We want to share a piece that was done by a member of the First Voice Committee. Sarah Mendoza created this piece about Fair Trade and begins by asking: “think about your day and what you ate, what you bought…bananas, tea, coffee…were any of those products Fair Trade?” Do we really know what kind of impact our choices as consumers have on other countries?

Sarah sat down with Nancy Jones from Chicago Fair Trade to talk about what Fair Trade means to farmers and producers around the world.

This is the definition of Fair Trade as defined by the labeling certification group TransFair USA on its website:

The Fair Trade Certified™ Label guarantees consumers that strict economic, social and environmental criteria were met in the production and trade of an agricultural product. Fair Trade Certification is currently available in the U.S. for coffee, tea and herbs, cocoa and chocolate, fresh fruit, flowers, sugar, rice, and vanilla. TransFair USA licenses companies to display the Fair Trade Certified label on products that meet strict international Fair Trade standards.

FAIR TRADE with Nancy Jones by Sarah Mendoza by MartinMaciasJr

If you want to get another view of how Fair Trade directly impacts coffee growers in Ethopia take a look at this trailer for Black Gold, a film that shows the injustices faced by poor farmers who are not properly rewarded for their work, and also the benefits that come with a Fair Trade price.

First Voice – June 15th – Chicago for the People by MartinMaciasJr

Matt Ginsberg a community organizer from South Side Together Organizing For Power (STOP). He  joined us (on his birthday) to talk about the struggle to save Chicago’s Mental Health Clinics.  Matt is also part of the group of Chicagoans organizing Chicago for the People March and Rally: Taking Back Our City!!! This event on June 21st feature a BBQ at Cabrini Green, a rally, and a concert in Humboldt Park.

We also featured audio from an event organized by Chicago-based (RISA) Rising in Solidarity with Ayaiti, about solidarity with Haitian farmers and their struggles for food sovereignty and security. Farmers recently burned tons of donated crop seeds in protest of Monsanto (an agriculture company) and its genetically engineered seeds.

Lastly, Henry Cervantes shared his vision for addressing the issue of violence. He works for Telpochcalli and teaches at Farragut High. As part of the Violence Prevention Collaborative he organizes the annual Healing the Hood celebration in Little Village.

Next week First Voice will be covering the US Social Forum! Stay tuned for updates

We featured a piece by Marcos Zavala and Andrea Higareda that presented the story of Felony Franks, a hot dog stand that stirred up a lot of controversy and an angry backlash by local residents.Would you buy a hot dog from an ex-con? Read more here.

We also featured an interview by Mayra Carrera, with Mariame Kaba from Project Nia. Check out their site to learn how they’re building peaceful communities. Also, listen for Sarah Mendoza’s piece about Chocolate and Fair Trade! Check this out to learn more about Fair Trade.

Listen to the Entire broadcast of our show here!

6:00 Intro and News
6:07 Felony Franks, hot dog stand employs former felons
6:20 Green For All: The Story of Greencorps Chicago
6:28 PSA break
6:35 Project Nia – Mariame Kabe
6:50 Chocolate: A history and a portrait of delightful

Stay tuned and check us out next week as we cover all things related to food! Look out for a piece in the near future that will cover Radio Arte’s first Vegetarian Potluck! We will be recording our conversations about food and people trying tofu for the first time.

“History is formed just between two people talking to each other, talking about their lives, their struggles, what matters to them,” Gabriel Higuera, Senior Coordinator of StoryCorps told us on this Tuesday’s First Voice.

Gabriel explained StoryCorps’ goal to give individuals and families throughout the U.S. the opportunity to tell, record, and preserve the stories that matter to them. Participants come to a recording session with someone important to them – family, friends, anyone – and dialogue about the questions that they think are significant. The Historias project, which focuses on providing Latinos in the U.S. a space to converse about their stories, comes to Chicago this Thursday, May 20th at the National Museum of Mexican Art.

Not only do StoryCorps participants get the chance to have the conversation archived in the U.S. Library of Congress, but they also take home a CD copy of their stories. StoryCorps recordings are regularly broadcast on National Public Radio and Radio Arte.

The mission of StoryCorps mirrors our own hopes here at First Voice: to provide a space for dialogue, for all people throughout Chicago – and the world – to speak about their first-hand experiences and the issues that matter to them. Speaking to our correspondent Aaron Arreguin, Gabriel told us the dream that brought him to StoryCorps: to give his mother a chance to speak about her experiences emigrating from Cuba and raising her family in the U.S.

Our studios were also packed Tuesday with young artists and teachers from the Ordinary Giant projects at Morton (West & East) and Curie High Schools, who told First Voice correspondents Adrian Molina and Marcos Zavala their stories. With instructors Viera Bakoba and Victor Montañez, students have been creating projects that, like StoryCorps, express the often-ignored stories of those that matter to them through visual arts.

The Ordinary Giant youth artists are creating massive paintings that depict these “giants,” their heroes. For the students we spoke to, this includes family members, teachers, best friends – as well as Fidel Castro and Che Guevara.

While the Ordinary Giant after-school art courses are being spared in the latest Chicago Public School budget cuts because they are funded by outside sources, the students artists said that they are highly-concerned with the way that nearly every other subject area at their high school is being stripped of resources.

Vanessa, from Curie High School, told us, “We have to speak out: this is our education, and these are our dreams being taken out.” Students such as William also spoke about how different forms of art – even those misunderstood or criticized, such as graffiti art – create a space for youth to change the political system and inspire new ideas.

Like this week’s fantastic guests, First Voice hopes to bring you real “sounds inspiring change” and to give you a space to tell your story, to hear about the issues that matter to you. Join us next week as we talk about health – dancing, the medical system, sports – and the environment, and more.

And stay with us every Tuesday from 6-7pm on Radio Arte 90.5FM or wrte.org. Let us know your thoughts on this week’s show and what you want to see on First Voice on Facebook, Twitter, or our blog.

Thanks for listening!

Robert Chlala, First Voice Contributor

** Ordinary Giant, featuring students from Morton West and East and Curies High Schools, opens at Daley College’s Gallery, 7500 Pulaski Road, on Friday, June 4 from 12 noon to 8:00 pm. The show stays up until July 4^th. For more info see: http://www.artslant.com/chi/events/show/107174-ordinary-giants

** StoryCorps Historias project kicks off in Chicago this Thursday, May 20^th at the National Museum of Mexican Art, 1852 W. 19^th Street and goes on until June 26^th. Come with yourself, your family members, your friends, your lovers and dialogue about what matters to you. To learn more and reserve a space, simply go to: http://storycorps.org/record-your-story/locations/chicago-il/

It seemed like such a simple question. Have you ever left your neighborhood? Why or why not? On Radio Arte’s First Voice broadcast Tuesday, April 6, we found out that the things that we take for granted can often have much larger meanings than we imagine.

When First Voice contributor Daisy asked people “on the street” in Pilsen if and why they leave their local area, we learned that people mostly cross to the Northside and the Loop for work, where a large amount of jobs are concentrated. Interviewees also said they venture out of their areas for entertainment: the Northside and downtown are full of film, music and sports venues and restaurants that bring in people – and money – from across the region.

As First Voice’s Cristina Davila explained, corporate advertising, from billboards to tourist guides, also promotes the idea that the best of Chicago can only be found in the North or downtown. On the flip side, the media sensationalizes violence in the South and West side and makes those regions seem like dangerous ghettoes. The press plays to – and worsens – people’s racist assumptions, pinning minorities and immigrants as criminals and blocking a reverse flow of people (and money) from North to South.

Carlos Belnap’s interview with Ada Gavina, Transit Campaign volunteer with the Little Village Environmental Justice Organization (LVEJO), also revealed how public transportation puts up a major barrier to traveling beyond the boundaries of one’s ‘hood. Not only are trains and buses increasingly expensive, but recent cuts continue to slice away at existing services. At this point, Little Village has only one bus route to take people out to the Loop, despite the number of local residents who depend on public transport.

While 65% of the commuters that take public transportation are Latino or African –American, the areas with the greatest concentrations of immigrants and people of color are often shortchanged by transportation funding. Chicago Transit Authority (CTA), in general, receives only 59% of regional transit funds, while METRA, which has over 70% white suburban riders and only serves about 12% of area riders, gets over 27% of funds. (1)

LVEJO took to the streets on this issue after the February CTA cuts, which removed 7 of 9 express bus routes on the South Side. The cuts affected only 4 express routes on the North Side. CTA admitted that they didn’t make the cuts based on how many riders would be affected, but instead claimed that express routes were cut that that had any “corresponding service” (i.e. regular bus service) in the same area. (2) They ignored the community claims, leaving bus and rail riders in front of what many transit activists have called a transportation “doomsday.”

Expensive and infrequent public transportation means many youth must rely on their families to leave their ‘hood. Ada from LVEJO and our in-house First Voice panel explained that many youth ask themselves why they would even leave their area. There are fewer and fewer public spaces: parks have limited programs, museums and other educational institutions are often expensive, and there are few other places for youth to come together for free. When black and brown youth do leave their neighborhood, they are welcomed by harassment from police and private security or treated like criminals by residents.

Segregation isn’t just based in people’s minds. It is not simply that youth – and adults – all over Chicago think they shouldn’t leave their neighborhoods or fear each other. Segregation is complicated and structural, which means that it’s inscribed in the way that resources in the city are distributed, that transport is developed, that policing occurs, that corporate funding is directed, and that numerous other aspects of a city are planned. If you follow how these choices are made, if you trace along the lines of money and power, you’ll also see how they mirror the divisions of class, of race, of immigration status, and of gender – the same barriers that keep us bound in our neighborhoods.

Solutions are just as complicated as the issue of segregation. Simply building more venues in one area or another, or adding more bus routes, may not mean we are going to have a more integrated city. As the last two decades of urban growth in Chicago and throughout the U.S have shown, changes to public transportation or infrastructure in one area are often being paid for with specific intentions. Private developers will pour money in when they know they can get an easy profit, which means attracting tourists or wealthier residents. Often, this means driving up rents and displacing the people who are living in the area.

But there are many possibilities and potentials to make a change that benefits everyone – not just those with money or power. It involves creativity and dialogue across communities. It involves action and struggle. It involves giving voice to those who have not been heard. Let us know your thoughts on travel and transportation, segregation and integration on First Voice’s Facebook, Twitter, or blog. How do you see a better Chicago, with fewer barriers across neighborhoods? What changes do you want to see in your communities? What steps can you take to make that happen?

And make sure to join us on Tuesday, April 13 from 6-7pm on WRTE Radio Arte 90.5fm or www.wrte.org as we continue to explore traveling across boundaries in the Chi-town. We’ll explore more on the North-South divide, and we’ll look at bikes, bikes, and more bikes. We’ll look at how ideas of beauty affect our daily life. We’ll also hear other exciting reports from the massive Chicago Public School rallies, as youth struggle to reclaim public education so that everyone can have a brighter future.

(1) See Secter, Bob and Richard Wronski. “Lawsuit claims racial bias in CTA, Metra funding.” Chicago Breaking News. January 6, 2010.
(2) See Edwards, Julia. “CTA rejects allegation that service cuts are racially unjust.” Northwestern Medill Reports: Chicago. Jan 21, 2010.

We also share with you, our audience, a little known part of Black History. The story of a woman who has saved lives, and made valuable contributions to science even 60 years after her death. Through author Rebecca Skloot, we bring you the story of Henrietta Lacks. Tune in to First Voice on 90.5 fm today from 6 to 7pm CST to find out how the death of Mrs. Lacks, a poor African American woman, inadvertently launched the multi-billion dollar stem cell industry.

Join us on First Voice for our Black History Quickies- fast facts about prominent Black History figures, and lots of other news, info., and a good time. Right here on Radio Arte’s First Voice.

Take part in the discussions through our blog, twitter, or facebook, or myspace.

Carolina Garcia
Host/ Producer, First Voice

Tune in to 90.5fm WRTE from 6-7pm to learn what you can do to improve your chances of landing that “dream job”. From your appearance to resume writing, we’ll have the tips and tricks to help you during your job search. It doesn’t guarantee that you’ll get the job, but it will help you take steps in the right direction. We will also have the voices of many young people letting us know why having a job and an education is so important to them.

Believe it or not, there’s a strong correlation between education and incarceration (aka prison). A study by  Northeastern University in Boston found that male high school dropouts were more likely to end up in jail.

In 2007, a study by Teachers College, Princeton, amd City University of New York, estimated that society could save over $200,000 in prison and other costs for “every potential dropout that could be helped to complete high school.” This same study also indicates a strong link between education, or lack of, and rates of employment.

The report analyzes unemployment rates for 2008 and finds that 54 percent of dropouts between the ages of 16 and 24 were unemployed, compared to only 13 percent unemployment for people with a college degree.

A formal education can help keep young people out of trouble, and improve their earning power in the long term (more info. about this will be discussed during the show).

Carolina Garcia
Host/ Producer, First Voice

First Voice also extends our condolences to the people of Haiti. The earthquake, which struck January 12th, left behind an incredible amount of death and destruction, and the tiny island nation needs our help. Tune in to First Voice on Tuesdays from 6-7p CST to find out what you can do.

The situation is desperate as rescue workers continue the search, while thousands of bodies remain unburried creating an enormous threat of disease. The international community has shown great support, but there is still much to be done. Many Haitians continue to be without food, water, and other essentials.

Carolina Garcia
Host/Producer, First Voice

“I overheard doctors in the hospital saying, “God must really want him here. He’s lucky the train didn’t kill him,” Jose Luis says remembering his ordeal. Jose Luis, however, was not the only lucky one. In his hometown in Honduras, with a population of slightly over 2,000 people, there are 69 others who shared his fate.

After days, with no food or water, of making the journey “train hopping” to the U.S., Jose Luis’ American dream became a nightmare. Weakened, he fell from a train which severed his leg, and arm. The pain was so excruciating he tried to use his other arm to pull at the leg which had been caught by the train– his hand was almost entirely crushed. He had made it to a small town in Mexico.

In the beginning, Jose Luis wished he had died. Not only had he lost his limbs but he felt, instead of helping his family, he would be a burden.

Nostalgic Jose Luis says, “All I could do was cry like a little boy… The doctors would sedate me to calm me down”.

He spent two years in a hospital in Mexico rehabilitating himself. The hospital donated the prosthetic on which Jose Luis now walks, and he is grateful to the man who helped him the moment of the accident, but Jose Luis doesn’t stop at just gratitude.

“My mission is now to let others know that it is not necessary to immigrate to reach your goals.” Jose Luis works to warn others of the dangers of crossing borders undocumented. Sharing his story with young people, he hopes to motivate them to reach for their dreams, and search for opportunities in their homeland. Radio Progreso, in Honduras, helps Jose Luis spread his message.

When questioned about his future, Jose Luis is not shy in saying that he likes to sing, and he wants to continue to share his story in the hopes of helping others, but there is another dream that he wants to fulfill. Jose Luis requires specialized reconstructive surgeries for his hand, which can only be done in the United States, and a new prosthetic as his has become worn from use and age.

Jose Luis ends by saying, “I had everything, and I could’ve done a lot of things, but I did not do them, and now I regret it.”

*****If you know of an institution or individual that may be able to help Jose Luis Hernandez, here in the U.S., please visit WRTE.ORG, and post the information to Radio Arte’s Facebook or Twitter. You can also leave your comments and/or information on this blog. Part of this story is available on www.vocalo.org/explore in Spanish audio format.

Did you miss our show? No worries! Soon you’ll be able to listen to all of ours shows, online! We love feedback & ideas for new shows, hope to hear from ya.

Listen to our September 1st, 2009 show:

9 01 09 First Voice by radioarte