MEDIUM: Podcast, Audio
DESCRIPTION:
College Daze is a podcast that showcases true college experiences from the perspectives of Black students from all over, especially those who attend PWIs (Predominantly white institutions). Topics discussed on the podcast range from dating to parties to cram sessions, and anything that happens on campus. To gather these stories, I made a post on Facebook to get volunteers for interviews on each episode. I ask them to recount the story in great detail so I can add sensory sounds in the editing process. As for the different people spoken of in the story, I asked a few friends to portray them.
ARTIST STATEMENT:
The term culture shock did not hit me until I stepped foot on my college campus, the University of Wisconsin-Madison, as a freshman. I literally traveled across the country from a suburb in Georgia, where I went to a school that was 78% Black (out of 1,700 students), to UW–Madison, where it’s only 2% Black (out of over 40,000 students). In high school, I witnessed many of my peers worry about other people’s perception of them. The biggest worries were what kind of clothes you wore or seeming to be uncool. Now that I attend a PWI, I am continuously in spaces where I am not judged on minuscule things, but I am judged on my race. In an institution that is supposed to prepare me for my career, I, along with the majority of the Black students on campus, face covert and overt forms of racism daily, from the questioning of our intelligence to the constant asking to explain Black culture, and what is right or wrong to say, as if we were teachers ourselves. This is why I wanted to create this podcast. I wanted Black students to know that no matter where we are, we share the same stories. It is hard to exist in a system that was not meant for us, but our resilience keeps us afloat. We are here, and we deserve to be. As this continues from episode to episode, I would love to bring new elements to the podcast, like a talk show or a scripted series, because I want this to be a platform for Black students to connect with as a safe space created for us and by us.
WARNING: Explicit language. Listener discretion is advised.