Feet in 2 Worlds is accepting pitches for our new multimedia series, City of Possibility. We’re commissioning stories focused on immigrant communities in two U.S. cities — New York City and Los Angeles.
Immigrants in both cities continue to navigate the risk of mass deportation, a challenging job market, a high cost of living, and climate change. Some are living on the margins as they continue to shape their city’s cultural heartbeat and fuel its economic engine.
But immigrants are also demonstrating resilience and innovation: building their own community and cultural spaces, developing their own economic opportunities, and creating moments of joy and celebration.
All these are happening as the cities continue to grow and change. New York’s new mayoral administration, Los Angeles’ elections, and global events like The World Cup and the Olympics are all reshaping the two cities.
Pitches:
We are interested in hyper-local story pitches that center a particular immigrant community or neighborhood. Pitches should be from New York City or from the Los Angeles Metropolitan Area. Pitches can also focus on the way different immigrant communities interact or build with each other.
We welcome but do not require solutions-based reporting.
Core Questions:
What does it mean to be an immigrant in the city? How do immigrants sustain themselves through changes and challenges New York and Los Angeles are experiencing right now? What urban systems and lifestyles have become outdated, unreliable, or unaffordable — and how are immigrants adapting?
How are immigrants active shapers of their neighborhoods and environments — whether through activism and organizing, economic development, climate adaptation, arts and culture programming, or something else?
And what do immigrants imagine is possible for themselves and their city’s future?
Areas of Focus:
Services & Infrastructure
How do immigrants navigate and shape the infrastructure, services, and layout of the city?
Topic areas include: transit, housing, work, climate, public bathrooms, health, accessibility, and aging.
Culture & Community Spaces
How do immigrants build community and cultural space for themselves and each other?
Topic areas include: language, arts & culture, food and foodways, nightlife, entertainment, community news and media, and third spaces.
Power & Change
How do immigrants build power, shape decisions, and maneuver changes in an evolving city?
Topic areas include: city policy, elections, economic development, displacement, organizing and activism, climate, technology, policing, deportation, and immigration enforcement.
Accepted formats:
- Digital (written) stories (between 500 and 1000 words)
- Shorter audio portraits (between 3 and 7 minutes)
- Photo essays (a series of 4-10 photos with captions and text that tell a particular story)
- Videos (2-3 minutes)
Pitches should include:
- A clear focus or core question for the story
- Questions the story raises and how it intends to address them
- A proposed story format
- A central character
- Specific characters and sources to include (confirmed or proposed)
- Clear focus neighborhood and immigrant community
- Clear stakes
- A narrative arc
What makes a good Fi2W story:
- Centering immigrant voices and perspectives
- Immigrants and immigrant communities having agency in the story — they are the subjects, and not objects of the reporting
- Specificity about which people and immigrant communities are being covered
- Breadth and nuance of immigrant experiences
Timeframe and Editorial Process:
Stories will be reported through the summer, and will be published from July through September.
Please note: Feet in 2 Worlds stories go through an involved and engaged editorial process, with several rounds of meetings and detailed feedback from our editorial team.
Compensation:
Compensation for accepted stories will depend on factors including the experience level of the producer, as well as the length, format, and complexity of the story. Payment for stories will range from $250 to $1000.
How to Submit:
Please submit your pitches here:
In the spirit of our editorial mission, Feet in 2 Worlds strongly encourages journalists who are immigrants or are children of immigrants to submit pitches.
Questions:
Email questions to us at contact@feetin2worlds.org.
Deadline:
The deadline to pitch your story ideas is Thursday, June 11, 2026 at 11:59 p.m. Eastern.
Please note we are a small team and do not use generative AI to review submissions or for any editorial purposes, so we ask for your patience as we review each and every pitch.
