Summary: In Athens, Ohio the ATCO Sheltered Workshop for developmentally disabled adults is making money - and art! Their 'outsider art' made $100,000 last year. This year, with a new project, their art is filling our ears as well as our eyes. Their new CD features songs written by disabled artists and set to music
This feature starts out with a scene from the Athens public library where a group of college students are helping disabled adults write poetry. Someone had the idea to set some of the poetry to music. 12 Athens have jumped on the project and produced a CD with some really nice sounds. There were a lot of scenes and some great music mixes in this feature. I especially liked the interview with one poet Serena and the musician who set her poem to music. The musician comments that Serena feels deeply and thinks about the same things that a 30-year-old musician does. This was a very nice piece—I only wish I would have heard more from the disabled adult poets. Check it out this is a well done feature.
A moving portrait of a group of developmentally disabled adults writing poetry, that is then set to music and sung by professional musicians. The project helps to fund the program and is very successful. The sounds range from snippets of the poetry writing workshops, interviews with writers, performers, and the music itself. THe piece helps make the point of seeing these people as adults, as perceptive, intelligent, feeling people like us. It is quite elegant and very effective. If public radio is here to keep us learning, to help us understand what is unfamiliar to us, and to enrich our lives, then this piece fits swimmingly.
Comments for The Power of Song
Produced by Sandra Sleight-Brennan
Other pieces by Sandra Sleight-Brennan
Rating Summary
2 comments
Erik Nycklemoe
Posted on February 09, 2005 at 06:59 AM | Permalink
Review of The Power of Song
This feature starts out with a scene from the Athens public library where a group of college students are helping disabled adults write poetry. Someone had the idea to set some of the poetry to music. 12 Athens have jumped on the project and produced a CD with some really nice sounds. There were a lot of scenes and some great music mixes in this feature. I especially liked the interview with one poet Serena and the musician who set her poem to music. The musician comments that Serena feels deeply and thinks about the same things that a 30-year-old musician does. This was a very nice piece—I only wish I would have heard more from the disabled adult poets. Check it out this is a well done feature.
Bill Palladino
Posted on December 15, 2004 at 05:31 PM | Permalink
Review of The Power of Song
A moving portrait of a group of developmentally disabled adults writing poetry, that is then set to music and sung by professional musicians. The project helps to fund the program and is very successful. The sounds range from snippets of the poetry writing workshops, interviews with writers, performers, and the music itself. THe piece helps make the point of seeing these people as adults, as perceptive, intelligent, feeling people like us. It is quite elegant and very effective. If public radio is here to keep us learning, to help us understand what is unfamiliar to us, and to enrich our lives, then this piece fits swimmingly.