Process Notes

Photo by Patrick Perkins on Unsplash

Where are you in your sound writing process?

I’m pretty much finished, I recorded my radio show already. All I have to do now is listen to the audio and do finishing touches if need be.

What are your biggest accomplishments and failures so far?

I am pretty proud of stepping outside of my comfort zone, I felt a lot less nervous when I was recording than I thought I would. Something that I still struggled with was adding in enough personality while remaining serious when talking about such a tragic topic. I wanted to make sure the emotional message got through while still being entertaining and engaging.

What have you learned so far?

I learned a lot more about environmental injustice and just how complicated it is. Previously I knew a decent amount about the topic but I didn’t understand just how much it impacted these communities during the hurricane.

What ideas did you grapple with?

I still grapple with the solution to these issues. Exploring the political power of poetry doesn’t always talk about direct activism, its moreso a way to tell a story. In this way some people are still grappling with how to actually tackle these larger issues in the real world.

What decisions have emerged lately as you plan and work on your project?

I made the decision to analyze another stanza, there were so many to choose from out of the 34, and it was hard not to include some because I think their themes were integral to the show.

What is the next step in your composing process?

I already recorded it, so the next thing to do is listen to the audio and see if there’s any errors, then turn it in!

How are you feeling about your progress toward achieving your purpose?

I’m feeling pretty good about my project. I think I achieved a lot of my goals and was pretty comfortable when it was time to record.

How are you feeling about your progress toward affecting your audience?

I think that my show will be very emotionally impactful. There was a wide range of topics which could be pretty sensitive that I talked about. I am happy that I’ll be able to emotionally impact audiences.

How are you feeling about your progress toward situating your work in time and place of your context?

I think that I set the scene pretty well for the issues that I will talk about, specifically the details about the hurricane. I made sure to give a lot of context about environmental injustice and the set up of these cities, so that when I discussed the poems, the listeners would greater understand the social and political background.

How are you feeling about your progress toward following the expectations of your genre?

I think that I did a good job at maintaining the expectations for the style of show I crafted. I wanted it to be educational and political, while also highlighting a great poet, Patricia Smith. By talking about how poetry is political while educating about environmental injustice, I would say that the show is pretty informational.

Works Cited for this project

Smith, Patricia. Blood Dazzler. Coffee House Press, 2008.

Patricia Smith: The Power of the Word. Public Broadcasting Service, 20 February 2011. https://www.pbs.org/video/34-21883/