The Poynter Institute is pleased to announce the 14 journalists selected from more than 80 applicants for the prestigious Power of Diverse Voices: Writing Workshop for Journalists of Color, which was launched in 2017 and is one of Poynter’s most competitive programs. These journalists will convene Nov. 15-18 at Poynter in St. Petersburg, Florida, for four days of one-on-one coaching, small-group instruction and dedicated writing time.
The program is led by longtime Poynter adjunct Tom Huang, Dallas Morning News assistant managing editor for journalism initiatives. The goal of the seminar is to assist journalists of color in the process of finding and refining their voices while also building their skill at writing opinion pieces and personal essays.
“Our workshop offers a space for people to write the stories that are hardest for them to write,” said Huang. “We create a space where journalists of color know that they belong as they work to discover their own voice. We give them the time to write drafts and get coaching from our award-winning faculty along with encouragement and kinship with the entire cohort.”
Many award-winning essays, podcasts and other work originated or developed during this workshop. Recently, Harry Mok, assistant opinion editor at the San Francisco Chronicle and a graduate of Poynter’s 2021 workshop, earned AAJA’s Excellence in Commentary for his piece about belonging as an “Asian kid in a California farm town.” Ismael Pérez, another 2021 alum and Chicago Sun-Times editorial board member, won first place this year in the Society of Features Journalism General Commentary Portfolio category for his column “Living with an addict during the pandemic.”
Working with Huang will be several veteran journalists: Eric Deggans, TV critic for NPR; Sitara Nieves, vice president of teaching and organizational strategy for Poynter; Fernanda Santos, professor at Arizona State University and Diverse Voices workshop alum; and Aisha Sultan, home and family editor and columnist at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
“Before this program, I doubted how my unconventional path and story could make me a stronger journalist,” said Vicky Diaz-Camacho, who attended the 2018 workshop and is now a multiplatform producer at WHYY. “There is power in uniting people who are usually overlooked in traditional newsrooms. Being in the same room with journalists of color, looking people in the eye and finding camaraderie not only boosted morale but also affirmed the power we hold with our personal experiences, our stories and the way in which we navigate the world.”
The newest cohort of the upcoming Power of Diverse Voices workshop are:
- Annie Aguiar, audience engagement producer, The Poynter Institute
- Simón Cázares, freelance radio reporter and producer
- Josiah R. Daniels, associate opinion editor, Sojourners
- Ana Diaz, culture writer, Vox Media/Polygon
- Nardos Haile, culture writer, Salon
- Danya Pérez, diverse communities reporter, Houston Landing
- Nedra Rhone, lifestyle columnist, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
- Malak Silmi, freelance writer
- Molly Solomon, editor-at-large, KQED
- Miacel Spotted Elk, freelancer
- Martin Tsai, freelance culture critic
- Daniel Villarreal, senior editor, LGBTQ Nation/Q Digital
- Elizabeth Wellington, lifestyle columnist, The Philadelphia Inquirer
- Erin Wong, freelance reporter
Funding for Power of Diverse Voices comes from an endowment from the Association of Opinion Journalists, which was merged with what is now the News Leaders Association in 2016. Funding is also provided by the Gill Foundation.
About The Poynter Institute
The Poynter Institute is a global nonprofit working to address society’s most pressing issues by teaching journalists and journalism, covering the media and the complexities facing the industry, convening and community building, improving the capacity and sustainability of news organizations and fostering trust and reliability of information. The Institute is a gold standard in journalistic excellence and dedicated to the preservation and advancement of press freedom in democracies worldwide. Through Poynter, journalists, newsrooms, businesses, big tech corporations and citizens convene to find solutions that promote trust and transparency in news and stoke meaningful public discourse. The world’s top journalists and emerging media leaders rely on the Institute to learn new skills, adopt best practices, better serve audiences, scale operations and improve the quality of the universally shared information ecosystem.
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