If you’re going to follow politics, crime and other “urban issues” for the New York Times Metro Desk, being a licensed defensive driving instructor could come in handy. In both roles, vigilance is job one. So when not arguing over “lede” vs. “lead” at the Times and The Atlantic Wire, journalist Hannah Miet teaches an eight-hour defensive driving course to taxi and limousine drivers in New York City. A New Yorker (with a BA in English from Hunter and MA in Journalism from CUNY), Miet is drawn to urban investigative reporting for a reason. It’s her milieu and she’s good at it. She can report on an armed robbery, eat a Fiber One bar, and tell the story of an airport worker who assumed the identity of a man who was murdered in Queens two decades ago, all before lunch.
But Miet isn’t all crimes and misdemeanors. She’s got a penchant for the theatrical too. She writes about the Great White Way (considering “Motown the Musical” she concludes that “Barack Obama is President Because of Motown”) and interviews the city’s eclectic entertainers like Heather Holliday, the youngest sword swallower in the world. (She practices her craft at Coney Island’s Sideshow by the Seashore.) Miet has also written 5 minute poems, 10 minutes poems, and for the Two Weeks Anthology. We wonder what she can do in 2paragraphs.
