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HOST:
Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, a VOA Special English program aboutmusic and American life. Plus we answer your questions!
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This is Doug Johnson. This week:
A question about hip-hop music …
And a report about a theater festival in the East.
But first, come along to a town in the American West. A specialhistory project has brought together people young and …not-so-young.
Veterans History Project
HOST:
In Bigfork, Montana, high school students have done some specialthings to honor local people who served in America’s wars. One yearthey even held a ceremony at a theater in town on Veterans Day, anational holiday in November. It all started when one teacher toldher students to each find a war veteran and talk with that person.Phoebe Zimmermann has more.
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Nineteen-million war veterans live in the United States.Officials say about one-thousand-five-hundred die each day — fromold age, sickness or other causes. The Library of Congress inWashington wants to record as many of their stories as possible. Thelibrary especially wants young people and classes to talk to theveterans and write down their stories.
Mary Sullivan is an Englishteacher in the western town of Bigfork, Montana. Aroundthree-thousand people live there. Her students became excited whenshe told them to find veterans and talk to them. The studentsinvited people in town to a special program honoring the veterans.The students read some of the stories they had been told.
Students also paraded in the clothes that soldiers wore when theywere in the military. And the high school band played the songs fromthe different armed services. Veterans who were watching the programsuddenly stood up. Many had tears in their eyes.
Students learned that veterans from different wars had verydifferent feelings. Those in World War Two often felt much morestrongly about what they had done than some of the veterans of theVietnam War. Maureen Sullivan, the teacher’s daughter, noticed thatmany World War Two veterans wore their old military clothes to theprogram. Vietnam veterans did not.
One reason could be that during the war there were many protestsin the United States. Many soldiers did not feel that the Americanpeople supported them or welcomed them home. Today studies show thatthe public has a much higher opinion of the military.
The students in Bigfork wrote downevery word of every talk with the veterans. Four students traveledto Washington, D.C., to give the reports directly to the Library ofCongress.
Teacher Mary Sullivan says the veterans project built a bridgebetween older and younger people in her town. One student said heheard stories his grandfather had never talked about before. Whenthe boy asked his grandfather why he had never told them, thegrandfather said no one had ever asked.
Contemporary American Theater Festival
HOST:
Shepherdstown is the oldest town in the state of West Virginia.Every summer, it presents the newest American plays during theContemporary American Theater Festival. Faith Lapidus tells us more.
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Historic Shepherdstown, West Virginia, is on a hill near thePotomac River. The first Europeans arrived in the earlyseventeen-hundreds. Many of the first settlers were German. The mainstreet in Shepherdstown is still called German Street.
Shepherd College was establishedin eighteen-seventy-one to teach languages and science. TheContemporary American Theater Festival has taken place at thecollege every summer since nineteen-ninety-one.
The festival presents new American plays during four weeks eachsummer. Many of the plays have never been performed before.
One of the four plays presented this summer was called “Whores.”It was written by award-winning playwright Lee Blessing. It is abouta general from a Central American country. The general’s troopsmurdered four female American religious workers. The play takesplace in the general’s imagination.
The Contemporary American Theater Festival also presented themusical play “Wilder” by Erin Cressida Wilson. She is also anaward-winning playwright, and a movie screenwriter. “Wilder” is asad story about a teenage boy growing up in Denver, Colorado, duringthe economic depression in the nineteen-thirties. His parents areunable to take care of him, so they send him to live with otherpeople.
Another new play is called “The Last Schwartz” by Deborah ZoeLaufer. It is both funny and sad. Members of a family gather for theone-year anniversary of their father’s death. During the gathering,the brothers and sister tell many family secrets.
The fourth play is called “Bright Ideas” by Eric Coble. It is avery funny play about a husband and wife who will do anything tomake sure their three-year-old son attends the best pre-school. Theywill even carry out a murder! Many people from the Washington, D-C,area travel to Shepherdstown each summer for the theater festival.Ed Herendeen started the festival and continues as its producingdirector. He said the theater festival was a huge success this year.Two of the plays will be produced in New York City this autumn.
Hip-Hop Music
HOST:
Our VOA listener question this week comes from Imo State,Nigeria. Eke Abraham wants to know about American hip-hop music. Wewent to VOA’s own expert, Rod Murray, host of “Hip-Hop Connection.”That’s heard Saturdays at nineteen hours Universal Time on theEnglish-to-Africa service. Rod says hip-hop is not just music but awhole culture that also includes dance and how people dress.
Rap is the best known hip-hop music. It began about thirty yearsago in the streets of New York City. One of the earliest songs was”Rapper’s Delight” by the Sugarhill Gang.
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Rap has spread internationally,far beyond its roots in the culture of young black males in NewYork. It is used not just for entertainment but also for socialactivism. In America, though, a lot of people have criticized rapsongs about violence, drugs and mistreatment of women. There aresome women in rap, especially since the late nineteen-eighties.
Rod considers Missy Elliot the greatest. Here’s her song “TheRain (Supa Dupa Fly).”
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Right now, VOA’s Rod Murray says the most popular rapper is theman who calls himself Fifty Cent. His album “Get Rich or Die Tryin'”has sold more than two-million copies since it came out in February.And now, we leave you with Fifty Cent and “In Da Club.”
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HOST:
This is Doug Johnson. E-mail your questions about American lifeto mosaic at v-o-a news dot com. Make sure to include your name andpostal address. Or write to American Mosaic, VOA Special English,Washington, D.C., two-zero-two-three-seven, USA. We’ll send you agift if we use your question.
Our program was written by Shelley Gollust, Karen Leggett andCaty Weaver, who was also our producer. I hope you enjoyed ourprogram! Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC — VOA’s radiomagazine in Special English.