Girtley

The life story of journalist Kalari Girtley ’06 COM really begins in a first-grade classroom in Chicago. That’s where she went blind.

Girtley was watching her teacher when it happened. Excessive cerebral spinal fluid on her brain – a condition called hydrocephalus – spilled onto her optic nerve when a medical tube failed. Within seconds, the 6-year-old lost 90 percent of her vision.

Girtley thought God was punishing her for impolitely commenting on a blind man she had seen recently with a cane. “I said [to my brother], ‘Jason, why does he have a stick?’ He said, ‘Because he can’t see.’ And I said, ‘I’m glad I can see.’ And I said it kind of loud,” Girtley said. A week later, she lost her eyesight.

“I was running into things,” Girtley recalled of the confusing days that followed. “I got angry. I hated being called blind. I still hate that word. I hated people who could see. I hated God. I thought, ‘Of all the 6-year-olds in the world, why does [God] pick me?’”

Today that little girl has become an earnest 23-year-old newspaper reporter with an infectious, hand-clap laugh. Girtley’s eyes have not recovered, but she’s adapted so well that people often are surprised to learn of her impairment.

Girtley interns at the Hyde Park Herald and the Lakefront Outlook, joint weeklies in Chicago. With her help, the Outlook news staff recently won a prestigious George Polk Award for exposing cronyism at Chicago’s publicly funded Harold Washington Cultural Center. Other Polk recipients this year include The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times and documentary filmmaker Spike Lee.

As part of an investigative team, Girtley collected information indicating that the local alderman’s daughter benefited from business deals at the center. Girtley’s editor, Brian Wellner, called her work vital and fearless. And lead reporter Daniel Yovich told the Chicago Reader that while he had worked with “kids” educated at top-ranked prestigious journalism schools such as Northwestern and Columbia universities, Girtley nonetheless “runs circles around them.”

Her transformation from angry girl to journalist started with America’s pastime. At age 9, she joined Beep Baseball, a league for the visually impaired that uses beeping balls and tall foam bases.

“When I hit the ball, I felt so good because I wanted to hit people anyway,” Girtley recalled. “Then I ran to the base and tackled it. I could run, tackle and hit. It was fun.”

That outlet, along with unflagging family support, dispelled her anger. Girtley got involved in church. Only when she reached college, however, did she begin to accept her blindness.

During her first week on the University of Illinois campus, Girtley was alone and lost all of the time. She was knocked over. She broke two walking canes. She was forced to come to terms with herself.

“I said, ‘Look, Kalari, this is how it’s going to be. Let’s make the most of it,’” Girtley recalled. “I always looked at my cane as a crutch. But I started looking at it as a companion.”

She learned to navigate campus and the bus routes, made friends and tackled school. Pulitzer Prize-winner and journalism professor Leon Dash, her mentor at the University, believes Girtley has everything she needs to succeed.

“She has a realistic recognition of how the world reacts to her,” Dash said. “[She understands the] societal barriers that she faces, and she’s not going to let them stop her.”

Shortly after graduation, Girtley started working at the joint weeklies as an unpaid intern. Now living at home – and still playing Beep Baseball – she hopes to earn a paid position soon.

In her work, Girtley uses portable recorders and voice-synthesizing computer software. For stories requiring physical description, she will pull bystanders aside and ask them to describe the scene. The reporter also relies heavily on her ears, which are astoundingly acute, to the dismay of evasive interviewees.

“Obviously, I can’t see faces. But I can hear them. I can hear when they’re not looking at me,” Girtley said with a sly grin. “When their voice drops low, I can tell I’m on to something.”

Occasionally her old frustration with her eyes resurfaces. Recently a man knocked her down as she covered a gospel concert featuring Jennifer Hudson, who later won an Academy Award for her role in the movie “Dreamgirls.”

“I wanted to trip him with my cane,” Girtley said. “I thought, ‘I hate being blind!’”

But she can laugh now at the memory. The anger has been put to rest.

– Dave Evensen
Evensen is a freelance writer in Champaign.