I strive to make audio stories driven by
community, curiosity, and deep listening.
THE ARCHIVES PODCAST
I started The Archives in 2015 as a way to dig into the people and history of Chicago’s Old Town School of Folk Music. For five years I researched, hosted, and produced over twelve hours of podcasts that featured interviews, live performances, field recordings and more from the school’s archive. Below are a few highlights.
The first two people in line for the opening night of the Old Town School: Ginni Clemmens and Ella Jenkins (12/1/1957)
60 Years of the Old Town School of Folk Music
In 2017 The Archives partnered with StoryCorps to conduct an oral history of the Old Town School, to be preserved online as well as at the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress. In culmination of the project I produced a six-part audio documentary of the school, centered around the voices and songs of the people who were there.
Listen to the audio documentary, “60 Years of Folk.”
Learn more about the project at the Old Town School website.
Browse the full interviews at StoryCorps’ online archive.
Dancers at a Peña at the 909 W Armitage school (1990s).
La Peña: A bilingual series
Esto es la historia de La Peña, the first Latin music concert series at the Old Town School. The story of La Peña is really just one part of a larger story, about how the Old Town School in the 1980s was brought back from the brink of closure, in large part by broadening their definition of “folk” in highly intentional ways. To tell the tale, The Archives shared stories and music, en inglés y en español, from the people who were there. I also curated a series of performance videos from the school’s recordings, published alongside video excerpts from some of the interviews we conducted. The La Peña series was funded by a grant from the Illinois Digital Archive.
Listen to the story of La Peña / Escuche la historia de La Peña
Watch the video series / Vea la serie de videos
The Armstrong family, 1960s
The Armstrong Family
Listen from the beginning to hear the story of the Armstrong family, Chicago musicians and ethnomusicologists who were a staple of the local folk music community for decades. They donated their large collection of home recordings, field recordings, and George Armstrong’s Wandering Folksong radio program to the school, many of which are featured throughout the entire Archives podcast. Emma Rothman, great-niece of George and Gerry Armstrong, co-hosted and co-produced this four-part series.
BREACHED PODCAST
Breached is a podcast on the American social contract. I supported first-time co-creators Helena Swanson-Nystrom and Jyoti Jasrasaria in the podcast development phase, and then served as story editor and producer for this 10-episode series. Each episode explores a theme like “Community,” “Dissent,” or “Democracy,” and guests included Charlene Carruthers (Founder of Black Youth Project 100), Amanda Nguyen (founder and CEO of Rise), and Ray Mabus (former Secretary of the Navy).