Stories from Deep in the Heart: McCallum Fine Arts Academy Listening Party
Event Date: Tue May 12, 2015 – 1:00PM to 2:30PM
Venue: McCallum Fine Arts Academy
5600 Sunshine Drive /  Austin , TX 78756 

On Tuesday May 12th 1:00pm-2:30pm, high school students from Kenneth Rogers' Radio Broadcast class will hold a Listening Party to present audio documentaries created in partnership with Stories from Deep in the Heart, a Project of Texas Folklife.  

The students were offered the opportunity to work with Project Director Marcelo Teson, producers Carlos Salizar and Brian Griffith, and Texas Folklife Programs & Development Director Charlie Lockwood after Rachel Murray, McCallum Fine Arts Academy dance instructor, attended Texas Folklife’s 2014 “Stories from Deep in the Heart” Summer Institute, a five-day workshop for teachers to collaborate with professional producers, journalists, and cultural workers to produce an audio documentary.  

Students from Mr. Rogers' class first created short audio profiles with dancers from Ms. Murray's dance class, which were used in the McCallum Dance Faculty directed production Geographies of the Body.  Mr. Rogers' Students then moved on to creating longer community-based audio documentaries.  To prepare for the project, students considered their personal experiences, cultural traditions, and connections to McCallum High School and Texas. Students developed topics and then pitched their ideas to the Stories from Deep in the Heart team, who accepted the proposals or offered feedback to improve concepts.  Groups of 2-3 students organized around each approved topic and set out to interview community members, record and transcribe audio footage, script and edit the documentary using audio editing software, and finally produce a cohesive, polished audio documentary.

Fellow students, teachers, administrators, and community members are enthusiastically invited to attend the Listening Party and experience the students’ audio documentaries on Tuesday May 12th (1:00-2:30pm) at McCallum Fine Arts Academy Library, located at 5600 Sunshine Dr. Austin, TX 78756.

After the Listening Party, the students’ documentaries will be posted on the Texas Folklife website. Audio peices from this program are also made available to public radio stations worldwide via Texas Folklife's Public Radio Exchange channel (www.prx.org).