Author: Jayden Baldemor

 

Reviving Anti-Watt: Rei Baldemor ’25 at Antioch College

Mar 07, 2023
 

The legacy of Anti-watt seemed intimidating at first, and still is to a degree. For those who don’t know, Anti-watt once was a pirate radio station for the campus of Antioch College. One that actually played on the air waves at least. The idea of running a radio station at all is scary, especially if you are the host, knowing that there is an untold number of people listening to your voice. Despite my anxieties, I feel like I have pushed through many of the challenges I’ve faced on this co-op.

To put my current position into context I shall share the problems I’ve faced thus far. First of all, Anti-watt hadn’t been active in over a year since I began this co-op. There were no other students around that had been working on it that could help me or give me guidance. Luckily Michael Casselli, who is a professor at Antioch was able to assist me as a mentor, helping me to start running the stream from my computer. But after that I have pretty much been running Anti-watt independently.

This lack of of structure did not disrupt my process as much as I initially thought it would. In fact is has been somewhat pleasant to have this creative control over my work and working environment. The people who ran Anti-watt before myself had left some documents to guide me in ways, but they made most clear that Anti-watt can be whatever the students want it to be. The creative freedom is what makes this position so special, and I feel that it has only fueled my passion for expanding Anti-watt. I feel proud of the progress I’ve made so far.

For example, I feel as if I’ve done a good job in rebranding Anti-watt. I commissioned a local artist and fellow student Estella Martin for the logo you see as the cover photo for this article.

I send most information out through instagram (@antiwatt) as I can reach a lot of the student body and alumni through there. I have established a consistent streaming schedule, Mondays, Wednesday, and Friday 6-8 PM Est.  I’ve played a variety of music, giving exposure to many underground artist and introducing people to new genres.

 

For example, a few of my friends who have been listening to the stream have started to really enjoy reggae from listening to Anti-watt. I have held an interview with a current student Rose Compton, and alum Lola Roxanne about their film making processes, inspirations, and creative influences. I plan on holding more interviews with more people on campus.

Considering I’m the only actual worker for Anti-watt at this point, I’d say I’ve made a decent amount of progress. Although I’ve had some help through my community and peers. Ben Treynor, a fellow student has helped comprise a lot of playlist for streaming so that I’ve got more content. A few others have also contributed in that regard. Early on into the process I was having a lot of self doubt when it came to running the show, many of my fellow students reached out to reaffirm me. That gave me the confidence to push through and keep trying. It makes me incredibly joyful to be

apart of something that is cherished by my community.

I wish to continue expanding Anti-watt after this co-op experience. Whether that be as a student employee, or just voluntarily dedicating myself to it. I hope that more students become invested in expanding Anti-watt, just as I am. I highly recommend this position to any media arts students who are looking for a co-op in the future. I will definitely still be available to help. Remember, Anti-watt is whatever you want it to be, so make it something great.

 

A Community Theater : Baldemor ’25 at Your Time To Shine in Fairfield, CT

Apr 25, 2020
 

As a freshman of Antioch college, this first Co-op experience has been enlightening to say the least. For this spring term, I have been staying in Bridgeport Connecticut and am working with a music/education nonprofit called Your Time To Shine. I am the third Antioch student to join this delightful team of compassionate people trying to make a real difference in the lives of children. Although the time that I’ve been here has been a pre-season for the youth program, including program preparation, I’m also gaining experience in the field of theatre and production.

The base of operations for Your Time To Shine is the Sacred Heart University Theatre in Fairfield Connecticut. This theatre is relatively new but is starting to gain recognition and support from the local community. A variety of shows and concerts have taken place while I’ve been working here. Famous comedian Kevin Nealon performed a couple weeks back. Personally not all of his jokes were my taste, but the audience really enjoyed the show. Famous Grammy award winning jazz pianist Eddie Palmieri, and his band performed a few days after, and it was absolutely phenomenal. Whenever there isn’t a show the theatre usually has movie showings. Not first run movies but still good films, the recent line up has been Luca, Cruella, and Bellfest. I’ve learned a lot about pre-show setup and use of stage equipment, and also how to run movies on a giant projector. This will be where the kids come to learn music and perform once the program starts. Here is the website where you can learn more about the SHU Community Theatre https://shucommunitytheatre.org/

As far as my work towards the Your Time To Shine program, I’ve started my work on updating their social media. First I created a Tiktok account for them. If you would like to support that page, search Your Time To Shine on Tiktok, as of right now there are 12 videos and 4 followers. On that page I upload clips of live performances from past years. Another task I was given before hand was to sort through all of those clips and organize them in Dropbox.

The people I work with are amazing. My two main bosses Matt and Joe, who interviewed me for the position, both worked for 30 years at the Apollo theatre in NYC. Both of them are also pretty musically talented. Joe is also an incredible photographer (he took the picture of Eddie Palmieri I shared below). In their time at the Apollo they met numerous celebrities, Barack Obama, Robert Downy Jr, Stevie Wonder, Peewee Sherman, and many more. I’ve spent much more time with Joe, he whistles all the time. Another person who is a part of the program I’ve been working with is the tech wizard named Tim. He’s an awesome guy, very intelligent and laid back, genuinely a very great person. He’s taught me some tech stuff, like how to operate the stage lights and how to run movies. He also happens to be incredibly musically talented.

Even though my time here hasn’t been exactly what I expected it to be, I’m still glad I came and am grateful for all the learning experiences. Covid was a large part of the reason I wasn’t able to meet the program participants. But by this summer things should be back in motion completely. I definitely recommend this co-op to anyone  who is interested in working with kids and music in the future. You’ll meet plenty of great people and have a wonderful time.