Nick Jackson, a composer and graduate student, created a composition about a young girl facing temporary food insecurity, based on the story by KX intern, Anna Sherman. His piece complements the animated video created by KX graphic designers Nick Biere and Phoebe Davis.
Nick’s music uses atmospheric sounds to highlight the ups and downs of young protagonist Angel’s life—from the stress of her mom's unemployment to the power of a strong support system. Themes of family, tradition, and community flow throughout the composition, accentuated by somber periods of hardship involving limited food options, health scares, and financial uncertainty. At the end of the story, hope prevails as Angel’s family comes out of their period of strife. Read the story and watch the animated video below.
Angel lives on second floor of an apartment building in Cincinnati. She likes to watch YouTube and play with her friends outside on the sidewalk. She also likes to play Monopoly with her mom and dad, but they work a lot and are usually very busy. Angel has two little brothers who she loves very much (even though they get on her nerves sometimes). She is in fourth grade and likes school a lot—her favorite class is science. Angel loves the French toast sticks the cafeteria serves for breakfast. She really missed those over the summer—the church pantry never had anything as good.
When her dad gets home from work, he asks a lot of questions about what she learned at school. What was her favorite class? Did she have fun in gym? How was her math test? Her dad works at a local restaurant and sometimes he brings home leftovers for the family to enjoy. Her little brother, Emmanuel, is 5 and he’s too busy playing with trucks. The baby, Devon, runs over for a hug.
Angel helps her mom carry groceries up the stairs because sometimes she has trouble breathing. She likes to help, even when the bags are very heavy. She watches her mom cook and is learning how to use the stove. Today they are making pasta fagioli, which mom says is an old family recipe from her great-great-grandmother who lived in Sicily. Angel likes to stand on a stool and stir the big pot because it makes her feel like a witch leaning over her cauldron. She and mom always talk in funny voices when they add each ingredient to the pot—“Bubble, bubble, toil and trouble… this potion calls for celery!”
After Angel and her family eat dinner, mom packs some of it up in a Tupperware to give to their neighbor, Miss Ruby, who lives by herself. Mom says she gets lonely, which is why she sometimes comes over to watch Emmanuel and the baby, and why mom brings her soup. When mom returns, she is carrying a tin of Miss Lisa’s famous puppy chow. Angel is ecstatic! She scoops out a big handful for dessert. Dad says to save some for the rest of the week.
Angel’s parents have been saying things like that more and more these days, ever since mom stopped going to work. Her mom used to help care for Mr. Molson so he could stay in his home, but after her last asthma attack, she didn’t go there anymore. Her boss said she was missing too much time, whatever that means. Sometimes mom ends up in the hospital, which is scary. And then, once she gets back home, the family can’t do fun things like buy toys from the Dollar store or take the bus to the Museum Center.
Actually, a lot of things have changed in Angel’s life since mom stopped working. Angel’s favorite time of year is fall because of all the fun activities —back to school shopping, walking across the purple bridge to watch the coal barges go by, watching the leaves change color. But this year everything is different. Mom has been buying applesauce instead of fresh apples. She uses a special blue card that Angel had never seen before to pay for it. Mom didn’t take Angel school shopping this year either, even though her sneakers have a hole in them. On top of that, mom and dad have hardly had any time to play with Angel and her brothers. Dad is always at work, and even when mom is home, she is filling out forms and applications. They seem stressed out. Angel heard them whispering in the kitchen one night last week, something about the “first of the month” and not having enough money. Angel didn’t really know what that was all about, but she noticed that dad was bringing home leftovers more often over the next week, and that mom hadn’t cooked anything with fruits or vegetables for a while. She asked about it once, but all dad said was that they had to watch their dollars.
September and October are hard for Angel’s family. They eat a lot of restaurant leftovers and sometimes wear their clothes twice before washing them. But then one day, mom announces that she has found a new job! Angel and Emmanuel jump up and down with happiness and Angel’s dad kisses her mom on the cheek. Dad says this is cause for celebration, so he says they will all go out to eat tomorrow night. Angel is thrilled—they hardly ever go to restaurants!
A few weeks later, mom gets her first paycheck. Slowly, things start to return to normal. Mom starts cooking pasta fagioli again, and she stops buying so many packaged foods. Dad comes home earlier sometimes and has time to play Monopoly with Angel. Mom even took Angel to the mall to buy a winter coat and a new pair of snow boots. Angel was giddy the entire bus ride there.
Angel is happy that things are going well for her family once more, but she worries that her mom could end up in the hospital again and lose her new job. She loves spending time with her dad, but is anxious that he might have to start working late again. But Angel knows that her family all love each other very much, and that her mom and dad would do anything to keep her and her brothers safe.
(One out of every four kids in Ohio has felt the same way Angel did. Government programs such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and local food banks help hardworking families like Angel’s who experience temporary food insecurity support themselves through tough times.)
Nick Jackson is from Canton, Ohio but now resides in Columbus, where he is working towards his Doctor of Musical Arts in Composition from Ohio State.
His style is best described as acousmatic music, and some of his recent musical inspiration comes from media-centric and electronic music. In the future, Nick plans to write scores for film, television, and video games while also teaching music theory and composition. More of Nick’s work can be found at nicholasjacksonmusic.com.
Header image by Joel Muniz on Unsplash.
