This week, Flatwater Free Press reported and wrote stories from a hotel filled with refugees near the Ukrainian border and also from Willa Cather’s front porch.
That seems about right, doesn’t it?
First up: Natalia Alamdari’s first story from Poland, where she’s staying with a Nebraska-founded group trying to help Ukrainian refugees. While grabbing her bag at the Warsaw airport’s baggage claim, Natalia met two women from Lincoln. They turned out to be the exec director and operations director at the Lincoln Children’s Museum. They were headed for the hotel rented out by the Nebraska group — to set up a makeshift children’s museum for Ukrainian refugee kids whose lives have been turned upside down by the war.
That seems like a pretty important story, doesn’t it? Natalia wrote it beautifully.
Tim, Willa and I: A few months ago, Joslyn Art Museum officials called me with an idea. There’s gonna be an artist here soon, they said, and as a part of his project he’s gonna be in your hometown Red Cloud sitting on Willa Cather’s childhood front porch with an old typewriter and retyping every word of one of her novels on a single sheet of paper.
Why yes, I said, I would be interested in meeting this man. Last week I hung out on the aforementioned porch with Tim Youd, who turned out to be a fascinating man in the middle of a decade-plus-long project to retype 100 novels. It’s performance art. It’s a meditation on great words. It was fun to write, and I hope it’s a fun read.
By the way: Tim and Joslyn curator Karin Campbell are gonna be doing a public talk at Millwork Commons Saturday — mere steps from the FFP office! Sadly I cannot be there, but you should come if you can. It’s one cool thing during a whole day of cool things at this newly redeveloped spot just north of the downtown baseball stadium.
Last week: Exec director Matt Wynn and I were in Kearney, where we met roughly half of the residents of the town thanks to Kearney Area Community Foundation President/CEO Judi Sickler (thanks, Judi!) and then attended the Nebraska Press Association conference.
Myself and one of our central Nebraska freelancers, longtime Kearney Hub reporter Lori Potter, also got to take that city slicker Matt to the coolest steakhouse in all of Nebraska. The Speakeasy, my fave, is located in a ghost town 20-ish miles from Kearney. If you haven’t heard of the Speakeasy, check out my spouse Sarah Baker Hansen’s stories about this wondrous place that she wrote for the World-Herald in 2017 and again for her blog last year.
Coming next: In no particular order, we’re working on stories about abortion, North Omaha housing, Nebraskans helping Ukrainian refugees and a fight over LGBTQ rights on Native land.
It’s gonna be a busy month.
Questions wanted: Some of our best story ideas come from readers, and they typically start with a burning question that just cries out for an answer. Have a question that our reporters need to look into? Complete this form or reach our newsroom at [email protected].
Sincerely,
—Matthew Hansen, Executive Editor
Here’s what we’re into this week: News from around Nebraska
Every week we like to share great Nebraska journalism, no matter who made it. Here’s what caught our eye this week:
- Well, here’s a first: We’re sharing a story from a high school newspaper. This week, Central High Register reporter Jane McGill documented the planned departures of 37 different Omaha Central High staff members at the end of the school year. Some are leaving like they always would have left. Others are leaving because the last few years have been rough.
- A protest is growing in Lincoln, where the city council recently approved a development project near the site of a sweat lodge. Read or listen to stories about the protest and the Lincoln mayor’s response, courtesy of Nebraska Public Media’s Melissa Rosales.
- Speaking of protests: Hundreds rallied in Nebraska after the leaked Supreme Court draft opinion that appears to show the nation’s highest court is about to overturn Roe v. Wade. Story by Nancy Gaarder for the World-Herald.
