About Charlotte Hsu

WORK HISTORY

Created and managed The Buffalo Story Project (2009 to present)
Contributed regularly to Artvoice, Buffalo's alternative weekly (2009 to present)
Reported for the Las Vegas Sun (2007 to 2009)
Reported for the San Bernardino Sun (2006 to 2007)
Interned at the Allentown Morning Call, Newark Star-Ledger and Seattle Times

PERSONAL

I like the Rust Belt, maps, languages, the San Francisco 49ers, whiskey, the desert, Guillermo Kuitca and snow. I love fiction, and my favorite authors include Thomas Pynchon, Milan Kundera, Italo Calvino, Tim O'Brien and Michael Chabon.

COMMENTS on the March 20-25, 2011 Independent Journalists Workshop

Amazing! I've already upgraded The Buffalo Story Project using the skills I picked up @ the workshop. Improvements I've made include:

— Moving the site from WordPress.com to WordPress.org
— Resizing photos to make the site load a gazillion times faster
— Using Firefox's Firebug (which Len showed me) to redesign the home page to highlight content better. (Design changes were recommended during a workshop site critique)
— Editing photos using PhotoShop
— Creating and posting slide shows using the WordPress NextGen smooth gallery
— Embedding a video
— Tracking the site's success through Google Analytics. I've been relieved to discover that people do read the site =)

• Occupation: Freelancer
• Organization: Freelance
• Location: Buffalo, NY 14214 USA
• Website: http://www.buffalostoryproject.com/
• Twitter: charlottehsu
• Facebook: buffalostoryproject
• Was accepted for Mar 20-25 2011 Independent Journalists Workshop.

Stories

Digital media stories published elsewhere by Charlotte Hsu:

• The Pageant at Palmyra: The Book of Mormon, Like You've Never Seen it Before [edit]
  Utah may be the heartland of the Mormon church, but Upstate New York was where the religion was born. Our latest story talks about The Hill Cumorah Pageant, a flamboyant celebration of the Mormon faith that takes place every year on the very hill where the religion is said to have began. No fancy multimedia features this time, but I used a lot of the skills (Photoshop, WordPress) learned at the Independent Journalists Workshop to put this together! — Charlotte
• Hunting Monsters, Chasing Ghosts: The Marvelous Life of Detective Joe Nickell [edit]
  An in-depth profile of a ghost-hunting, alien-chasing, monster-tracking detective is enhanced with audio of him telling stories about memorable cases. Instead of repeating something in the text, the clips add something completely new!
• Life After Death: Living in the Shadow of Murder [edit]
  In 2011, 16-year-old Zayra Pagan witnessed her mother's murder in Buffalo, N.Y. Zayra says that learning to cook the food her mother used to make has provided comfort during a difficult recovery. Our related, long-form story on Zayra is here: http://www.buffalostoryproject.com/2012/03/01/life-after-death-in-the-wake-of-murder-learning-to-live-again. Thanks for taking a look!
• The Canoes Overhead: Nancy Rubins’ Epic New Sculpture at the Albright-Knox Is Whatever You Make of It [edit]
  A voluminous sculpture of about 60 tangled, aluminum boats has been turning heads skyward since construction started on June 6 at the Albright-Knox Art Gallery. Our unique take on the story, with selected photographs.
• Wine From the Old World: In Buffalo, a Tradition From Italy Lives On [edit]
  A classic Buffalo story, told through images, a slide show and text. We explore Buffalo's Italian history through the story of one local family and their tradition of making wine the old-fashioned way.
• Disgrace: St. Matthew's Church Is Falling Apart. Who Will Save It? [edit]
  The first in a pair of stories on St. Matthew's Roman Catholic Church in Buffalo. Congregants laid St. Matthew's' cornerstone in October 1911. The church had many good years, but the last mass took place in 1993 as Buffalo's population plummeted. Now, as the church turns 100, it's literally falling to pieces. Rain blows in through broken windows. Paint flakes from the walls.
• Closing a Cold Case: Police Solve the Murder of Joseph Thomas Jr. [edit]
  The phone call that Joseph Thomas Sr. had been waiting for since August 2003 finally came this March. After more than seven years, police had finally solved his son’s murder. A short update, with video, on a story we published in January 2011 on the then-unsolved murder of Joseph Thomas Jr.

Writing

Content on this site written by Charlotte Hsu (includes contributory writing):

Testimonials

Where to begin? It was amazing. I can't wait to start making maps and slide shows. Jerry's Final Cut tutorial was incredible. Prior to the workshop, I'd been attempting and failing miserably at using Final Cut for about six months. Now I love it. I picked up so many skills I can actually use. Being around so many successful entrepreneurs was very inspiring, and I will probably be posting more often on my own site as a result.