Radio Chthulucene 87.9 FM

This week, I enjoyed sitting down and listening to Marco Werman tell us about his radio show, Public Radio Exchange’s The World. I admired his attention and respect to those he was hosting. Particularly, I enjoyed his radio show on Ali Farka Toure. I admired his lack of bias how his concern of making sure the speaker feels heard and comfortable which I know can be a difficult task to accomplish.

An interesting thing that Werman brought up was the idea of not wanting to “dub over” the voices of those speaking. Translation of course is important for understanding when it comes to who your audience. But, it made me wonder, which audience I would want to cater to for my final project. Because then in that case, will translation be needed?

Throughout my time in literature classes and other literary spaces, there’s been conversation as to “who is this for?” I personally think it’s important to think of the audience of who you’re writing so you don’t lose sight of what your piece is about and also one’s personal goals. For instance, a professional writer could write something that’s profound for those in academic spaces, but to outsiders, their work is incomprehensible and out of reach. The same can happen vice versa.

It also brings up the bigger question as to whether one should translate certain words. Additionally in literary circles, there’s been the argument whether one should italicize non-English words (not too sure if this happens in non-English literature). Some have argued no because to italicize non-English words is a way of alienating and making non-English words categorized as foreign. This makes sense as the US is a heavily multilingual/multicultural country. Thus is it worth translating – especially when the target audience may not necessarily be restricted to English speakers?

During workshop this week, I shared that I wanted to keep my piece personable which would mean that my audience would be catered to Black women. Thus, if that’s my focus, I wonder if there are parts where I should keep personable. Although this class is focused on translanguaging, I still think that my piece could fit with the theme by providing what it means to have coily hair in a society that values non-coily hair at a predominately white institution (PWI).

Overall, this week I feel that narrowing down what I want my audience to be I think will be helpful for me in the editing process. Even more so, I think this may help me pinpoint where I’d like to place my final project. Additionally, I am thankful to meet Michael Werman and that he provided some viable ideas for my final project.