My Week with Yoani: Day 1 - Columbia's J-School (Thursday, March 14)

Josh Freedman and Mirta Ojito of the Columbia University School of Journalism.

What I have begun below and will continue in a series of subsequent posts is to create a digital archive of the heady and historic week of March 14-21 when I played host to Yoani Sánchez and Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo in New York City and Washington, DC.

Given that we covered so much ground visiting a half-dozen universities (Columbia, New School, NYU, Cardozo, Georgetown, and CUNY), did scores of interviews (CNN, CNBC, PBS, NPR, NYT, NY1, NTN, etc.) and sit downs with editorial boards (Bloomberg, WSJ, and WaPo), made various presentations at assorted think-tanks (Americas' Society, Cato, and Brookings) and human rights organizations (Committee to Protect Journalists), and paid visits to a hand-full of government institutions such as the Czech Embassy, the US Congress, the OAS, and the UN, I think it valuable to provide a detailed listing of our day-by-day activities, with embedded videos and photos of public events with links to key articles from the many interviews.  That way, there will be a one-stop place to get a day-by-day summary of all the events from that week.

Let's begin with the conversation Sánchez had (via LiveStream) with Mirta Ojito of the Columbia University School of Journalism followed by a Q&A with Columbia students.  Ojito is a former Pulitzer Prize winning New York Times reporter and the author of Finding Mañana, a memoir of the Mariel Boatlift.  She previously interviewed Yoani via phone in December 2011 for the episode, "Tweeting Under Castro," as part of Columbia's J-School BlogTalkRadio series.

 

Other interviews done by Yoani either just prior to or immediately following the J-School event include:

*Andres Correa of the Venezuelan newspaper El Universal interviewed Sánchez (audio on SoundCloud). In the interview she discusses the challenges facing Venezuela and the Venezuelan opposition. She also acknowledges that Venezuela is heading down the road that Cuba is now walking away from.

  *Part I: Yoani Sánchez: "Venezuela está entrando donde Cuba va de salida."

  *Part II: Yoani Sánchez: Una espina clavada en el pie.

*An exclusive international Telemundo Interview, with other good coverage from Miami Telemundo reporter Maria Montoya here, here (also with Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo), and here.

*A report for CNBC by their chief international correspondent Michelle Caruso-Cabrera.

Yoani Sánchez and Juan Manuel Benítez.

*New York 1 - Noticias - Pura Política: Entrevista Exclusiva con Juan Manuel Benítez (but you need Time Warner Cable to view it).  If you do have TWC you can see some of Benítez's past coverage and interviews with Sánchez via telephone from Havana here.

Sánchez and Josh Freedman.

*Huffington Post - Roque Planas, "Yoani Sanchez, Cuban Blogger, Plans Independent Newspaper Online." After Yoani herself, Planas is my go-to Twitter feed (@RoqPlanas) - over 3,800 Tweets and counting - for a wide variety of news related to Latinos in the US.  His updates are smart, constant, comprehensive, and full of wit and wisdom.

*The Guardian - Gizelle Lugo, "Yoani Sánchez: dissident Cuban blogger hopeful of digital change." Lugo is a stand-out former student of mine who now works for both the Guardian and the Nation.  I reached out to her for what turned out to be her first solo-authored exclusive interview - a very good one at that!

*Florida Center for Investigative Reporting - Tracey Eaton, "Cuban Dissident Blogger Tours the US" - article and video in English and Spanish).  Eaton is a good friend, former Dallas Marning News correspondent in Havana, and fellow blogger who was also kind enough to post 152 of is photos (many of them very good like the one to the left) from Sánchez's visit to New York.


Interview with Cuban blogger Yoani Sánchez from Tracey Eaton on Vimeo.