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AMERICAN MOSAIC - October 19, 2001 - 2001-10-18


HOST:

Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC — VOA’s radio magazine in Special English.

(THEME)

This is Doug Johnson. On our program today:

We play some jazz music ...

answer a question about divorce in America ...

and report on a show of photographs about the tragedy in New York City.

New York Photographs

HOST:

People in New York City are trying to find ways to deal with the tragedy of September eleventh. Many are seeking ways to honor the thousands of people who died. Others want to join together to share their memories of the horror. Here is Sarah Long to tell about unusual show of pictures in New York that provides a way to do both.

ANNCR:

They are young and old. Men and women and students of different colors and ethnic groups. They enter the small space slowly, trying not to react too emotionally to the hundreds of pictures hanging on the walls and overhead.

They are visiting a temporary show called “Here is New York: a Democracy of Photographs.” It is on Prince Street in an area of New York City called SoHo. The show contains pictures made by professional photographers with costly camera equipment and by individuals with point and shoot cameras. All the photographs are of the attacks on the World Trade Center and its tragic effects.

There are pictures of the huge buildings on fire, firemen racing to help, people mourning at funerals for loved ones. There are images taken by famous photographers, such as a plane hitting one of the towers. And there are ones taken by individuals such as one of a woman feeding her baby in the bright sunlight with the black smoke of the burning towers seen behind.

The “Here Is New York” show was the idea of photographer Gilles Peress and building owner Michael Shulan who had an empty space in his Prince Street building. They asked Alice Rose George, a photography editor, and Charles Traub, of the School of Visual Arts, to help. They invited anyone who took pictures linked to the tragedy to take part in the show. More than one-thousand-five-hundred photographs have been offered so far. Each picture is scanned into a computer, printed on good paper, and hung. Copies of any of the pictures can be ordered for twenty-five dollars each. All the money earned is being given to the Children’s Aid Society.

Susan Luciano is helping organize the project. She says people come to see the show and stay on volunteering their time to take orders or make computer copies of photographs. Many visitors react to the show with silence or tears, some reaching out to touch strangers standing nearby. One woman said, ”I needed to see this to try to deal with a reality that I can not understand or accept.”

Effects of Divorce on Children

HOST:

Our listener question this week comes from Vietnam. Bac Ha wants to know about how divorce in the United States affects children.

Ending a marriage can be a sad, unpleasant, and painful experience, especially for children. In the United States, the number of children affected by divorce grows by about one-million each year. As the number increases, experts continue to debate the effects of divorce on children.

Some experts say divorce is harmful to children. Some studies show that children of divorce have more problems.For example, some children of divorce are more often aggressive toward parents and teachers. They have a greater risk of leaving school before completing their studies. They have more health and learning problems. However, experts note that these problems are not necessarily caused by divorce alone.

During the Nineteen-Seventies, many Americans believed that divorce was the best solution for married people who were not happy. People did not think divorce would harm children. They thought children would go through a period of change when their parents ended their marriage. Then the children would be all right.

These beliefs have changed in recent years. Researcher Judith Wallerstein studied more than one-hundred children of divorce over a twenty-five-year period. She says some children never recover from divorce. She says they often have problems with their own adult relationships as a result of their parents’ divorce.

Mizz Wallerstein says her study proves that parents should stay together for their children, even if they are unhappy. However, some people say that children suffer more in a situation where there is much conflict. They say it is better for children to live with one divorced parent than to live with two parents who are angry and unhappy.

Other experts note that many children of divorce do not have serious problems. This is because their parents are able to deal with the situation in a responsible way.

Experts say that some people who get divorced are able to put the needs of their children first. They say that they are able to show the children that their love and support will continue after the divorce.

Jazz CD

HOST:

The National Association of Recording Merchandisers released its fourth album of jazz in June. The Black Entertainment Television network helped produce the album, called “Jazz Now.” It has become one of the top selling jazz recordings. Ray Freeman tells us about it.

ANNCR:

“Jazz Now” is a collection of songs by several artists. Almost every kind of jazz music is represented on the recording.

For example, Bela Fleck and the Flecktones make music with a banjo and other instruments not usual for jazz. Here is “Zona Mona.”

(CUT 1 - ZONA MONA)

A recent American television series about jazz increased interest in the history of the music. The producers of “Jazz Now” say they hope their album will influence listeners to support the work of current jazz artists. One of those is saxophonist Ed Calle (KI-yay). He has played sax on recordings by famous singers like Frank Sinatra and Gloria Estefan. Here he performs the song “Spanish Rose.”

(CUT 2 - SPANISH ROSE)

Among the fifteen songs on “Jazz Now” is an unusual new version of an old song. Guinean singer Elizabeth Kontomanou and drummer Leon Parker perform this Duke Ellington piece. We leave you now with “Caravan.”

(CUT 3 – CARAVAN)

HOST:

This is Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. And I hope you will join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC—VOA’s radio magazine in Special English.

This AMERICAN MOSAIC program was written by Marilyn Christiano, Cynthia Kirk, and Caty Weaver. Our studio engineers were Tony Harris and Tom Verba. And our producer was Paul Thompson. Now, here is another selection from “Jazz Now”. This is “Savannah, No Problem” by Keiko Matsui.

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