Writing Samples

I received my Bachelor's degree in Print Communications. When I was in college I wrote for the school newspaper for four years, and for the last two was the Photography Editor. I have also written over one hundred Music News articles for FMQB.com, and freelanced for several magazines, both online and print. Full articles from those publications are included in this section.

I also enjoy creative writing, which provides me something far more profound than writing articles can offer. Creative writing, prose in particular, allows me to convert my imagination into something tangible. Every dream or idealism I've ever had can be given to the rest of the world for it to experience through the accessibility of fiction. Though I am currently working on my first novel, I enjoy writing poetry as well.

Articles

Concrete Wave : Vol. 9 No. 3, page 72
"A First-Timer's Experience"

This was my first article in print outside of the college newspaper. I covered a race called The Broadway Bomb, in which thousands of longboarders gather in New York City and race down Broadway for roughly 8 miles. The race is illegal because it is unsanctioned, which means every rider is immerged within the extraordinaly dense traffic of NYC on one of its busiest streets.

Every skater's life is at risk as they push along the arduous miles among grumpy taxi drivers, busses, pedestrians, and other drivers. The race becomes even more hectic when you ride through the ever-crowded Times Square. It was at this race that I met Michale Brooke, the founder and editor of Concrete Wave magazine. After a feweeting he asked me write a short article about my experience at the race, seeing how it was my first (but certainly not the last) time at the race. Click the image below to read the article in PDF form, or check out the whole issue on Issuu.com.

---

Concrete Wave : Vol. 10 No. 5, page 52
"The Greene Report: Going Ape For Green Banana"

This article was originally meant to be part of a series covering various green/eco-friendly companies within the longboarding industry. This article was certainly more challenging for me for a number of reasons: It involved me researching various companies and networking to find contacts, I had to organize and set up an interview with the owner of a skating company, and to my surprise, the Michael asked me to make a video too. I was also asked several months before the article was due to print to do a photoshoot with the owner.

I interviewed James Giberson, owner of Green Banana Skateboards, a company that creates longboard and banana board decks from 100% American recycled plastics. Unfortunately, Concrete Wave didn't run any of the photos that I took for this issue, however you can still check them out on my photography page or on the Green Banana website. You may also find the video that I produced, which was shown on the big screen at the 2011 Vancouver Evolutons Film Festival, on my video page. Again, you may read the full article on Issuu.com by clicking the image below, or by clicking here.

---

Skate[Slate] : 5 October, 2012
"Delaware Downhill Labor Day Sesh"

This was my first article written for Skate[Slate] magazine's online publication. I covered a small gathering of longboarders from along the East Coast who all gathered in Deleware for a weekend of downhill riding.

To make matters more interesting, the riders not only participated in challening each other at speeds up to 50 mph downhill, but also traveled to a town just outside of Baltimore to skate in Landsdowne skatepark, one of the first and oldest functioning skateparks in the country. In previous years, the event saw between 40 and 60 riders that joined in, but this time around, only a few elite were involved.

See the full article by clicking the image or here.

---

Skate[Slate] : 20 November, 2012
"Broadway got Bombed: Final thoughts and interviews"

Two years after my first time racing in the Broadway Bomb in NYC, I had developed many more contacts within the longboarding industry. Having already written about the Broadway Bomb for Concrete Wave magazine, I decided to give a shout out to Skate[Slate] editor Justus Zimmerly and pitched some ideas for an article on the race. During that year the race had become rather infamous and well known among media outlets within the NYC region.

There was a very heavy police presence, officers were equiped with anti-riot equipment and signs threatening arrest to any participants of the race were all across the city. This deterred a large number of racers from coming out; around 2,500 riders signed up to participate, however that year saw only around 1,000. Needless to say, only the most hardcore, well-seasoned, and gutsy skaters from all around the world decided it was worth risking arrest to participate in this internationally-known event.

Afterward I did a Q and A with female racer Cami Best, who as of 2013 was ranked one of the fastest long-distance push racers in the world. I also produced a 12-minute long video of interviews with some of the most reputable names within the scene, including Keifer Dixon who has won the race numerous times, and Ian Nichols who organizes the event. The video can be seen on my video page.

See the full article by clicking the image or here.

---

Sidewayzine, 27 April 2012,
"In the Water with The Leading Edge Kiteschool"

Chris Doyle is the founder and owner of The Leading Edge Kiteboarding School. I have known Chris for many years and he agreed to an interview for my startup webzine project Sidewayzine. Based in Ocean City, NJ, the school picks up and moves to Saint Croix in the U.S. Virgin Islands during the winter season. I met up with him in St. Croix for a weekend of kiting, interviews, filming, and photography.

In this article I explain how Chris got his start with his kiteboarding school and outline what the experience of a kiting lesson with him is like. Working under the sun on the beach and in the ocean isn't all fun and games though, as I also point out the struggles of operating such a business. Running the company with his girlfriend, relationship issues also seemed to ensue every now and then because the couple not only worked together, but lived together as well which significantly limited alone time and caused tension to build between the two.

Later on I finished producing a promotional video for The Leading Edge, which can be seen on my video page.

See the full article by clicking the image or here.

---

Prometheus Radio Project, Technical/Instructinal
"How To Start a Podcast"

My experiene within the music and radio industry started off with the Prometheus Radio Project, a non-profit organization that fights for the development of localized Low-Power FM radio stations. These stations use radio as a means to fight for social justice and to bring awareness to the people. The Prometheus Radio Project also recently and successfully fought the FCC in several legal cases to open up the radio spectrums to allow more low-power stations to operate between the margins of high-power commercial stations.

I was fortunate enough to hold an internship with the Prometheus Radio Project as a Communications intern. I was responsible for the creation of print materials like pamphlets, as well as graphic design and web development. I was asked to write a decriptive instructional article on the technicalities of starting podcasts. This would act as a resource for Low-Power FM stations to help broaden their audience reach using the internet.

See the full article by clicking the image or here.

Creative Writing

"The Sinister Tales of Black Madam" (Graphic Narrative)

"The Sinister Tales of Black Madam" is based off an entirely true person who goes by the name of Black Madam. She was a back-alley cosmetic "surgeon" who would give surgical injections for a discounted price.

Naive people found the draw of a discounted operation too grand, and after having heard good things about the Black Madam, they decided they'd give her a try. One downside of going to an unlicensed cosmetic surgeon is that they tend to use highly toxic alternatives to surgical grade silicone. In this bizarre short graphic narrative, I reenacted the many truths that were uncovered by various journalists.

Using as many of the facts as I could to sculpt the narrative, I also had to take a few artistic freedoms in leiu of having actually been to any of the so called "pump parties," in which many women would all get together and have their butts injected with what they thought was a safe material. As it turned out, Black Madam, who also used the same alias as a "Gothic Hip-Hop" singer to film disturbing music videos, injected the women with construction grade silicone, along with other materials like caulk and rubber cement.

Black Madam, a woman in her mid to late 40's, was arrested for the death of a stripper who came from England to attend one of her "pump parties." The stripper, who was only seeking larger buttocks, fell into a coma when the toxic materials from the injection got into her blood stream and eventually ended up in her lungs, which eventually killed her. Another woman had fallen into a coma from one of Black Madam's injections because of a similar reaction to the toxic materials, though she managed to survive after being in the coma for many months. This short narrative, drawn by artist Taylor Patterson, is a graphical interpretation of various news articles based off the individual who calls herself Black Madam. The narrative reflects the disturbing darkness of the facts with dark humor spread throughout.

Click the image to view the full narrative in PDF, or here (14 MB)

Poetry

---

---

---