That's what I tried to do Thursday night while listening to Rachael Maddow's news show on msnbc amongst the cacophony in our living room.
"Did Dr. Maddow just give a shoutout to our new bike racks downtown?"
"What . . . did she just mention the SY blog on national cable television?"
While the segment was overwhelmingly about concentrated poverty, "Occupy Youngstown" and larger political forces at work across the country that was really worth listening to, there was a smaller snippet of airtime introducing Youngstown as "a place with an amazing determination to stick it out."
Clip here...
But the stories behind the content of that snippet are pretty cool themselves.
Just how did this picture pop-up on msnbc tonight?
The neat "story behind the story" is a great tale of the good things happening in Youngstown, which then flow together into a single moment and a single photo.
First, metal sculptor extraordinaire Tony Armeni had completed the basic structure of the three, 10 foot tall bike racks to be positioned downtown. With a professional and amazing attention to detail, he needed to figure out the exact position of the racks and went downtown on a Saturday morning. (Tony's website of sculptures)
Next, photographer extraordinaire Tony Nicholas came downtown to volunteer and shoot pictures of the positioning, which would then have the black ground stands photoshopped out in order to create mock-ups of what the racks would really look like upon installation. (Tony's website of photos)
Finally, YSU students that weekend voluntarily organized a bike tour of the urban gardens developing in various spots in our city, and coming from the NorthSide Farmer's Market, rode through downtown so see the other recently-installed artisan bike racks down Federal Street.
By sheer coincidence, the sculpture team was positioning the pieces as the bike tour rode by. The bike tour stopped to inspect, the artist was in his place, and the photographer captured that exact moment on film.
And that exact moment captured by Tony Nicholas made it onto nationwide television tonight.
And now you know the rest if the story.
4 comments:
Just as a side note: The bikers were there as part of a 350.org campaign to create awareness of climate change. Jenny Jacobs organized it. Congratulations on the shout out from Rachel! The segment was wonderful!
Very cool, and what a wonderful antidote to the Vindy's 80 point heading about being number one in poverty. Not minimizing the issue with poverty in this town, but it isn't the whole story. Keep the faith.
Great to see your stuff getting that kind of exposure. Congratulations.
Great news! Congrats to you and keep up the terrific work.
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