About two years ago, when I was on a writing binge winning an award from the Independent Press Association (as my friend Carla did); writing for the oldest, black newspaper in the country, the New York Amsterdam News; being an editor for various Hip-Hop websites; getting invited to various seminars across the country and freelancing, I landed my first cover story ever for a popular magazine amongst pro athletes, The Green Magazine.

Before I talk about the cover story with Alonzo Mourning that I covered on the Donald Trump Golf Course in upstate New York, I have to begin with how I got my start freelancing for them.

They put up an ad on craigslist for a writer who was well versed with the issues occurring between Dominicans and Haitians on the island of Hispaniola. I sent them my resume, some clips, and told them no one can write a better article on this than me considering I’m Dominican and know the history.

They bit and I got the story. It was about 600 words and got a huge response from their readers. Many of the letters in the following months issue were directed at my article and how people were shocked of the treatment Haitians were receiving in DR.

After that, they gave me work on an article focusing on immigrants who are enrolled in the army. That was a much longer piece; about 1000 words and the editors loved it as well.

My last piece wasn’t even meant for me. Someone else was supposed to get first dibs on this Alonzo Mourning cover story. This was a year before the Heat won the title if I’m correct. The writer who was supposed to get this gig backed out, and they called on me.

It was one of the best experiences of my life chilling with Alonzo and Shaq and Donald Trump. It was real cool. I will eventually scan these articles up here, but I just wanted to share these posts with you guys as I just stumbled upon these and I consider it an important part of my writing career.

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