Kai Wright

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Kai Wright is an American journalist, activist, author, and podcast host. [1] [2] He has served as copy editor at the New York Daily News, senior writer at The Root, senior editor at City Limits, editorial director at ColorLines, [3] and features editor at The Nation. [4] Wright's journalism has focused on social, racial, and economic justice. His writing has appeared in The New York Times, Mother Jones, and Salon, among other outlets, and his national broadcast appearances include MSNBC and NPR. [1] [5] [6] He is the current host and managing editor of Notes from America with Kai Wright on WNYC. [1]

Contents

Career

Kai Wright began his career as a journalist in the late '90s at the Washington Blade. His first assignment was a story looking at the disproportionate risk of HIV infection among people of color, and particularly young gay men of color. He then spent much of his early career writing about impact of HIV/AIDS on young gay men of color. [7]

Wright went on to become a favorite reporter at Type Investigations (formerly The Investigative Fund) where he covered economic inequality, access to healthcare, and racial inequity. [1] At the same time he became an Alfred Knobler Fellow at its parent organization, The Nation Institute. [8] [6]

Wright gained notoriety in the HIV prevention world as he, while writing as a columnist and later senior writer at The Root, he served as publications editor for the Black AIDS Institute. [9] [10]

He spent time as senior editor at City Limits, copy editor at the New YorkDaily News, and news reporter at The Washington Blade [11] before joining ColorLines in 2010, initially as editorial and later as, editor-at-large [5] [3] He is credited with transforming the publication from a bimonthly print journal to a daily digital destination reaching 1 million readers a month. [11]

In 2015, Wright was persuaded to join The Nation as a features editor, making it, at the time, one of the few political magazines with people of color in senior leadership. [4] Wright edited the magazine's features, investigative reports, and editorials, helped cultivate new talent, and developed new digital ventures. The magazine looked to him to enhance coverage in his areas of expertise - issues of race and racial justice, inequality, labor, health, and sexuality. [11]

While features editor at The Nation, Wright began hosting the podcast “The United States of Anxiety” in partnership with WNYC Studios.

Since becoming managing editor at WNYC and host of its narrative unit, Wright has hosted the podcasts Indivisible, Caught: The Lives of Juvenile Justice, There Goes the Neighborhood, The Stakes and United States of Anxiety [12] [13]

Outside of his home publications, his writing has appeared in In These Times, [14] Truthout, [15] Common Dreams, [16] Essence magazine, and Mother Jones. [17]

Personal life

Wright is a native of Indianapolis, Indiana [18] and lives in Brooklyn, New York. [11]

Bibliography

Black AIDS Institute Publications

Prose and other projects

Awards

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">HIV/AIDS in the United States</span> HIV/AIDS epidemic in the United States

The AIDS epidemic, caused by HIV, found its way to the United States between the 1970s and 1980s, but was first noticed after doctors discovered clusters of Kaposi's sarcoma and pneumocystis pneumonia in homosexual men in Los Angeles, New York City, and San Francisco in 1981. Treatment of HIV/AIDS is primarily via the use of multiple antiretroviral drugs, and education programs to help people avoid infection.

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Since reports of emergence and spread of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) in the United States between the 1970s and 1980s, the HIV/AIDS epidemic has frequently been linked to gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men (MSM) by epidemiologists and medical professionals. It was first noticed after doctors discovered clusters of Kaposi's sarcoma and pneumocystis pneumonia in homosexual men in Los Angeles, New York City, and San Francisco in 1981. The first official report on the virus was published by the Center for Disease Control (CDC) on June 5, 1981, and detailed the cases of five young gay men who were hospitalized with serious infections. A month later, The New York Times reported that 41 homosexuals had been diagnosed with Kaposi's sarcoma, and eight had died less than 24 months after the diagnosis was made.

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References

  1. 1 2 3 4 "People - Kai Wright | WNYC | New York Public Radio, Podcasts, Live Streaming Radio, News". WNYC. Retrieved 2021-10-29.
  2. ↑ "Forgotten Sons". POZ. 2012-01-09. Retrieved 2021-12-03.
  3. 1 2 "How Social Media Helped Spread Protest In Michael Brown Shooting". NPR.org. Retrieved 2021-11-05.
  4. 1 2 "How The Nation Is Facing The New Era Of Journalism". HuffPost. 2015-04-07. Retrieved 2021-11-05.
  5. 1 2 3 Whaley, K. P. (2015-07-31). "Kai Wright". Wisconsin Public Radio. Retrieved 2021-10-29.
  6. 1 2 "Kai Wright". The Nation. 2010-04-02. Retrieved 2021-10-29.
  7. ↑ "Do the Wright thing | EDGE Boston, MA". EDGE Media Network. Retrieved 2021-11-12.
  8. ↑ Vora, Jayati (2010-06-28). "Ask [Kai Wright] About Gay Youth in New York". Type Investigations. Retrieved 2021-12-10.
  9. ↑ "A black plague: a new report says blacks are hit hardest by AIDS". The World from PRX. Retrieved 2022-01-14.
  10. ↑ Housing Works (2009-02-19). "Where Are the Black Gay Men?". The Body Pro.
  11. 1 2 3 4 5 Room, Press (2015-01-28). "'The Nation' Magazine Names Kai Wright as Features Editor". The Nation. ISSN   0027-8378 . Retrieved 2021-10-29.
  12. ↑ Blistein, Jon (2019-04-23). "New Podcast 'The Stakes' Plots Episodes on Conscious Hip-Hop, Mueller Report". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 2021-11-05.
  13. ↑ "Indivisible". NPR.org. Retrieved 2021-11-05.
  14. ↑ "Kai Wright". In These Times. Retrieved 2021-12-10.
  15. ↑ Truthout (10 December 2017). "Kai Wright". Truthout. Retrieved 2021-12-10.
  16. ↑ "Kai Wright". Common Dreams. Retrieved 2021-12-10.
  17. ↑ "African American Experience: Black History and Culture Through Speeches, Letters, Editorials, Poems, Songs, and Stories | IndieBound.org". www.indiebound.org. Retrieved 2022-02-04.
  18. ↑ Wright, Kai; Gerald, Gil (2008). Saving Ourselves; The State of AIDS in Black America and What We're Doing About It. Los Angeles, California: Black AIDS Institute.
  19. ↑ "A black plague: a new report says blacks are hit hardest by AIDS". The World from PRX. Retrieved 2021-11-12.
  20. ↑ "Kai Wright | ColorLines". www.ColorLines.com. Archived from the original on 2021-10-25. Retrieved 2021-10-29.
  21. ↑ National Association of Black Journalists (2012). "2012 Salute to Excellence Winners". National Association of Black Journalists. Retrieved 2022-02-03.
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