User:GrammarBird/Chad Nance

Chad Nance (January 30, 1971) is a journalist, political editor and columnist for the counter-culture magazine Skunk, blogger at his own site Weird Load, and the host of a radio talk show on WKRPRadio.com.

Early Life
Nance was born in Newport News, Virginia, then abandoned at the hospital by his birth mother. He was adopted by Clyde and Judy Nance, the owners of a commercial construction firm. The majority of his early life was spent split between Hampton, Virginia and the mountains of Stokes County, North Carolina, where his family owned a tobacco farm.

As a High School job, Nance wrote for local papers The Pilot (Pilot Mountain, North Carolina) and The King Times (King, North Carolina) mainly covering sports. After High School, Chad attended the University of North Carolina School of the Arts in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, where he was part of a class that included director David Gordon Green, Danny McBride (actor), and Sage Stallone.

Career
Nance worked in various media-related jobs including filming commercials, working with Sylvester Stallone on the movie Daylight (film) and writing for various papers and online outlets, but his move to career journalism began with his involvement in the Bush II-era anti-Iraq War movement. He received an assignment from Skunk Magazine to cover the January 27, 2007 anti-war protest in Washington, D.C.. He finished the piece with the following paragraph:


 * ''Right-on! We were doing it. For one solid moment in the bright DC sunshine we are one, we are strong, and we are on the move.  then it hits me like a face full of brass knuckles.  What does the song mean?  Is it a challenge to George W. Bush to get off of his ass, open his heart and ears then, like a benevolent ruler, listen to his people?  Is it some sort of personal karma trying to bring comfort to my broken heart?  Or is it- dear pilgrims- a wistful admission that no matter how far we march, how loud we sing, how strong of heart we might be... what will happen will happen.  Deep thoughts for the middle of a movement.  I let myself surf back out of the crowd, stopping on the sidelines to simply listen as the singers went on ahead passing me by.

As a freelance journalist, Nance has written in-depth and participatory/culture articles for Skunk, Radar magazine (the original print magazine that shut down before morphing into RadarOnline) and Details (magazine), as well as interviews and articles for Dscriber.com and Gawker.com. He was featured on Barak Obama's Organizing for America website.

Nance is sometimes writes in a Gonzo journalism style, particularly in his Weed City columns in Skunk. He also writes straight journalism for other outlets and has used his blog to initiate activism in efforts to help get Yippie (Youth International Party) Dana Beal released from jail and Noah Kirkman, a Canadian citizen kidnapped by Child Protective Services in Oregon, returned to his family.

Chad has been regular guest and co-host on various radio shows (such as Time4Hemp, The Big Picture on South Carolina Public Radio, Marijuana Radio and WKRPRadio out of Colorado) discussing local and national politics as well as interviewing various Pop Culture icons. He currently hosts a talk radio show on WKRPRadio.com.