TV/Radio Undergraduate Hal Clarke's Progam Airs on WBAI (6/2000)
Hal Clarke, a student in Professor Spinelli's 25.2 advanced radio production class, had the short radio series he produced as his final project broadcast on WBAI 's "Wake Up Call" in June, 2000.
"Voices of the Caribbean" is a four part serial that takes a look at Caribbean culture, dialects, and way of life. WBAI's "Wake Up Call" airs 6am-10am, and is hosted by Bernard White and Mario Murill.
Department's Junior Faculty Awarded PSC-CUNY Grants for 2000-2001 (5/00)
One major venue for institutional support of faculty research at the City University of New York is the PSC-CUNY research grant competition, sponsored by the City University's Research Foundation. These grants are invaluable as support for research project initiation.
In Spring, 2000, the Department's three newest faculty members each received PSC-CUNY research grants. Professor Murray's project, entitled Images of Innocence, Transgression, and Recovery: A Cultural History of Child Stardom in the 20th Century , will be an examination of the way in which child stars have functioned culturally and industrially across different historical periods of the twentieth century.
Beginning with silent film and ending with the synergistic, media saturated, period of the late 1990s, Professor Murray describes the project as "carving out a history of discourses circulating around media representations of children and childhood by supplementing textual analysis of the films and television programs that highlight particular child stars with a survey of the secondary literature on child labor issues, child psychology, children's literary studies, and histories of stardom in film and television, alongside that of popular and trade press accounts and biographies of specific child stars and the phenomenon of child stardom."
Professor Sosa's project, "Their Myth, My Life" (working title), will be a 30 min. video documentary which addresses the influences of the mass media in the creation of the self image, and aspirations of today's youth. Professor Sosa says that through this documentary she intends to explore the impact of television, radio, advertising, the press, the Internet and other mass media on the development of self image in general, and on how a variety of particular individuals use these mass cultural representations to form their own personal mythologies.
"This documentary will use stylized and spontaneous interviews of individuals and groups of young people (ages between 11 and 15 years old) in their own environment (school, waiting in line for movie, at home). The visual aspect of this documentary will inform us about their appearance, attitudes and mannerisms, and we will try as much as possible to show the source of those."
"This project is important to me at this time, because it brings together my interest in why people do what they do and the new challenges I face as a professor of production in the Television and Radio Department as well as my work at the Center for Puerto Rican and Latino Studies at this institution. I also believe that it will be an important project for the Brooklyn College community as a whole."
Professor Spinelli has received a PSC-CUNY Research Fund Grant to produce a new series called Radio Radio which evolves out of his previous programs LINEbreak and ENGAGED. The series will feature sound poets, critically savvy DJs, audio/sample artists and innovative radio feature producers in conversation and performance. It will be available to public radio stations in 2001, distributed on the Public Radio Satellite System, archived as sound files at the Electronic Poetry Center (http://epc.buffalo.edu) and made available on CD.
Irene Sosa at the 2nd Miami International Gay and Lesbian Film Festival
Professor's Irene Sosa 's documentary, "Sexual Exiles" continues to gain viewers. The latest venue to show her documentary was the Miami Gay and Lesbian Film Festival held in that city April 11-16, 2000. Festival organizers invited Professor Sosa to be present at the showing where she answered questions from the audience.
This was one of many gay and lesbian film festivals that have shown the documentary, including in New York, Paris (France), Cologne (Germany), Philadelphia, Milwaukee, Portland (Oregon), Arizona. "Sexual Exiles" was also featured at an art exhibit called You Can't Go Home Again: The Art of Exile held at the Philadelphia Art Alliance this past March.
The video will also be seen on public cable television around the country as the rights have been acquired by Free TV in Colorado, and it will continue to make the festival rounds.
NEW - Brooklyn College Radio Studies Speaker Series
The Department of Television and Radio's Professor Martin Spinelli launched a new Radio Studies Speaker Series in 2000 that invites radio producers and other professionals to talk to our radio students.
Guest so far have covered a wide range of topics:
- Scott Herman, General Manager of 1010 WINS news radio, in New York City. Mr. Herman spoke about rolling news format, getting started as a radio news reporter and 1010 WINS.
- Yakik Rumley, Assistant Promotions Director of BC Athletics and former producer with ESPN Sports Radio, discussed job opportunities in sportscasting and getting the most of your radio internship.
- Barbara Barase, professional voice over actress, presented on different voice over techniques, the value of using actors in all kinds of radio productions, how radio producers should relate to actors and how to produce a good voice over demo tape.
- Carey Harrison, Stern Professor of Humor at BC and BBC radio drama writer, talked about the expressive potential unique to radio, his work as a BBC playwright and how to get started writing radio drama, after which he performed an excerpt of one of his radio plays.
- Paul D. Miller (AKA DJ Spooky), performance artist and writer, discussed techno programming, the expressive potential of mixing, the art and legality of sampling and audio's contribution to other digital arts.
- Dolores Brandon, Executive Director of the Association of Independents in Radio, described what it means to be an independent producer, how to get started as an independent producer and different aesthetic models for arts radio production.
- Sue Zizza, producer of the nationally distributed program "Radio Works," presented on existing opportunities for radio drama, how to distribute and market a program and on the variety of workshops available young radio drama producers.
The Brooklyn College Radio Studies Speaker Series is made possible through the support of the Department of Television and Radio, the Al Tanger Fund, and WBCR.