New York sings praise for community radio

Radio Adelaide

Locally produced radio play Songs in the Blood is a winner in the prestigious New York Festivals Radio Broadcasting Awards, achieving a Silver Medal in the category of Radio Feature/Human Relations.

The New York Festivals is one of the two most prestigious international awards for broadcasting. The award was announced at a ceremony in New York last month.

One of only five Australian radio productions to achieve finalist status at the Festival, Songs in the Blood was produced by the University of Adelaide's community radio station, Radio Adelaide 101.5fm, in partnership with Women's Health Statewide.

The radio play dramatises the true stories of a group of HIV positive and affected women, including mothers, sisters, partners and daughters of HIV positive people.

Songs in the Blood tells the stories of these women through a series of monologues, overlaid with the menacing sounds of The Song of the Virus and the melancholy of the Song of the Woman, produced by local musicians Heather Frahn, Stephan Richter and Ingrid Wangel.

From stories written by the women, Adelaide writer Elizabeth Mansutti created 14 monologues, which meld with the two musical threads to create a personal and at times very powerful collective portrait of human resilience in the face of adversity.

"Women who live with HIV/AIDS are a minority and often forgotten. Winning this award truly honours these courageous women who wrote and shared their stories, many for the first time," said Pam Price, Project Coordinator at Women's Health Statewide.

Songs in the Blood producer and director Logan Bold said: "I'm really thrilled this project has been saluted internationally, as so many people poured so much of themselves into this play. This is essentially a community theatre piece, and the community of HIV positive and affected women whose words create the core of this play need to be celebrated. With this award, they are."

Songs in the Blood was an initiative of Women's Health Statewide, a community service of the Children, Youth & Women's Health Service. It was funded by the Government of South Australia through Arts SA and produced at the North Terrace studios of Radio Adelaide. It was initially broadcast as part of AIDS Awareness Week 2007.

To find out more and listen to the play, visit: www.radio.adelaide.edu.au/songsintheblood/