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Monday, May 1, 2006
Radio days
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Headphones covering his ears, David Barber-Callaghan is testing out the digital recorder in his hand as Ater Ater seems to make similar final adjustments to his skateboard. Barber-Callaghan is making sure the connection with the recorder and microphone in his other hand is all right. Ater, meanwhile, is trying to nail down the tricks he's learning on his board. "All right, let's get some sound," Barber-Callaghan says. And that's when the surrounding neighborhood seems to explode into noise, almost on cue, as if they were staging "Kennedy Park: The Musical." The ice cream man idles up near the corner they're standing on. It's a frenzy of young kids (and some older) swarming the van, all screaming, on foot and bike. "Maybe we should wait," Barber-Callaghan says as Ater attempts another jump on his board. The two are part of an ongoing project designed to offer the outside world a better look into Kennedy Park, a patchwork neighborhood of immigrants and low-income families. The collaboration was borne out of BLUNT Youth Radio, which produces weekly radio programs on community radio station WMPG (90.9 and 104.1 FM), and the peer leader program at Kennedy Park. If you get near a radio or a computer tonight, you can listen to BLUNT beginning at 7:30. Tonight's show features the crew from Kennedy Park talking about discrimination. For months, people like Barber-Callaghan, 16, and other BLUNTers have been meeting with students who live in the neighborhood. On paper, the meetings are supposed to bring together students who have experience putting together radio shows with those who don't. Things don't always shake out like that in practice, but it's close enough. "If you do it enough, you'll land it," Barber-Callaghan says to Ater as he tries another trick. Ater, 15, a student at Portland High School, said he just picked up skateboarding recently. For the segment he and Barber-Callaghan are working on, they're going to look at people's perceptions of skateboarders, or what exactly a typical skateboarder looks like. Over at the peer leader center, Muna Ali and Rachel Heasly are debating how many more people they need to gather for interviews. Ali, 14, is running down a list of possibilities, including people from the Center for Prevention of Hate Violence as well as the Multicultural Student Center at the University of Southern Maine. Heasly, 17, who has worked on segments for BLUNT in the past, explained that it's necessary to grab as many perspectives as possible before putting anything together. Also, "It's good to have extra if they fall through," she points out. Back outside Ikram Mohamed is taking a shot at interviewing people in the neighborhood. She's lucked out. People are out on their front steps and on the corner trying out the spring warmth. Mohamed chases one person after another, her microphone thrust out like a fishing pole. "I'm bored, and people are being mean," Mohamed says, only half-jokingly, to Emily Lafond, another BLUNT trainer. As Lafond, 16, talks about the interviewing process, organizing, knowing the right questions, following up, Mohamed bolts to attempt another interview. Claire Holman, the program's advisor, said the idea behind the effort was to expose the idea of radio documentaries to young people who may not get the chance to produce one. As is, BLUNT already recruits students from high schools in and around Portland to put together shows on everything ranging from poetry, politics, dating and even Chuck Norris. But the program also takes its premise out into the field. They've already done programs with young people at the Long Creek Youth Development Center in South Portland. Holman said the ultimate goal is to make a mini studio at the peer leader center for young people at Kennedy Park to create their own programs. They've already purchased the computers to engineer the shows and they plan to get recording kits soon, Holman said. At least that's the goal, and they're making their way closer to it. Near the basketball court, Mohamed is still trying her best to get interviews. Ater's still trying to perfect the tricks on his board, and Barber-Callaghan is chasing after one of the recording kits, which landed in the middle of the latest mock-fight of the afternoon. Lafond, who also volunteered to do the program at Long Creek, said the work is fun, but definitely crazy at times. She said it's worth it for the chance to have more people's stories heard. "Once it all comes together, it's amazingly rewarding," Lafond said. "It just takes a lot to get there." Staff Writer Justin Ellis can be contacted at 791-6380 or at:
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