HOST:
Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC – VOA’s radio magazine in SpecialEnglish.
(THEME)
This is Doug Johnson. On our program today:
We play some jazz music …
answer a question about divorce in America …
and report on a show of photographs about the tragedy in New YorkCity.
New York Photographs
HOST:
People in New York City are trying to find ways to deal with thetragedy of September eleventh. Many are seeking ways to honor thethousands of people who died. Others want to join together to sharetheir memories of the horror. Here is Sarah Long to tell aboutunusual show of pictures in New York that provides a way to do both.
ANNCR:
They are young and old. Men and women and students of differentcolors and ethnic groups. They enter the small space slowly, tryingnot to react too emotionally to the hundreds of pictures hanging onthe walls and overhead.
They are visiting a temporary show called “Here is New York: aDemocracy of Photographs.” It is on Prince Street in an area of NewYork City called SoHo. The show contains pictures made byprofessional photographers with costly camera equipment and byindividuals with point and shoot cameras. All the photographs are ofthe attacks on the World Trade Center and its tragic effects.
There are pictures of the huge buildings on fire, firemen racingto help, people mourning at funerals for loved ones. There areimages taken by famous photographers, such as a plane hitting one ofthe towers. And there are ones taken by individuals such as one of awoman feeding her baby in the bright sunlight with the black smokeof the burning towers seen behind.
The “Here Is New York” show was the idea of photographer GillesPeress and building owner Michael Shulan who had an empty space inhis Prince Street building. They asked Alice Rose George, aphotography editor, and Charles Traub, of the School of Visual Arts,to help. They invited anyone who took pictures linked to the tragedyto take part in the show. More than one-thousand-five-hundredphotographs have been offered so far. Each picture is scanned into acomputer, printed on good paper, and hung. Copies of any of thepictures can be ordered for twenty-five dollars each. All the moneyearned is being given to the Children’s Aid Society.
Susan Luciano is helping organize the project. She says peoplecome to see the show and stay on volunteering their time to takeorders or make computer copies of photographs. Many visitors reactto the show with silence or tears, some reaching out to touchstrangers standing nearby. One woman said, “I needed to see this totry to deal with a reality that I can not understand or accept.”
Effects of Divorce on Children
HOST:
Our listener question this week comes from Vietnam. Bac Ha wantsto know about how divorce in the United States affects children.
Ending a marriage can be a sad, unpleasant, and painfulexperience, especially for children. In the United States, thenumber of children affected by divorce grows by about one-millioneach year. As the number increases, experts continue to debate theeffects of divorce on children.
Some experts say divorce is harmful to children. Some studiesshow that children of divorce have more problems.For example, somechildren of divorce are more often aggressive toward parents andteachers. They have a greater risk of leaving school beforecompleting their studies. They have more health and learningproblems. However, experts note that these problems are notnecessarily caused by divorce alone.
During the Nineteen-Seventies, many Americans believed thatdivorce was the best solution for married people who were not happy.People did not think divorce would harm children. They thoughtchildren would go through a period of change when their parentsended their marriage. Then the children would be all right.
These beliefs have changed in recent years. Researcher JudithWallerstein studied more than one-hundred children of divorce over atwenty-five-year period. She says some children never recover fromdivorce. She says they often have problems with their own adultrelationships as a result of their parents’ divorce.
Mizz Wallerstein says her study proves that parents should staytogether for their children, even if they are unhappy. However, somepeople say that children suffer more in a situation where there ismuch conflict. They say it is better for children to live with onedivorced parent than to live with two parents who are angry andunhappy.
Other experts note that many children of divorce do not haveserious problems. This is because their parents are able to dealwith the situation in a responsible way.
Experts say that some people who get divorced are able to put theneeds of their children first. They say that they are able to showthe children that their love and support will continue after thedivorce.
Jazz CD
HOST:
The National Association of Recording Merchandisers released itsfourth album of jazz in June. The Black Entertainment Televisionnetwork helped produce the album, called “Jazz Now.” It has becomeone of the top selling jazz recordings. Ray Freeman tells us aboutit.
ANNCR:
“Jazz Now” is a collection of songs by several artists. Almostevery kind of jazz music is represented on the recording.
For example, Bela Fleck and the Flecktones make music with abanjo and other instruments not usual for jazz. Here is “Zona Mona.”
(CUT 1 – ZONA MONA)
A recent American television series about jazz increased interestin the history of the music. The producers of “Jazz Now” say theyhope their album will influence listeners to support the work ofcurrent jazz artists. One of those is saxophonist Ed Calle (KI-yay).He has played sax on recordings by famous singers like Frank Sinatraand Gloria Estefan. Here he performs the song “Spanish Rose.”
(CUT 2 – SPANISH ROSE)
Among the fifteen songs on “Jazz Now” is an unusual new versionof an old song. Guinean singer Elizabeth Kontomanou and drummer LeonParker perform this Duke Ellington piece. We leave you now with”Caravan.”
(CUT 3 – CARAVAN)
HOST:
This is Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. And Ihope you will join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC-VOA’sradio magazine in Special English.
This AMERICAN MOSAIC program was written by Marilyn Christiano,Cynthia Kirk, and Caty Weaver. Our studio engineers were Tony Harrisand Tom Verba. And our producer was Paul Thompson. Now, here isanother selection from “Jazz Now”. This is “Savannah, No Problem” byKeiko Matsui.