Student will start an internship with Democracy Now’s Amy Goodman
Dolna Smithback is 4’10” and 85 pounds and she attacks life the same way she approaches the trapeze: head forward, upside down and inside out.
It wasn’t enough for Smithback to learn how to use a trapeze: She figured out how to make one and rig it, too. So it was only natural that when Smithback, at 13, found herself awed by public radio host Amy Goodman’s anti-war speech at the Kirtland Air Force Base gates in Albuquerque, she set out on a path to understand and embrace her new passion for communications.
Come August, the rewards of that perseverance will pay off: Smithback, now 18, will start an internship with Goodman in New York City where she’ll also be a freshman at Eugene Lang College, The New School for Liberal Arts.
“She’s a remarkable person,” said Goodman, in a phone interview from New York City on Friday. “I’m very honored to have met her and to watch her grow.”
Goodman said Smithback will be working directly with her, and Democracy Now’s other producers, at their offices in a 100-year-old landmark firehouse in Chinatown. “I can tell — her whole life she will pursue issues of social justice,” said Goodman. “She’s a natural-born activist and has an incredible curiosity.”
The first time Smithback had the opportunity to speak with Goodman came at a Lannan Foundation reading when Goodman was interviewing author and professor Cornel West. Smithback and some family members went down to the stage and talked with Goodman, “and since then, I’ve gone to every one of her readings.”
Her big break
It was when Smithback was 14 that her working relationship with Goodman began, though. KUNM-TV, Channel 5, was hosting a lunch prior to a peace conference sponsored by the United World College and Monte del Sol Charter School.
“I wrote to KUNM and said, ‘Look, I’m going to be part of the next leaders. I’d like to come to this dinner and represent the youth,” said Smithback. “I never got a response. I was really mad.”
But before the event, her parents came to her and said, “We’re sorry — you can’t finish your homework because Amy Goodman has asked you to be her personal assistant.”
Smithback, who said she never thinks about her appearance, spent two hours getting ready. It was the opportunity she had wanted — to learn more about Democracy Now, to find out “who they are and why they do it.”
What she learned cemented her confidence in Goodman and the show. “When they have debates, they want everyone to have a say and for no one to go away angry,” said Smithback. “They want them to go away feeling they’ve had their say.”
When journalist Seymour Hersh spoke here with Goodman, the show’s then outreach coordinator Denis Moynihan asked Smithback if she would like to come early and watch Goodman prepare. “I learned she will literally sit with all her books around her, reading, a halfhour before,” said Smithback.
On another occasion, Smithback was invited to the KNME-FM, 89.9, studios to “shadow” Goodman when she was in Albuquerque. “I was amazed by all the tech work,” said Smithback. “I was so inspired.”
During that experience, Smithback recalled reading over Goodman’s material and not knowing what the term “Emerald City” meant in relation to Iraq. “With three minutes to air, she stopped and explained it to me,” said Smithback, referring to Baghdad’s Green Zone.
It was Goodman who told Smithback about Santa Fe’s Youth Radio Program with Judy Goldberg at KSFR-FM, 90.7, and Smithback decided immediately to join. “I ended up hosting and interviewing on the first show,” said Smithback.
“I wish there were more Dolnas in the world,” said Goldberg. “A student who can identify what she’s interested in, take initiative and follow through. I think on some level, she gets how fortunate she is and what a gift it is to be alive. She’s a true giver.”
Being privileged
Smithback was adopted at the age of 16 months from an orphanage in Calcutta, India. She has an older sister, Nandita, also adopted from the same orphanage.
“I know I’m very privileged,” said Smithback. “When I look around and see the kids who don’t have food, shelter and clothing … I hope that everyone will be able to help — not just me.”
Of the people she’s met in her public radio experience, Smithback said, “They’re people interested in what’s going on, getting it for themselves and others and knowing they can’t give up because they’re the ones others are relying on. It requires everyone to put aside our differences and get over our fears.”
From hosting and interviewing with the youth radio program, Smithback moved on to learning the technical side. “Luther Watts (at KSFR) started training me on the onair board so I got really into engineering,” she said. “I really like the pressure. Luther always says, ‘Any mistake you’ve made in here, I’ve made in here.’ ’’
Smithback is planning to work in all areas of broadcasting during her internship. “Before I even applied to colleges, I wrote to Denis and he said, ‘Write me a letter and tell me what you want to do,’ ’’ she said of Moynihan, now the chief executive officer for Free Speech TV.
Her response was simple: “I basically said I want to see how ‘Democracy Now’ is put together.”
Smithback will help with the show’s preparation and research, then move into filming, then archiving and other areas. Working three hours a day, beginning at 6 a.m., she’ll be getting credit from her college in the process.
Smithback chose The New School not for its New York location but because it offered her the most financial aid, and she said her attendance will still be a significant effort for her family.
“I love learning,” she said, “but school has never come easy for me. I’ve struggled in every one of my courses.” She graduated from Monte del Sol after transferring there her junior year from Santa Fe High. “I had been trying to get in there since graduating eighth grade from Waldorf, and finally my name came up.”
This summer Smithback is working at the Center for Contemporary Arts answering phones and questions, selling movie tickets and concessions.
When she looks at the path she’s about to embark on, she doesn’t really see anything in her early childhood that would have predicted it. “I was obsessed with fairies when I was a kid,” she recalled. “I really liked their outfits, the little leaves. I did wear a Puck outfit for one of my trapeze costumes.”
But she did recall a point during the last few years, when there was a change inside here. “I began looking at my life with ‘I can,’ ’’ she said, “not ‘I can’t.’ ’’
To hear Smithback’s show, “How Can Humans Get Along?”, go to the Public Radio Exchange at www.PRX.org. Signing in is required, but free. Type “Dolna Smithback” in the search bar space and proceed.
If you’re interested
Youth Media Project (formerly the Santa Fe Youth Radio Project) is offering a summer intensive from July 21 to Aug. 1, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., for students ages 15-25 at Santa Fe Community College. The program offers hands-on training in field recording and broadcasting, and participants will create feature stories, personal narratives, commentary, soundscapes and music. Students will also interview, host and engineer, producing radio broadcasts and podcasts. Youth productions air regularly on KSFR-FM, 101.1.
Scholarships are available, and those trained will have first option to join YMP’s ongoing radio broadcasting teams during the 2008-09 school year.
For information, go to www.youthmediaproject.org or call Judy Goldberg at 986-1880.
