"Watching my cousin sink into gang life" by Julie Piludo offers an outsider's view on gang life. The audio proves that bad things can happen to good people and illustrates how joining a gang can affect those not even directly involved. In the end, Julie does lose her cousin to jail, but she never forgets his advice.
Julie Piludo's voice really makes the piece touching and real. The music at the end also improves the audio.
Once again Curie Youth Radio has produced a masterly audio document. High-school student Julie Pulido gives us a sweetheart portrait of her beloved older cousin Jesse, flashing back to when she was 11 and "stuck to him like a piece of gum on his shoe." We lend an ear to his telling her to be good and never be a follower, always a leader, all the while she sings for him -- he's crazy about music -- and chills out on the cracked concrete stairs outside his house or inside his black Impala. Eventually, Jesse adopts a uniform of black and beige and comes home reeking of marijuana.
He demands to be called "Rock" when he joins a local gang and participates in a drive-by shooting. Although he's only the driver and doesn't actually wield a gun, the intended victim's wife gets killed and Jesse goes to prison for 65 years with no chance of parole.
The piece concludes with Pulido addressing her imprisoned cousin directly, "Jesse, here's what I want to know: What do your boys give you that music can't? Why do you take pride in something so meaningless as a gang? Why do you choose them over me? How could you leave me?" What galls Pulido the most is that Jesse didn't follow his own advice to her when he stopped being a leader to follow his gang members.
Pulido delivers southwest Chicago's version of a tragic opera like West Side Story flawlessly. Her four-minute aria sounds larger than life, yet it is fiercely rooted in the Lawndale neighborhood of Chicago, the place Saul Bellow once described as "that somber city." Thanks to Julie Pulido and her superb high-school coworkers, there's hope for Chicago as Curie City!
Comments for Watching My Cousin Sink Into Gang Life
Produced by Julie Pulido for Curie Youth Radio
Other pieces by Curie Youth Radio
Rating Summary
2 comments
Erika Mahoney
Posted on May 19, 2007 at 01:13 PM | Permalink
Review of Watching My Cousin Sink Into Gang Life
"Watching my cousin sink into gang life" by Julie Piludo offers an outsider's view on gang life. The audio proves that bad things can happen to good people and illustrates how joining a gang can affect those not even directly involved. In the end, Julie does lose her cousin to jail, but she never forgets his advice.
Julie Piludo's voice really makes the piece touching and real. The music at the end also improves the audio.
James Reiss
Posted on March 15, 2007 at 05:56 AM | Permalink
Review of Watching My Cousin Sink Into Gang Life
Once again Curie Youth Radio has produced a masterly audio document. High-school student Julie Pulido gives us a sweetheart portrait of her beloved older cousin Jesse, flashing back to when she was 11 and "stuck to him like a piece of gum on his shoe." We lend an ear to his telling her to be good and never be a follower, always a leader, all the while she sings for him -- he's crazy about music -- and chills out on the cracked concrete stairs outside his house or inside his black Impala. Eventually, Jesse adopts a uniform of black and beige and comes home reeking of marijuana.
He demands to be called "Rock" when he joins a local gang and participates in a drive-by shooting. Although he's only the driver and doesn't actually wield a gun, the intended victim's wife gets killed and Jesse goes to prison for 65 years with no chance of parole.
The piece concludes with Pulido addressing her imprisoned cousin directly, "Jesse, here's what I want to know: What do your boys give you that music can't? Why do you take pride in something so meaningless as a gang? Why do you choose them over me? How could you leave me?" What galls Pulido the most is that Jesse didn't follow his own advice to her when he stopped being a leader to follow his gang members.
Pulido delivers southwest Chicago's version of a tragic opera like West Side Story flawlessly. Her four-minute aria sounds larger than life, yet it is fiercely rooted in the Lawndale neighborhood of Chicago, the place Saul Bellow once described as "that somber city." Thanks to Julie Pulido and her superb high-school coworkers, there's hope for Chicago as Curie City!