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VOY
NEWS!
So not only did the Voice of Youth crew knock the
socks off those jaded radio producers at the Third Coast Festival,
they also impressed the bigwigs at PRX, the public radio exchange
(a sort of warehouse of radio programming with thousands of
members across the country and into the world at large). PRX
is featuring Ms. Emily Raymond's audio journey of meeting
her rock god, Billy
Corgan of the Smashing Pumpkins, on their website. PRX
members have the opportunity to license and play this story
on any radio station and we in turn get PRX points
in our bank account. Always a plus.
Individual
Shows
This
New Game (Cutting)
- Listen
It ‘s lunchtime at Maria Carillo High school and 16
year old Amanda Wells
can look around and spot more ” cutters ““than
she can count on her fingers.
The
trend of cutting, or self-mutilation, is a theme poured over
in chat rooms and counselor‘s conferences, but Amanda
thought that no one was getting at the heart of what it feels
like to cut your own body.
In
this sound collage, she focuses on the fundamental urge to
self-mutilate, what it would take for someone to stop, all
the while hinting at secret scenes from her own life.
Our
Name is Rogelio Bautista - Listen
According to the testimony of Sergio Bautista, his brother
Rogelio was just walking to a party this past New Year’s
Eve when someone across the street yelled “f--- SCRAPS!!”,
scrap being the derogatory word that a Norteno gang member
uses to insult a Sureno.
With
his brother right behind him, Rogelio ran across the street,
there was a sound, and Rogelio was lying in the driveway,
and Sergio says he crouched over him, staring up at a shooter
that looked more surprised and sickened than anything else…
From
the perspective of newspaper accounts and police reports,
Rogelio died for a word, a color, a number, his death jotted
down as just another statistic in our escalating gang war…but
that’s not the perspective of the four narrators of
the story “Our name is Rogelio Bautista.”
These
four fourteen year old kids knew him as the cousin they’d
crammed into a tiny apartment with, the kid who they played
baseball with using cans as bases, the tough hero of their
neighborhood.
These
kids, many English Learners and years behind in reading levels,
came together with producer Tatiana Harrison for hours upon
hours at the local Denny’s or in the radio station’s
trailer to talk and write the story of the Rogelio Bautista
they knew, to try and solve the mystery of when that panting,
yelling kid had become an outline on the asphalt.
An
untold number of pancake platters and bags of microwave popcorn
later, they braved a billion takes in the studio to narrate
the life and death of a Latino gang member, told in his words,
not those of the politican or press personality who are so
often raising the alarm over an epidemic of violence that
by conservative accounts has killed tens of thousands of youth
of color and put even more behind bars for crimes they would
never have committed if not living in the toxic climate of
civil war.
La
Pieta - Listen
August 26th marks a seminal event in art history. In 1498,
Michaelangelo was commissioned to create La Pieta, the iconic
image of the Virgin Mary mourning her dead son.
Considering this anniversary, Voice of Youth correspondent
Laquoia Simmons began transpose this image on a very different
background, in our own backyard...
… where two weeks before, Terrance Kelly, an African-American
star football player, lay in the street, surrounded by weeping
friends and relatives, after being shot to death in Richmond,California.
He died just 48 hours before he was scheduled to fly to the
University of Oregon on an athletic scholarship.
Invoking the image of Mary, stoically sitting with the body
of her predestined son, eighteen-year-old Laquoia faces the
fate Terrance Kelly could not escape.
The
Night I Met Newt - Listen
They say it ‘s hard to faze kids these days, what with
all the sex in movies, violent video games, designer drugs,
and riotous raps. But eighteen-year-old Voice of Youth correspondent
Greg Shimada was certainly thrown for quite a loop recently
when he got the opportunity to break bread and break out the
mic with former Speaker of the House of Representatives Newt
Gingrich.
Gingrich
was in town to debate democrat Robert Reich at the Luther
Burbank Center, but Greg, with fellow correspondent Laquoia
Simmons, got up some face time before and after...
He kicks off his tale of the evening by rolling the tape on
a call he made at the end of
the night he met Newt.
Ecstasy
and a Broken Neck - Listen
17-year-old Sean Broad got behind the scenes at the NCS High
School Football championship in the Fall of 2005. Using tape
from the practices, the locker rooms, and the sidelines of
the Montgomery High-Casa Grande game, Sean reflects on choices
he’s made in the past year, a year of tragedy for both
teams.
The
Night I Met Dr. Cornel West - Listen
19-year-old Laquoia Simmons had a big night a while back:
she met and interviewed Professor Cornel West, the famous
“interpreter of the African-American experience,”
advocate of social justice, philosopher and critic. She reflects
on the round trip to the Sonoma State University campus as
an “at-risk” young woman meeting a writer who
writes so much about the so-called “at-risk” population.
The
Bathroom at Break - Listen
Once upon a time, the eighteen-year-old anonymous writer of
today ‘ s story was enrolled at Piner High, only occasionally
attending class, before getting expelled and landing at community
school, where not long ago he told us the tale of the weirdest
fight he ever fought in.
Over
time this anecdote turned into this piece of unflinching non-fiction,
chronicling a context of cutting class and cruising, with
a backdrop of battling gang factions in which schools have
to ban certain belts and shoelaces and the innocuous phrase
“what ‘s up” coming from the wrong person
can be a declaration of war.
To
make sure the narrator could not be pegged to the gang color
he claims, we brought in the talent of Miss Laquoia Simmons
to read this young man ‘ s tale of fighting in the bathroom
at break.
Gangsters
in Paradise - Listen
Two brave and bold young women have written this radio story
out of the most frustrating, devastating, humorous and hopeful
aspects of their lives. They are Alejandra Salazar and Elvia
Bautista, raised among violence on the East side of Santa
Rosa…
They are
brave first of all to deal with me demanding uncompromising
exploration and reflection on their world, and bold enough
to travel across the United States and bring you the story
of this trip. Alejandra had had friends die in gang violence
and Elvia Bautista lost her brother on New Year’s Eve.
These two friends bring you the story of going to a national
gang conference in Florida. Their reflections will shock and
awe you.
Reporting
From the Gaza Strip - Listen
As part of an ongoing series, our fledgling teen
reporters track down veteran correspondents around the world
who are reporting from the latest hot spot.
These
conversations about day-today life as a foreign correspondent
make reporting “real” for us kids, stuck in our
little town, with absolutely no idea how the news of other
places actually gets to us. For this edition, Analy High Senior
Emily Raymond interviewed NPR's Linda Gradstein and BBC's
Alan Johnston about their week of reporting from the Gaza
Strip.
Dear
Skinwalker - Listen
On August 4th, we premiered a Voice of Youth special,
an audio collage letter addressed Dear Skin-Walker
A full-blooded Navajo, our sixteen year old narrator
finds she has exiled herself to the local juvenile detention
facility, haunted by past regrets and a certain spirit that
roams her native reservation – a half-animal, half-human
creature her Grandmother calls a Skin-Walker. She faces this
tormented spirit and her own in a web of tales spun with smiles,
gasps, and tears in our letter: Dear Skin-walker:
Dear
Luis Rodriguez - Listen
How to forgive? Who to blame? What to do? Why
bother?
These are some of the questions the Voice of Youth kids
Have for Luis Rodriguez, celebrated author, veterano gangster,
recovering addict.These women who have so recently buried
brothers and boyfriends
write a letter to this man, who managed to climb out of a
cradle of violence
and craft lyrical lessons for the kids still being born in
those cribs.
Tying
the tragedy of one community to the madness of many,
From the latest spike in self-mutilation to the ageless lessons
of warfare
This Thursday at 7 pm, our show follows up the celebrated
Dear Moreno and Moi special with a new audio dispatch: Dear
Luis Rodriguez…
Dear
Moreno and Moi, 2005 - Listen
It’s Midnight on Moorland Ave…
With its fences scrolls of scrawled graffiti…
And once again Enrique can’t get to sleep…
So he starts writing a letter
To two kids
Killed in the crossfire of an underground war
A boy once he called homie, another once his sworn enemy…
A letter addressed...Dear Moreno and Moi
Dear
Next Year, December 30th, 2004 - Listen
The second in a series of experiments in the radio
arts. Our monthly hour-long specials are not just any ol’
broadcast, they are audio collage letters addressed to a person
or the embodiment of a concept.
In
this case, the kids piece together an audio dispatch to the
year that was out of the fragments of the year that was. From
the star football player driving in a fatal car crash to the
teenage mom reflecting on the night she got pregnant…draw
a bath, bake a cake, polish your silverware, do anything to
set aside an hour to hear this letter…It’s like
finding, crumpled and tucked away, a letter not meant for
you, but which you guiltily read anyway, so listen in on Sonoma
county’s kids in dialogue with a contorted past and
an uncertain future…
 Dear
Colby - Listen
An audio-epistle from Sonoma County teens to an American soldier.
An imaginative hour-long special.
For
the first Voice of Youth all-star show, our kids—from
the Sonoma Academy skater to the probation school singer—come
together to contribute to a common goal: creating an audio
collage for Army Specialist, Colby Buzzell, an American soldier
stationed in Iraq. Buzzell, who gained world-wide prominence
with his on-line journal chronicling his combat experience,
has been corresponding with the Voice of Youth kids.
They are using their correspondence about life and death,
loneliness and loss, to open up about the cost of conflict,
from gang violence to global war.
Like
finding, crumpled and tucked away, a letter not meant for
you, but which you guiltily read anyway, listen in on Sonoma
county’s kids in dialogue with a desert reality that
is so far from home yet such an integral influence in the
future they are facing.
Click
here to see the pictures made of some of the Voice of
Youth kids. After viewing the painting of Picasso's Guernica
that Colby has on his site, these young teens were asked to
make Guernica-like drawings that depicted the most important
aspects of their life. The symbols they chose are often frightening
and puzzling to adults who look at them. Some of them you
would have to be a part of their world to understand - the
aztec bird, for example, is a common gang motif. We invite
you to send your reflections to tatiana_harrison@krcb.org
Complete
Shows
Dear
Benefactor - Listen
Our best-of show! A perfect place to get to know
Voice of Youth. For our year anniversary we wrote an audio
letter to our Benefactors, the men and women of our community
who have provided the funds and support to make our program
possible. It includes a short history of the program and clips
of our favorite stories.
Dear
Ceasefire - Listen
For this hour long show, we’ve written another audio
letter, Dear Ceasefire, addressed to the men and women of
Ceasefire, Chicago’s renowned movement to stop the violence
destroying their community.
For
this show, three young women growing up in the violence of
our community traveled not only to Chicago, but to a gang
conference in Florida, hunting for solutions and support…
Christmas
Eve at My House - Listen
The following stories came about by chance- See, “The
word of this week” to explore on our weekly web show
– check it out on krcb.org – was the word “crib,”
teen slang for “home.” Naturally everyone was
talking about the scene at home this past Christmas Eve…so
somehow the project became – describe your house and
how you feel about it through telling a three-minute or so
story entitled: “So this was Christmas Eve at My House”
And now, three writers, in this order, Crystal Tapia, 15,
Greg Shimada, 19, and Emily Raymond, 17, invite you to spend
three minutes each of Christmas Eve at three very different
houses…
Standing
Outside an Execution - Listen
This week, just after Midnight, just 50 miles from here, the
State of California executed a man named Stanley Tookie Williams.
To some this man was infamous as the co-founder of the notorious
Crips street gang and an unrepentant, cold-blooded murderer
of four people. To others this man was a man who had atoned
for his contribution to gang warfare by brokering truces and
preaching alternatives to gang life, and to others he was
both a man redeemed, and, in fact, a man innocent of the crime
he would be paying for with his life.
The urgent debate over one of the most controversial capital
cases in decades came to a close as this Monday turned into
Tuesday, December 13th, the day that Gov. Schwarzenager could
not be swayed to stay as Williams’ execution date. Voice
of Youth was there that night, outside San Quentin, among
the crowd of thousands, and nineteen-year-old Greg Shimada
narrates his experience of the last four hours of Stanley
Williams’ life.
Going
60 in a 35 Neighborhood - Listen
19-year-old Greg Shimada at it again. In this story of one
night, Greg does all the things kids aren't supposed to do.
Wonder what he's thinking while he's doing it?
Apology
Line Homage - Listen
Here we begin an occasionally series we’re calling the
“Apology Line.” To fans of Ira Glass, this will
sound familiar, as the idea is taken from a segment of the
November 5, 2004 This American Life show. I played Ira Glass’
story for a class at one of the community schools, i.e. the
“bad kids”, we discussed, and, just as an exercise,
they were assigned to write as if they were leaving a message
on the Apology Line. Reviewing the writings I was taken aback
by the raw reality of their compositions, sometimes a veritable
vomit of confessions, sometimes a obsessive rehash of one
episode, sometimes bringing a gasp, sometimes a burst of laughter.
I chose four of the most remarkable essays to share with you
today. We edited ONLY for grammar, and then found one of our
other kids to voice the essays, as we wanted them to remain
anonymous. And so today we bring you, in their stark and simple
words, four new “callers” to the apology line.
Empowerment - Listen
Ever wonder what the fabled "at-risk" kid thinks of
when he hears the word "power"? Particularly, when
he hears it again and again, at a "Youth Empowerment Summit"?
Off
to the Army - Listen
In this story we present three scenes from Sean Broad’s
last three days home, before heading off to the Army.
Sean
left us just after Christmas, after a constellation of complex
events put him on a path to the Basic Training he began officially
yesterday.
In
those last days before he left, I followed as he and his friends
wandered around the county, keeping the recorder rolling to
catch their conversations, and ask them about their concerns
and their convictions.
Today
you get to listen in to Sean, talking with myself and his
best friend Jesse, as three carefully selected, unscripted
scenes of those last days unfold.
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