The difficulty in creating journalist pieces (especially audio) is making them timely. The fact that this piece was created in 2002 and can still resonate in the year 2008 makes the piece as a whole even more engaging.

The use of poetry brings a fresh new perspective to the story. The choice of words, the speed of the poet made the story come alive.

The layers of an actual story of people in Oakland's concern about the violence and the Romeo and Juliet retelling gives the and unconventional method of story telling that isn't used a lot by main stream radio.

Producers did a very well in going back and forth in between the two parts of the story. There was no jarring awkward moments and the piece ran together very smoothly.

The only thing I would have done different is have had the poet read a little slower during certain parts, the poetry is so rich and detailed you want to be able to hear every word before he moves on to the next word/words. But that was only in a few cases during the piece.

As a whole, the piece stands well on its own.