Regina Harris Baiocchi (Finding Aid)

Regina Harris Baiocchi

1956 -

Favorite Color: Black and Indigo

Favorite Food: Pizza and popcorn

Favorite Time of Year: Summer, with spring as a tight second

Favorite Vacation Spot: Baja, Mexico

Interview Length: 130 minutes

Interview Date(s): May 31, 2000

Interview Location(s): Residence of Regina Baiocchi, Chicago, Illinois

Abstract

Raised in Chicago, Illinois, Regina Baiocchi discusses her family's roots in the American South--specifically, Kentucky and Tennessee. Her father and mother migrated north in search of better vocational opportunities and fewer racist encounters. Her parents were always available to Baiocchi and her seven siblings--four sisters and three brothers. Baiocci's parents encouraged her and her siblings' interest in the arts. Baiocchi tells stories of her grandparents' lives in the racist American South. She also shares anecdotes about her grandfather taking her around Chicago when she was a young girl . Finally, Baiocchi recounts stories that reveal her family's heritage; she further speculates as to her ethnic descent. Regina Baiocchi discusses her ethnic heritage and specifically describes what she thinks is a mixture of West African, Native American and Italian ancestry. She describes being particularly interested in her family's linguistic history; she compares the dialect that members of her family speak to the patois she encountered in Jamaica. She then reveals that her great-grandmother survived slavery and lived to recount her experiences. Baiocchi goes on to describe each of her seven siblings as well as their children, her nieces and nephews. Each of the eight Harris--her maiden name--children were expected to learn to play an instrument in their youth. Baiocchi discusses her experiences--both negative and positive--in a broad range of schools, from Chicago public schools to a Catholic academy in Wisconsin. Chicago's Paul Laurence Dunbar High School, with its extensive music resources, proved to be an inspirational place for young Regina Baiocchi. Nevertheless, her musical performance debut was an unnerving experie Regina Baiocchi, her mother's favorite child, describes that she was an introspective, melancholy young girl with a love of reading. After visiting Grambling State University, she recognized that she was more interested in an urban college campus. She completed her undergraduate degree in music at Chicago's Roosevelt University. Though the music department lacked diversity--in terms of race and gender--and her curriculum presented a few challenges, the experience made Baiocchi stronger. She credits her parents, and specifically her father, with giving her the necessary support and guidance throughout her undergraduate work. Upon graduation, Baiocchi's father suggested that she teach math and science in a local school. Baiocchi met obstacles in this new environment; many of her students, Haitian immigrants, did not speak English. After seven years of teaching, Baiocchi pursued a public relations post at a Chicago seminary. At the same time she began to write an opera, spawned from one musical composition she h Composer and author Regina Baiocchi created a piece entitled 'Against The Odds,' or 'O.D.S.,' Operation Desert Storm, that brought her war poetry and musical composition together. The Detroit Symphony Orchestra, an institution that she credits as being integral to her career, put on the performance. The Detroit Symphony Orchestra later held a competition for African American composers that Baiocchi and two others won. She describes that she is particularly highly sought after during Black History Month. Baiocchi has faced rejection in her writing career. She has fundraised and produced her own work and she plans to publish her own novels and poetry, in response. Baiocchi cites jazz musician, Hale Smith; jazz singer, Betty Carter; and jazz pianist, Alan Swain as her most powerful influences. Baiocchi has faced many obstacles in completing her opera, set around writer/anthropologist, Zora Neale Hurston, and poet, Langston Hughes. Baiocchi accepts the complications of the music and publishing industries and find This tape contains photographs of Regina Baiocchi's family, friends and publicity shots.

56 Stories (See Ordered Story Set)