FREELANCE MUSIC CRITIC
(fall 2007--present) Contributing music criticism to SF Weekly, the East Bay Express, Crawdaddy!, and Wax Poetics. Focusing on hip-hop and jazz music. Interviewed Jill Scott, Gil Scott-Heron, Phife Dawg (A Tribe Called Quest), Dan the Automator, and Mixmaster Mike, as well as local music personalities. Wrote numerous live and album reviews, and covered the demise of the Technics 1200 turntable. CRAWDADDY!
assistant editor (feb 2008--aug 2008) Provided editorial support for an online, weekly rock zine. Duties included: editing and fact-checking articles, writing reviews and conducting interviews, publishing articles with a CMS, and driving traffic.
Additional written contributions McSweeney's Internet Tendency, The Source, Neon Tommy, Jet San Francisco, Not For Tourists (NY and SF), Citysearch (NY and SF).
RELEVANT SKILLS
Computer languages and applications CSS, html, php, MySql; Office, Photoshop.
Online marketing Constant Contact, Wordpress, Twitter, Facebook, SEO, CMS systems, WebFonts, and Google Apps, Analytics, Places, and Adwords
EDUCATION
M.A., Specialized Journalism (The Arts), may 2009
University of Southern California Annenberg School for Communication
Thesis: "Pulp to Celluloid: Images of Fictional Cities"
B.A., English (Literatures, Languages, and Criticism), jan 2007
City University of New York at Hunter College Cum Laude; With Honors in English
Studied abroad, fall 2004: University of Stirling, Scotland, UK
RECOGNITION
Welsh Arts Council fellowship: Summer 2009 This program provided an exchange of ideas between Welsh and American arts critics. It included a week of immersion in Welsh arts and culture in Cardiff, UK; and a second week in Washington DC, where we reported on the experience at a Smithsonian Folklife Festival panel discussion.
USC, Annenberg School for Communication, Phi Kappa Phi: 2009
Hunter College Public Leadership Program: 2006 This six-week seminar on the media's effects on campaign politics concluded with a student-run discussion and interview with 2004 Vice Presidential candidate John Edwards.