The Sound of Prose

On the “Fairview Lake” Episode of Sound of Prose we talk with Ravenna Raven about her organization The Good Listening Project, more about her love for writing, and her featured poem, “Fairview Lake”. The poem brings out conversations about identity, being open, and the importance of telling your story. Then, we listen together to the original music and sound treatment I gave her reading, and react.

 

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Transcription

PETER: Hi, welcome to the Sound of Prose. I’m your host, Peter Chamberlain. Today we’ll hear from a new author and how their stories come to life. Stick around.

PETER: Today we have a very special guest on the first installment of the show, a friend, a mentor and former college instructor, Ravenna Raven. She’s a poet with the nonprofit Poets in Residence, where she cultivates the importance of listening and community within local and remote places of healing. Welcome, Ravenna, how are you?

RAVENNA: Hi, thank you. That was such a nice introduction.

PETER: Well, we have a lot to talk about. I have a lot of notes on the poem you shared with us, Fairview Lake, up before we dive deeper into the poem, I want to talk a little bit about you, as a writer, you grew up in New Jersey, you’ve been writing poetry for a while now. And you have this MFA in creative writing from the University of Maryland, where you actually taught me an amazing job working for the good listening project. So, what inspires you to write? And how does the Good Listening Project fit into all that?

RAVENNA: That’s a great question. And also, I feel there are so many stories, I could probably tell you about the origin of my love for writing. And I’ve been thinking like, which, which one do I say? I have recently, because I’ve been moving so much been looking back through all of my journals that I’ve kept, since the time I could learn how to write, you know, periodically, in each one, I have a little note to myself, you know, I think I want to be a first you know, a teacher when I grow up. And then it became, you know, I think, instead of becoming a teacher, I want to be a poet, when I grew up, and I have no idea where it came from, I think probably from the books I was reading, I’m currently sitting in this room where I have all of my childhood books kind of laying against this wall. And I, you know, I remember kind of growing up in this farmhouse, and spending so much time alone, and my parents really encouraging me to like, go spend some time outside, you know, you have all these, all this land to roam around on. And I was like, okay, the only way I’m going to go out is if I can take one of these books with me, like, I need some kind of fantasy world to jump into. I’ve always loved that. And I’m imagining myself in a different place. And as I got older, I, I felt the urge the increasing urge to share these stories with people. And that was right around the time that my dad was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. And so, I think I really jumped into these, creating these other worlds to inhabit, while my real-life world was kind of becoming more unstable and unpredictable. And that is, that entire experience kind of propelled me towards writing as a means of self-expression, and healing. I remember, one of my first like, poems that I performed, I asked my sixth grade teacher, if I could, you know, just read to the class, like something, a poem about how I felt about my dad’s diagnosis, and, you know, what I was what I was needing from them at that time, just like somebody asked me what was going on how I was feeling. I just remember sitting standing in front of the class and reading that poem, and, and feeling, you know, a little embarrassed at that time, and looking back on it now, I just think like, Wow, what a what a brave little person to go up there and try to, you know, reach out to people through this, through this craft. And so, I was always looking for a way to, to kind of connect the experience that I that I had with this growing passion for writing. So, I, you know, wanting to reconnect with people who had been part of the healthcare community, you know, these nurses and doctors that I had met him generally, that were part of my life, and also patients, other kinds of caregivers, families who had experienced similar healthcare circumstances that I had. So when I found out about the good listening project, it was kind of by accident, my partner had gone to a conference in the city. And at that space was my boss, who was giving a talk on writing poems for people in hospitals, there are, there’s so much depth to every single person, every person that has had this myriad of experiences that shapes who they are, and that comes to in this present moment. Kind of electing to tell you something about them about themselves something that that’s been weighing on them, or something that maybe they hadn’t thought of as an avenue that they want to explore. So that has been really thrilling, being able to find this really specific niche, have both of my, both my love and passion for writing, and then this experience that has really shaped me, and doing what doing those things together has been really thrilling.

PETER: That’s such a lovely answer. And it really does. It really does tie into actually so many of the notes I have about your poem, Fairview Lake, one word I kept thinking about when I was trying to think of a lot of the musical motifs for this poem was actually identity. When I first read this poem, I kept telling myself, what kind of progressions can I create, that help really draw out this feeling I was getting from your poem about figuring out who you are, and creating a space to kind of open yourself to learning more about who you are. A lot of a lot of what this poem is about is, is being young and kind of figuring yourself out, trying to find that space to, you know, share your story, there’s an interesting part in the poem, where one girl in your camp unit as if you have a nickname, that’s easier to remember. And then shortly after, you refer to your mother in the poem with a capital M, no name. And at the very end, you tie it up with even in the semi darkness, there was no way you could tell us apart. And I’m literally getting chills just saying that last line. But I think for me what that what that was is like, you’re figuring yourself out, you’re trying to create this identity. But at the same time This poem is about, like I said, opening up that space to be able to tell that story and to be able to figure out that identity. And I’m just wondering if maybe you can tell us a little bit about what, what identity means to you and in context to that poem, which we’ll listen to in a little bit.

RAVENNA: Yeah, he said some really interesting things I have thoughts on, but I remember that girl.

PETER: Oh, my God!

RAVENNA: I won’t say her name,

PETER: Give us the inside scoop!

RAVENNA: I won’t call her out. But I remember exactly that moment, a little bit background to this camp trip. You know, we’re seventh graders. And it’s the first time all of the districts are coming together to meet who we’re going to eventually go to high school with. It’s still like a year and a half away. But it’s the first time and it’s like a sleepaway camp and we’re all in cabins with all different people from different townships. And yeah, it was like I was in a cabin with, I came from a very small elementary and middle school, we had all gone to the same school for like nine years. So everybody knew me. And I was used to, you know, only the substitute teachers being like Raveena. Like Who is that? And everybody else knew or event outs or been out, you know, whatever. It’s, you know, that’s that girl. So when we get to this larger space, for the first time in my life, you know, being surrounded by all these other kids, so I didn’t know yet. And having just gone through this very transformative experience of my father passing away, and it’s my first trip away from my family since this has happened. And you know, and it’s middle school, so there’s a lot of bizarre changes and identity figuring out. Yeah, I remember coming up to me, and she was like, um, I can’t say your name uh Ravioli? Rarely, you know, can we just give you a nickname that’s easier to remember. I’m gonna call you whatever. And you know, she named me. And I remember being like, shocked that, you know, before I could name myself, some other girl I didn’t know, you know, I mean, she was part of the popular crew. And I felt like, Oh, well, this is this is a lesson for me. Hmm. You know, that people in this thinking that they know you before they actually take the time to ask about you. So that’s a lot of what this poem felt like to me. How could I tell 100 Plus, new people have this experience that I had just that had just happened to me. I mean, everybody in my immediate, you know, middle school knew. They all knew they knew they had been with me through that whole year, but nobody else did. And so it’s the first time like, I remember sitting around in this huge campfire. I felt like kind of anonymous, for the first time and a year and a half or so since, since the news about my dad’s diagnosis came out, and I felt like wow, if I don’t tell my story, there is no way to tell us apart. You know, I’m just one of the other people sitting here in this campfire. And my friend had reminded me that the chaperones had given us something that like, made our teeth glow. He was like, Do you remember that? Like, that was so cool. What was that? Oh my god. I don’t remember that. But that’s a cool image.

PETER: And with that, we are actually going to take a listen. So we’ll take a quick break. In a moment, we will hear about his reading of Fairview lake. I spent time adding original music and sound I thought fit the poem, and we hope you enjoy.

 

RAVENNA’s READING OF “FAIRVIEW LAKE”

Fairview Lake – Ravenna Raven

The original reading without music:

The Reading with original music and sound design:

 

 

RAVENNA: Oh my god

PETER: Okay, so we’ve just listened to Ravenna Raven’s, “Fairview Lake” with original music and sound effects added. Let’s talk about it!

RAVENNA: Oh, you had me sobbing the whole time

PETER: I was not expecting that

RAVENNA: I wasn’t either! Oh my gosh, Peter.

PETER: I had so much fun writing the music to this, I can’t even begin to explain like, what a wonderful experience this was for me. And there’s so many funny little tidbits that I’ll go over on how I got some of the sound, the part where you’re unrolling your sleeping bag, I took a microphone and pointed it out my floor, and I pretended to be you. And I took my bedsheets off, and like, roll them off. And then I was like, what would Ravenna be doing right now? And I took a notepad and like, click my pen, and I like slapped it on the pillow. And I started to write but yeah, tell me your thoughts. Did it add?

RAVENNA: Are you kidding me? Can you do this for all my poems? Wow, thank you so much. I mean, gosh, I just I’m definitely going to have to schedule some more crying time for today. Because that was I mean, so emotional. The music. I mean, I’ve known you are a talented composer for years now. So, I was very excited to see what you would do with it. And I knew that you would, you would do absolute justice to this poem. And I’m so grateful for all the time that you spent just probably going through this again and again, thinking about these things, thinking about how to create the sounds, and you just nailed it every moment, every moment that I thought, oh, that might be a cool sound effect. You just hit it out of the park. It was incredible. And things I didn’t even expect just the clutter of the footsteps into the cabin, you know, feeling that the presence of other people but also feeling very separate through the mood of the music that was very, that was perfect to me- perfect.

PETER: Yeah, the cabin was so challenging. So, I consulted my amazing sound design Professor Russell Williams, and, and Russell, if for whatever reason you’re listening to this, I apologize for what I’m about to say but he suggested I add sounds of the girls like their voices. And I I don’t know, I just I thought I thought adding human voice other than your own, and maybe just a little bit in the distance, which I did. I thought it would fall a little flat. And so, I chose to just do the footsteps. And to just keep the space open for just your voice.

RAVENNA: Yeah, this is beyond cool. And I want to say I appreciate you making that artistic choice not to have other voices come in because I as a listener to this was expecting, and was expecting to hear that. But I liked that you prioritize mine, because that is the point of this poem, of feeling like, yeah, you just can’t get a word in. And this is the only word I got it. This poem

PETER: Exactly.

RAVENNA: 13 years later.

PETER: Yeah, I think that was a good choice. And I just think your language is just so it’s so beautiful. It’s so- you really know how to create an atmosphere. And I really wanted the things that you heard, anything you would hear and that to be important. Other human voices just weren’t important, I think I think it was your story. And it was it was your voice and, and I really wanted to emphasize that. So, I guess with that I would like to just thank you for coming on to the show. being my first guest. This was an absolute blast and it seriously was an absolute joy, writing music to your work, and I really can’t thank you enough.

RAVENNA: Same to you, Peter. This was amazing to hear this. And like I’d said to you, I’d been wanting to do something else with this poem for years and I’m so grateful that you gave me an opportunity to revisit. I am so excited to hear what else you have coming up. I love this. It’s a great project.

PETER: That’s all the time we have today. Thank you for tuning in. If you would like to learn more about our guest, Ravenna Raven and her nonprofit, the Good Listening Project, go to www.goodlistening.org. See you next time. I’m Peter Chamberlain and this was the Sound of Prose

 

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Show Notes:

More about Ravenna and the Good Listening Project:

https://www.goodlistening.org/

https://ravennaraven.com/about

 

“Fairview Lake” with original music composed and produced by Peter Chamberlain

 

All music you hear in any production of Sound of Prose is original compositions of the producer, Peter Chamberlain. Recorded and mixed in his home studio in Mount Pleasant. For more music by Peter Chamberlain, please visit: https://soundcloud.com/peterisgal