美国国家公共电台 NPR '(Be)longing' Explores Gun Violence, 10 Years After Virginia Tech Shooting

 

LOURDES GARCIA-NAVARRO, HOST:

Today marks the 10th anniversary of the deadliest school shooting in U.S. history. On April 16, 2007, a student at Virginia Tech shot 49 people, killing¹ 32 and finally himself. The town is still dealing² with the tragedy, so the university's Moss³ Arts Center commissioned an oratorio⁴ to memorialize it. Robbie Harris from member station WVTF has more.

ROBBIE HARRIS, BYLINE⁵: Most everyone remembers where they were when they heard about the shooting. Melissa Ripepi, then a recent Virginia Tech graduate, recalls hearing it.

MELISSA RIPEPI: You heard, like, a pop and, like, a few little pops, which, in my memory - and who knows if it's accurate or not - it just kind of washed over me. But then you hear the (mimicking gunfire) like, I mean, then you really hear it. And it's very unusual, and you realize it's not construction noise.

HARRIS: It was, of course, gunfire. And soon, Blacksburg became the center of that familiar media convergence that arrives unbidden after tragic⁶ events.

ANITA PUCKETT: And one of the things that bothered me enormously, as I watched all of this coverage⁷, was how they were making the story.

HARRIS: Anita Puckett is a linguistic⁸ anthropologist⁹ who teaches at Virginia Tech.

PUCKETT: They were creating the narrative¹⁰ of what had happened. And they were claiming ownership of that narrative by various media broadcasts and on television, on whatever. And I'm going no, it's our misery¹¹. It's our narrative. And whose story is it going to be over time?

HARRIS: The town and the school held public events and private dinners at people's homes that continue to this day.

UNIDENTIFIED SINGERS: (Vocalizing).

HARRIS: Now comes the oratorio, "(Be)longing," aimed at exploring gun violence and how to prevent it.

UNIDENTIFIED SINGERS: When in the history of the world so many children so silent for so long within (unintelligible) (ph).

HARRIS: The music was composed by Byron Au Yong and the lyrics¹² by playwright¹³ Aaron Jafferis. The composer came from California and the librettist¹⁴ from Connecticut. And they spent months talking with dozens of people around Blacksburg.

CHARLOTTE BRATHWAITE: You got to count off and remember the group...

HARRIS: Charlotte Brathwaite is directing the work.

BRATHWAITE: It's, like, literally¹⁵ the voices of the community speaking out about the issues that most affect them and the points of view that they feel connected to as well.

UNIDENTIFIED PERFORMER: Where I'm from, a nice boy with a toy gun is more likely to get shot by a white cop than have fun.

HARRIS: Some of those interviewed were cast in the production.

BYRON AU YONG: I think that's what opened up, you know, an idea of breaking the fourth wall.

HARRIS: Composer Byron Au Yong says performers are scattered¹⁶ throughout the hall.

YONG: If you're an audience member that comes, you may be sitting next to someone who all of a sudden starts to sing.

UNIDENTIFIED SINGER #1: (Unintelligible).

UNIDENTIFIED SINGER #2: (Singing) Squeeze the...

UNIDENTIFIED SINGER #3: (Singing) Trigger...

UNIDENTIFIED SINGER #1: (Singing) Of my...

UNIDENTIFIED SINGER #3: (Singing) Life...

UNIDENTIFIED SINGER #2: (Singing) But...

UNIDENTIFIED SINGER #1: (Singing) Nothing moves...

UNIDENTIFIED SINGERS: (Singing) No bullets fire. I am overlooked when they look over who to hire. If I act with more authority, will my future...

UNIDENTIFIED SINGER #2: (Singing) Stop ignoring...

UNIDENTIFIED SINGERS: (Singing) ...Me? Authority, authority, authority.

HOLLY¹⁷ LESKO: Not everybody could do this.

HARRIS: Holly Lesko is a workforce¹⁸ training specialist in Blacksburg who helps people transition out of prison. She wasn't sure about having yet another group of outsiders telling her story.

LESKO: And the fact that they don't come from this community, I had a lot of trepidation¹⁹ when I first met them about - hmmm (ph), so many people are so fragile around this. And if you come in and mess with them, this will be bad. This won't be good.

HARRIS: But she says, from the very beginning, "(Be)longing's" creators were attuned²⁰ to people's emotions.

LESKO: Just by watching it, you realize kind of the universalness of those specific moments that, yeah, pain is universal. Loss is universal. And it is kind of through the sharing of that individual and specific that makes space for us to - for other people to know me, to, you know, to then, you know, share their own pain. It's powerful. It changes you.

HARRIS: That's why, says librettist Aaron Jafferis, he and the composer decided²¹ a work that features many layers of human voices would be the best way to illustrate²² "(Be)longing's" theme.

AARON JAFFERIS: Which is young people who decide that they want to silence many voices in order to make their own voice metaphorically²³ large. We recognized that we need to flip²⁴ that and use this one project as an opportunity to engage and give a platform to multiple voices.

(Rapping) Like a rock but useful, metal, machine. Like a clock but silent, perfect, clean. It's kind of fun to say the way it weighs on my tongue - glock. This gun is called a glock. Trigger...

UNIDENTIFIED SINGER #4: Chamber²⁵.

JAFFERIS: Slide.

UNIDENTIFIED SINGER #4: Magazine.

UNIDENTIFIED SINGERS: Nine millimeter Glock 19.

HARRIS: Blacksburg will, again, mark the day and mourn the dead in the Virginia Tech shooting. Now, 10 years later, they put this question to the nation - how do we get these shootings to stop?

UNIDENTIFIED SINGERS: (Vocalizing).

UNIDENTIFIED PERFORMERS: And how can I and the people in this room get these shootings to stop? I don't know. I'm asking you. A few questions are all I got.

HARRIS: For NPR News, I'm Robbie Harris in Blacksburg, Va.

UNIDENTIFIED SINGER #5: (Singing) Something bad happens and you replay it...

1 killing   

n.巨额利润；突然赚大钱，发大财

参考例句：

• Investors are set to make a killing from the sell-off.投资者准备清仓以便大赚一笔。
• Last week my brother made a killing on Wall Street.上个周我兄弟在华尔街赚了一大笔。

2 dealing   

n.经商方法，待人态度

参考例句：

• This store has an excellent reputation for fair dealing.该商店因买卖公道而享有极高的声誉。
• His fair dealing earned our confidence.他的诚实的行为获得我们的信任。

3 moss   

n.苔，藓，地衣

参考例句：

• Moss grows on a rock.苔藓生在石头上。
• He was found asleep on a pillow of leaves and moss.有人看见他枕着树叶和苔藓睡着了。

4 oratorio   

n.神剧，宗教剧，清唱剧

参考例句：

• It's the world's most popular oratorio.这是世界上最流行的清唱剧。
• The Glee Club decided to present an oratorio during their recital.高兴俱乐部的决定提出的清唱剧在其演奏。

5 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

6 tragic   

adj.悲剧的，悲剧性的，悲惨的

参考例句：

• The effect of the pollution on the beaches is absolutely tragic.污染海滩后果可悲。
• Charles was a man doomed to tragic issues.查理是个注定不得善终的人。

7 coverage   

n.报导，保险范围，保险额，范围，覆盖

参考例句：

• There's little coverage of foreign news in the newspaper.报纸上几乎没有国外新闻报道。
• This is an insurance policy with extensive coverage.这是一项承保范围广泛的保险。

8 linguistic   

adj.语言的，语言学的

参考例句：

• She is pursuing her linguistic researches.她在从事语言学的研究。
• The ability to write is a supreme test of linguistic competence.写作能力是对语言能力的最高形式的测试。

9 anthropologist   

n.人类学家，人类学者

参考例句：

• The lecturer is an anthropologist.这位讲师是人类学家。
• The anthropologist unearthed the skull of an ancient human at the site.人类学家在这个遗址挖掘出那块古人类的颅骨。

10 narrative   

n.叙述，故事；adj.叙事的，故事体的

参考例句：

• He was a writer of great narrative power.他是一位颇有记述能力的作家。
• Neither author was very strong on narrative.两个作者都不是很善于讲故事。

11 misery   

n.痛苦，苦恼，苦难；悲惨的境遇，贫苦

参考例句：

• Business depression usually causes misery among the working class.商业不景气常使工薪阶层受苦。
• He has rescued me from the mire of misery.他把我从苦海里救了出来。

12 lyrics   

n.歌词

参考例句：

• music and lyrics by Rodgers and Hart 由罗杰斯和哈特作词作曲
• The book contains lyrics and guitar tablatures for over 100 songs. 这本书有100多首歌的歌词和吉他奏法谱。

13 playwright   

n.剧作家，编写剧本的人

参考例句：

• Gwyn Thomas was a famous playwright.格温·托马斯是著名的剧作家。
• The playwright was slaughtered by the press.这位剧作家受到新闻界的无情批判。

14 librettist   

n.(歌剧、音乐剧等的)歌词作者

参考例句：

• The musician and the librettist were collaborators. 音乐家与剧作者通力合作。
• Italian-born American composer and librettist whose operas include The Medium(1946) and The Consul(1950). 梅诺蒂，吉安卡洛生于1911意大利裔美国作曲家和歌剧词作者，其歌剧作品包括女巫（1946年）及领事（1950年）

15 literally   

adv.照字面意义，逐字地；确实

参考例句：

• He translated the passage literally.他逐字逐句地翻译这段文字。
• Sometimes she would not sit down till she was literally faint.有时候，她不走到真正要昏厥了，决不肯坐下来。

16 scattered   

adj.分散的，稀疏的；散步的；疏疏落落的

参考例句：

• Gathering up his scattered papers,he pushed them into his case.他把散乱的文件收拾起来，塞进文件夹里。

17 holly   

n.[植]冬青属灌木

参考例句：

• I recently acquired some wood from a holly tree.最近我从一棵冬青树上弄了些木料。
• People often decorate their houses with holly at Christmas.人们总是在圣诞节时用冬青来装饰房屋。

18 workforce   

n.劳动大军，劳动力

参考例句：

• A large part of the workforce is employed in agriculture.劳动人口中一大部分受雇于农业。
• A quarter of the local workforce is unemployed.本地劳动力中有四分之一失业。

19 trepidation   

n.惊恐，惶恐

参考例句：

• The men set off in fear and trepidation.这群人惊慌失措地出发了。
• The threat of an epidemic caused great alarm and trepidation.流行病猖獗因而人心惶惶。

20 attuned   

v.使协调( attune的过去式和过去分词 )；调音

参考例句：

• She wasn't yet attuned to her baby's needs. 她还没有熟悉她宝宝的需要。
• Women attuned to sensitive men found Vincent Lord attractive. 偏爱敏感男子的女人，觉得文森特·洛德具有魅力。 来自辞典例句

21 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

22 illustrate   

v.举例说明，阐明；图解，加插图

参考例句：

• The company's bank statements illustrate its success.这家公司的银行报表说明了它的成功。
• This diagram will illustrate what I mean.这个图表可说明我的意思。

23 metaphorically   

adv. 用比喻地

参考例句：

• It is context and convention that determine whether a term will be interpreted literally or metaphorically. 对一个词的理解是按字面意思还是隐喻的意思要视乎上下文和习惯。
• Metaphorically it implied a sort of admirable energy. 从比喻来讲，它含有一种令人赞许的能量的意思。

24 flip   

vt.快速翻动；轻抛；轻拍；n.轻抛；adj.轻浮的

参考例句：

• I had a quick flip through the book and it looked very interesting.我很快翻阅了一下那本书，看来似乎很有趣。
• Let's flip a coin to see who pays the bill.咱们来抛硬币决定谁付钱。

25 chamber   

n.房间，寝室；会议厅；议院；会所

参考例句：

• For many,the dentist's surgery remains a torture chamber.对许多人来说，牙医的治疗室一直是间受刑室。
• The chamber was ablaze with light.会议厅里灯火辉煌。