Why subscribe?
Readers have found my non-fiction to be hip and delightful—an enjoyable source of news and perspective. At West Coast Sojourn you’ll find two kinds of it—a Friday newsletter, along with frequent podcast and an interview-style conversation drops. A new feature—a mind-body feature called Body High—is one reason to become a paid subscriber.
This Substack lives at the intersection of cannabis and pop culture and believes that everything is political.
Who is Donnell Alexander?
I am a 57-year-old journalism type from Sandusky, Ohio. Since 1986 I have earned my way as a writer. The story of Dock Ellis’s no-hitter thrown on LSD is something Dock told me in his living room, months before he died.
My storytelling has appeared on NPR and Al Jazeera and in Rolling Stone, Time and Capital & Main. Beyond this Substack, I wrote the forward to Rian Dundon’s critically-acclaimed 2023 photo book Protest City. And the California Newspapers Association gave me its top depth reporting award for A Just and Legal Weed this spring. Last year I was featured in the ITV series Autopsy, in which I discussed hip hop pioneer Eazy-E.
Back in the day I was an ESPN: The Magazine staff writer.
The 2003 memoir Ghetto Celebrity (Crown) is my best-known longform project. Nineteen ninety-seven’s “Cool Like Me: Are Black People Cooler than White People?” is my best-known essay.
Presently, my most regular (non-Substack) paycheck comes from documentary film consulting.
Wait. One more odd cultural contribution of mine is “Capitalism and Hip-Hop Mixtape Culture Cool,” which I presented at Cornell’s Histories of American Capitalism Conference in 2014. And—finally, for real—from 2015 to 2017, I did a 20-part conversation about hip hop in the Pacific Northwest, as part of Oregon Humanities’ Conversation Project.
The Conversation Project experience shows up in this Substack’s Thursday conversations, which don’t cost a thing. You should have a paid subscription if you don’t want to miss the cool stuff coming up.
Stay up-to-date
No need to trip about missing anything. Every new edition of the West Coast Sojourn newsletter goes directly to your inbox. Same goes for the conversations I share on Thursdays.
A free subscription brings access to the Thursday conversation and the top bit of my Monday newsletter. Paid subscribers receive the conversation and the entire newsletter, as well as any surprise offerings that happen along.
Join the crew
I have readers flung across many genres of journalism. The music people don’t much know my storytelling and analysis that lives in the world of sport. Now all of you can check out my newsy material and chop it up amongst yourselves. Commenting on my posts is encouraged.
To find out more about the company that provides the tech for this newsletter, visit Substack.com.
