© 2024 Kansas City Public Radio
NPR in Kansas City
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Ailey Camper: Memory Brown Final Audio Diary

Ailey Camp is over now, and the young people who participated in the intensive six week dance program are waiting out the hot days of August for school to begin. This is the final audio diary in our series with Ailey Camper Memory Brown.

By Laura Ziegler

http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/national/local-national-480539.mp3

Memory Brown Final Audio Diary

Kansas City, Missouri – Ailey Camp is sponsored by the Kansas City Friends of Alvin Ailey. It began 17 years ago as an outgrowth of the second residency Alvin Ailey created in Kansas City. It was designed to bring Ailey's philosophy of dance to students in the Kansas City area -the philosphy that dance can be a discipline for life.
Thousands of young people- many high risk- have gone through the program. It's now been replicated in several cities across the country.

14 year old camper Memory Brown has been recording an audio diary of her experience at Ailey Camp. In her first segment,she wrote about what her expectations were, and how she hoped to make her mother proud. Her mother has been incarcerated for the past ten years. Her second diary talked about what was going on at Ailey Camp midway through the six weeks. In this last piece, Memory Brown reflects on what it feels like to be done with Ailey Camp. She writes about how exciting it was to do a final performance on a professional stage in Kansas City, Missouri. She writes she misses the structure, and her friends. She writes that she knows her mother, if she could have seen that final performance, would have been proud.

I partner with communities to uncover the ignored or misrepresented stories by listening and letting communities help identify and shape a narrative. My work brings new voices, sounds, and an authentic sense of place to our coverage of the Kansas City region. My goal is to tell stories on the radio, online, on social media and through face to face conversations that enhance civic dialogue and provide solutions.
KCUR prides ourselves on bringing local journalism to the public without a paywall — ever.

Our reporting will always be free for you to read. But it's not free to produce.

As a nonprofit, we rely on your donations to keep operating and trying new things. If you value our work, consider becoming a member.