Playlist: Tracy Mitchell's Portfolio
Featured
Walking Across America ~ Advice for a Young Man
From Atlantic Public Media | Part of the The Transom Radio Specials series | 53:57
Andrew Forsthoefel set out at age 23 to walk across America, East to West, 4000 miles, with a sign on him that said, "Walking to Listen". This hour, co-produced with Jay Allison, tracks his epic journey. It's a coming of age story, and a portrait of this country - big-hearted, wild, innocent, and wise.
From Andrew Forsthoefel:
I decided to walk across the country for several reasons. Producing an hour-long radio essay about it was not one of them. When I left home, I had no idea what would become of the tape I hoped to record.
At the beginning of the walk, I thought it would be a good idea to have a focus question for the interviews. The question was about transformation. What does it mean to you and when have you experienced it? I was at a transformative time in my own life, so that question seemed right.
I quickly abandoned the idea, though. It seemed too contrived or constraining. Instead, I just started talking to people about their lives and, sometimes, what their lives had taught them. I’d ask people about the idea of home, aloneness, family, love, death; all sorts of stuff.
I thought people would be resistant to being interviewed. Not so. The vast majority wanted to be heard, and they didn’t mind the recorder. Nearly every time, they had something they wanted to share. I was wearing a sign that said “Walking to Listen,” and there was no shortage of people to listen to.
Support for this work comes from National Endowment for the Arts and the Transom Donor Fund:
Crossing East - Asian American History series (Series)
Produced by Dmae Lo Roberts
Most recent piece in this series:
Crossing East: Relations
From Dmae Lo Roberts | Part of the Crossing East - Asian American History series series | 58:28
- Playing
- Crossing East: Relations
- From
- Dmae Lo Roberts
Crossing East: Relations focuses on historic and contemporary relationships and conflicts between Asian Americans and African Americans leading up to Asians4BlackLives support for Black Lives Matter. The documentary examines stereotypes fostered by the myth of the “model minority” as a way to suggest one racial group is more successful and should be modeled by other racial groups. This stereotype has been used as racial wedge between communities of color. As part of a 10th anniversary celebration of the Peabody-winning radio series Crossing East, which aired on 230 public radio stations around the country we’ve been producing this documentary as well gathering more than 100 hours of oral history recordings for the Crossing East Archive.
Interviews recorded by Crossing East producer Robynn Takayama in the Bay Area include:
- Anirvan Chatterjee co-creator of BlackDesiSecretHistory.com.
- Malkia Amala Cyril, activist with Black Lives Matter and executive director of The Center for Media Justice.
- and Ellen Choy of Asians4BlackLives, both in the Bay Area.
Interviews recorded by Crossing East Executive producer Dmae Roberts and Alan Montecillo in Portland in collaboration with APANO’s Kara Carmosino. These include:
- Writer/social justice organizer Scot Nakagawa of ChangeLab grassroots political lab.
- Jo Ann Hardesty, president of the Portland chapter of the NAACP
- Helen Ying, National Vice President of Member in the Chinese American Citizens Alliance in Portland.
- Joseph Santos-Lyons, executive director of the Asian Pacific American Network of Oregon.
- and participants of APANO’s Model Minority Workshops and at their Rolling Tides Convention.