Carvell Wallace Explained

Carvell Wallace (born October 20, 1974, in McKeesport, Pennsylvania) is a New York Times bestselling author,[1] writer, and podcaster. He is a regular contributor to Pitchfork,[2] MTV News,[3] the Huffington Post,[4] and Slate,[5] [6] and has written for The New York Times,[7] New York Magazine,[8] [9] GQ,[10] The Toast,[11] The Guardian,[12] The New Yorker,[13] Esquire,[14] Quartz,[15] ESPN,[16] and other publications. He is the creator and host of Finding Fred,[17] an iHeart Media documentary podcast about the life of Fred Rogers; host of Closer Than They Appear, an Al Jazeera podcast about race and identity in America,[18] and co-host of the Slate parenting podcast Mom & Dad Are Fighting. He is co-writer of the Slate parenting advice column, Care & Feeding.[19] [20] In 2019, he helped create the Sundance Institute exhibition Still Here,[21] [22] an immersive multimedia installation about mass incarceration, erasure, and gentrification in Harlem, New York.

Early life

Wallace was raised by a working-class single mother in McKeesport, Pennsylvania.[23] He had "a very chaotic childhood" but "was really obsessed with media" from a young age, namely TV shows and movies.[24] One of his early idols was Eddie Murphy.

Education

Wallace became interested in acting when he was in ninth grade. He graduated from Los Angeles County High School for the Arts and was admitted to New York University's Tisch School of Arts conservatory program. He graduated from the university with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Experimental Theatre in 1997.

Career

Starting in 1997, Wallace spent 15 years working designing and running programs for incarcerated youth, foster youth, and at-risk youth in New York City and San Francisco. His work involved working with "young people in foster care, employment programs, [and] probation and detention."[25] One of his projects involved designing an education intake and assessment model for youth released from Rikers Island and Spofford Detention Facility. Another project, undertaken in 2000, entailed the redesign and expansion of an organic farming employment program, under the auspices of the San Francisco League Of Urban Gardeners, for middle school-aged youth in the Bayview/Hunters Point neighborhood, during which time he taught on the subjects of sustainable farming, food security, and environmental justice. He was also tasked with creating a reentry to society program for youth from San Francisco County who were exiting long-term incarceration. Furthermore, he "wrote the curriculum for and ran the pilot for a career certificate training program for youth leaving foster care in San Francisco, Alameda, Contra Costa, and Solano counties."[26] In 2003, he created and taught a course for middle school-aged black youth which combined history with behavior modification and social skills development. He subsequently spent seven years as at Revolution Prep in Santa Monica, California.

During this time, Wallace co-founded Flourish Agenda[27] whose mission included outreach to "black youth in schools and community organizations to help overcome racial trauma and provide tools that are necessary for success." Also during this period, Wallace co-created the Vibosity app, which "allow[ed] kids to assess their own personal, social, and emotional growth,"[28] was a speaker at Alterconf San Francisco[29] as well as the San Francisco Tech Inclusion Conference, and was named one of Echoing Green's Black Male Achievement Fellows.

Wallace's writings began to appear in outlets such as The Toast in 2016, for which he wrote the in-depth history piece "The Negro Motorist Green Book and Black America's Perpetual Search For A Home."[30] The same year, he wrote a profile of NBA player Steph Curry, Wallace's first profile,[31] which was published in The New Yorker.[32] Starting in March 2016, he spent a year and six months as am MTV News Music Desk columnist, writing on subjects ranging from Prince,[33] John Coltrane,[34] white rappers, and Aaliyah,[35] to Bernie Worrell,[36] De La Soul,[37] G-Eazy,[38] and Meghan Trainor.[39]

In 2017, Wallace wrote GQ cover story on Mahershala Ali.[40] Among many writings of his that year, he teamed with Al Jazeera to start the Closer Than They Appear podcast, an exploration of race and identity in America. The podcast went on to win a Kaleidoscope Award from the Radio Television Digital News Association.[41]

In 2018, Wallace wrote Viola Davis's Woman of the Year piece for Glamour.[42] He also wrote Obama's Parting Gift, a story about the end of Barack Obama's presidency for The New Yorker, which earned a spot in 2018's Best American Essays.[43] The same year, his Al Jazeera podcast, Closer Than They Appear, received a favorable review from the Los Angeles Review of Books.[44]

On March 12, 2019, Esquire published Wallace's "Samuel L. Jackson Operates Like He Owns the Place. (He Does.)" as their cover story.[45] Also in 2019, Wallace helped the Golden State Warriors' Andre Iguodala write the book The Sixth Man: A Memoir, which ranked as a New York Times bestseller. Wallace also created the iHeart Media podcast Finding Fred, a documentary podcast about the life of Fred Rogers, garnering accolades such as being named the #1 Podcast of 2019 by The Atlantic.[46]

Awards and honors

Personal life

Wallace struggled with drugs and alcohol in his 20s and 30s; alcoholism ran in his family.

Wallace has a son, born in 2002, and a daughter, born in 2006.

Podcasts

DateShowEpisodeRole
Nov. 29, 2019One Bad Mother[50] "Episode 330: Sunday Sunday, Oh Sh*t Tomorrow's Monday! Plus, Carvell Wallace on Parenting and Fred Rogers"Guest
Nov. 22, 2019It's Been a Minute with Sam Sanders, NPR[51] "Weekly Wrap: Dems Debate, Mister Rogers and WeWork"Guest
Nov. 15, 2019-Dec. 24, 2019Finding FredSeriesHost
Oct. 23, 2019Longform[52] "Carvell Wallace"Guest
January 4, 2019On Point, 90.9 WBUR[53] "Do Moms And Dads Know What They're Doing? A Closer Look At Parenting Advice"Guest
2017Closer Than They AppearSeriesHost
Dec. 2013-ongoingMom and Dad Are Fighting[54] SeriesHost

Notes and References

  1. News: Sports and Fitness Books - Best Sellers - July 14, 2019 - The New York Times. The New York Times.
  2. Web site: Carvell Wallace: Contributor. Pitchfork.
  3. Web site: News - Entertainment, Music, Movies, Celebrity. https://web.archive.org/web/20160227145055/http://www.mtv.com/news/author/wallacec/. dead. February 27, 2016. MTV News.
  4. Web site: Carvell Wallace | HuffPost. www.huffpost.com.
  5. Web site: Carvell Wallace. Slate Magazine.
  6. Web site: What It's Like to Be Black on Campus When White People Assume You Don't Deserve to Be There. Jamelle Bouie, Rachelle Hampton, Aisha Harris, Carvell. Wallace. March 20, 2019. Slate Magazine.
  7. News: 'Queen & Slim' Could Be One of the Great Love Stories of All Time — if You Let It. Carvell. Wallace. The New York Times. November 21, 2019.
  8. Web site: Riz Ahmed Acts His Way Out of Every Cultural Pigeonhole. Carvell. Wallace. August 29, 2018. NYTimes.com.
  9. News: How Tarell Alvin McCraney Moved From 'Moonlight' to Broadway — and Beyond. Carvell. Wallace. The New York Times. January 15, 2019.
  10. Web site: Carvell Wallace - Bio, latest news and articles. GQ.
  11. Web site: Carvell Wallace - The Toast. the-toast.net.
  12. Web site: Carvell Wallace | The Guardian. the Guardian.
  13. The Dark Manhood of "Kicks," an Anti-Coming-of-Age Story. Carvell. Wallace. The New Yorker.
  14. Web site: Carvell Wallace. Carvell. Wallace. Esquire.
  15. Web site: How Black Santa helped me believe again. Carvell. Wallace. Quartz. 22 December 2014 .
  16. Web site: Why Miles Bridges came back. ESPN.com.
  17. RS Recommends: 'Finding Fred' Podcast Goes Inside 'Mister Rogers' Neighborhood'. Andrea. Marks. Rolling Stone. January 10, 2020.
  18. Web site: About. Closer Than They Appear.
  19. Web site: Dear Care and Feeding: Our Teenage Son Has Suddenly Gained 50 Pounds. Carvell. Wallace. December 26, 2018. Slate Magazine.
  20. Web site: How Do I Explain Death to a Toddler?. Carvell. Wallace. May 9, 2018. Slate Magazine.
  21. Web site: New Frontier. tisch.nyu.edu.
  22. Web site: still-here. www.sundance.org. 2020-01-19. 2020-08-10. https://web.archive.org/web/20200810162040/https://www.sundance.org/projects/still-here. dead.
  23. Web site: Episode 4: Why me?. Closer Than They Appear.
  24. Web site: Carvell and the Newtown Pippin.
  25. Web site: Carvell Wallace. Echoing Green.
  26. Web site: Carvell Wallace | Tech Inclusion Conference 2015 San Francisco at Galvanize SF. sf15.techinclusion.co.
  27. Web site: The Black Male Achievement Fellowship. NBC News. December 2015 .
  28. Web site: Flourish Agenda careers. wellfound.com. 4 October 2023.
  29. Web site: Speaker: Carvell Wallace | AlterConf. www.alterconf.com.
  30. Web site: The Negro Motorist Green Book and Black America's Perpetual Search For A Home - The Toast. Carvell. Wallace. the-toast.net.
  31. Web site: Behind the story: Carvell Wallace profiles Mahershala Ali for GQ. Columbia Journalism Review.
  32. Steph Curry and the Warriors' Astonishing Season. Carvell. Wallace. The New Yorker. 31 May 2016.
  33. Web site: Prince Can't Die. https://web.archive.org/web/20160422233026/http://www.mtv.com/news/2871992/prince-cant-die/. dead. April 22, 2016. Carvell. Wallace. MTV News.
  34. Web site: A Place For The Soul To Sing: The Church Of St. John Coltrane. https://web.archive.org/web/20160406014839/http://www.mtv.com/news/2862125/a-place-for-the-soul-to-sing-the-church-of-st-john-coltrane/. dead. April 6, 2016. Carvell. Wallace. MTV News.
  35. Web site: The Unknowable Aaliyah. https://web.archive.org/web/20160513235214/http://www.mtv.com/news/2880721/the-unknowable-aaliyah/. dead. May 13, 2016. Carvell. Wallace. MTV News.
  36. Web site: How Bernie Worrell Built Our Musical Future. https://web.archive.org/web/20160627234214/http://www.mtv.com/news/2898249/bernie-worrell-obituary/. dead. June 27, 2016. Carvell. Wallace. MTV News.
  37. Web site: De La Soul's Patient, Powerful Rap: And The Anonymous Nobody, Reviewed. https://web.archive.org/web/20160901224628/http://www.mtv.com/news/2927509/de-la-soul-anonymous-nobody-review/. dead. September 1, 2016. Carvell. Wallace. MTV News.
  38. Web site: G-Eazy: Art of the Hustle. https://web.archive.org/web/20170210150039/http://www.mtv.com/news/interactive/g-eazy-cover-story/. dead. February 10, 2017. Carvell. Wallace. MTV News.
  39. Web site: Stolen Language: The Strange Case Of Meghan Trainor's Blaccent. https://web.archive.org/web/20160611024816/http://www.mtv.com/news/2891156/stolen-language-the-strange-case-of-meghan-trainors-blaccent/. dead. June 11, 2016. Carvell. Wallace. MTV News.
  40. Web site: Mahershala Ali Thinks We Can Still Make this Country Great. Carvell. Wallace. GQ. 19 June 2017.
  41. Web site: RTDNA announces 2018 Kaleidoscope Award winners. www.rtdna.org. 2020-01-19. 2020-08-14. https://web.archive.org/web/20200814051419/https://www.rtdna.org/article/rtdna_announces_2018_kaleidoscope_award_winners. dead.
  42. Web site: Viola Davis Knows What It Takes to Go From 'Close to Nothing' to Beloved Icon. Carvell. Wallace. Glamour. 31 October 2018.
  43. Book: The Best American Essays 2018. Hilton. Als. Robert. Atwan. October 2, 2018. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. 9780544817340. Google Books.
  44. Web site: Closer Than They Appear Podcast Review: An Optimistic Reckoning. March 16, 2018.
  45. Web site: A Lot of People Say They Don't Give a F*ck. Samuel L. Jackson Means It.. Carvell. Wallace. March 12, 2019. Esquire.
  46. Web site: The 50 Best Podcasts of 2019. Laura Jane Standley, Eric. McQuade. December 27, 2019. The Atlantic.
  47. Web site: Best of 2019: podcasts we loved this year (volume I) CBC Radio.
  48. Web site: 7 buzzworthy June books to look out for. June 10, 2019. Los Angeles Times.
  49. News: 2023-02-15 . California-based freelance journalists win $100,000 prizes . Associated Press . 2023-02-15.
  50. Web site: Episode 330: Sunday Sunday, Oh Sh*t Tomorrow's Monday! Plus, Carvell Wallace on Parenting and Fred Rogers. November 25, 2019. Maximum Fun.
  51. Web site: Weekly Wrap: Dems Debate, Mister Rogers and WeWork. NPR.org.
  52. Web site: Longform Podcast #365: Carvell Wallace · Longform. Longform. 23 October 2019 .
  53. Web site: Do Moms And Dads Know What They're Doing? A Closer Look At Parenting Advice. www.wbur.org. 4 January 2019 .
  54. Web site: Mom and Dad Are Fighting. Dan Kois, Jamilah. Lemieux. July 23, 2019. Slate Magazine.

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