Ghetto Life 101 and Remorse [Audio CD]

LeAlan Jones (Author), Lloyd Newman (Author), David Isay (Contributor)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 1, 1997

In March, 1993, LeAlan Jones, thirteen, and Lloyd Newman, fourteen, collaborated with public radio producer David Isay to create the radio documentary Ghetto Life 101, their audio diaries of life on Chicago's South Side. The boys walked listeners through their daily lives: to school, to an overpass to throw rocks at cars, to a bus ride that takes them out of the ghetto, and to friends and family members in the community.

Their candor brought listeners face to face with a portrait of poverty and danger and their effects on childhood in one of Chicago's worst housing projects.

Ghetto Life 101 and the follow-up piece, Remorse, became some of the most acclaimed programs in public radio history, winning almost all of the major awards in American broadcasting, including: the Livingston Award, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting Awards for Excellence in Documentary Radio and Special Achievement in Radio Programming, and the Prix Italia, Europe's oldest and most prestigious broadcasting award.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"A moving documentary of a world of sad children forced to grow up much too fast..." -- The New York Times

"Remarkable." -- The Baltimore Sun

"Rough, raw, and real, but most of all human...Bittersweet, terrifying, and wise beyond words." -- The Philadelphia Inquirer

About the Author

Dave Isay is the founder of Sound Portraits Productions. Over the past twelve years his radio documentary and feature work has won almost every award in broadcasting including two Peabody Awards, two Robert F. Kennedy Awards, and two Livingston Awards for young journalists. David has also received the Prix Italia (Europe's oldest and most distinguished broadcasting honor), a Guggenheim Fellowship (1994) and most recently a MacArthur Fellowship (2000). He is the author (or co-author) of three books based on Sound Portraits radio stories: Holding On (W.W. Norton & Co., 1995); Our America: Life and Death on the South Side of Chicago (Scribner, 1997); and Flophouse (Random House, 2000). He is also an occasional contributor to the New York Times Magazine and a contributing editor to Contentville.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Audio CD
• Publisher: Sound Portraits Productions (August 1, 1997)
• ISBN-10: 1931173044
• ISBN-13: 978-1931173049
• Product Dimensions: 5.6 x 4.9 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #152,813 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #22 in Books > Books on CD > Radio Shows

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Ghetto Life:101 and Remorse, March 13, 2005

By 

Pat McCutchen (Kentucky, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Ghetto Life 101 and Remorse (Audio CD)

This is a moving and powerful radio documetary conduted by two 13 year old boys living in the Ida B. Wells housing project in Chicago's inner city. It is the story of their lives told in a real and honest way that leaves no one unmoved who hears it. Their mentor, David Isay, gives them the opportunity to tell the world what the life of a child growing up in an American ghetto is truly like. Sometmes hard to hear, the efforts of these young men are genuine and accurate and leave listeners with a glimpse into the problems that grip our inner cities. For anyone who wants to understand the lives and realities of families trapped in America's slums, this should rank at the top of the list. I highly recommend Ghetto Life:101 and Remorse. I use it every semester in my university social problems class. My students come away with amazing insight as a result of these powerful documentaries.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars truley true, July 19, 2004

By 

kTUr (somewhere) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Ghetto Life 101 and Remorse (Audio CD)

the boys in this booklive depressing lives in lots of ways.it shows their lives how they lived and the crime associated wit them. the little boy who fell off the building pray for him...
god bless u

5.0 out of 5 stars Driveway Moment, January 8, 2007

By 

Gregory Lander - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Ghetto Life 101 and Remorse (Audio CD)

One of the running jokes with NPR is that it produces "Driveway Moments", which are times you sit in your car in the driveway in order to finish listening to a story. When I first heard this segment on NPR it wasn't just a "Driveway Moment", it was a driveway half-hour. Even after the story segment ended, I just sat in my car dumbfounded. I bought the cd as soon as I heard it was out, and it was well worth it. You will not hear reporting like this very often. I would advise getting the book as well, as it is also brilliant.