About
I am the Director of the Reporting New York and Reporting the Nation graduate concentrations at NYU’s Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute. Every year my students and I travel to an underserved community and produce stories which run on our website www.pavementpieces.com. I really love my job. I love my students. They inspire me.
I am currently producing and directing a feature-length documentary on the effects of uranium contamination in Navajo Nation. The working title is “Sacred Poison.” It has been a very moving and emotional experience. It is America, but too many people there lack the basics, like water and electricity.
I have written two books, “In Conflict: Iraq War Veterans Speak Out on Duty, Loss and the Fight to Stay Alive” (Polipoint Press) and the critically acclaimed “We Were There: Voices of African American Veterans, from World War II to the War in Iraq.” (Harper Collins/Amistad).
I am not a vet, but I care deeply for veterans and respect their service. I have traveled the country collecting their stories.
In Conflict was turned into a theater piece that premiered at Temple University in October 2007, received rave reviews at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and was awarded The Fringe First Award. In Conflict played Off-Broadway at the Barrow Street Theater. In Conflict was also at the heart of a Wilton, Conn. high school play that after being banned by the school principal, became an international story and was then performed in several Off- Broadway theaters, including The Public Theater.
Both plays were published by Playscripts in June 2008.
I was featured in two History Channel’s Documentaries, “Honor Deferred” and the Emmy award winner, “A Distant Shore: African Americans at D-Day.”
I am journalist and worked for the Philadelphia Daily News for 13 years where I specialized in urban issues.
I am from New York City. I grew up in a neighborhood right next to Harlem. My mother is an immigrant from the Dominican Republic, who came to America to escape poverty. My father was born in Harlem to Jamaican immigrants. He was a World War II vet and his stories inspired my first book.
My parents worked really hard so that my sister and I could go to Catholic school and find a way out of our inner city neighborhood that was consumed by drugs and crime. My sister, Margie, died in a car accident at 27. My sister was my rock and my big supporter. She believed in me and made me feel like I could be more than what was around us. Her death made me want to spend my life being a voice for those who had no way to speak to themselves. That is the root of why I became a journalist.
I earned a BFA in Film/Television and later an MA in Journalism from New York University. I love shooting and I love to write.
My nonfiction short stories have been published in “It’s A Girl:Women Writers On Raising Daughters” (Seal 2006) “The African American History Bibliography” (Oxford Press 2008) and “Callaloo, the premier African-American literary magazine.
I am a Dart Fellow for Journalism and Trauma and a Leeway Foundation Fellow. I have lectured nationally and I am represented by the Jodi Solomon Speakers Bureau.
My work has appeared in USA Today, Chicago Sun Times, BET.com, The Washington Post and numerous other media outlets. I have been featured in over 100 media outlets including, Newsweek, CNN, The New York Times, CNN International, Fox News, NPR, The Philadelphia Inquirer and Detroit Free Press.
Yvonne talks about her work on the Joy Keys Show