Posts tagged this i believe
New Podcast from the Bennington Radio Project
New podcast from the Bennington Radio Project featuring sluts, Santa Claus, poetry, and Martha Graham.
love,
jason and ellie
40 plays
I have finally, finally, finally just finished work on an audio piece that I started during my last Field Work Term position at This I Believe Inc. I found the audio of Martha Graham (roughly, the founder of modern dance who taught at Bennington) reading her essay for the original This I Believe series, hosted by Edward R. Murrow (roughly, the patron-saint of broadcast journalism). I recorded some current Bennington dance students reading her essay and worked their different voices together in this old-meets-new version of Martha Graham’s This I Believe essay.
- jason
This I Believe Feature
Some remnants of my work at This I Believe this Field Work Term. This feature on the Peace Corps was one that I curated - so to speak. It’s a collection of essays written about lessons learned from time spent in the service of others.
- jason
'Growing in the Middle Ground'
FWT +1
Arrived in Louisville yesterday and spent the afternoon getting settled in my new room at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary (a story for another post). I was pleased to find I have my own private bathroom yet concerned that I couldn’t find how to turn down the heater that was turning my room into a one twin-bed sized oven. The to-do list for tomorrow includes asking about the heat.
First day of (field)work at This I Believe, Inc. was great. I spend the day getting oriented, then working on cleaning up audio from essays of the original 1950s series that was started by Edward R. Murrow. Often, I found myself distracted by the essays that I was working on and stopped editing long enough to listen to each essay in its entirety. One essay that I was exposed to today immediately struck a chord with me given my current state. It was written by Anne Phipps, a college sophomore in the early 1950s. The opening words of her essay could just as easily been mine.
I believe that my beliefs are changing. Nothing is positive. Perhaps I’m in a stage of metamorphosis, which will one day have me emerging complete, sure of everything. Perhaps, I shall spend my life searching.
Equally as stunning was Ed Murrow’s words of closing
What you have just heard, was the sound - so to speak - of an American girl growing up. She says she is learning. Already, she has taught us something of the exciting wisdom that comes with maturity to a thoughtful person.
I’ve provided the link to this essay where you can also browse the huge collection of essays from both the 1950s and the 2000s. More from the ‘middle ground’ of self-discovery soon.
“There is fatigue so great that the body cries even in its sleep.”
Martha Graham in her essay for This I Believe
Last week I was poking around the website of This I Believe, the non-profit public radio organization that collects and shares essays about personal beliefs and guiding philosophies (and also my next FWT) when I found an essay written by Martha Graham. Her essay was written and recorded during the original This I Believe series that was started by Edward R. Murrow (my hero) in the 1950s. Though I don’t study dance at Bennington, I knew Martha Graham has an important role in the history of dance at Bennington so I was excited by the chance discovery. I’m now working on a project to record the voices of several Bennington dance students reading Martha Graham’s essay and to comment on what she means to them as dance students.
Just finalized my next Field Work Term with This I Believe today. Needless to say, I couldn’t be more excited. Next up, figuring out where I can live for 7 weeks in Louisville, Kentucky.
