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Short Cuts

First Light

Short Cuts

BBC

Documentary, Society & Culture

4.8788 Ratings

🗓️ 22 June 2021

⏱️ 30 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Josie Long presents short documentaries about illumination, the breaking of a new day, healing and hope.

Light in the Winter Forest Written and read by Anna Selby First published in Field Notes (Hazel Press)

Call Me Mother Featuring Sandra Caldwell and Shon Faye Produced by Thomas Curry The original version of this interview was produced for the Call Me Mother podcast from the production company Novel.

The Day of Flowers Featuring Tamika Bell, Paulette Carrington, Starr Granger, Ivy Johnson, and Yvonne Newkirk Produced by Alex Lewis This audio feature was based on a collaboration with artists Mark Strandquist and Courtney Bowles to create a monument for former long-term and life-sentenced women in the American prison system called “On The Day They Come Home”.

Curatorial team: Alia Cassam and Andrea Rangecroft Series Producer: Eleanor McDowall Executive Producer: Zakia Sewell A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4

Transcript

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0:00.0

BBC Sounds Music Radio Podcasts

0:05.0

Hello, welcome to the podcast of Shortcuts.

0:12.0

Today's episode is First Light.

0:15.0

You're listening to a recording that was made at daybreak this morning at around 4 a.m.

0:22.8

That point in the night where it feels like the darkness will never end until light starts to

0:28.6

flood the sky. And if you're listening to this in the UK, I'm presuming that you got up

0:36.2

at the dawn in order to give it its respectful

0:38.6

listening time, which I can see is 355am. So if you did get up at the crack of dawn, welcome. You're

0:46.1

listening to this podcast at the appropriate time. I hope you're greeting the new day with

0:50.7

enthusiasm and vigour and that you have a brilliant morning and that you're absolutely

0:55.2

exhausted by 9 a.m and go back to bed.

1:13.1

This is shortcuts. Brief encounters, true stories, radio adventures and found sound.

1:22.6

Today, first light.

1:32.3

It breaks around the trees like a prism. White, pearly, almost smoke.

1:39.3

Do you want to be trapped in fear for the rest of your life?

1:47.0

Or do you want to try and go and be free?

1:52.0

We see them coming towards the gate, but they're now walking, they're running.

1:58.0

They're so happy to leave and they're running out screaming. We finally made it.

2:02.6

And breathed in the air. I think the earth is going to shake.

2:07.6

In today's program, we're looking at three stories of light, illumination and breaking dawn.

2:26.3

First, we're going to walk into a forest with the poet Anna Selby.

2:32.3

The poem she's about to read was written in Bavaria in Germany,

...

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