Welcome back to Decameron 2020: Survival through Stories. In the second part of our segment on Black Lives Matter, we will continue our conversation with the artists James Edward Becton, Ashley Bufkin, and Justin Withers. Johnny Meyer will begin the conversation with a very brief chronology of the Black Lives Matter movement, especially as it has been experienced in the year 2020, in the midst of the COVID-19 global pandemic. Then our team will discuss what they want to see happen in order for us to witness a more just post-pandemic society. The guests mention several resources in the course of the conversation. These include James Baldwin's The Fire Next Time, The Autobiography of Malcom X, United NY, The Black Consortium, 8cantwait.org, Alicia Garza, Patrisse Cullors, Opal Tometi, Black Lives Matter.
Boccaccio's The Decameron was translation by John Florio. Podcast intro: Karen Alvarado. Editing and Sound Design by Brady Marchand, additional ediing from JM Meyer. Copy editing by Bob Jones, Ania Upstill, Karen Alvarado, and J.M. Meyer. Project manager: Celine Dirkes. Graphic design: Hannah Lang.
Music and SFX:
Steven Maertens, Spanish Guitar Loop from https://freesound.org/people/stevenmaertens/sounds/449846/
Welcome back to Decameron 2020: Survival through Stories. In the second part of our segment on Black Lives Matter, we will continue our conversation with the artists James Edward Becton, Ashley Bufkin, and Justin Withers. Johnny Meyer will begin the conversation with a very brief chronology of the Black Lives Matter movement, especially as it has been experienced in the year 2020, in the midst of the COVID-19 global pandemic. Then our team will discuss what they want to see happen in order for us to witness a more just post-pandemic society.
[BONUS EPISODE ENDING]
Thank you for tuning in to this special bonus episode of DECAMERON 2020: Survival through Stories. We have made it through the first day of Boccaccio’s Decameron, and we have completed our first series of discussions about how its themes resonate with modern pandemic experiences.
If you are interested in sponsoring our program, or just want to chat about our project, please reach out to us through our website at Thinkery And Verse (Dot) Org or on twitter at Thinkery (underscore) Verse. The project manager for this series has been Celine Dirkes. Ania Upstill took care of the line editing of John Florio’s early modern translation of Boccaccio’s Decameron, and collaborated with our volunteer actors to reach a suitable compromise between retaining John Florio’s original text and our American sensibilities.
This series has been directed by me, Karen Alvarado, along with an assist by Johnny Meyer. Bob Jones played the role of Boccaccio’s narrator, and he also served as our humanities consultant. Abishek Nair, Celine Dirkes, Ania Upstill, Johnny Meyer, Regan Sims, Diana Guizado, Reagan Tankersley, Ashley Bufkin, Erin Bogert, and I played Boccaccio’s 10 story-tellers. Hat tip to David Burns and Valerie LaPorte for inspiring this series by getting trapped in a small Italian village during the worst pandemic in living memory. Special thanks to Wayne Rebhorn at the University of Texas at Austin for his inspiring academic scholarship. Our audio engineer and sound editor is Brady Marchand, and Sean Ullmer helped us get started. Until next time, alla prossima volta: Ciao.