CHIRP Radio First Time storytelling: First Family
I used to feel like my love of music was a problem. What happened that changed that?
I wrote this for a storytelling show, First Time, for a radio station I volunteer for, CHIRP Radio. The theme was First Family. Read on!
Here at CHIRP Radio, I host a show called the Music Historian’s Corner. Every Wednesday morning, I put on the studio headphones and play a continual stream of very eclectic music. Listeners email the CHIRP DJ account saying that they appreciate my knowledge.
My earliest memory of being called a music historian was in college. Today I wear that label like a badge of pride, but I used to feel like my knowledge of music was a burden for everyone else.
Being autistic, gay, and Jewish and struggling with Bipolar Disorder, ADHD, OCD, anxiety, and depression, I felt consistently like a problem, including for my family, growing up. When I read the great scholar W. E. B. Du Bois, writing about a crucial question that whites didn’t dare ask African Americans, “How does it feel to be a problem?” I felt as a kid, however problematically, like I could relate.