Voices & Composing

It seems weirdly appropriate to be blogging about a class focused on environmental justice today, of all days. Happy Earth Day, everybody!

Image courtesy of blog.ereach.com.

The sun is shining (for now), birds are singing (for now), and it's just all-around a nice reprieve from the horrid cold we've been dealing with. For now. :P

Work on the radio show continues. In addition to regular class times, we meet for two hours every Friday to try and keep everyone informed. It's not easy--we've been a bit discombobulated, with trouble getting all of our audio files corralled in one place for editing. The other classes have a bit of an advantage, as they've already cut up and sorted the footage used for the Mill Stories documentary, so I often feel like I'm just playing catch-up.

This week should be different, though; we've got very clear transcripts with time stamps, and should be able to begin editing. Working with a time constraint of only about 5 minutes will be a real challenge, but we're up for it!

The act of composing is a strange one, especially when working from recordings like these. On the one hand, we're cutting and framing the raw audio into a story, but at the same time, we have to remain true to the original speakers' words and messages. Our "content" can't trump their "speech" in the move to radio. Listening to these voices, some from people (like Catherine Benicevicz) who are no longer living, it hits home how big our responsibility is to properly preserve their messages.

Catherine B passed away last summer. She was interviewed during Mapping Baybrook's project to revitalize the Polish Home Hall in Curtis Bay. I've been listening to her recollections of early 20th Century Baltimore for weeks now.