At 9 years old, Christopher A. Daniel knew exactly what he wanted to do with his life. Watching Ed Bradley interview celebrities on 60 Minutes, seeing “this brother with salt and pepper hair, and a suit, and an earring,” Daniel decided he would become a cultural journalist. Now, decades later, the award-winning writer is receiving the CNP Award for Excellence in Journalism from the Counter Narrative Project, proving that childhood dreams can become powerful reality.

From his upstate South Carolina roots to bylines in The Washington Post, Vogue and NPR Music, Daniel has built a career around authentic Black storytelling. As the Black Culture Reporter for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s UATL brand and former journalism professor at Morehouse College, he’s become both chronicler and champion of Black culture. His recent recognition from the Counter Narrative Project celebrates more than excellent reporting. It honors a life spent shifting narratives and amplifying the voices that matter most.

Tell us about yourself and why you chose this path

I’m the youngest of two. I grew up in Upstate South Carolina to a single parent. My mother always used to have friends over, they’d be drinking and listening to music, and she worked in a beauty salon as a beautician, so it was always Black women around, school teachers and mothers with a bunch of kids. I really got to see firsthand how Black women felt. I always got to see women who worked really hard, and of course, I got to see people just enjoy who they were, no matter what was going on around them.

I was always someone who really loved to read and always spent time in the library. I was a big art person, so I always was in music class or visual art courses, and I did an improv group when I was in school. I always knew that it was something more than just athletics and sports for Black men.

It was after reading Hip Hop America by Nelson George, and I was just like, you can actually do this? You can write about the culture, and you can have passion for it. I was a big fan of Soul Train, Donnie Simpson on Video Soul, Ed Gordon on BET Nightly News, and my family loved watching Ed Bradley on 60 Minutes. When I saw this brother with salt and pepper hair, and a suit, and an earring interviewing all these amazing people, it was just like, that’s what I want to do right there.

I was probably about 9 or 10 years old when I really came to the realization that I wanted to go into journalism, I wanted to write about Black music, I wanted to write about Black culture, and I just wanted to tell our stories.

What’s the difference between writing about Black culture for mainstream publications versus Black-specific platforms

When you’re writing for Black-specific platforms, there are certain nuances of the culture you just don’t have to explain to people. A lot of that stuff is highly understood and it’s a lot of shared experiences, so you come in more so with just the color, more than anything.

But doing things for HuffPost or doing certain things for NPR Music, and even sometimes with AJC, you really have to answer certain questions in such a way where people don’t understand or they’ve never been exposed to it. But it does give you the opportunity to kind of be the cultural ambassador and to be the interpreter in these things. In both spaces, it gives you the opportunity to really be passionate about people that look like you.

You helped launch the journalism degree program at Morehouse College in 2020. What was missing in journalism education that you wanted to address

That they can do it. A lot of times when you’re dealing with our young people in education, it’s not like they lack the skill, it’s not like they lack the competency, it’s not like they lack the passion. A lot of it is just confidence.

A lot of times, these young people, they’ve never done this before or they’ve never had people in their family do this. I grew up in a place where a lot of people were school teachers or they worked for factories or they worked for the post office, so to say, I want to move and go cover entertainers or cover athletes in professional sports, it’s like, really?

A lot of it was just instilling in these young people that they just had to dedicate themselves to the craft, and they just had to make sure they read a lot of material, and make sure they’re networking. We have several students that I taught over the years that are now covering culture for People magazine, and some of them are writing for Variety, and some of them are actually covering Clemson for the Greenville News, and some of them are in fellowship programs now for Netflix and Disney.

What would you tell young journalists about the responsibility that comes with covering Black culture

One, you have to love yourself first. A lot of times, people have these ideas about Black people, these stereotypes, and really these generalizations about us. Part of it is just loving you enough to want to push back and produce counter-narratives on those things.

The other part of it is, you have to be super collaborative. Some of the best stories that I’ve ever received wasn’t me going necessarily through publicists or artist managers, it’s me just knowing that someone went to school with someone whose record is number one on the radio.

The same reverence that you give celebrities is the same reverence you need to give your mixologist at the bar, the people that’s putting the trash bags out, the people that’s picking up all of the garbage after you eat your hors d’oeuvres. These people are working folks and they’re people on the ground. So when I write things, I’m writing for those people. These are regular, everyday people who live and breathe just like you and me, but everything that pretty much happens in our community affects them first.

I allow people to see my personality, too. When I’m not in the newsroom or I’m not out here covering stuff, I’m at parties, too. I’m with my family having barbecues. I have a 4-year-old grandniece that comes over my house that jumps up and down on my stomach. I like for people to see all parts of my personality and my identity, because I believe sometimes as writers, when people read your stuff, they want to know what your personal values are.

What does it mean to you to have your work recognized by the Counter Narrative Project

Anytime you’re recognized by organizations that are full and led by people that look like you, I think that’s better than winning a Nobel Prize or winning a Pulitzer or a Grammy, because the call is coming from inside the house. So, you’re being seen by folks who know the value of your words and your existence.

Thinking back to those days when I was teased for going to my symphony orchestra classes, or teased for entering poetry contests and winning, or going to do local theater instead of going to a football game, it really shows me that everything I did wasn’t in vain, and that everything that I was supposed to be doing I was supposed to do it.

This is literally an award for everyone on the UATL team that I work with every single day. It’s an award for the teachers that I’ve had at Spartanburg High School, and Johnson C. Smith University, and the University of Georgia, because this is the baby that they raised.

As a journalist covering culture, have you seen media representation of Black queer communities evolve

It’s always good to see more of those absent voices telling the stories, so shout out to all of the Black LGBTQ+ media organizations online, podcasts, especially for carrying that torch. Shout out to my team at UATL for always listening to me when I say, these are the things that’s happening outside, and here’s what these sub-communities are doing within Black culture in Atlanta, so we should tell a story about it.

I think the evolution is what we’re doing right now, sitting down, having a discussion about what Counter Narrative is doing. The evolution is seeing organizations like Counter Narrative defending our people and doing everything they can to flip stories that are being told. I think the evolution really is us being more authentic with us, unapologetically being ourselves, to do everything we can to tell stories, create our capital in other environments where we normally wouldn’t see it.

The future’s gonna be great. It’s gonna get back to us doing more long-form storytelling. We’re gonna get more beautiful writers out here telling more nuanced stories about us. We’re gonna see more of these types of journalists getting awards like I’m receiving, and all I want to see is just more of us just doing it and being fearless about it.

The Counter Narrative Project’s 11th anniversary celebration takes place Saturday, October 25, at The Gathering Spot in Atlanta. The event is free with RSVP at the Counter Narrative Project website. Christopher A. Daniel can be found on social media at @Journalistorian on Instagram and Twitter, and Christopher A. Daniel on LinkedIn and Facebook.