So I was browsing the Library of Congress, as one does, looking for some inspiration. I say that jokingly as it’s a seemingly nerdy thing to do, but if you’ve never been to Library of Congress online, it’s actually a really fantastic collection of a lot of different things. They have lots of content from old audio recordings, to art collections from different eras in time to hand written accounts of events that have happened long ago. If you ever want a break from scrolling social media feeds, check out the LOC and get lost in nostalgia and history.
I think it’s a really cool resource that exists and it makes me happy that as a society we’ve chosen to preserve these pieces and put them on display for people to visit. They have different spotlights that change all the time so you never know what you might find that winds up being of interest even though you’ve never thought to take interest in it before. It feels like discovery.
Anyway, I found a collection of works from a writer and poet named Owen Dodson. In 1960, he went to the Recording Laboratory and recorded some of his poems. He wrote a lot about the challenges of being a black man in the military deployed in the War while race riots and public lynchings were happening back on American soil.
Now I’m not much of a consumer of poetry but his work is amazing and his performance is incredible. I was entranced by him. So much so that I decided to record the work, clean up the audio and write some music to accompany his performance. I also found some old audio clips from the time as media covered the race riots and spliced them in to build out the audio scape.
I hope you are as moved by it as I was. This is the very talented: Owen Dodson.
Atlas Sinclair 