“The First Summer of the Rest Of Your Life”: Part One | Latavia Patterson, The Pearls Girl

Listen: Latavia and I met in the Pearls For Teen Girls office in the Brewer’s Hill neighborhood, where she felt incredibly at home. Understandably so — prior to becoming an alumnae of Pearls, she was the longest tenured Pearls Girl, having been with the program from 6th grade through the end of high school. What’s [...]

“The First Summer of the Rest Of Your Life”: Part One | Sylvester Stewart Junior

Listen: When I left my interview with Sylvester Stewart, my head was spinning. His experiences, and what he’s learned from them, are exceptional. There’s not too much I can add up front, so please, listen:

Aside from his contemplative side, there’s another side to Sylvester — his nickname, Sly, is a totally different persona. This is [...]

“The First Summer of the Rest Of Your Life”: Part One | Calvin Washington, The Coolest Person Ever

 
Listen: In this piece, you’ll hear Calvin Washington talk about his version of family. For him, his family extends into his entire network of friends around the neighborhood. It also just so happens that his family is very present around the house — during our interview at his kitchen table, there was a constant stream of [...]

“The First Summer of the Rest Of Your Life”: Part One | LaQuita Grinnage, The Very Extraordinary Unique Person

Listen: At first, I had difficulty describing the pieces we put together for campaigns like The First Summer of the Rest of Your Life. Where do they fit in the radio world? It’s not news reporting, they’re certainly not commercials, and they’re not quite rote human interest pieces. Currently, I think the pieces are best described [...]

“The First Summer of the Rest Of Your Life”: Part One | Terry Anzueto, The Nose Tackle

Listen: The bike ride to 12th and Burnham was a familiar one — it’s those wide north-south streets between the main drag on Mitchell and my old friends, Kosciuszko Park and the Lincoln Village neighborhood. (Even though I’ve had occasion to write “Kosciuszko” at least a dozen times in the past few months, I’ve needed to [...]

“The First Summer of the Rest Of Your Life”: Part One | Shequeda Jenkins, The Crime Scene Investigator

Listen: I pulled up to Shequeda Jenkins’ block and reached towards my back pocket to check her exact address. But, as I glanced down the street, I knew exactly which house it was: streamers on the porch, signs on the lawn and in the garden, a big marquee across the front windows, all shouting out loud [...]