12 letters. 12 cds.

there are two remarkable people living 2,996 miles away. two people whose brilliance and indescribable love, patience, wisdom, humor and transcendent happiness have forever changed me, and the lives of anyone who have had the fortune to spend an hour in the presence of their good company. these two people are my grandparents, mildred and richard harvey.

this year, instead of getting sad and sorrowful over the fact that they live so far away, and that i can not immediately enjoy the comfort that is sitting in their living room, enveloped by their grace and exposed to the easy wisdom they impart, i have decided to forge my own experience and connection with them despite the distance.

12 letters 12 cds. is a series of 12 trans-continental letters and cds exchanged between myself and my amazing grandparents throughout the course of a year.

every month beginning with this one, my grandmother and i will exchange hand written letters. each letter will express a both a topic of our own choosing, and answer a question posed by the other.

for january, i'll fill her in on my grand plans for this project and ask her about what monday and tuesday of next week mean to her. i am fascinated to know by her own account what it could possibly mean, how it could possibly feel to see Barack Obama elected President of the United States. Especially in the context of what she has experienced in her life. A richly lived life that has seen first hand the horror of lynching, the degradation of growing up in the jim crow south, and now a person whose skin color would have prevented him from attending school, riding a bus, or entering any business through a front door in her day - elected president of that very same country. mind blowing.

my grandfather and i will exchange stories and connect via a different medium. anyone who knows my grandfather knows that his passion is music. so many early childhood memories i have toddling around that house on sandini road involve sitting downstairs in his music room with wall to wall shelves filled with thousands of albums, and 8 tracks and tapes, listening to him play the "good stuff" and tell me stories about this jazz musician or that soul singer. he knew every track, every lyric, and could be found on any given saturday afternoon sitting in his chair down there, eyes closed, headphones on, smile giving way only to his soulful humming.

our oldschool-newschool mixes will simply be an exchange of music that holds some meaning to each of us and that we would like to introduce to the other. he'll send me some aretha, i'll send him some amy winehouse and we'll enjoy the discovery and acknowledgement that some music never gets old, and some new comers got it right too.

i will be scanning and posting these letters and song lists each month as part of my ongoing genealogy project as well. off to write letter one and make my january mix.