Wednesday, , February 27, 2019 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon
The people behind The Nugget... T.
By Jim Cornelius
Editor in Chief
Tiffany Lee Brown 4
known to most as <T= 4
brings a varied background
and a deep toolbox of talents
to her work as a freelancer
with The Nugget Newspaper.
Brown9s work for The
Nugget so far has focused
on the arts and on the way in
which local families are work-
ing to manage their digital
lives. She will soon launch a
column titled <In the Pines,=
and will edit a new monthly
feature dedicated to content
for 4 and by 4 children and
families.
<I am very excited that The
Nugget is going to have a new
section called 8Kids In Print9,=
she said. <I9m super-excited to
be the editor of that. It9s a way
we can feature the kids in the
community.=
She says that the content
will be of interest to kids
and families, but she will
also teach children to create
their own content and <how
to work with their natural
curiosity.=
Working with her own nat-
ural curiosity is often the way
Brown finds herself involved
in projects 4 including writ-
ing for The Nugget. A story
about declining school enroll-
ment piqued that curiosity
4 she wanted to know more
about why that might be hap-
pening, and she shared her
research.
<I sent in an overly long
letter to the editor that got run
as a column,= she recalled.
She wrote another op-ed
regarding people9s reactions
to <In Our America= flag
signs.
<I got a lot of response to
that,= she said with a smile.
The response included a
call from Nugget editor Jim
Cornelius, who invited her to
contribute as a freelancer.
<That op-ed showed
clearly that T can write 4
but more importantly that she
approaches issues thought-
fully. And while she9s got
a very strong voice, she is
careful to let other voices be
heard, too,= Cornelius said.
<It seemed like she had a lot
to offer. And, when you9re
an editor, when a writer has
something to offer, you natu-
rally ask them for more.=
Journalism is in T Brown9s
blood.
<I can remember putting
out my elementary school9s
first newspaper,= she said.
She grew up on a farm in
Lane County and attended
the University of California,
Berkeley, where she studied
theater. She also wrote for the
Daily Californian and for an
alternative paper called The
Agitator.
<I was a travel writer right
out of college,= she recalled.
Despite the apparent glamor
of such an occupation, she
says, <it was a horrible gig.=
She notes that there was
always <a thread of market-
ing= in her work life, and
as her career developed,
<marketing, journalism
and creative writing kind
of swirled together for me.
Marketing still supports my
journalism habit, my arts
habit, my poetry habit.=
Poetry brought her to
Sisters Country in 2004, to
an arts residency at Caldera.
While she9d visited Sisters
many times before, she par-
ticularly connected with the
area during this time.
<That was right after the
B&B Fire,= she recalled. <I
spent three weeks stomping
around in the melting snow
over what used to be a forest
there. And the magic, I guess,
really spoke to me.
<I loved the library, I loved
The Nugget, I loved the food
co-op,= she said. <I fell in love
with this place.=
Ten years later, in the midst
of a health crisis related to
toxic mold illness, she left her
home in Portland and camped
with friends at Cold Springs
Campground.
<I started feeling better in a
few days,= she said.
She and her husband and
family traveled for a few
months, but ended up heading
back to Sisters. Feeling what
she described as a kind of
spiritual pull, Brown landed
here in 2016.
<Now we live a couple of
miles from that campground
and I9m in my pines and I9m
really excited about it,= she
said.
Connection with nature
is a critical part of Brown9s
life and her writing. She was
an early adopter of Internet
Almost buried...
21
Lee Brown
PHOTO BY JIM CORNELIUS
T. Brown is taking on multiple roles as a freelancer with The Nugget
Newspaper.
technology who has grown
skeptical of its promise and
determined to stay grounded
in pine needles and soil. She
has written several articles
for The Nugget detailing how
local people actively try to
cultivate that balance (see
story, page 3).
As usual, Brown9s inter-
est in efforts toward a <digital
detox= stemmed out of curi-
osity about how things work
4 and concern about her own
children.
<I have two kids who are
of digital-native age,= she
said. <I see how destructive it
is.=
Brown noted, <When I
started the research, I didn9t
know it was going to be so
horrifically damning of the
social media companies and
the digital delivery systems.
I feel responsible. I was part
of that early group of people
who were really excited about
how the Internet could make
our world better. That changed
radically about 10 years ago,
and most of us weren9t paying
attention.=
Cornelius said he is most
pleased to have Brown9s
unique background and voice
contributing to a group of
strong freelance writers.
<T is full of enthusiasm
and ideas 4 and she9s got
the talent and work ethic to
deliver on them,= he said.
<She9s a real asset to the paper
4 and to Sisters.=
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