As a reporter at the Duluth News Tribune, my core job responsibility is daily reporting on stories tied, broadly, to the arts and entertainment landscape in on our ten-county Northland coverage area. That includes weekly roundups of “Best Bets” as well as weekly features, frequent briefs, a weekly column, and other stories. Examples of my reporting work at the News Tribune include:
- From Odessa to Duluth: The journey of Bob Dylan’s grandparents (March 28, 2022). I traced the journey of Zigman and Anna Zimmerman, who fled pogroms in what is today Ukraine. This article won first place in the Minnesota Newspaper Association Better Newspaper Contest, arts and entertainment story, for papers of the News Tribune’s size.
- “Mr. Ragtime” Max Morath, public TV pioneer, is happily living his coda in Duluth (Dec. 26, 2022). Out of the blue I received an email from a man in Maine whose ragtime revue was presenting a lifetime achievement award to one of the genre’s living legends. The honoree, as it happens, lives just up the hill.
- Northlandia: Where overnight boxcar stays come with Wi-Fi, free breakfast (March 4, 2023). The most-read article I’ve yet written for the News Tribune. Train people go hard.
- Lake Superior Maritime Visitor Center celebrates 50 years at the heart of Canal Park (Sept. 13, 2023). Kaylee Matuszak may be the most quotable person in Duluth.
- Yes, the voice of Garfield is from Duluth (November 1, 2023). I love moments like the one I had researching this story, where I cracked an old yearbook in the library archives and…yep, there he was, Jerry Music.
- Dayton’s holiday figures return to life at Canelake’s Candies (December 9, 2023). When you have the opportunity to interview twin sisters at their Iron Range candy shop, on video no less, you take it!
- Will world’s largest spaceport be built on Iron Range? (January 10, 2024) If it happens, remember where you read it first.
- Victory Chimes, schooner Duluth loved and lost, retires to NYC (January 13, 2024). It’s so rewarding when I’m able to plumb the archives for photos that we can now publish in far higher quality than they were ever seen back in the newsprint days.
- An oral history of Clark, the Lake Superior shark (June 28, 2024). Once this headline came to me, I just knew I had to make it happen.
- Tom’s Burned Down Cafe is “clubhouse” of Madeline Island (August 9, 2024). In 2024, it’s not often a source smokes and drinks his way through an hour-long on-camera interview.
I’ve also recently been doing some writing for Arts Midwest — including the stories of Starr Chief Eagle (May 4, 2023), Chicago’s Albany Park Theater Project (July 5, 2023), and Rock the Rez (Aug. 29, 2023). For U.S. News, I wrote about living in Duluth, Minnesota (June 2023). For Publishers Weekly, I wrote a feature on how a graphic novel becomes an audiobook (September 11, 2024).
Additionally, U.S. News commissioned me to write informative pieces about the business administration major (Sept. 26, 2023) and the finance major (Oct. 3, 2023).
Prior to my Duluth move, I reported extensively on music for The Current (Minnesota Public Radio). Examples of my reporting for The Current include:
- Infographic: Music rights 101 (May 19, 2014). Explaining the inexplicable.
- Minnesota musicians having “panic and anxiety” over planned Affordable Care Act repeal (Jan. 19, 2017). This article won a Page One award from the Minnesota Pro chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists.
- Music legend Prince dies at age 57 (April 21, 2016). This obituary may be the most widely read piece I’ll ever write.
- Why bassist Liz Draper is a dazzling collaborator — and now, solo artist (Oct. 27, 2021). I appreciated the opportunity to spotlight some of the artists who are crucial, but little-known, members of the music community.
At The Current I also worked for several years on a project called Music News. It took various incarnations, ranging from a web post complementing a host’s on-air break to a daily video post and podcast; in the latter form, I was the feature’s principal writer and co-hosted with my colleague Jade.
I also reported for City Pages; unfortunately, that alt-weekly was pulled off the internet when it ceased publishing in 2020, and its archives are not readily available. From 2007 to 2013, I reported for the Twin Cities Daily Planet, a nonprofit citizen journalism project where I also served as arts editor.
