Hi! My name is Lotus Porte-Moyel. I’m a senior at UM studying audio journalism and musical theatre. My Global Theme is Culture and Politics, and my Challenge is “How audio storytelling gives youth the tools to understand themselves within their community’s cultural context.” Over the past five weeks, I’ve worked as a resident summer camp instructor at Cottonwood, a self-directed school and event space in Brooklyn, NYC. I’ve led 5-12-year-olds in creating an audio story each week, including a radio play, a reported audio story, and three episodes of a vox pop (voice of the people), where they’ve brainstormed questions, practiced interview and recording techniques, and interviewed strangers around city parks. I didn’t realize how proud I would feel watching kids do what I have learned to do over the past four years at UM! They fearlessly walk up to strangers and listen intently to each response, take notes, and reflect on the interviews to me as they walk to the next. Watching them report the vox pops has been particularly inspiring because the questions they narrowed down were, “What’s the meaning of life?” and “What do you want to do before you die?” Of course, many interviewees were surprised by the depth of these questions coming from kids. I think it made people more eager to answer.
Cottonwood is in a predominantly white, well-off neighborhood, so I think it was eye-opening for some of the campers to interview people from all over the world, from an array of backgrounds, especially hearing from people of all ages. It was probably more eye-opening for me, coming from Montana, to be honest! The campers were astute in noticing patterns in the interviewee’s responses and noticing when someone had an answer that stood out to them. The biggest lesson I’m taking away is that people of any age can be great reporters, as long as they can listen and are unafraid to be curious. The kids have taught me to be braver when I’m reporting my own stories! To report the intimidating story, to interview strangers on the street, and to embrace imperfection a little more.
Giving the campers the freedom to come up with and ask questions, operate high-quality equipment, and edit audio clips seems to make them more excited about creating stories when their “touch” is a part of it. The last and most in-depth story the campers are creating is about the park they visit every day to play. They are interviewing members of the neighborhood who volunteer to keep the space nice and strangers in the park. We’ve researched the history and are excited to interview the bird-watching tour guide tomorrow! On Friday, we will close with a listening exhibit of each story for the campers’ families to hear. I hope building these stories and practicing audio reporting has expanded the camper’s view of what they’re capable of and that they can learn so much from almost anyone they talk to. This experience has just been the best!

5-year-old campers test out recording equipment during our first week of camp, preparing for their radio play.

One camper records natural sound of a waterfall in Central Park.

Campers interview a stranger in Bryant Park (Times Square), asking “What is the meaning of life?” and “What do you want to do before you die?”