WSS Featured Blogger: Farai Chideya

• Name: Farai Chideya
• Blog: http://www.faraichideya.com
• Location: Berkeley, CA

1. How did you start blogging? Why do you keep at it?

I started proto-blogging eight years ago on a site called PopandPolitics.com. That site is now a nonprofit devoted to political coverage for young Americans. It evolved from being more personal to being more journalistic. So I decided I wanted another space to rant.

2. What are your most important issues?

I talk a lot about politics, but I'm really interested now in spirituality, constructions of public morality, public spaces online, and travel. All of which may or may not be reflected in my blog.

3. What's the nicest recognition you've ever received from the media and/or the blogosphere?

Hmmmm... A paycheck? (Not for blogging.) Seriously, I think the best stuff is from teens who write and say "you are the coolest." It makes me very happy. Now I've got a new book out,"Trust: Reaching the 100 Million Missing Voters." I'm writing about my book tour on my blog... off to Alaska soon. Very cool travels. And, in recognition, I got blurbs from Gloria Steinem, Chuck D, and Bill Maher, which has to be some kind of cultural trifecta.

4. Who is your audience? What is unique about your blog?

My audience is probably mostly my friends; then fellow-travelers who pay attention to media and politics. I write in a way that tries, as many blogs do, to acknowledge an intimacy with everyone that reads. What's unique? Me. That's what's unique about every blog. It's sort of a thousand-flowers-bloom mechanism.

5. Most frustrating aspect of blogging?

Losing a post. Forgetting what the hell you were saying mid-stream. Being unable to beam pictures from your brain into the computer.

6. What's the one point you'd like a reader to take away from your blog- the one thing for them to really "get".

Politics: it's not just for rich old white men in suits anymore.

Quote: Namaste: The divine in me recognizes the divine in you.