Day 7: “Is your paddle ready?”

Day 7 was the first time I had to miss an event. There was an optional outing to one of the two lakes in Berlin, but naturally, I couldn’t go. So, Morgan and I spent the morning and early afternoon editing pictures and writing our blogs as we waited for our meetings times with our subjects. At 1:30 I ventured over to Volkspark Friedrichshain to meet with Justin Griffin, a 24-year-old musician who graduated from FAMU (thank God he speaks English). As I was walking to the fountain at the edge of the park, I heard a loud banging coming from the center of the park. Since I had some extra time before I had to meet with Justin, I followed the sound to a group of students and their teacher playing drums for an audience. They were about middle school/high school age students, all playing different make-shift drums. There were snares and bass drums and even timpani-type drums. It was more than slightly ironic that as I was about to meet with my subject, who’s a musician, I found a group of musicians playing their hearts out. I sat in the grass near them and began taking pictures for the next 15 minutes as I waited for my meeting time to approach. Finally, I got up and made my way back to the fountain.

At 2 p.m. I met up with Justin! He’s just as cool as I thought he was going to be, by the way. He wore a beanie and a black button down with music notes all over it, which I thought was awesome. We talked for a little bit as I re-explained what my project was about, and then we began. I interviewed him for about 15 minutes, talking about his life as a musician, why he came to Berlin, his new solo album and any tips he had for struggling musicians. He was very open and loved talking about all things music and Berlin. Afterward, I snapped about 1,000 pictures of him in different locations in the park as we talked more about his life and mine and music in general. It was a great experience and I can’t wait to meet up with him again Monday!

After our meeting, I walked back to the hotel, stopping at a cafe along the way to get some food, and waited for the rest of our group to show up to talk to Mary Lane, a writer for the Wall Street Journal’s art section and an author of her own book on Hitler and art. What was probably meant to be a talk about journalism and women in it turned into both that and a talk about sexual assault in the workplace. She herself had experienced it while working with the Wall Street Journal, and she actually got her boss fired as a result. She talked about the psychological effects of the assault and how “lucky” she was to have such a good support group. She was inspirational and supportive of us, and we’re hoping to either go to lunch or have drinks with her before we leave.