Acclaimed Virgin Islands Author Peter Bailey Awarded $50,000 Grant To Bring His NiteCap Live Show To St. Paul, Minnesota

Peter Bailey, award-winning author and journalist, has been endowed a grant of $50,000 by the Knight Foundation to bring his critically acclaimed NiteCap Live series which connects communities with local innovators in an interactive transformative format to the city of St. Paul,  Minnesota, NiteCap announced Wednesday. The variety show fuses theater, film and music to share the stories of America’s most promising entrepreneurs and innovators.

Knight has previously invested for Bailey to host the show in Miami. Thus far, NiteCap Live has also been filmed in the Virgin Islands and most recently Jamaica. Bailey was spending time with family in his native St. Thomas when hurricanes Irma and Maria ravaged the island, forcing Bailey and his family to flee outside as the storms destroyed his family’s home.

Bailey has become a national hero throughout the Caribbean for his journalistic efforts after the storms. His controversial New York Times Op-Ed piece “Has America Forgotten the Virgin Islands?” and subsequent interviews aired on CBS and other media outlets criticizing the U.S. government’s handling of the islands’ recovery have since gone viral on social media. He wrote the New York Times’s Op-Ed while building a make-shift roof.

“Being left to take care of ourselves in the storms’ aftermath showed me how important it is for communities to realize their greatest resource is in fact their own residents,” says Bailey, who’s producing a film series showcasing the islands’ recovery. “I’m excited to be bringing the show to St. Paul, a city I’ve long admired for its focus on innovation”.

Bailey cites “The Great Gatsby” penned by St. Paul native and literary giant, F. Scott Fitzgerald, as his favorite novel.

Before launching NiteCap in 2010, Bailey wrote for Time, Newsweek and the Miami Herald. His book on the life of hip hop star Trick Daddy was praised as “one of the pop music gems of 2010” by the New York Times.

The NiteCap series previously focused on the entertainment industry, this new iteration of NiteCap will center on stories of entrepreneurs and business leaders, as a way to provide emerging innovators with valuable insights, and spotlight the great work being done in the community.

In his critically-acclaimed series, Peter Bailey engages in introspective provocative conversations with newsmakers including the likes of Rick Ross, real estate titan Don Peebles, Ice T, Janelle Monae and 50 Cent. The on-location conversations delve into social issues in an unconventional and off-scripted tone revealing much about the storied guests. The series has been featured on MTV, BET, The CW and the Huffington Post to name a few.