radioplasma : voices + ideas

The Holyoke Herald celebrated the achievements and professionalism of their staff reporters, Holyoke High School students, committed to reporting and write Holyoke’s History, at the Melva Awards Ceremony, held on May 29th, 2018 at Holyoke High School.

From being a newspaper, the Herald has adapted to the times, becoming a multi-platform media outlet, combining the newspaper with an online presence through its website, https://hhsherald.com/,  a live tweeter feed, video journalism, and podcasting.

Listen to the recording of the event and join the recognition of Holyoke youth: promising journalists, media producers, and writers. And also, a homage to Joe Courchesne.

Radioplasma wants to thank Joe Courchesne, Faculty Adviser, for this partnership and collaboration, and allowing Herald Staff reporters to be part of the Radioplasma Media Literacy Program through the Gándara Youth Development Center and Holyoke High School, learning how to create podcasts, and giving them the recognition for their work with the very first award for “best podcast” made by students.

The winners of the Radioplasma Melva Award are: Brendan Leahy, Isabella Courchesne, and Feroze Sibdhanny, for the production, and hosting of the Mayoral Debate with Alex Morse, and Jay Ferreira, aired on October 25th, 2017. This piece was also broadcasted live on TV, through our local cable access channel.

Congratulations Brenda, Bella, and Feroze!!

You can listen to their winning production here:

This is our very first podcast session from Springfield, MA, at the new Gándara Youth Acces Center, named The Impact Center.

This is a safe, welcoming space for young adults, ages 16 to 21, to receive support, connecting them to resources for job placement, housing, education, mentoring, or just having a safe space where to be, without judgment.

On this session, Impact Center’s Director, Kristine Rodriguez, along with Carmelo Torres, and Amanda Alicea, talked about the services available at this new site, and we also did the first official recording at the center’s media room, that will allow youth to learn how to create and produce their own media projects.

We invite the public to visit the Impact Center at the grand opening, open house, and ribbon cutting event, on May 18th, 2018 from 12:00 to 2:00 PM. The Impact Center is located at 41 Taylor Street in Downtown Springfield, MA.

For more information about The Gándara Center and all the array of services available, you can visit gandaracenter.org

Also, you can follow the Impact Center’s activities on Facebook and Instagram

Radioplasma presents, a special session, recorded after the opening of a museographic comparative architectural installation between Museo Casa Cautiño-Insúa, Guayama, Puerto Rico, and Wistariahurst Museum, Holyoke, MA.  This is the first time in history that a museum has been transposed into another Museum.  Their joy is that it is and that Puerto Rico did it!

This episode is a conversation with its curators, Alvilda Sophia Anaya-Alegría, a professor at Cambridge College; and visiting from Puerto Rico, Aníbal Rodriguez Ayala, historian and Museum Curator for el Instituto de Cultura Puertorriqueña, who presents the contemporary perspective of Guayama, within the larger context of the South of Puerto Rico.  Alvilda brings the curatorial aspects of the economics of the past as it transcends to a global economy in the 19th century.

This installation is sponsored by El Instituto de Cultura Puertorriqueña in partnership with Wistariahurst Museum, and El Sol Latino Newspaper, Amherst, Massachusetts, and is open to the public from April 5th to May 25th, 2018.

The curators are making sure that the second last name, Insúa, is always included whenever the name of the Museo Casa Cautiño comes up in any searches, because; this house was Doña Genoveva’s.  Genoveva Insúa-Villar was already in the 19th century, a woman ahead of her times, she was an economist who managed five corporations successfully for over 20 years, after her husband’s death. This house was owned by her, as she received it as a gift from her husband, Genaro Cautiño Vasquez.