Archive - July 2, 2024

    HUSTLE The Making of a Freelance Writer by Lawrence Grobel (Ghana) In my career as a freelance writer, I’ve had moments of doubt. I’ve suffered rejections and cancellations. But there were crossroads along the way that allowed me to continue pursuing my dream of working for myself, doing what I wanted to do, and figuring out how to survive. Freelancing is a lifestyle. In preparing this book, I marvel at how I somehow managed to avoid all the pitfalls and not drown in pessimism. When Alfred Hitchcock, Leonard Bernstein, and Fred Astaire all backed down from interviews they had agreed to, I had to learn how to bite the bullet and move on, how to move forward, and not backward, and that’s what this book is about. It begins with my first byline for an essay I wrote when I was just 15. It continues with articles I . . .

The Museum of the Peace Corps Experience Virtual event, July 31 at 7:00pm EDT   Join us for the launch and panel discussion of John Fleming’s new book Mission to Malawi: Memoir of an African American Peace Corps Volunteer 1967-1969 (McFarland 2024), featuring Reginald Hodges (RPCV Sierra Leone 68-71), J. Henry (Hank) Ambrose (RPCV Kenya 71-73), and John Fleming (RPCV Malawi 67-69).  The event will be hosted by MPCE Board Member Nicole Banister and MPCE Director Zack Klim. Unlike the vast majority of Peace Corps volunteers in the 1960s, John Fleming was a young Black man who was assigned to an all-white agricultural project in Malawi, an emerging African country surrounded by White-ruled Southern Rhodesia, Mozambique, and South Africa. John wanted to be a missionary in Africa, but was put off by his encounters with self-serving White missionaries. The Civil Rights and Black Power movements influenced his world view while navigating life in an African country still controlled or greatly influenced . . .