Cloee Cooper, Observe & Record, Founder
Cloee is the founder of Observe & Record, a new online publication documenting the creative power and democratic desires within American society. She is producing her first podcast mini-series, diving into a community impacted by a network of far right militia and law enforcement. Inspired by the late C.L.R. James, the Trinidadian historian, journalist and socialist, who said the task of a Marxist organization is to “recognize and record” the new society as it emerges from the old, Observe & Record borrows from that tradition. After earning a master's degree in journalism at the Medill School of Journalism, Cloee joined Political Research Associates as a research analyst on far right movements. She started digital storytelling at sixteen when she interviewed women in post-conflict Kosovo for her first documentary film, The Unspoken. Her writing can be seen at Political Research Associates, The Progressive, Chicago’s local PBS affiliate – WTTW, Prism, Alternet, Imagine2050 and Hard Crackers. Her research and expertise has been featured on the John Oliver Show, HuffPo, Nevada Public Radio, and The Guardian. She currently serves on the Editorial Board of Hard Crackers, a journal documenting the everyday life of those striving to overturn the mess we are in.