Sometimes, a walk through rainwashed and puddle-ridden
streets can lead to unexpected joys. When my friend Mariel asked if I’d like to
accompany her on a field visit, to observe a youth organization at work, I
agreed, welcoming the opportunity to go beyond the rarefied environs of
Cambridge. Getting off the train at the somehow appropriately named station of
Maverick in East Boston, Mariel and I traverse a couple of blocks (stopping
briefly at a Brazilian Bakery to munch on small cheese buns—pao de queijo) to reach a small doorway set
into a brick building whose impassive exterior belies the youthful
effervescence that bubbles through the moment you enter. Mariel tells me it is
an old fire station that the organization has renovated. In the foyer two young
men, engaged in a serious discussion, direct us to the basement. The path
downstairs takes us first through a large room filled with instruments and a cluster
of chairs, and laughing teenagers. “Brittany’s in the radio station,” says one
of them, waving us towards the stairwell. They all seem comfortable in their
skins as well as in this warm, colorful space. The narrow corridor of the
basement is lined by shelves stacked with vinyl records, while the free wall
space is covered with posters of upcoming concerts and workshops and press coverage of past
ones.
This is the home of Zumix,
a community based organization in East Boston that uses the arts and music to
engage youth in the area. It began by
using music as a means of drawing together young people in a community that was
recovering from a period of intense youth violence in the area. A few months
ago, Zumix received a license to operate a low-power FM transmitter and run
their own radio station, and this was an opportunity to go beyond creating and
performing music for the community to reach an audience outside the
neighborhood—and to engage in broader conversations of interest. Given my soft spot for radio (thanks in
large part to my colleagues at the Department of Communication at UoH, the UNESCO Chair on Community Media, and Bol Hyderabad, apart from a lifelong commitment to NPR!), I was thrilled to be able to visit a youth run community
radio station here in Boston.
Today, the kids will produce the first episode of a one-hour weekly magazine
show that they’ve planned as part of a workshop on radio production that Zumix offers to middle and
high schoolers. Brittany Thomas, the Zumix Radio Coordinator, is in the studio, getting ready
for the session. I'm chuffed to discover from Brittany that they were assisted in setting up the technology for the station by radio activist Pete Tridish, who's been a visitor to Bol and is familiar to many of those in India's community radio network. Three members of the production team walk in behind us,
visibly excited about the theme they are planning to build their show around:
social media and digital communication. Brittany stays on the margins as the
three—Lydia, Janna and Geana—get familiar with the program flow and discuss the
content. She prods them, ever so gently, to think about specifics. They are
still waiting for Dawry, who will be the engineer today, handling the console.
“What songs are you going to play?” She asks. “Maybe
something to reflect the show theme?”
Lydia taps away excitedly on her phone. “Oh cool! How about
this…or this?” She reels of a couple of names of songs and artists and the
others chime in with their own suggestions, and they have to make sure that the lyrics are clean ("Oh that one has the name of a drug, we can't use it," says Lydia in response to a suggestion by Geana.). Clearly, social media has become an
important backdrop to popular music narratives. Brittany reminds them that they will be answering two questions sent in by their partner group in Spain, where Zumix co-founder Bob Groves now lives and works.
While they mull over their ideas, Janna, a junior at the
East Boston Latin School, talks about the mock election they had in school that
day. She’s very well informed about all the ballot questions, and has definite
opinions about some of them and articulates doubts about the others. Geana is
quieter but the others nudge her to talk about the book she’s writing. She
agrees to read the prologue in one of the segments in today’s show. I'm amazed that she can write down the entire prologue from memory!
And then, Brittany has an idea. “Mariel and Usha are going
to be guests on the show today,” she announces. The girls are excited, and
immediately begin thinking of questions to pose to us. Lydia gets her initial
curiosity out of the way, with “What’s India like?” Then they proceed to
questions specifically about the theme, with Lydia asking about internet hoaxes
and urban legends, Janna wondering about the impact of filters on
self-presentation and self-image, and Geana expressing an interest in how teens
in India use social media and whether it’s different from American teenagers. I
feel like I’m going to be grilled by an expert panel! (And they are after all
natural users of social media—Lydia for instance was Snapchatting all through!)
Dawry walks in just before the recording begins, and takes
his place at the console, with Brittany acting as his tag team (it’s their
first time doing the show). He's responsible for playing the sound files (promos and sponsorship info) between segments.
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| Brittany and Dawry at the console |
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| (L to R) Geana, Janna and Lydia. Mariel in the background. |
The kids were great; radio is new to them, but they are
excited about it, and while there were many moments of nervousness at the mike,
they were unselfconscious about their gaffes, and just picked themselves up and
bashed on. But what made all this possible was the almost invisible
facilitation by Brittany, who stayed out of it while children were muddling
through the format, when they were going over time or fumbling with the
announcements. Occasionally, she points to the road map on the whiteboard to remind them about their planning discussions. After all, the radio station is their space, and she was there
to help them occupy it, to fit within it, in their own ways. After all, it was
about creating a sense of ownership, responsibility and agency. Quality could
come later.
We walk out of the studio to make room for the next show; two older teens take their places around the production/relay space. Their confidence is much more apparent, in the way they smoothly slide into the chairs and adjust the microphones. The four who have just finished the previous show are already talking
about next week’s episode. The elections, of course. After a few quick comments Dawry rushes off to catch up on the rest of his evening. Lydia is looking down at her
phone to catch up on Snapchat and Geana smiles a shy goodbye. Janna hangs back--this time, it's to answer our questions about her plans for college—international relations, definitely at one of the universities in Boston, she says.
The chairs in the large room upstairs are now occupied and an animated conversation is under way. You can hear the strains of music, recorded and work-in-progress, seep through the walls from other rooms, maybe other floors. Despite the lengthening shadows of fall, there's a warmth and energy in here that can only come from complete immersion and enjoyment in the present. Mariel, who's been here before, explains to me that Zumix is all about getting the youth to find ways of expressing themselves, and in the process, finding who they are what their passions might be. That's a community building mechanism for sure.
The chairs in the large room upstairs are now occupied and an animated conversation is under way. You can hear the strains of music, recorded and work-in-progress, seep through the walls from other rooms, maybe other floors. Despite the lengthening shadows of fall, there's a warmth and energy in here that can only come from complete immersion and enjoyment in the present. Mariel, who's been here before, explains to me that Zumix is all about getting the youth to find ways of expressing themselves, and in the process, finding who they are what their passions might be. That's a community building mechanism for sure.
It’s dark and the streets are still wet as we leave Zumix.
Mariel walks me through this largely Latino neighborhood as she looks for the
Mexican bakery where she can buy the special bread made for the Day of the Dead
celebrations—which she has been missing, intensely.
Sweet bread is a great way to end the day, I think.
PS: Here's a list of the songs they played on the show:
1. YouTube Culture by Jon Cozart--"oh that's perfect" (Lydia)
2. Mr Potato Head by Melanie Martinez--"it relates to the idea of filters and photoshopping" (Janna)
3. Titanium by David Guetta et al--"it's about empowerment--and isn't that the idea of this show?" (Janna)
4. Put your Phone Down by Erykah Badu--this one's a recommendation from Brittany.
PS: Here's a list of the songs they played on the show:
1. YouTube Culture by Jon Cozart--"oh that's perfect" (Lydia)
2. Mr Potato Head by Melanie Martinez--"it relates to the idea of filters and photoshopping" (Janna)
3. Titanium by David Guetta et al--"it's about empowerment--and isn't that the idea of this show?" (Janna)
4. Put your Phone Down by Erykah Badu--this one's a recommendation from Brittany.
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