Recording Kentucky's Voice
Kentucky writers' work will be shared on national radio program

On May 3, a group of Kentuckians gathered on the campus of Morehead State University to share their vision of Kentucky. They spoke about the special people, scenic beauty, warm communities, memorable events, and the unique tastes and sounds of Eastern Kentucky. Although these writers addressed an appreciative audience of hundreds, their poetry, fiction, essays, and memoirs will soon be shared with a national audience as well through the Rural Voices Radio program.

“Rural Voices Radio celebrates our deep connections to land and place and the people in our lives through original poems, stories and essays,” says producer Deborah Begel, known for her National Public Radio programs “Selected Shorts” and “Fresh Air.”

“I discovered so many talented people in Kentucky – not only writers but also musicians and songwriters,” Begel says. “I was especially impressed with the honesty of Kentucky writers. They reached deep inside their hearts and minds to write, which produced a body of refreshing and unique writing. I was touched and I think listeners across the U.S. will be too.”

In fact, Begel was so impressed with the quality of the Kentuckians’ work she increased the number of works to be included. Originally, only 30 pieces were to make the final cut for Rural Voices Radio, but she selected 43.

What makes these spokespersons for Kentucky even more special is the fact that they are all school children from 12th grade to 2nd grade. While all participants in Rural Voices Radio are students, one of Kentucky’s students – a second-grader – was the youngest ever chosen for Rural Voices Radio.

About the project
The Rural Voices Radio project is intended to explore “what is unique and peculiar to rural areas through original writings of students.” Begel, an award-winning radio producer, and poet Kim Stafford provide the production and narration for Rural Voices Radio Volume III. The CD, which includes four half-hour radio programs from Kentucky, Texas, North Dakota, and Nevada will be released to public radio stations nationwide.

“This project has produced some amazing Kentucky poetry and personal essays about family, tobacco farming, coal, even Ale-8 and four-wheeling,” says Liz Mandrell, Rural Voices Radio site coordinator with the Morehead Writing Project.

“Hearing their voices will be more powerful than just seeing their words in writing,” says Jane Dixon, Rural Voices Radio Site Coordinator with the Mountain Writing project.

Rural Voices Radio II, the second CD in the National Writing Project’s Rural Voices Radio series, was released to public radio stations and writing project sites in April, 2002. The first set of radio programs, an exciting outcome of the Rural Voices Country Schools project, was released in June 2000, and received encouraging praise from public radio stations and notable media personalities including Bill Moyers and Studs Terkel.

Rural Voices Radio is a program of the National Writing Project, a nationwide network to improve students’ writing achievement by improving the teaching and learning of writing in the nation’s schools. NWP annually serves more than 100,000 teachers of grades K-16 in all disciplines through its 167 local sites across the country.

Rural Voices Radio series is NWP’s first spoken-word production. It is distributed to more than 150 public radio stations nation-wide and aired across the country, from remote rural stations in Alaska to large metropolitan stations in Boston and New York City.

Recording Kentucky’s voice
For two months, students from 11 Eastern Kentucky counties worked on visual writing surrounding the topic “Places We Call Home.” Ultimately 367 submissions were made to be included in the Kentucky program. Of those, 43 students had their work chosen and they read their own work for the CD. Students from Bracken, Robertson, Fleming, Elliott, Carter, Rowan, Johnson, Greenup, Boyd, Johnson, Letcher, and Pike counties will be included on the CD.

The students’ readings will be mixed with traditional Appalachian music and other local sounds to create a unique voice of Kentucky.

Mandrell says that she sees two enormous benefits for Eastern Kentucky as a result of the project. The first is to overcome the stereotypes that so often accompany national perspectives of the region. “Kentucky has an enormous amount of negative stereotypes, but anyone who hears these kids talk about how enormously privileged they feel to grow up where they did has to rethink those stereotypes. These are the voices of innocence. They talk about the hard times and difficulties, but also celebrate the abundance of community and belonging.”

She also sees how the project has benefited student writers. “It is amazing what kids will do when writing about something they care about. Writing for an end result, for a larger audience than they ever imagined they would have, raised the stakes tremendously but these kids really proved they were up to the challenge.”

You can listen to Rural Voices Radio at: http://www.writingproject.org/Programs/rvcs/listen.html

 

Deanna Mascle is a staff writer for The Lane Report.
editorial@lanereport.com

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