Angeline Butler
By Brandon Perdomo, 2021
Angeline Butler – Civil Rights activist, playwright, musician – recalls growing up in farmland of South Carolina and the influence her environment had on her sense of play which gave an early process of ear-training, a practice particularly useful to performers.
TRANSCRIPT:
BPerdomo 0:26
The one time we were in the studio – you were talking about your relationship to you place and environment when you were growing up.
AButler 0:33
Well – we lived in the country on a 68-acre farm, okay – and it was like a little white house by the side of the road. And we had a pond in front of our house that my father built – had it constructed. And we had lots of trees on the side of the house – woods, and woods up in the back, and then we had open fields, okay – and then we had a backyard that had just loads of tall pine trees, and they had oak trees, and this kind of thing. So out of our room where we slep – me and my other sisters, we all slept in the same room – we could see, and out of one window, the sun rising – and we can see out of the other window, the back – the tall trees. And we can also see the animals in the yard, like the dogs, the roosters and the hands moving around. So, early in the morning, you know, we heard those sounds of crickets, we heard the frogs – we heard the trees blowing when there was wind – and we heard the mooing of cows in a distance and of course, the chickens you know – *makes playful chicken noises
2:18
and the rooster crowing – *makes playful rooster noises – you know, that kind of thing. And then, of course – we as children, you know, began to emulate those sounds – and couldn’t wait to get outside to play with you know, the animals and to go into the chicken shelter, or to play with the dogs, or go outside and look at the – we had a couple horses, we had a couple of mules and we had a donkey —
More on Angeline Butler – https://performingartslegacy.org/butlerangeline/
This Little Light of Mine – Angeline Butler, 2020
At the Farm – freesound.org ChristiKuhn, 2010
Static – freesound.org groovyrandomness, 2012