Braden Storytelling Grant

Seeing with Sound by Chloe Barreau

If sound matters, why? I am not alone in fearing blindness, because we live in a world of visuals. Whether I am reading a book, following street signs, or hopping on a train, I can’t imagine navigating a world without my eyes. I tune out the cacophony of cars, squeaks, barks, and pedestrian crossings on a daily basis. In privileging sight, what am I missing in sound?
“When you close your eyes you begin to feel your body. You become aware of your non-visual abilities,” said Thomas Tajo, a blind echolocator. I speak with human echolocators, eye researchers, and music professors to discover just how much sound has to offer. Close your eyes. Tune in, and listen to what is revealed.
Producer: Chloe Barreau
Music:Veni Creator Spiritus by John Dunstable (www.youtube.com/watch?v=9dYAEpf-A-A)Lost and Found by Podington BearThree Colors by Podington Bear

Respite: a Journey Into Foster Care by Rachel Vaughan

You’re six years old. Child protective services removed you from the only life you’ve ever known and placed you in state custody, into the foster care system.
Producer: ​​Rachel Vaughan
Music:​​Junior85 - You can calmly put this thing together Lee Rosevere - And So ThenPodington Bear - Daydreamer

Ghost Temples: The Spirit of Taiwan by Katie Lan

Some people pray to gods, but other people pray to ghosts. In this story, Katie Lan explores the temples and folk religion in Taiwan, where her parents and the rest of her family is from. Here, she explores ghost temples and even learns to pray to a dog?
Producer: Katie Lan
Music:晶晶 1969 鄧麗君www.youtube.com/watch?v=zI0lHGnKtSI

Sandbranch: a Deep-rooted Community by Claudia Heymach

Sandbranch is a community outside of Dallas that hasn’t had running water or well water for decades, but the residents refuse to leave. Founded by former slaves, it used to be a thriving town of over 500 people. In the 1980s, its wells were contaminated. The residents have been fighting for running water ever since. Now, led by a pastor, an environmental lawyer, and past and present residents of the community, Sandbranch is on the brink of change.Producer: Claudia Heymachfeaturing:Eugene Keahey, Mary Nash, John Wiley Price, Mark McPherson, Ivory Hall, Chess Jones,and the choir of Mt Zion baptist church.Special Thanks: Carol Francois, Clay Jenkins, Edward Shore, the residents of Sandbranch, Catherine Girardeau, Jackson Roach, and Jake Warga.
Music: Music used (Title(s), Artist, Album. Include links and permissions)From freesound.org: Slow Sad Tones by TJ Mothy freesound.org/people/TJ%20Mothy/sounds/92734/Wind Howl 2 by swiftoidfreesound.org/people/swiftoid/sounds/117610/

Genocide Haunts Our Home by Bunnard Phan

How does one build a new home after losing all of one’s family? A son interviews his mother, a Cambodian refugee and genocide survivor, about her experience resettling in the U.S. He learns how her past has shaped his life.
Producer: Bunnard Phan
Featuring: Nickie Phan, Bunnard Phan,
Music:Khnom Min Sok Chet Te by Pan RonChnam oun Dop-Pram Muy by Ros SereysotheaOrchestral version of “Unchained Melody” by the Righteous Brothers performed at The (Military) Music Show of Nations 2002 Bremen, Germany (www.youtube.com/watch?v=ejm3Q5ZKr28)

A Perfect Storm: Broadcasting Rhythms from the South Bronx to the East of Havana by Nya Hughes

From the rhyming styles of breakbeat poets and Bronx backyard jams of the 1980s, hip-hop sprang forth from the heart of urban black culture to give voice to the silenced narratives of black communities. The rhythm of resistance. Uncontainable, the sound waves traveled much farther than the national border. In the 1990s, young Cubans living in the barrio of Alamar resonated with the rhythms and attitude in the music and adopted the art form as their own. Moving through this rich oral history and into the present, we will hear the way hip-hop brought these two cultures together in a perfect storm.
Producer: Nya Hughes
 
Thank you to Luna Gallegos, Laura Cantana, Rolando Almirante, Dr. Cecil Brown, Jeff Chang, “The Wizard”/ “El Brujo,” Yulier, La Rafa El Individuo, and Alejandra Zamora for your honesty and warmth throughout the interview process.
Music:The Message – Grandmaster FlashGet By – Talib KweliLatino & Proud – DJ RaffTengo – Hermanos De CausaMi Raza - El Individuo1981 SPECIAL REPORT: “SOUTH BRONX”(www.youtube.com/watch?v=oLSDY8jPRds)The Bronx in The 1980's PART 1 (Original)(www.youtube.com/watch?v=xgUsEVwXch0)CHUPI CHUPI – Osmani Garcia
Photo by Nya Hughes

Whose Language? Afrikaans in Post-apartheid South Africa by Isaac Goldstein

Explore the ties between language and identity in South Africa with two women who see Afrikaans as the language of reconciliation.
Two women in South Africa are currently challenging the assumption that Afrikaans is solely the language of the oppressor. One is a poet. The other runs a community radio station. Through a retelling of the true history of the language and the people who created the language, words arise that begin to break down the ties between language and identity over 20 years post-apartheid: “you can’t blame a language for what a group of people did with it.”
Producer: Isaac GoldsteinMusic: The last offering, SunhiilowNo sudden movements, RuiMagic Torquoise, SunhiilowButterfly Lullaby, Possimiste

We Are Still Here: Stories of the Tinggian by Ethan Chua

In Abra, a province of the northern Philippines, members of several indigenous communities - collectively called the Tinggian - are fighting to protect their histories. Listen to the stories of an elder charged with upholding a centuries-old peace pact; a pastor whose ancestors fought as revolutionaries; a mayor who evaded assassination to build a school in his hometown; and a weaver who’s made it her mission to revive a tradition of ritual and weaving.
Producer: Ethan Chua
Featuring:Elder Bansilan SawadanElder Johnny GuinabanPastor RubenElder Norma Mina
With thanks to:Ate Minda GuinabanRaffy TejeroThe Center for Community Transformation (CCT)My parents, Ronald and Anabelle Chua
MusicPodington Bear

No Hay Pelo Malo by Alyssa Vann

This podcast explores the burgeoning natural hair movement in the Dominican Republic, where the vast majority of women prefer to straighten their hair. In doing so, it explores the intersections of race, gender, and history in the country’s capital.
Producer: Alyssa Vann
Music: All music recorded in the plaza in the Colonial District of Santo Domingo, or in salons.

Una Isu: a Ñuu Savi Warrior Resisting Through Hip Hop by Jackie Botts

As indigenous people from Mexico migrate to California, their languages and cultures are threatened. One indigenous trilingual rapper based in Fresno is fighting back.
“We are taught that we're not valuable, we are taught that we have no history, we are ignorant, we don’t have richness of culture…. I’m trying to turn everything around.”
Miguel Villegas Ventura came to the US at age 7 speaking only Mixteco, an indigenous language spoken by the Ñuu Savi nation in the Mexican states of Oaxaca, Guerrero and Puebla. He came of age in Fresno, California, amidst poverty, bullying and the constant pressure to hide his roots.
But when Miguel learned the history of Una Isu, a 12th century Mixteco warrior, everything changed.
Today Miguel demands respect and dignity through trilingual hip hop. Like Una Isu, he seeks to unite indigenous Mexicans who have found a new home in the United States.
Producer: Jackie Botts
Featuring voices of Miguel Villegas, Leoncio Vasquez and Irma Luna
Music:“Mixteco es un Lenguaje” by Una Isu“Intro [Prod. Esteban]” by Una Isu“Quisieron [Prod. Esteban]” by Una Isu“Se que avanzare (Con Mixteko) [Prod. Starbeats]” by Una Isu“Soñadores [Prod. Fenix]” by Una Isu“Cinco años (Con Mixteko) [Prod. Guerrero]” by Una Isu“Asi quiero sanar [Prod. N3w Lment]” by Una Isu“Pop Song” by Johnny Ripper“Lamentos en Aula Remix” by Toiletrolltube“If You Should Lose Me” by Lil Rob“Summer Nights” by Lil Rob
Una Isu complete music at @miguel-villegas-29