About Us

Shoresides was launched by journalists in coastal North Carolina as a project of the nonprofit Narrative Arts.  The devastation of Hurricane Florence exposed a need for local journalism in rural coastal North Carolina.  Shoresides acts as the region’s nonprofit civic journalism lab and produces stories, trains civic journalists, and brings communities together to build a healthy media ecology for the region.

Banner photo from the first Shoresides newsletter sent a week after Hurricane Florence hit the coastal region.

OUR MODEL

Shoresides is a project of the nonprofit Narrative Arts.  We rely on individual donations, sponsorships, and grants to support our work in the coastal North Carolina region.

  1. Producing original content covering the region’s culture, politics, and pressing issues.
  2. Bringing people together through our Free Movement Conference focused on civic journalism in the coastal region
  3. Training civic journalists through our Coastal Youth Media Project and our Media Resilience Fellowship program
  4. Collaborating with local, regional, and national partners to increase our impact

 

WHO WE ARE

Rend Smith is the editor/news director of Shoresides. He is a journalist by trade whose work has appeared in the Washington Post, Village Voice, New York Times and other outlets.  

Laura Bratton is an audio producer, WNYC “18-29 Now” Contributor, and native of Wilmington, North Carolina.  She produces Storm Stories and co-produces Shoreside News.

Franchon Francees is the director of Coastal Youth Media project, a program that trains regional youth in media production.  She is Shoresides youth media producer.     

Kevin Lee-Y Green is a dancer, choreographer, and theater director who was born and raised in Bolivia, North Carolina.  He is Shoresides Arts and Culture director. 

Sheresa Elliot  is a licensed clinical social worker, mental health advocate and confidence coach. Elliot hosts the long-form solutions journalism podcast ‘Shoresides’, created by and for Carteret County, North Carolina. 

Nick Szuberla is the executive director of Narrative Arts and a veteran southern media artist, organizer, and narrative strategist.  He cut his teeth as a media producer and organizer working for civil rights at the Highlander Research and Education Center. Later, he worked at the rural media arts center Appalshop from 1998-2011 before launching Narrative Arts. He is the publisher of Shoresides.

You can mail inquiries, donations (make to Narrative Arts with Shoresides in subject line), or pitches to Shoresides, PO Box 448, Wilmington, NC 28402, or email us at info@shoresides.org.  Learn more about Narrative Arts.

 

Our news beat is the coastal plain of North Carolina.