My latest: How blue-collar candidates could change politics

Dear friends,

Take a look at your elected officials. How many of them have waited tables at a restaurant recently? Or worked at a supermarket or factory?

Not many, I’ll guess.

It makes a difference when working-class candidates get elected: They understand firsthand the plight of half the American workforce. But people with manual, clerical, and service-sector jobs rarely have the luxury of running.

My latest article will introduce you to two North Carolina candidates who understand economic precarity. Tanya Robinson and Tameka Harvey gave me an up-close look at their underdog campaigns, and also opened up about their hard lives.

https://www.theassemblync.com/politics/blue-collar-candidates-down-home-north-carolina

I wrote the article for The Assembly. You can read one free story a month before hitting the paywall. (Of course, I’d love for you to subscribe, and support this type of journalism.) It was a pleasure to collaborate with photographer Julia Wall and managing editor Kate Sheppard.

 Plus, some articles I appreciated:

After a terrible car accident, doctors told Todd Barcelona that he’d likely never run again. Then he and his wife Allison trained for a 314-mile ultramarathon. By Maggie Gigandet.

Masha Gessen visits an interfaith village in Israel, rooted in a belief in Jewish-Palestinian dialogue. Things have been tense there.

Robert Samuels and Toluse Olorunnipa literally wrote the book about George Floyd. Four years after his murder by Minneapolis police, the two journalists discuss whether the racial-justice movement has lost its fight.

Carla Buckley chronicles what happened when a TV meteorologist, hired in Iowa to talk about climate change, actually talked about climate change.

Heather Hodges looks the role of Black women in New Orleans cooking, both the Disney version and reality.

Former Vibe editor Danyel Smith writes candidly about working in the music industry, which “salts and sugars its women and devours them like hors d’oeuvres.”

Taffy Brodesser-Akner recounts the 1974 kidnapping of her childhood neighbor, whose abductor asked, “You’re a Jew, right?” The author puzzles through the question: After such a trauma, how did he seem to move on with his life so gracefully?

Brady Dennis and his colleagues at The Washington Post installed cameras on the main drag of Carolina Beach, N.C., to document how sea-level rise is causing flooding even during calm, clear weather.

Finally, if you want to read more about blue-collar politicians, check out Jason Zengerle’s story about this Democratic congresswoman who flipped a red district.

The book I just re-read: After the European Union elections, I pulled out my 40-year-old copy of Jane Kramer’s Unsettling Europe. It feels prophetic today. Here’s a copy you can read online for free.

The book is a compilation of four New Yorker essays from the 1970s. They tell the stories of four outsider groups: Yugoslavian immigrants in Sweden, Indian-Ugandan refugees in the U.K., Algerian Pied-Noirs in France, and communists in Italy. The Sweden chapter, in particular, drove home this point: Western European’s generous social contract only holds up in homogenous society. Introduce immigrants and the contract falls apart.

What I’m watching: two short movies, available for free online.

When Derek Bridges entered The 48 Hour Film Project, his team was given 48 hours to write, shoot, edit and submit a film that included a postal worker named Jake (or Jade) Gateaux, a coffee mug, and the line of dialogue: “How did you find it?” He recruited the people and dogs from his New Orleans dog park. The result, “Stay,” is a magical realist view of the human-dog connection. Watch the 10-minute director’s cut here.  

I loved “Turn Up the Bass,” a 12-minute documentary about Troi Lee, a deaf DJ, founder of “Deaf Rave” and pioneer of the U.K.'s deaf music scene. It was directed by Ted Evans and funded by Netflix Documentary Talent Fund.

 And what I’m listening to: I’ve been sticking close to home and keeping my music close to home too. These two new albums by Durham artists are swell. 

Shana Tucker describes her music as ChamberSoul: It gathers jazz, soul, and acoustic pop into the embrace of a gorgeous cello and a voice that I could listen to all day. Her new album is called “Hiding in the Light,” and it’s splendid. I downloaded it from Bandcamp, though there are several options for purchase and streaming. 

The Camaraderie is the musical project of Ben Azevedo, a multi-instrumentalist and singer-songwriter. His newest heart-on-sleeve album is Permanent Things. Azevedo is a fine storyteller, and my favorite is also the Durhamest of songs, Majesty Inn (see above). You can hear and purchase the album at Bandcamp.

It’s hot, y’all. Keep your sunscreen within reach.

All best,
Barry Yeoman