This holiday invites everyone at every age to dance. It is never too late to start such a fun and valuable form of exercise and creative expression! As you can tell from these pictures, dance has been an important part of my life for as long as I can remember. The image on the left was taken of me at my very first ballet studio. The one on the right was shot in 2019, when I performed with Ballet Wyoming while anchoring for CBS.
For this national report, my goal was to learn how technology is changing the dining experience. I filmed at seven different restaurants in three diverse regions. I experienced servers ranging from a maître d’hôtel managing the staff in an elegant dining room to a robot delivering drinks to customers while their dinners sped along a conveyor belt and stopped in front of them. That was a first for me! It was also the first time I created motion graphics from scratch for my story.
The countdown to Super Bowl LVII is about to reach its crescendo. Football fans are cheering on the Philadelphia Eagles and the Kansas City Chiefs, but the team I am rooting for is my brother Clay’s crew of SkyCam riggers. Since last Thursday, they have been at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona, preparing to televise the game. People who do this type of work are professional-level rock climbers. The beautiful bride in this photo is Clay’s wife, Rosie. She is also an expert rock climber, and teaches at a high school in Park City, Utah for winter-Olympic athletes.
Freedom’s Path is the farewell film of two acclaimed actors whose lives were abruptly cut short during post-production. Opening nationwide on the big screen February 3rd for Black History Month, this movie pays tribute to the Tony-nominated Thomas Jefferson Byrd, and chameleon Carol Sutton, revered for her roles in films like Ray, Monster’s Ball and Steel Magnolias. Freedom’s Path writer/director, Brett Smith, warmly recalls that as phenomenal as these two were as actors, they were even more phenomenal as people. In this interview, Brett shares those memories, the extraordinary dedication of the entire Freedom’s Path cast and crew, and the many seemingly-insurmountable hurdles they crossed over to create this passionate project.
After the interview, Brett told me that the Freedom’s Path production team has decided to donate all proceeds from the film’s opening weekend to support underrepresented historic black colleges and universities. The major inspiration for the decision came from Byron Allen. His Allen Media Group has formed a HBCU GO promotional partnership with this award-winning film.
With no prior experience, a first-time writer and director has taken the idea that has filled his heart since an elementary school history class, and turned it into a feature film. Freedom’s Path will soon hit the big screen nationwide in honor of Black History Month. I had the privilege of interviewing Brett Smith about this portrayal of friendship and courage. Brett has been my friend since childhood, and told me about his movie idea twelve years ago, when he began the film’s creative process. Later this weekend, I’ll post the full news story.
The Buffalo Bills’ famously exuberant fans have been one of my TV news beats for the past three seasons. To support the Bills in this Sunday’s playoff game, I have prepared some of my favorite clips for you from those reports. In this video, I even show you how to do the Bills Shout Dance, so you can cheer on the team throughout the game! This weekend’s showdown between the Bills and the Bengals is especially poignant because the two teams have not met since Bills’ safety, Damar Hamlin, went into cardiac arrest following an impact during their last game together. Since then, I have been so touched by the fact that no matter which team fans root for, people around the world have come together to show their love and support for Damar. According to his doctors, though the road to recovery will be long, he is showing no signs of neurological damage. I have heard people from various walks of life say that this miraculous news has given them hope when struggling with their own challenges.
In this exclusive interview, the man who is both a United Nations’ Southeast Asia Advocate and a national civil engineer for the Philippines joined me for a frank discussion. Mark Fredelben Gomez Gravillo candidly described his people’s “fear of China,” love of country, and recovery from devastating super typhoons.
The pictures on the left are from one of the first news stories I created after moving to Western New York. Airing mere months before the pandemic began, it covered redevelopment plans for a circa 1931 food terminal in East Buffalo. Viewers sent encouraging messages asking for more news about the area and its development plans. That led me to many stories and friendships on the East Side.
After the mass shooting at Tops supermarket, an article appeared in the Wall Street Journal talking about disinvestment in the area. Though the writeup contained valid concerns, residents reached out to me saying that they wished it had acknowledged their hard work in recent years to redevelop East Buffalo. Since I know those projects well, they asked if there was anything I could do about that. These people mean so much to me that I wrote a letter to the WSJ editor and it was published. You can read about the efforts to revitalize this area here.
Creating this story was an adventure! I filmed it with my cell phone in four cities and two countries, just after the 5,500-mile-long border between them opened to citizens of both nations after a shutdown of almost two years. My quest was to determine the economic and personal impact of this once-in-history phenomena. To uncover the facts, I traveled through both countries in rain, wind, snow and sun! During the short time since my report aired, restrictions on both sides of the border have further changed with the rise and fall of Covid-19 variants, and differences of opinions concerning governmental regulations. My full story is on SpectrumLocalNews.com
In this news story, I take viewers from Buffalo to Nigeria, where kids are learning pre-professional dance despite living in poverty and lacking resources. Although their dance floor is often a dirt road, nothing can dampen these students’ passion and the quality of their work. For more than a year, while many people have been physically separated from loved ones by the Covid-19 pandemic, a bond has been formed between Buffalo and Nigerian dancers. Creating this report reminded me of similar bonds I formed while growing up and dancing pre-professionally.
Shea’s Performing Arts Center is a Buffalo landmark sought out by people from around the world. Broadway touring productions typically choose Shea’s as the venue to launch their shows. Although the pandemic has put this New York treasure on intermission for almost a year, Shea’s is celebrating its 95th anniversary and looking forward to opening its doors again. Teamwork is the epitome of this company. I appreciate that every time I enter the theatre. This time, I am especially thankful for the use of archival material and Kevin Sweeney, Director of Marketing and Communications. I generally shoot and edit my stories solo, and I wanted to do a standup that would have required me to clone myself. Without hesitation, Kevin came to the rescue and filmed me while walking backwards!
