Features section Q&A

This is a little profile of me that ran in the paper in December '06. It gives a good overview of my work and my life in Wichita:

Meet the people behind WichiTalk

Jillian Cohan, 29, reporter

I get paid to...

Party! Well, kinda. I write about pop music and pop culture for The Eagle, which means I go to a lot of concerts and hipster happenings like poetry slams and roller derby bouts. When it comes to WichiTalk, my editor says I specialize in stories about cool women doing cool things.

Personal history

I'm a New England native (a Vermonter, to be precise). I studied English lit at a college in western Massachusetts (in one of those quaint towns where there's ivy on every building and a million coffee shops to choose from).

After working in magazines for a few years, I got a master's degree in journalism from a university in New York (the school shall remain nameless, but its basketball team was recently whupped by WSU in the Carrier Dome). I've also lived in Boston and southern Pennsylvania.

What was your first impression of Wichita?

To a girl raised in the mountains, it's really flat. I prefer to stay in town, where there are buildings to break up the skyline. Being out on the prairie makes me dizzy.

What's your current impression?

I love living downtown, for several reasons. 1) My co-workers immediately considered me a "hip urban dweller," even though I'm more dorky than trendy. 2) It makes my job easier because all I have to do is walk through my neighborhood to know what's new in nightlife. 3) I won't ever be stranded in the office during a snowstorm. 4) Even though Wichita is a sprawling city, Old Town feels as intimate as the town I grew up in (pop. 700).

Covering concerts: Perk or pain?

Depends on the night. I've covered concerts that were a blast (Michael Buble, pure showmanship; the late Lou Rawls, pure class), and I've been to shows where I wished for earplugs (Big & Rich, cartoonish; Raven Symone, a 10-year-old's delight and an adult's nightmare).

Just like a sportswriter covering a game, when I'm at a show I'm on a tight deadline. And because of that deadline I rarely get to see the end of a performance. (After the Rolling Stones concert, friends kept raving about "Sympathy for the Devil." I never heard it because it was late in the show. I didn't want to blow deadline.)

Favorite nightspot:

I tend to gravitate toward Old Town bars because I can walk home from them, but I steer clear of clubs that have a line on Friday and Saturday nights.

The Anchor and Oeno are my current faves since they accommodate nonsmokers. But I also enjoy the Vagabond's Wednesday night poetry readings enough to drive to Delano.

Canine or feline?

I have come to love a few pugs owned by friends, but I was born a cat person and I ain't changin'.

My Wichita family includes Miles and Jeff (you decide which is the boyfriend and which is the feline). When I was in high school and perennially single, friends always teased me I'd grow up to be a crazy cat lady. There's still time.