Authors Share Their Timely Stories Via Video in Partnership with Media Allies
Since the pandemic hit in early 2020, our authors and writers around the world have been producing lots of videos. Occasionally, we like to highlight those videos both because they are fascinating—and to encourage other writers to go and do likewise.
Both of the videos we are sharing this week were proposed and produced by media allies. Many of our writers produce their own videos, which can build a loyal and valuable audience over time, but there also are advantages when we work with allies who will share videos across their media networks.
And here’s a tip for authors: Those opportunities with allies are especially significant when our writers’ messages are timely, meaning newsworthy. Both of the authors we are featuring in this column talk about their own lives, as well issues as timely as front-page headlines about racism and cross-cultural conflict.
Both of the authors featured here are expert at sharing helpful words of wisdom—including personal stories—that can help others find hope in the midst of turbulence.
Col. Clifford Worthy on Michelle Campbell’s Podcast
The first video features Clifford Worthy, the oldest living Black graduate of West Point who was part of the groundbreaking class of cadets after President Truman signed an order integrating the US Army. His memoir The Black Knight, which is available from Amazon, is the subject of a new interview with Michelle Campbell, the host of Detroit-based SMAC Productions. Michelle’s vision statement for her production house is “envisioning a society where traditionally marginalized people, empowered with information, access and equity, have unhindered opportunity to build dynamic lives.”
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Victor Begg with the Interfaith Center in Ohio
The second video features author Victor Begg, whose memoir Our Muslim Neighbors also is available via Amazon. This conversation was hosted by our friends at The Interfaith Center at the University of Miami in Ohio. Earlier, these colleagues hosted video conversations with authors Mindy Corporon and also Bill Tammeus, both of whom are nationally known as advocates for interfaith peacemaking.
In this new conversation with Victor, the Interfaith Center’s Program Director Geneva Blackmer opens the program by explaining: “Victor has worked tirelessly to show how much common ground exists between us. He believes in the power of simply talking to one another. Person by person and friend by friend, goodhearted people can change the world, he says.”
This kind of conversation is important right now, Victor says in the video. “There are so many rifts tearing our societal fabric apart: social, political and religious. … America, I believe, has a role to play if we can invent ways to unite across these divides.”