Precious Lives

Stories about kids, guns and how to stop the violence. Precious Lives, created by 371 Productions, is a 2-year, 100-part weekly radio series about gun violence and young people in the Milwaukee area. The series applies a public health lens to each story to help listeners understand the full scope of the problem: who are the victims and the shooters; how are the weapons obtained; and what can we change about the environment that contributes to violence in Milwaukee?

#074 Precious Lives: How Composer Kiran Vee Scores Personal Stories

WUWM 89.7 FM

Published June 14, 2016 at 10:51 AM CDT

Kiran Vee at Precious Lives: The Live Show rehearsal with Nicole Newson and Thomas Leonard.

On Wednesday, June 15, Precious Lives will host a live performance at the Pabst Theater.

KiranVee, also known as Q the Sun, composes the music for our radio series, and has also scored the upcoming live show.

Kiran says the cadence and tone of voice is what guides his process. "I always use Lisa Ettienne's story as an example when she's looking at the picture [of her son Marcus]... Just something in the way her voice sounded to me, I could relate to that on such a deep, emotional level. Because it felt like I was listening to my mom or my aunt," he says.

Precious Lives: The Live Show is a lot of things, Kiran says. "It's a show that includes poetry, storytelling and music in the form of hip hop."

"[The show] strikes something. You will think about your own mom or your brother or your sister. I think everyone is going to be leaving very reflective after the show, but also very connected too," Kiran adds.

If you'd like to see the live show, tickets can be purchased at the Pabst Theater's box office, by phone at 414-286-3663 and online. But hurry, only a very limited number of tickets are still available.