Monaea, a 2020 Diary - Snap Spotlights "VICE News Reports"

Snap Judgment

Snap Judgment and PRX

Snap, Glynn, Storytelling, Wnyc, Society & Culture/personal Journals, Performing Arts, Washington, Society & Culture/documentary, Arts/performing Arts, Music, Arts

4.8 • 11.2K Ratings

🗓️ 31 December 2020

⏱️ 50 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

2020 has been a YEAR, and Monaea Upton has a lot to say about it. This week we bring you an episode from the podcast Vice News Reports. Vice sent 17-year-old Monaea Upton a recorder and she’s been keeping an audio diary of her senior year of high school in North Minneapolis — during online school, the aftermath of the George Floyd protests, and a spike in neighborhood gun violence. We take you inside her world.

This story does contain strong language, sensitive listeners please be advised.

BIG BIG love and special thanks to Monaea Upton, for letting us into her world! Thanks to her Mother, Rochelle Upton, as well.

This episode was produced by Vice News Reports, a new weekly podcast hosted by Arielle Duhaime Ross. Go on… check it out! This incredible podcast brings you to the news so you can hear it for yourself. VICE News reporters and producers take you along as they travel across the globe to where life is happening, right up to the frontline as a story is unfolding. Listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts!

You can also check out VICE News on their website, Twitter, or Instagram.

VICE News Reports is produced by Jesse Alejandro Cottrell, Jen Kinney, Janice Llamoca, and Julia Nutter.

Senior producers are Ashley Cleek and Adizah Eghan. Associate producers are Adreanna Rodriguez, Sam Egan, and Sophie Kazis. Sound Design and music composition by Steve Bone and Kyle Murdock.

The executive producer and VP of Vice Audio is Kate Osborn. Janet Lee is Senior Production Manager for VICE Audio. Production coordination by Steph Brown. Fact-Checking by Samir Ferdowsi.

Special thanks to Mauri Milander Friestleben, Charles Adams, Sam Wilbur, Courtland Pickens, Azhae’la Hanson, Samir Ferdowsi, and Alex Baumhardt.

Photograph by Foluso Famuyide Jr, illustration by Teo Ducot

Season 11 - Episode 41

Transcript

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0:00.0	Snap Judgment Studios
0:14.3	2020 hasn't been kind to any of us. No one was spared, but I think this kind of crazy
0:22.4	adds special weight and enormous challenge to the milestone years. People who've planned their
0:28.4	weddings and a first piece, those big leaps forward. And here in the US, there is no milestone
0:35.7	like the senior year of high school. Culturally, we obsess over this time with movies and books and
0:43.4	songs. If you take all that is senior year of high school and add panic, fires, racial tension,
0:51.5	a pandemic that keeps people trapped inside their own houses, this is not a story I can tell.
0:57.2	It's not. That's why I'm so glad we met someone who can.
1:04.8	This year, some of our colleagues in the podcast, vice news reports, they said an audio recorder
1:10.6	to a 17 year old high school student in North Minneapolis. She started recording her life,
1:16.2	just as a protest for George Floyd were winding down and distance learning was wrapping up again.
1:21.4	Yes, this contains some strong language, 2020 contains some strong language, but the result is so
1:30.4	special that we just got to share. So allow me to introduce to you, well, Naya, upton.
1:42.0	Thank you, Rain. I'm downstairs in the room with my twin brother and sisters.
1:47.4	Yeah, that's probably so so gross on the mic. That's nasty.
1:53.6	Y'all, I sound gross and I'm seasoning and I'm stiff and I'm dumb.
2:00.1	I'm a sound. Hey, gross, bobo, and I'm seasoning and I'm going outside of my doors.
2:07.6	Cause I got allergies, you get allergies and my nose is different with, cause I can't breathe.
2:14.1	I'm breathing on my mouth and I'm ready as it's freaking out.
2:17.6	The day it makes this buddy run. I'm a really care cut. I got time, but I really don't,
2:24.6	because I suppose B is cool. In my emotions, everything is not cool.
2:30.0	Hey, yeah, hey, yeah, I suppose to be focused, but it's hard to be focused.
	...

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