Hello World,

If you weren’t able to make the AABJ (Atlanta Association of Black Journalists) panel discussion “The Art of the Hustle” last Saturday, thanks to blogger extraordinaire Yalanda Lattimore, editor of DryerBuzz.com who videotaped the event, you can watch it here! (Thanks 🙂 ) Panelists endeavored to share how we have pursued our journalism and writing careers as the field of journalism continues to evolve in the wake of the Internet, bloggers, newspaper layoffs, decreasing budgets, etc.

Check out the mini-bios of the illustrious panelists…

Curtis Bunn, Kelley L. Carter, Denene Millner, Dion Rabouin and me. (Malena Cunningham was there via Skype.)

Kelley L. Carter is an Emmy-Award winning entertainment journalist. A graduate of Michigan State University, Carter has been an entertainment reporter and critic for more than a dozen years. She’s worked for a number of national and international media outlets, including USA Today, VIBE, BBC, EBONY, ESSENCE, ESPN, MTV News, the Chicago Tribune and the Detroit Free Press. Carter has interviewed many of Hollywood’s elite including Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie, George Clooney, Jada Pinkett Smith, Samuel L. Jackson, Denzel Washington, Drew Barrymore, Jamie Foxx, Mark Wahlberg, Katie Holmes, Jay-Z, Beyonce, Tyler Perry, Taraji P. Henson, Ben Stiller, Bradley Cooper, Courteney Cox, Angela Bassett, Jennifer Aniston, Ryan Reynolds, Sandra Bullock, Terrence Howard and Cuba Gooding Jr. Carter also is regularly tapped for her expertise for TV networks, including CNN, HLN, E!, Fox News and the TV Guide Channel to deliver pop culture takes on entertainment, and give news updates to breaking entertainment news. She currently works as a freelance journalist and covers travel, lifestyle, music, film, celebrities and television. Twitter:  @KelleyLCarter

The New York Times best-selling author Denene Millner is a hotly sought after award-winning journalist whose insightful and captivating pieces have secured her foothold in the entertainment, parenting and book publishing industries. The former Parenting Magazine columnist is the founder and editor of MyBrownBaby.com, a critically acclaimed blog that examines the intersection of parenting and race. Millner also frequently contributes to ESSENCE, EBONY and JET magazines, and has appeared regularly on the “TODAY show,” CBS’ “The Early Show,”” The Nate Berkus Show,” HLN, CNN, and “The Rachel Ray show.” She’s authored 20 books, including the best-selling “Act Like a Lady, Think Like a Man,” co-written with Steve Harvey. Millner’s latest, the novelization of Whitney Houston’s posthumous movie, Sparkle, hits bookshelves in August. She lives in Atlanta with her husband and their two daughters. Twitter: @MyBrownBaby

Curtis Bunn is a 25-year, national award-winning sports journalist who has covered virtually every major sporting event and done every job in the newsroom. Bunn, who now serves are deputy editor of www.atlantablackstar.com, spent the bulk of his career as a beat reporter covering the NBA – first the New Jersey Nets as a 23-year-old for New York Newsday and then the New York Knicks for Newsday and the New York Daily News. In 1996 he joined the staff of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, where he worked for 13 years before accepting a buyout in 2008. The author of five novels, he is the writer of the book, “Yes Ma’am, No Sir: 12 Essentials Steps For Success In Life” with Coach Carter, the subject of the 2005 blockbuster movie starring Samuel L. Jackson. His next novel is “Homecoming Weekend,” to be released in September by Strebor Books/Simon & Schuster. Twitter: @curtisbunn

A packed house...

Malena Cunningham is president of Strategic Media Relations, Inc. a media consulting business she founded in 2005 and co-author of the book “Savvy Leadership Strategies for Women.” A graduate of the University of Georgia with a degree in public relations/journalism, she began her 23-year broadcast career in television news at CNN in Atlanta working first behind the scenes, then on-camera for WTBS. In 1992, Malena moved to WVTM/NBC13 in Birmingham as weekend co-anchor. Within five months, she was promoted to the 6 p.m. weekday newscast becoming the only African American at that time in Birmingham in a main anchor position. During her 12 and a half years at NBC13, Malena won two Emmy Awards (1995 and 1996) for special reporting. She was also part of the 6 p.m. news anchor team that won an Emmy for Best Newscast (1996). In 2004, Malena won the prestigious regional Edward R. Murrow Award for anchoring the half-hour documentary “Beneath the Rubble,” which chronicled the 40th anniversary of the bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church. Twitter: @strategicmediar

Dion Rabouin is a freelance journalist whose writing has been published in The Hollywood Reporter, the Los Angeles Daily News, AllBusiness.com, The Atlanta Voice and many others. He has been featured on Los Angeles radio stations 90.7 KPFK and Southern California Public Radio’s 89.3 KPCC, as well as on television on “RT News” and “Today in LA.” He was formerly secretary of the Black Journalists Association of Southern California and currently serves on the board of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists’ Atlanta chapter in addition to being a member of AABJ. Twitter: @DionRabouin

And I served on the panel too, and since this is my blog, I don’t feel the need to post my bio 🙂 But you can follow me on Twitter @jackiehwrites

Any thoughts?