Cuban American Vote in Miami

This is a radio piece I did for WPRB about Cuban American voters in Miami. In the last two elections Bush has narrowly won Florida, a key state to winning the presidency. Cuban Americans in Miami have for more than a generation gone heavily republican. And this 2008 election the Cuban Americans may cast the deciding vote. But it may not be in the way that political junkies once thought.


I did all of the reporting, sound collection, and editing .

The Playwright's the thing at TCNJ

This article appeared in the Trenton Times on Friday October 3rd.

BY NAOMI NIX

Special to the Times

EWING -- Saluting his literary genius and Garden State connections, The College of New Jersey yesterday opened a three-day international conference on playwright and novelist Thornton Wilder.

The conference brings together 42 scholars from three continents in a bid to renew interest in the legacy of Wilder, who won three Pulitzer Prizes during a career that stretched from the 1920s until his death in 1975 at age 78.

Although he was born in Wisconsin, Wilder had an affinity for New Jersey, often setting parts of his works in the state. He taught French at the Lawrenceville School in Lawrence from 1921 to 1928, taking a few years off to earn a master's at Princeton University.

"The aim of the conference is to celebrate the work of Thornton Wilder and to expose people to his literature and his plays," said Cecilia Colbech, the program coordinator for TCNJ's English department.

The program, which will continue through tomorrow, features scholars and playwrights and performances of Wilder's works.

"It is a very, very rich three days of programs on various aspects on Thornton Wilder, with particular attention about why he remains relevant and important today in the 21st century," said Jane Brailove Rutkoff, executive director of the New Jersey Council for the Humanities, which contributed $10,000 to help fund the conference.

Though many of the events require pre-registration and carry a fee, there are several offerings that are free and open to the public today.

These include a panel of playwrights discussing Wilder's work, featuring Edward Albee, Lee Blessing, Tina Howe and Donald Margulies.

Following that, Tony Award- winning Marian Seldes will join Albee in reading selections from Wilder's works.

"They are not coming to Princeton, Harvard or Yale they are coming to The College of New Jersey," said Lincoln Konkle, an organizer of the event and the executive director of the Thornton Wilder Society, based on campus.

This afternoon, Emily Mann, artistic director at McCarter Theatre at Princeton University, will participate in a panel with other theater experts that is open to the public.

Registrants and members of the public can also see the Shakespeare 70 company's rendition of "The Skin of Our Teeth," a Wilder play set in New Jersey about one family's quest to overcome global catastrophes.

Thorton's full-length plays, "Our Town" and "The Skin of Our Teeth," both won Pulitzer Prizes, as did his novel, "The Bridge of San Luis Rey."

He is the only writer who has won a Pulitzer in both drama and fiction.

Some of his other works include "The Matchmaker," which was adapted as the musical "Hello, Dolly!" and his novel "The Eighth Day," which won a National Book Award. The majority of his works take place in New Jersey.

"He finds New Jersey the perfect setting to represent American ideas and customs but also to be able to bring out universal themes as well," said Konkle.

Wilder wrote a one-act play, "The Happy Journey to Trenton and Camden," which depicts a family trip in their car from Newark to Camdem. Wilder famously has one of the characters say, "I'm glad I was born in New Jersey. I always said it was the best state in the union."