This is a portion of the interview I did with Eli, a young man who has been working with CJ on and off for about three years now. In this portion of the interview Eli shares what it was like to grow up in Jackson. More than anybody else I have interviewed Eli offers an emotional and observant analysis of his surroundings and the people which compose his community.
This is great! I want to hear more! Do you have a longer version you could share? What strikes me about Eli’s narrative so far is the emergence of an awareness about his surroundings from which his family protected him when he was younger. You’re right that his observations are really valuable. I wonder whether he can reflect on how he became such a keen observer of his world?
The interview was an hour and 7 minutes long! But I was having difficulties getting the file to be small enough to post. From what he told me, I think feeling like an outsider, getting into the alternative scene, and then finding organizing as something to do with his life all contributed, though at the end of the day I guess it’s just his personality.
Got it! I’m not asking you to pay any money or to do this, but if you are ever interested in collecting your longer audio files in a form that also allows you to share them in posts like these, I strongly recommend SoundCloud. We put several oral histories up on SoundCloud for a project I did with a few students last year: https://soundcloud.com/les-researchers