Programs
What we actually run
Five active programs, all built around the same idea: give people the tools, the training and the audience, then get out of the way.
Program 01
The Listen & Be Heard Network
Our flagship production program. The network produces weekly non-commercial programs for readers, writers and musicians — among them The Listen & Be Heard Hour for Readers & Writers and Beyond Borders — each combining long-form interviews with authors, poets, publishers and musicians, featured spoken word, and original music scored for the show.
Episodes stream on our own platforms and are made available to the community radio world, where they are currently carried by more than a dozen independent affiliate stations from Asheville and Louisville to Kansas City, Taos, San Antonio and northern California.
There is no advertising in the programs, contributors retain the rights to their work, and every episode is free to listen to.
Program 02
Youth Media Internship
A paid summer apprenticeship for a small cohort of graduating high school seniors heading to college. Interns are placed on live productions and trained across the full chain of audio work:
- Independent journalism — research, pitching, interviewing, fact-checking
- Podcast production — field and studio recording, editing, structure, mixing
- Creative writing — scripting, narration, editorial voice
- Video editing — short-form documentary and promotional cutdowns
- Sound design and scoring — music beds, transitions, immersive treatment
Interns are paid a stipend, given access to professional equipment and software, and mentored one-to-one by working journalists, engineers and composers. Every intern finishes the summer with published, broadcast credits and a portfolio piece.
Donor support covers stipends, equipment, mentorship hours and platform access. Underwrite an intern →
Program 03
Immersive performance & recording
We commission new music and multimedia work, then record and present it at a standard the work deserves. That includes full scores and written parts for ensembles, professional live-concert capture, studio recording, and immersive and spatial audio mixes intended for installation and multi-channel playback.
Recent and ongoing work spans chamber and jazz ensembles, wind synthesizers and woodwind-led writing, documentary scoring, and collaborations with immersive-audio specialists and New York venues including small jazz rooms and cultural theaters.
What a commission includes
- Composition and arrangement, with full score and parts
- Rehearsal and performance fees for players
- Multitrack live or studio recording, mixing and mastering
- An immersive or spatial mix where the work calls for one
- Archival deposit so the recording survives the run
Program 04
Community radio & arts equity in Harlem
Now based in Harlem, we are working to expand local community radio capacity and to connect it with the neighborhood’s existing creative life — open mics, church and school music programs, block associations and the jazz rooms.
The premise is straightforward. Broadcast and distribution are still the most under-owned resources in community arts. A neighborhood that can produce and transmit its own programming does not have to wait to be covered.
Current activity
- Producing Harlem-originated segments for network programs
- Recording local poets, ensembles and oral histories on location
- Training residents on recording and editing workflows
- Partnering with venues and cultural organizations on shared programming
Program 05
Intergenerational ensembles & open submissions
Our ensemble program puts elder musicians and young players in the same room to work on shared repertoire — jazz and Afro-Latin traditions, Gnawa and Yoruba rhythmic systems, and contemporary composition. The elders are paid as teaching artists. The young players are treated as bandmates, not students.
Alongside it we keep submissions open all year. Poems, short stories, columns, reviews, audio pieces and full show proposals are read on a rolling basis, free of charge, from anywhere in the world. Selected work is published and broadcast, and contributors keep their rights.
