This incredibly moving piece, infused with emotion because of the highly personal topic and the openness of the producer, definitely warrants a place on the air. The mix of narration, conversation, music, and sound from the funeral itself creates a very dynamic piece, both in content and in audio. For improvement, I would suggest smoothing the transitions or making sure the whole piece is in chronological order; although bringing the listener to the funeral itself, then giving some background information, and then returning to the funeral has the potential to be very effective, the result was slightly confusing.

This was a very well produced piece by a young African American woman Auliya Jackson. It tells a heart-felt story that left me with a lot of questions after hearing it. The piece starts out with Auliya talking about how she is on a trip to Georgia to meet the grandmother she has never met. She recounts the drive through rural Georgia—passing through “a butt crack town” where there was confederate flag slowly waving in the wind. This rightly freaked her out a bit.

Then the diary makes a surprising transition to a scene where her dad is upset because she didn’t bring dress clothes or shoes, and he starts asking his sister if she has anything to lend Auliya. They then go to grandma’s house and she starts looking at photos. There are none with grandma in them. At this point she remarks that she has never even seen a photo of grandma and today’s grandma’s funeral. This is the first time we hear that her grandma had died—and we are 6 ½ minutes into the 9-minute diary. And it is still holding my attention.

From there we hear some clips from the lively funeral itself and then to some reflective thoughts hours later. She finally got to see an obituary photo on the printed funeral program. In tears the diary ends with Auliya saying that she never got to see or even talk to her grandmother and now she is buried.

Auliya came across as a thoughtful young woman—who in her own way raised very significant issues. In the present day, surely she could have or should have had at least a photo or numerous phone conversations with her grandma. Why not? Whatever the reason, it left me sad for her, her family and whatever situation prevented such important intergenerational interaction. This was a very well done piece and I only wish it would have filled in more blanks—but that is sometimes what happens with a well-told and presented slice of life diary.