Often when I think about filing a radio essay or a story to mark the 83rd anniversary of Malcolm's birth, I feel pressure to do it very well. I feel that with any story that I file, but there's extra and special pressure with this subject. As one of my sources acknowledged, "he was being wronged constantly." Additionally as I acknowledge, in the story opening, what Malcolm means or meant to you and who he was or is to you depends on where you're from and how you were raised.
This is a thorny subject.
This has been a strange story for me to file in other ways. I finished the stories that I was obligated to do for directed study this spring. For the summer, I decided to experiment with different genres and forms. Malcolm X was supposed to have been done as an essay. I pretty literally go about my stories playing by ear. Guess what? I must have been stuck, like a vinyl record, in a reporting groove. This story didn't turn out as an essay. I have heard few essays that moved or inspired me try my hand at what they've done. I understand little about producing an essay. So, I don't know when I'll be comfortable with that experiment.
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