Robert H. Lawrence Jr., trailblazing astronaut

"This piece is inspired by Tavares Strachan's piece "Bright Golden Haze" that I saw a few years ago at the Venice Biennale, and never left me. It's about Robert Henry Lawrence Jr. - the first Afroamerican astronaut, hardly even mentioned in all the glorious celebrations of space. Also the starting words of my piece are by Tavares Strachan, who has devoted his work to the unknown history of Afroamericans. I have been haunted by Strachan's piece since I saw it in Venice in 2018, I felt immediately that I wanted to tell a story about it. Here I utilise the news about the Challenger disaster as a backdrop to tell the story of Robert Henry Lawrence Jr. The piece is voiced by my son, Romeo M. Minutolo."

Composition by Cristina Marras.

Part of the Shortwave Transmissions project, documenting and reimagining the sounds of shortwave radio - find out more and see the whole project at https://citiesandmemory.com/shortwave