Cover Art for Engineered Grace, Vol. 1
Jay Ray opened episode #246 with a roll call of places in Chester, PA, that are no longer there.
There was his daycare, William Wilson. The building still stands, but the daycare is gone. Columbus Elementary closed long ago. Immaculate Heart of Mary was decommissioned, and a fire tore through the church last November. Then there was the Sound Spa, the studio at 15 East 8th Street where he learned the craft he uses every day. The building is still there, and it is falling down.
What brought that list to mind was a record.
About Engineered Grace Vol. 1
Engineered Grace Vol. 1 comes from the Chester Gifted Program, a sound system made up of Christopher R. Rogers, Ph.D., DJ Naij B, and DJ Rebel Foster, all Chester natives, like Jay Ray. The EP is built from field recordings made around the city. The guests handed small Zoom recorders to the people around them and let them roll. The first track opens under the train station as a train passes overhead. The outro is Chris’s six-year-old nephew running around Uno’s Pizza, singing into the mic.
"The relationship was the quality," Chris said. The recordings aren't polished, and they aren't meant to be.
Grace by Design
The title comes from Toni Morrison. In Beloved, Baby Suggs tells the people gathered around her that the only grace they could have was the grace they could imagine. Chris sets that line against what Chester never chose: school closures, the loss of public services, and private equity moving into health care. Naij B puts it more plainly. Chester can be a rough place, and the record reflects how Chester makes its own joy anyway, "by design" or "by accident."
A Record With a Job
The EP supports Chester Residents Concerned for Quality Living, the group Zulene Mayfield has led for over 30 years. The Chester incinerator, run by Reworld and named by Energy Justice Network as “the largest waste-to-energy incinerator in the country,” takes more of Philadelphia’s trash than any other facility the city uses for incineration.
By the end of the conversation, Jay Ray and Chris had widened the frame: Gary, Indiana; Flint, Michigan; insert your Black city here.
"You are hearing echoes of that in Engineered Grace. Chester is speaking for all of us." – Jay Ray
Hear the Full Conversation
Soundscapes of Chester, PA Pt. 1: ‘Engineered Grace’ & Memory
Jay Ray talks with Christopher R. Rogers and DJ Naij B of the Chester Gifted Program about Engineered Grace Vol. 1, field recordings from Chester, PA, and the fight over ...
Part 2 arrives Monday, November 2. Chris stays on to talk about his book with Karim Brown My City Need Something.
Editor's note: This piece was drafted with help from AI, working from the transcript of our episode "Soundscapes of Chester, PA Pt. 1: 'Engineered Grace' & Memory." We checked the facts, fixed what was wrong and rewrote it until it was ready to publish. The conversation, the memories, the quotes and the opinions belong to the people who shared them. Every word here was reviewed and approved by people. – Queue Points
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