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Megan Sweas

Writer, Editor, Student of Life

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Megan Sweas

Big Chef, Little Food Court

This project was produced for Annenberg’s Specialized Journalism multimedia boot camp, but it also may be the start of a bigger project telling the stories of Mercado La Paloma. Thanks to the instructors at USC, my partner Cara Rifkin, and our project advisor Rachel Neubeck. 

Summary: Chef Ricardo Zarate is having a tremendous 2011. He became one of Food & Wine‘s Best New Chefs, opened a restaurant, and is planning the opening of another. While he expands his business, the Peruvian chef is staying true to the roots with his cuisine and his first restaurant, Mo-Chica. Continue reading “Big Chef, Little Food Court” →

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Park & re-Creation: Video tour

Published on USCatholic.org, March 2011

Accompanying “Parks & re-Creation”

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Palm Sunday crafts video

Published on USCatholic.org, March 2010

Art columnist Jerry Bleem, O.F.M. shows U.S. Catholic editors how to make crafts with palm fronds.

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Confronting Violence

Published on USCatholic.org, July 2008
Second for multimedia presentation, Catholic Press Association 2009
Accompanies magazine feature “Under the gun”

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Roads less traveled: An interview with Rick Steves

Edited interview published in U.S. Catholic, June 2011

As a tour guide, Rick Steves directs travelers to hotels, restaurants, and museums in Europe, but he points them to God in the developing world. Continue reading “Roads less traveled: An interview with Rick Steves” →

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Muslim on Main Street: An interview with Akbar Ahmed

Edited interview published in U.S. Catholic, May 2011

Once an international diplomat, anthropologist Akbar Ahmed now seeks to build bridges between American Muslims and their neighbors. Continue reading “Muslim on Main Street: An interview with Akbar Ahmed” →

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Parks & re-Creation

Published in U.S. Catholic, April 2011

A group of young people in the Bronx finds that by beautifying an old eyesore, they’ve unleashed a desire to serve their community.

Youth Ministries for Peace and JusticeDavid Shuffler walks through the park that he helped build in the South Bronx on his way to work.

Grass and young trees line his path through Concrete Plant Park, named after the factory that was once on the site. Some of the old factory structures remain—but they’ve been transformed into public art.

On a sunny September afternoon, a young family sits in the grass, a boy casts a fishing line into the Bronx River below the promenade, and a few teens lounge in a reading circle, as Shuffler tours the park with part of his team from Youth Ministries for Peace and Justice (YMPJ). Two of the teen workers, Shanay Sneed and Andre Rivera, approach their peers in the reading circle to tell them about YMPJ, the force behind the park.

“My greatest joy is to see people using this park,” says Shuffler, director of YMPJ. “That’s a reward. The environment definitely transforms and connects people just because of its beauty and what it does for your soul, and I think we see it right here.” …

Read more on USCatholic.org

PDF of “Parks & re-Creation”

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Life on the line

Photo story published in U.S. Catholic, December 2010

Along with Karl W. Hoffmann’s photographs, an introduction and captions describe the many sides of border life—migrants’ hope, activists’ care, and residents’ concerns.

At the Kino Border Initiative on the Mexican side of the border in Nogales, Jesuit Father Peter Neeley prays with migrants deported from the United States. On Sundays he frequently presides at Mass on the U.S. side of the border, where many of the parishioners work for homeland security. “Most of them say that’s what you should do,” he says. “ ‘You’re doing what you’re supposed to do; we’re doing what we’re supposed to do.’ They don’t see a contradiction there.”

Fear, hope, tension, and solidarity all coexist in the midst of ordinary life at the border. …

PDF of “Life on the line”

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I’ll be green for Christmas

Published in U.S. Catholic, December 2010

Cover December 2010Let’s not only be green when summer’s here but also during the most wonderful time of the year.

The anticipation was over, the gifts all opened, and nothing left to do except take it all in. Even when I was little, it was one of my favorite moments of Christmas. I’d sit with my loot sorted next to me and survey the living room while peeling the customary orange from my stocking. Red, green, and patterned wrapping paper covered the floor, and the cats, high on new catnip, would be attacking a bow under the tree.

I loved getting the orange, along with an apple and nuts (and chocolate, of course) in my stocking. It felt so Little House on the Prairie, as if these were exotic fruits, a special treat savored in the middle of the winter and not an ordinary purchase at the grocery store. I imagined Pa trekking home from town with brown paper packages—one each for Ma and us girls—getting caught in the blizzard and having to eat our special Christmas treat to survive. Ah, those were the days!

It’s not that I wanted to give up the Nintendo, books, and whatever other toys I got for this frontier fantasy. But at some age I started to see the effect of all my gifts. Eventually my moment of Christmas bliss was over, and we would have to stuff trash bag after trash bag with packages and shiny wrapping paper. According to use-less-stuff.com, Americans produce 25 percent more waste from Thanksgiving to New Year’s, amounting to 25 million tons of extra trash.

Is this any way to celebrate Christ’s birth? …

Read more on USCatholic.org

PDF of “I’ll be green for Christmas”

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