Speak Your Piece
Shoresides accepts opinion essays on a range of topics for our “Speak Your Piece” series which is published as text online or aired as audio as part of our podcast. We’re particularly interested in essays that share ideas or issues from the coastal region from perspectives not often heard in our traditional media. Written essays typically run from 400 to 1,200 words and audio essays from 3-4 minutes, but drafts of any length will be considered. We will arrange recording for audio editions.Submission guidelines: Please share one sentence at the top of your submission that tells us who you are and how your opion essay is connected to the coastal region. Also, be sure to include annotations for all assertions and attributions made in your essay. All submissions must be original, exclusive to Shoresides. Contact us at shoresides@workingnarratives.org
Episodes
19 episodes
NC Must Provide More Culturally Relevant Practices
“It would be great if we could have funding to have mandatory training programs for teachers so that they could be really educated about what's going on. So they're not only a teacher who just teaches academics, but they also teach morals and h...
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3:56
Fund School Counselors, Not School Resource Officers
“I should not be scared to come to school. Schools need to be a place of love.” Yakob Lemma, 17, of Raleigh, NC speaks about how SROs are harming students and why the state needs to invest in more constructive strategies.
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2:44
Inequitable Public School Funding Must End
Sonia Green, 17, of Durham, North Carolina speaks about how equitable funding for public school capital and enrichment activities is critical for providing equal educational opportunity to all children.
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3:09
NC Public Schools Need Culturally Relevant Curriculum and Teaching
“My dad wanted me to know that people like me, we weren't just slaves. We were also really successful mathematicians and astronomers and scientists.” Laura Norman, 16, of Cary, NC speaks about how the state’s public school curriculum does not a...
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3:11
North Carolina Must Adequately Fund Rural Public Schools, Now
I want to be a journalist… There is no school newspaper or journalism class at my school.” Jaileea Knight, 15, of Tarboro, NC speaks about how North Carolina’s failure to allocate resources toward the specific needs of students in rural distric...
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1:56
North Carolina Must Fund Improvements to Internet Access Before It’s Too Late
North Carolina student Francisco Ibarra speaks out. In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has forced many public school children to be exclusively on-line learners, North Carolina is still failing to provide the infrastructure for improv...
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3:08
Felony Voter Disenfranchisement
"We are all We The People. When you tell me that I can't participate in an election, you telling me I'm not a part of We The People...that makes me feel like you are still oppressing me, and you still seeing me as three-fifths of a human."<...
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6:51
The Importance Of Latinx Voters
"We are contributors, tax payers. We are entrepreneurs. We are business owners. We have mixed families. We are American...To me, it is important that I define who I am and I say my story, because it took me 25 years to be a U.S. citizen."
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7:27
Racial Equity & Election Priorities from Payal Shah
Payal Shah is a University of North Carolina student from Marshallberg, NC – a predominantly white and conservative town of 400 in Down East, North Carolina. As Shah heads to the voting booth for her first time this week, she thinks about...
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Season 1
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Episode 11
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4:15
Oysters & The Ballot Box
What does an oyster farmer think about when he heads into the voting booth? Kyle Frey, owner of Crystal Coast Oysters, speaks to how he'd like to see elected officials think about environment and jobs.
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Season 1
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Episode 10
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5:10
On Ocracoke, A Back Porch Op Ed
Daphne Bennick has been living on Ocracoke island for the past 35 years. And she's run Back Porch restaurant there for the past 21. Bennick she speaks to what she's looking for in this election as her island goes through a "double wammy" – Hurr...
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Season 1
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Episode 9
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5:24
Young Activist Speaks Up About Racism and Social Justice Issues
Shecoria Smith, 15, reads an essay she composed about her journey to becoming a young activist. She discusses recent events in the U.S. and her community in coastal North Carolina. Smith talks about what protest means to her, and what she's doi...
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4:11
Medicaid: In Crisis and Beyond
Jeff Mills, volunteer and Medicaid Ambassador with the North Carolina AIDS Action Network (NCAAN), reads an essay he composed with Lee Storrow, the Director NCAAN. Mills and Storrow note the positive changes to restrictions and limitations on M...
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6:05
Student Speaks on Reimagining Schools during Remote Learning
"Schools here have a lot of togetherness." Jaileea Knight is an eighth grader in Tarboro, NC. The small town is home to a large reimagining public schools effort. From her perspective as a student leader, Knight speaks to school redesign moment...
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Season 1
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Episode 6
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5:36
What Divided Us Brought Us Together
Julia Narvaez didn't feel tied to her hometown, Wilmington, North Carolina. Instead, she felt disdain for the social and economic inequities in her community. But when Hurricane Florence hit, her feelings for the town changed. Broa...
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Season 1
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Episode 3
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3:16
Recovering Together: Rebuilding after Hurricane Florence
Jonny Morales, 18, talks about what it was like returning to his hometown - Wilmington, North Carolina - after Hurricane Florence. And how he, his family, and his neighbors rebuilt the remains of their community together. Broadcast...
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Season 1
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Episode 2
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4:00
Asthmatic High School Student Discusses COVID-19 & Hurricanes
Morales knows the hospitals in his communities all too well - from Emergency Room visits for the asthma attacks he's had as long as he can remember to serving as a volunteer in his high school years. Now with the coronavirus outbreak, he's anxi...
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Season 1
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Episode 5
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4:25
COVID-19, Ebola, and Racism
Amari Poindexter, 17, says the indifferent attitudes and racism of people during the coronavirus in coastal North Carolina remind her of how her peers responded to the Ebola outbreak when she was in middle school. Broadcast from th...
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Season 1
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Episode 4
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2:55
Not Quite Through the Storm
Shecoria Smith was hunkered down with her mother as the wind and rain pounded her city when a call came making her realize that tragedy from the hurricane had hit close to home. Her friend’s mother and sibling were killed by a tree falling on t...
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Season 1
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Episode 1
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3:16