Dave Isay and Dmae Roberts

Amada Cruz: This is actually your second Peabody Award. What was the first one for?
Dmae Roberts: I first won the Peabody in 1990 for my autobiographical docu-play, Mei Mei: A Daughter's Song. That was the most personal piece I've ever produced about my biracial identity and my relationship with my mother. She survived an abusive childhood during World War II in Taiwan, where she was sold to work as a bonded servant to her "step" family. In the half-hour piece I intercut her childhood experiences with personal monologues about my own childhood and thoughts about our relationship. It was the most difficult piece I've ever done on so many levels.

AC: Mei Mei was painfully honest, and that made it very powerful. Was it a very different experience producing this history?
DR: During the last 20 years I've produced pieces on various subjects—from domestic violence and breast cancer survival to homeless youth and drug addiction. Most were people's personal stories, so when I finally decided to pursue Crossing East, it was really daunting because it would cover nearly 400 years of history about Asian immigration to America. Then our lead scholar, Judy Yung, advised me that since we had only eight hours for the series we should focus on case histories. That was a stress reliever! I thought . . . case histories . . . personal stories . . . I can do that!

Still, it really was difficult because it's the most researched, journalistic and scholarly project I've ever produced. I did get to play with style artistically through audio collage and dramatic recreations, but it's really grounded in historical fact.

AC: What research sources did you use?
DR: We worked with some of the finest scholars of Asian American history in the country. All of the producers, including me, had to write thesis paper script treatments before we even did the interviews with scholars and community people. We used every resource we could find in publications as well as relying on the scholars. The hardest part was trying to locate recorded oral histories that were broadcast quality. Even those recorded in 2001 were so badly recorded and unintelligible that it wasn't worth trying to clean them up. Instead we decided to record as many scholars and elders as possible who could tell the histories. We collected about 500 hours of oral histories and the most comprehensive broadcast-quality oral histories on Asian American history.

AC: How long did you work on Crossing East?
DR: Crossing East is a decades-long dream to provide public radio with its first Asian American history series. I started fund-raising in 2003 and started production in 2004. Altogether it was nearly four years’ worth of work.

AC: What is the significance for you of the Peabody Award?
DR: On a personal level this second Peabody is an important recognition. The first one was for a more personal, artistic work and came early on in my career. Because of this, it may have been looked on by some in the public radio community as a fluke. This second win reaffirms my 25-year career in public radio and the first award. Having this recognition from the Peabody as well as the USA Fellowship in the same year is a monumental affirmation of my work and of me as an artist and radio producer.

For Crossing East, winning the Peabody is recognition of the high quality and the milestone importance of the series. More than 225 public radio stations have aired the series, but with this honor, Crossing East will be remembered as the Peabody Award–winning series on Asian American history.

AC: You used some very popular performers as narrators: George Takei from Star Trek and the comedian Margaret Cho. Why did you include them?
DR: As a longtime Trekkie, I've admired George Takei for several decades. He's just amazing and was quite supportive of Crossing East, mentioning the series each time he was interviewed. I've also admired Margaret Cho since she had her sitcom in the ‘90s. It was important to have people of all ages listen to Crossing East. George was a perfect fit for the first four hours, which dealt with the earliest history, and Margaret lent a modern voice for the more contemporary half of the series. She really got the importance of the series for a younger generation. She called it our Eyes on the Prize.

AC: What’s your next project?
DR: I'm doing preplanning right now for a new series that will encompass a variety of subjects that I want to pursue. Thanks to the USA Fellowship I was able for the first time to go to an international features conference in Europe, and it opened my ears up to new ways to produce within the often restrictive frameworks of public radio. I also got to go to many art museums that featured triptych paintings. The one-hour radio format is based on the three-act structure, and trying to fit a documentary into that structure is often difficult. So the idea of a triptych—three ways of telling one story—is appealing to me. Now I want to pursue this idea with themes I’m interested in, such as mixed-race, interracial families; global ties; and immigration. Thanks to the USA Fellowship I can explore a new way to do storytelling on a larger scale and open my mind to create a larger framework for future documentaries.