F. Caperton Morton
Executive Producer
Writer/Host/Storyteller
Bio
F. Caperton Morton, an award-winning audio documentarian and storyteller, is the producer, writer, and host of Sweet Stories in the Dell, a podcast produced in collaboration with Sweet Briar College, a women's college located in Virginia. The final two episodes examine the legacy of the "invisible founders" of the college from the Sweetbrier Planation's enslaved community and the last episode examines the influence of Ralph Adams Cram, a well regarded architect, whose designs for the Sweet Briar campus were heavily influenced by Beaux Arts movement.
Caperton graduated from Sweet Briar College with a BA in English and Creative Writing. She also received her Continuing Education Certificate of Documentary Arts in 2016 at the Center for Documentary Studies (CDS) at Duke University. There, she studied with John Biewen, audio program director at the CDS, and Phoebe Judge, co-creator of the podcast Criminal. Caperton won awards at the 2017 Telling Tales International Film & Audio Documentary Festival in Manchester, England: Best International Student Audio Award - An Artist's Journey: To Cameroon and Back. and 2018 Telling Tales International Film & Audio Documentary Festival: Best International Student Audio Award, Portrait of an American Shepherd. (I wasn’t technically a student, but that’s the category where the festival director placed my piece since I produced while under the mentorship of Barry Lam, executive producer of the podcast Hi-Phi Nation.)
Caperton is currently producing stories for Unfolding a Story, the podcast she will launch in the near future. It’s about the passions people have for one thing or another. Production of the upcoming episodes has taken her to Grand Bahama where a particular artist has gathered other artists to draw attention to the affects Hurricane Dorian had on the island and how global warming affects it too.
Caperton also went to Nepal while working on a story about a young woman, a 2023 Sweet Briar graduate, who grew up in a begger camp in Kathmandu. She connected with the founder of Quilts for Kids Nepal, a non-profit organization that helps provide education for the girls of her community, and together with her passion for education she found the freedom to chart her own course to her future.
Work Experience
Producer, Writer, Host of Sweet Stories in the Dell podcast
December, 2019 - September, 2021
After the near closure of my alma mater, Sweet Briar College, I became diligent about making monetary donations, but I wanted to do more. So, I pitched a podcast to the College, using my audio production and storytelling skills. I'd tell stories of the college's people and its history that explain how outstanding an educational institution for women it truly is. My proposal was accepted and I told these stories through a collaboration with the College. Now I've completed the Sweet Stories in the Dell podcast after an amazing year and a half of firsts for me, the College, and the world, in regard to making our way through a pandemic via Zoom calls.
Independent Audio/Slideshow Producer
May, 2017 - September, 2017
I had told a friend, Camille Berry about a job idea I had where I would create audio slideshows for individuals and/or businesses to add to their celebration festivities, and I was looking for a test project. Later, this friend, Camille Berry of Community Home Trust in Chapel Hill, NC contacted me to ask if I would create an audio-slideshow for the 20th Anniversary of her boss, Robert Dowling. I said that I would and created a fabulous production that surprised Robert and the whole attendees of the annual fundraising banquet. I decided against creating this audio slideshow business, but that only piece I produced is really, really good. I've included the link to the Slideshow.
KCUR, Up to Date – Kansas City, Missouri
Intern, January, 2016 - May, 2016
While a student, I took a bit of a leap and sent an audio story, which I produced about a local coffee shop owner, to KCUR and ended up talking with the station director. She liked the story, but thought I would benefit from an internship with the station. (She was right! My technical skills needed a bit more polishing.) I applied and was accepted to work with Up to Date, a daily, talk program about global and local current matters affecting Kansas City, Missouri and the listening area.
Along with providing support to my supervising producer, I wrote daily program announcements; wrote and created program posts for website; pulled music and other audio for program support; wrote query letters to possible guests; scheduled guests; researched and pitched program topics; created and produced program; greeted and sat guests; gave on-air instructions before program; assisted with and ran the production booth during the program, answering calls.
I was also asked to find someone to interview connected to an outdoor food festival for KCUR sister program, Central Standard. I found Nella through the St. Dionysios Greek Festival. I arranged for Nella to teach me how to make a festival favorite - dolmades, or stuffed grape leaves. Not only did I get a fantastic interview, I truly learned how to make dolmades. (I've made them a couple times since.) I also heard Nella's amazing immigrant story from Greece - a leap she made with her sister, speaking no English, but learning and educating her self along the way. I produced and edited a five-minute special feature for a segment about eating al fresco.
My time at KCUR was priceless. Producing the "Nella's Story" helped me realize that storytelling was my path forward in the world of audio production. So, after my internship ended, I jumped back into the final leg of my studies at the Center for Documentary Studies and graduated in December of 2016.
Aliénor, International Harpsichord Organization – Durham, NC
Part-time Adminstrative Assistant, September 2009 - June 2013
I had the great fortune of running into my old friend, world renown harpsichordist Elaine Funaro, at a art exhibit. I told her I was looking for a job and she told me she was the artistic director of Aliénor, an international harpsichord organization and that she was actually looking for an assistant. Years earlier, I had been her righthand VP during her presidency of the PTA at our children's school, so she knew I would help make life easier for her.
So, I provided administrative support to her as artistic director of Aliénor. I helped schedule concert events, worked concerts, deposited donations, managed Excel spreadsheets, generated mass mailings, performed clerical work, assisted in grant writing, wrote/edited press kits, and created photographic documentation.
While working in Elaine's home office, I loved soaking up all the music that wafted upstairs from the music room where she spent hours practicing. Other times I heard music from the living room where her husband, Randall Love pianist and associate professor of music at Duke University, practiced or taught piano lessons. Those were special years for me.
City of Lynchburg, Community Planning and Development – Lynchburg, VA
Planning Technician, October 1991 - December 1993
I enjoyed applying my graphic design background to the world of city government. I created technical maps and presentation materials for City Council meetings, researched property boundaries, assisted with the transfer of tax assessor maps to GIS mapping system, and assisted in historical preservation planning projects.
I loved this job too. I thoroughly enjoyed learning about the inner workings of city planning and development. I would often accompany the historic preservation planner on site visits and just loved how the homes and buildings in historic districts came back to life after years of disinterest. I loved creating the initial, hand-drawn/hand-colored study maps for the Downtown and Riverfront District. I will always remember how my new love of maps entered my dreams and how the incredible people I worked with entered my heart.
Fauquier Democrat/Piedmont Press, Arundel Communications, Inc. – Warrenton, VA
Layout/Design Artist, November 1987 - March 1989
I was fortunate to pair my limited graphic arts schooling and innate creativity with the on-the-job training for the physical laying-out of a weekly newspaper. I waxed and trimmed copy and advertisements, placing them on designated locations on layout sheets. I learned to count type so I could work part-time with the in-house printing company. After transitioning to full-time graphic artist with the printing company, I enjoyed working with customers to create camera-ready artwork and design a variety of printed materials. I was also trained on the new, Adobe computer graphic programs.
Education
Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University – Durham, NC
Certificate of Documentary Arts
June, 2013 - December, 2016
When my son was a sophomore in college he said, "Mom, you've been a great mother, but now it's time for you to figure out what you want to do and then do it." To date, that's the best advice I've ever received. Within a few years, I had a related epiphany while attending the Paul Kwilecki photography exhibit at the Center for Documentary Studies. As I studied each photograph, I began thinking about my own photography projects and determined that they, too, were documenting photos. That day I decided that I would apply to the Continuing Ed Certificate Program to learn how to become a bona fide documentarian.
By the time I took the first class, Intro into Doc Studies, I had decided to pursue a documentary film path. I figured that taking audio production class would be wise, but because it didn't appeal at all to me, I decided to take it first to get it out of the way. Well, my first audio production class was co-taught by Phoebe Judge, co-creator of the podcasts Criminal and This Is Love. Within days, Phoebe's audio production passion had sparked and set fire to my own.
My graduation piece, An Artist's Journey: To Cameroon and Back is about Durham Artist Anne Heart Gregory. Anne travels to Cameroon, Africa to create collaborative art, working with a collection of archival photographs. She designs an audio-visual art project and brings it to life with a group of young women who have been orphaned due to AIDS. After returning home, Anne realizes she’s inspired to continue on the project, but in an unexpected way.
Lynchburg College – Lynchburg, VA
Art History and Graphic Design, August - December 1990
Central Virginia Community College – Lynchburg, VA
Graphic Design I & II and Into to Ceramics, September 1985 - May 1986
Sweet Briar College – Sweet Briar, VA
B.A. in English and Creative Writing with Education Certificate (Grades 4 - 7),
September 1981 - May 1985
I first attended Sweet Briar out of family devotion. My grandmother rode her horse from the family farm, just a couple miles away, to what was then called, Sweet Briar Institute, founded in 1901 and opened in 1906. My grandmother's younger brother, my great uncle, would ride his horse to town and greet the young woman he met each day, who rode from town to Sweet Briar to attend classes. She would give him a simple nod with a sideway glance. She, with her parents, had immigrated from Switzerland. After about a year of these passings, my uncle visited her parents to ask if he could visit with them after church. Eventually they married and, eventually, she became the Sweet Briar College professor of sociology. It didn't take Great Aunt Bertha long after my birth to begin my Sweet
Briar indoctrination..
Though I attended Sweet Briar, I actually chose Sweet Briar for myself during my sophomore year. I had been contemplating transferring to another college, but decided walk down to the campus's Lower Lake to think about all that transferring meant. On the way, the rutted, red clay tractor path by the Upper Lake, grasped my attention, so I veered off my charted course. I followed the tractor path, pausing when it entered a forest. While deciding whether to move forward or turn back, I felt a tug of curiosity pulling me forward to make some kind of discovery. As I entered the forest, I got that same dizzying feeling I'd always gotten while exploring places new to me. It wasn't along before I got to the trail's end - where a field of baby corn sprouted in front of a small mountain, Paul's Mountain. I stood there, soaking up the beauty of this rural land. I thought of all the connections my family has had with the college and decided how staying was the best for me. This choice laid the foundation of my life's meaningful twists and turns.
My liberal arts foundation formed at Sweet Briar College enabled me to become the engineer of my own career path fueled by my creative passions. To this day, I remain grateful for having chosen wisely that day. Along with the treasured academic moments with outstanding faculty, I made lifelong friendships during those four years.
Then, in 2015, the administration announced the closure of the College. Disbelief and sadness struck the alumnae, including me. We all awoke after having been lulled asleep by our trust in the powers that were. A group of concerned alumnae, friends of the College formed Saving Sweet Briar, Inc, which fought the closure in court and won, along with raising millions of dollars - enough to take back the keys to the College. From those grassroots efforts, which I helped support, I befriended many Sweet Briar Alumna from several webs of connections via Face Book. (I am working towards meeting as many of my SBC FB friends as possible, in person.) I also enjoyed helping keep the SBC Class of 1985 informed as Class Secretary for several years, along with aiding SBC Admissions by representing the College at local college fairs.
From this love for Sweet Briar, came my desire to give back, more than financially. I proposed a podcast that was accepted and the Sweet Stories in the Dell podcast was created, which I wrote, produced, and hosted.