“Let me tell you what just happened!” is a phrase journalist and author Arionne Nettles has told her friends more times than she can remember. An oral storyteller since her childhood, she participated in oratory contests and memorized poetry as a kid. Last April, after years of experience in podcasting, culture reporting and teaching journalism, Arionne, a Chicagoan, published her first book, “We Are the Culture: Black Chicago’s Influence on Everything.”
In this episode of the Speaking of Phenomenal podcast, she and host Amy Boyle – who also remembers telling stories as a kid, like the time when she “stole” her father’s voice recorder to register her friends doing “goofy” things – discussed current media trends, the challenges of promoting one’s work and Arionne’s most striking “a-ha” moments while writing her book.
Arionne decided to write a book out of an academic aspiration. With time, it became a personal and cherished project for her. Not that she didn’t care about the idea initially, but she started feeling a special connection to the book only after interviewing people and digging deeper into how Black Chicagoans helped shape the U.S. culture. She discovered the global reach of John Johnson’s first publication, “Negro Digest.” She learned about the influence of the White Sox cap on the hip-hop culture nationally. She connected other states and cities to Chicago to explain, for example, who brought the blues to the city and how this music style changed to adapt to an urban audience. A mother and teacher, she sat down to write every night from 9 p.m. to 1 a.m.
Passionate about media trends, Arionne reminded host Amy Boyle (and all storytellers) of the importance of paying attention to what the audience cares about. For her, people today pay much more attention to the content than the format. She encouraged all who work on stories or create content to transmit information using the means they know without worrying about whether it looks perfect. If the content is good, people will listen, read and watch it.
More recently, Arionne learned how to use this rule beyond storytelling: she applied it to promoting her book. Without fearing what people would think, she allowed herself to be creative and used all the means available to her (the ones that cost money and the ones that are free) to spread the word about her book and make people interested.
“I don’t care if people say, ‘she’s doing too much,’” she thought at the time. “You have to lean into your confidence, lean into your own ideas, and just do it.” She hired a videographer and a photographer, put her hair up and picked the dress that felt right. She ordered custom-made gift bags. “I am my best marketer, and I know that,” she told host Amy Boyle.
Arionne’s bold approach tells us a lot about believing in our work and the stories we want to tell. Be they stories about ourselves or others. Traditional journalism stories or the narrative of our lives. How can we improve how we tell them? Do we genuinely believe they are worth telling?
Website: https://arionne.com/
Carolina Baldin is a freelance journalist from Brazil. Having worked in law, policy and regulation, she is passionate about everyday stories that illustrate larger issues. She graduated from a master's program at Northwestern University in 2023 and became a guest blogger on the "Speaking of Phenomenal" podcast blog in March 2024.
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