe i'll make friends with people like Omar and Bodie?!!

i've already thought of some awesome scenarios that could happen. i'm probably gonna make friends with a crackhead and he's gonna want help at like unreasonable hours. he's gonna call me at 2 a.m., because i had told him that if he ever needs anything to gimme a call! he's my tip so he scratches my back and i scratch his. while i'm sleeping he calls and asks me a huge favor. so i agree and drive all the way to liberty city (a 45 min. drive). it turns out he wants money, because he got robbed and needs the cash to buy meth. i'm gonna give him a talk and stuff... and i'm probably gonna give him the money. i'm gonna have a face of disappointment while he walks away into an alley, and I'll leave.

yknow stuff like that! real-world stuff, people!

i'm scared of talking to these people, though... so i can't imagine doing that and having to gather information from them. i feel like i'm fooling them. should i talk to them about rap music? that's racist, but i do know a lot about hip-hop and rap. maybe that can be some kind of social lubricant? i don't think our professor will have us going to the city at dark, since it can get real ugly at that time. surely in broad daylight.

all of this is terrifying, but my friend told me to look at the grander scheme of it. think of the possibilities that can come from starting a student-run online newspaper that covers an impoverished, forgotten area of Miami. we can go on to win awards, and it can probably give me some kind of edge when applying to grad schools. like, "hey, this guy was music director at a radio station, staff writer for the school newspaper, journalism grad w/ an english minor, and he worked on an award-winning student newspaper that covered Liberty City. and he's a totes cutie!!!" IMPRESSIVE. probably not, but you never know. i'm an idiot :)