Season’s Greetings from Rowhome
We’re excited to share Rowhome’s first newsletter with our family, friends, collaborators, clients, and supporters! Below you’ll find a brief year-in-review and what we’re looking forward to in the new year.
We officially started Rowhome Productions in September 2020 with the idea that we might be able to create our own little oasis in the ever-expanding, ever-more-complex world of audio storytelling. We were making the bet that a small, producer-led and passionately Philly-based production company could be a model to sustain the work we love to do - the work of telling stories with sound. We started with just a few small projects, not quite knowing how to run a small business or if this endeavor would take off.
But now, more than two years, 30+ projects, and dozens of collaborators later - and with numerous podcast series, radio documentaries, and audio tours in the pipeline - we’re proud (and relieved) to say that we’ve built the foundation of something special.
We’re starting this newsletter so that we can share our latest work and keep you in the loop about Rowhome-related opportunities. We’ll try to send this out quarterly, but we’ll see! Things get busy very quickly.
For the rest of this inaugural edition, we wanted to share a brief year-in-review that showcases the breadth of our work and activities. We’ll also tell you a bit about what we have in store for 2023.
We want to thank everyone who has trusted us with shepherding their audio dreams into the world. It’s been a fun journey so far and we’re excited to keep it going.
- Alex & John
2022 Wrapped
This year we played a role in a huge array of projects. We worked with Vinyl Me, Please and host John Morrison to tell the amazing story of Philadelphia International Records. With Community Legal Services we developed a new series that breaks down examples of systemic racism in law and policy. We collaborated with Philly-based organizations like BlackStar, Asian Arts Initiative, and the Association for Public Art to tell stories about arts, culture, and where we live. And we produced & sound designed a couple of documentary podcast series in collaboration with Topic Studios and Pushkin Industries.
Of course, we’ve also started work on many projects that won’t see the light of day until next year. These include a documentary series inspired by the Rocky statue with WHYY, a new season of How To Citizen with Baratunde Thurston, an audio tour with the Enterprise Center featuring legacy businesses on West Philly’s historic 52nd Street, and a new podcast from Mighty Writers. And that’s really just the tip of the iceberg.
Inside Look - Fine Gorilla Person
In August, we were proud to share “Fine Gorilla Person”, a riveting 8-episode series hosted by Lauren Ober that tells the definitive story of the world’s most famous gorilla: Koko. It was given glowing reviews by the New Yorker, the Guardian and the Financial Times. You can listen to the series on Audible. And… if you enjoy the catchy, quirky music throughout the series, it’s all thanks to the musical artist Liz de Lise and her collaborators Alyssa Resh and Mark Watter who created the original score. If you’re interested in learning more about our behind-the-scenes process, follow us on Instagram.
Workshop at Haverford College
We were invited by Haverford College to host a two-part workshop for undergraduates interested in audio storytelling at the school’s Visual Culture, Arts, and Media (VCAM) facility this fall. On Day 1 of “Crafting Compelling Narratives with Audio”, we sat in VCAM’s beautiful movie theater and listened to a wide-range of audio pieces from around the world. On Day 2, we walked students through the audio storytelling process from field recording to interviewing to mixing and distribution.
Resonate Podcast Festival
In October, John traveled to Richmond, Virginia, to attend the inaugural Resonate Podcast Festival. It was held at the Institute for Contemporary Art on the campus of Virginia Commonwealth University. The festival featured informative sessions from audio industry experts such as Ronald Young and Nichole Hill. Plus, John got to see incredible live performances from Sharon Mashihi of the Appearances podcast and Nick van der Kolk from Love+ Radio. We can’t wait to attend more audio-based gatherings in the near future. Check out John’s event recap.
Fresh New Look - Website Redesign
Earlier this year, we hired Philly-based art director and web designer Danni Sinisi to create a website that better showcases our wide-array of projects and communicates our creative process. We absolutely love the elegant, playful, and warm look that she gave us. We’re also very pleased that we managed to keep our original logo that was illustrated and painted by Lucy Strother. We encourage you to scroll through our website and to check out Danni’s work!
Looking Forward
In the new year, we’re looking forward to sharing Rowhome’s first original projects and hosting more gatherings for audio makers in Philadelphia. We’re also excited about nurturing relationships with our current partners and meeting new collaborators who have big ideas for new audio works.
That’s all for now. Happy New Year!