Art Works Podcast
755 episodes - English - Latest episode: 3 days ago - ★★★★★ - 29 ratingsThe National Endowment for the Arts podcast that goes behind the scenes with some of the nation’s great artists to explore how art works.
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Episodes
Leslie Sainz: A New Voice in Contemporary Poetry
April 23, 2024 09:00 - 39 minutes - 36.5 MBWe’re celebrating National Poetry Month with 2021 NEA Literature Fellow, poet Leslie Sainz who discusses her debut poetry collection, "Have You Been Long Enough at Table." Sainz reads from her collection and talks about its major themes including the ambiguity, displacement, and impact of cultural heritage as a daughter of Cuban immigrants. She discusses the variety of poetic forms used in her collection, allowing form to be guided by the emotional and thematic demands of her work....
Suzan-Lori Parks Shows Up!
April 16, 2024 09:00 - 38 minutes - 34.8 MBMacArthur Fellow and 2002 Pulitzer-Prize Winner in Drama for “Topdog/Underdog, ” Suzan-Lori Parks tells us about her current play ”Sally and Tom”* now having its NY premier at the Public Theater. It’s a play within a play about Sally Hemings and Thomas Jefferson and combines Parks’ love of American history and theater. We discuss the play's exploration of fraught subjects such as enslavement, sexual coercion, Black and white families living under the same roof under very different ...
Bassist and 2017 NEA Jazz Master Dave Holland talks about his life in jazz
April 09, 2024 09:00 - 28 minutes - 26.4 MBAs we’re gearing up for the 2024 NEA Jazz Masters’ tribute concert, we are revisiting my conversation with 2017 NEA Jazz Master Bassist Dave Holland. From his roots in the English working class to becoming an admired figure in the jazz world, Holland shares his musical journey, marked by a deep passion for the bass, a transformative stint with Miles Davis, and a dedication to the next generation of jazz musicians. Dave Holland discusses his initial attraction to music through the uk...
Harmonies of Heritage: The Willard Jenkins Odyssey in Jazz Advocacy
April 02, 2024 09:00 - 52 minutes - 48 MBWe’re taking a deep dive with Willard Jenkins into his life in jazz. Willard discusses his early exposure to jazz in Pittsburgh and Cleveland, crediting his parents' record collection for his initial fascination with the genre, and the profound impact local jazz scenes and radio had on his musical journey. Willard recounts his transformative college years at Kent State University, detailing how his love for jazz deepened, his early forays into jazz journalism, starting with writing ...
A Special Edition of Art Works: Talking across disciplines with the Chair of the NEA and the Director of the Census Bureau
March 26, 2024 09:00 - 32 minutes - 29.5 MBIn this special edition of Art Works, Chair of the National Endowment for the Arts Dr. Maria Rosario Jackson and U.S. Census Bureau Director Robert Santos have a far-ranging discussion that explores the intersection of arts, culture, and statistical science. Moderated by the NEA’s Director of Research and Analysis Sunil Iyengar, the two agency heads begin their conversation by mapping their journeys to the crossroads of arts and statistical science, both noting that these fields enh...
The Harmonic Convergence of Amina Claudine Myers
March 19, 2024 09:00 - 37 minutes - 34.2 MBIn this podcast, Amina Claudine Myers discusses her journey from the gospel choirs of Arkansas to becoming a 2024 NEA Jazz Master, highlighting her significant contributions to jazz, gospel, and blues. We discuss her early life in Blackwell, Arkansas, and Dallas, Texas, sharing stories of how family and church planted the seeds of her future in music and her transition from gospel music to discovering jazz and blues in college, detailing her growth as a musician and composer. She re...
Building Bridges Through Children's Literature
March 12, 2024 09:00 - 31 minutes - 28.7 MBCo-founder Kirsten Cappy introduces us to I'm Your Neighbor Books—which aims to build communities where immigrants are welcomed and feel a sense of belonging by sharing diverse immigration stories in children’s literature—and explains the collaborative roots of the organization among leaders from immigrant communities, authors, illustrators, educators, and librarians. She discusses the Welcoming Library project and how this traveling collection of children's books serves to introdu...
It's complicated: a conversation with author and 2020 NEA Literature Fellow Danielle Evans
March 05, 2024 10:00 - 30 minutes - 27.8 MB2020 NEA Literature Fellow Danielle Evans is author of two collections of stories Before You Suffocate Your Own Fool Self and The Office of Historical Corrections, published ten years apart and to great acclaim. Today, we’re revisiting my 2021 interview with Danielle. In this podcast, we explore her intricate narratives that weave through the themes of history, race, and grief. Danielle shares her approach to writing, the importance of allowing stories to develop organically, and h...
Meet Tap Dancer and National Heritage Fellow Reginald "Reggio the Hoofer" McLaughlin
February 27, 2024 10:00 - 36 minutes - 33.4 MBWe’re revisiting my conversation with the 2021 National Heritage Fellow, Reginald “Reggio The Hoofer” McLaughlin, a master tap dancer whose feet tell stories of tradition, perseverance, and cultural heritage. In this podcast, Reggio discusses his childhood love for tap dancing sparked at community centers in Chicago, his transition from a successful career as an R&B bassist to a full-time tap dancer (and how this musical foundation influenced his tap dancing career) and his experie...
Meet Saxophonist and NEA Jazz Master Gary Bartz
February 20, 2024 10:00 - 59 minutes - 54 MBIn this tuneful podcast, 2024 NEA Jazz Master Saxophonist Gary Bartz talks about his life and career, touching on his roots, influences, collaborations, and the philosophical underpinnings that have guided his artistic journey. Born in Baltimore in 1940, Gary's musical journey began in a segregated America, where he found music to be a universal language that could transcend societal barriers. He discusses his early encounters with music which were deeply influenced by his family's...
Celebrate Black History Month: Isabel Wilkerson discusses the Great Migration and American Culure
February 13, 2024 10:00 - 30 minutes - 28.2 MBIn honor of Black History month, we’re revisiting this 2011 conversation with author and 2015 National Humanities Medalist Isabel Wilkerson In this tuneful podcast, Wilkerson discusses her acclaimed book "The Warmth of Other Suns," exploring the profound impact of the Great Migration on American culture. This migration saw six million African Americans relocate from the rural South to the urban North from post-WWI through the 1960s, drastically transforming the country’s demograph...
Director/writer Cord Jefferson talks about "American Fiction"
February 06, 2024 10:00 - 31 minutes - 28.8 MBScreenwriter and Director Cord Jefferson discusses his critically acclaimed film, “American Fiction” which is a satirical exploration of popular culture’s often narrow and limiting representation of Black people. We catch up with director/writer Cord Jefferson whose film ”American Fiction” has been nominated for five academy awards (Best Picture, Best adapted screenplay (Jefferson), best actor (Jeffrey Wright), best supporting actor (Sterling K. Brown and best score (Laura Karp...
“From Heritage to Health:” Bringing the diverse cultures of everyday life to medical care.
January 30, 2024 10:00 - 27 minutes - 25.6 MBSteve Zeitlin, founder and executive director of City Lore, and Phyllis Zimmer, founder and president of the Nurse Practitioner Healthcare Foundation, discuss their joint project "From Heritage to Health" (H2H). Funded partly by the National Endowment for the Arts, this initiative aims to integrate storytelling and the arts into healthcare, particularly for a culturally diverse population. Zeitlin and Zimmer talk about the various components of the program: learner-needs assessmen...
Meet American Routes creator and host Nick Spitzer
January 23, 2024 10:00 - 38 minutes - 35.6 MBIn this podcast, folklife presenter, educator, host and producer of “American Routes,, and 2023 National Heritage Fellow Nick Spitzer discusses his multifaceted career, his upbringing, and his understanding of cultural innovation in America. We talk about his life-long passion for radio and his discovery and embrace of American vernacular culture, his career as folklorist in academia, government, and media, including his NPR and Smithsonian collaborations and “American Routes”, Spi...
Celebrating 1984 NEA Jazz Master Max Roach’s Centenary
January 16, 2024 10:00 - 35 minutes - 32.5 MBIn today’s podcast, filmmakers Sam Pollard and Ben Shapiro discuss their film “Max Roach: The Drum Also Waltzes.” In our conversation, they place Max Roach within the context of American culture, emphasizing his legendary status as a drummer, a composer, and a significant figure in Black consciousness and activism. Sam Pollard shares his 40 year journey in making this documentary, while Ben Shapiro talks about his own connection to Roach reaching back to a radio documentary. Th...
Paula Abreu discusses her comprehensive approach to cultural curation at the McCarter Theatre Center
January 09, 2024 10:00 - 31 minutes - 28.7 MBA conversation with Director of Presented Programming at the McCarter Theatre Center Paula Abreu halfway through her first season on the job! Abreu took over from her predecessor Bill Lockwood who ran the program for 60 (yes, 60) years. We discuss the balance between honoring his legacy and introducing her own vision, some history about the McCarter Theatre Center, its connection to Princeton University, and its unique role as a cultural powerhouse. (The McCarter Theater Center is ...
Exploring the New Horizons of the Folger Shakespeare Theatre with Karen Ann Daniels
December 19, 2023 10:00 - 30 minutes - 27.8 MBKaren Ann Daniels explores her dual roles at the Folger Shakespeare Library as the Director of Programming and Artistic Director at the Folger Theatre, and her innovative approach to programming and audience engagement in the evolving landscape of theater post-pandemic. Daniels discusses her arrival at the Folger during a period of significant change, including the pandemic, racial reckoning, and major renovations, and how these challenges presented unique opportunities for outreac...
Brandon Victor Dixon--talks about performing in Alicia Keys's "Hells Kitchen"
December 12, 2023 10:00 - 29 minutes - 27.3 MBA conversation with singer, actor, and producer Brandon Victor Dixon. We talk about his role in Alicia Keys’s play “Hell’s Kitchen” currently at the Public Theater, collaborating with Keys and the other performers in the play, what goes into creating a role in theater, his stepping into the role of Burr in “Hamilton” and the challenges that brought, and playing Judas in “Jesus Christ Superstar” in a live television performance. We also discuss his upcoming benefit concert for the C...
Filmmaker Irene Taylor Brodsky--Deafness in Three Movements
December 05, 2023 10:00 - 32 minutes - 29.5 MBIn this 2019 podcast, filmmaker Irene Taylor Brodsky discusses her project "Moonlight Sonata: Deafness in Three Movements," and her commitment to making films accessible to differently-abled audiences. We talk about her first feature documentary, "Hear and Now," which won the Audience Award at Sundance in 2007 and explored her deaf parents’ experiences when they were 65 with cochlear implants and its relationship to her film “Moonlight Sonata," which was partly inspired by her dea...
Revisiting Director and Playwright Randy Reinholz(Choctaw)--
November 28, 2023 10:00 - 29 minutes - 27.3 MBWe’re marking the end of Indigenous Peoples Month by revisiting my 2018 interview with Randy Reinholz (Choctaw), the producing artistic director and Founder of Native Voices at the Autry a Los Angeles theater company that produces new work by Indigenous playwrights. For almost 30 years, Native Voices at the Autry has been providing opportunities and support to Native American playwrights…and by extension Native actors, designers, musicians and other theater artists. It is the coun...
“Where there’s flavor, there’s history:” A Look at New Orleans food Culture with Zella Palmer
November 21, 2023 10:00 - 31 minutes - 28.8 MBDr. Zella Palmer is a professor, food historian, author and filmmaker and serves as the Chair and Director of the Dillard University Ray Charles Program in African American Material Culture in New Orleans, Louisiana. In this podcast, she discusses the Ray Charles program, the importance of material culture, especially to African Americans and other historically marginalized groups, her commitment to preserving the legacy of African-American and Native American culinary history i...
Author Cynthia Leitich Smith (Muscogee) champions Native Voices
November 14, 2023 10:00 - 40 minutes - 36.9 MBToday, we are celebrating Indigenous Peoples Month with an interview with author Cynthia Leitich Smith. A member of the Muscogee (Creek) nation, Smith is a bestselling, award-winning children’s-YA writer and the author-curator of the Native-centered Heartdrum imprint at HarperCollins Children’s Books. She also is the 2024 Southern Mississippi Medallion Winner and the 2021 NSK Neustadt Laureate and is widely recognized for her fiction for young readers that centers on contemporary ...
Marking Veterans Day: Revisiting Sebastian Junger
November 07, 2023 20:00 - 31 minutes - 28.5 MBTo mark Veteran’s Day, we’re revisiting our2017 interview with author Sebastian Junger a journalist deeply engaged with war and the people who fight in them. As a contributing editor for Vanity Fair, he’s covered international stories including the war in Afghanistan, a region and subject he’s returned to over the course of his career. In this podcast, Sebastian Junger discusses his book Tribe: On Homecoming and Belonging which explores the complexities soldiers can find when they ...
Novelist Isabel Cañas delivers gothic horror with a twist
October 31, 2023 09:00 - 39 minutes - 35.9 MBWe're marking Halloween and Dia De Los Muertos with a conversation with Mexican American author Isabel Cañas. She employs gothic frameworks and tropes with historical detail in her novels—a combination as terrifying as it is informative. In this podcast, we discuss her books The Hacienda which is frightening haunted house mystery set in Mexico soon after its War of Independence and Vampires of El Norte set in northern Mexico (now south Texas) during the Mexican American war. Cañas d...
James LeBrecht and Day Al-Mohamed work to create a space in media for stories by, for and about people with disabilities.
October 24, 2023 09:00 - 37 minutes - 34 MBWe’re marking National Disability Employment Awareness Month with a conversation with James LeBrecht and Day Al-Mohamed—two founding members of FWD-Doc-- a global, intersectional community of disabled creators and allies working in media to build a more inclusive, accessible, and equitable entertainment industry that cultivates and champions disabled media-makers, and elevates stories by, for, and about people with disabilities. James LeBrecht is a film and theater sound designer ...
Behind the Scenes with Actors Sylvia Kwan and Jacob Yeh
October 17, 2023 09:00 - 37 minutes - 34.4 MBIn this podcast, actors Sylvia Kwan and Jacob Yeh discuss their many roles in Lauren Yee's play The King of the Yees--a semi-autobiographical comedy about community, culture and the connection between fathers and daughters—now playing at Arlington, Virginia’s Signature Theatre. It is funny and wildly imaginative— with Act II centered on a fabulous quest through San Fransisco's Chinatown. Kwan and Yeh discuss the challenges and fun in playing multiple characters in the play, the intr...
Celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month with Luthier Manuel Delgado
October 10, 2023 09:00 - 29 minutes - 27.4 MBWe close out Hispanic Heritage Month with Manuel Delgado—a luthier who carries on a multi-generational family legacy of hand-crafting string instruments—a history that goes back to 1928. In this podcast, Delgado talks about his family’s tradition of instrument-making and working closely as a boy with his father and grandfather in their shop in East LA. He discusses the craftsmanship that goes into the making the instruments in the Delgado Style with an emphasis on "old-world luthie...
Celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month with Flamenco Artist and Teacher Eva Enciñias
October 03, 2023 09:00 - 43 minutes - 40.3 MBFlamenco Artist and 2022 National Heritage Fellow Eva Enciñias has transformed and broadened the performance and study of flamenco in the United States generally and in her hometown of Albuquerque, N.M. particularly.In this podcast, Eva Enciñias talks about the artistry and history of flamenco and her family’s roots in this art form; her dual loves: flamenco and teaching, her 43 year-long career as a teacher in the dance department at the University of New Mexico where she created...
Celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month with Tejano Musician "Little Joe" Hernandez and La Familia
September 26, 2023 20:00 - 37 minutes - 34.1 MBIn this podcast, 2023 National Heritage Fellow “Little Joe” Hernández describes his musical journey, explaining how his culture, family, and personal experiences shaped his legendary style. Coming from a musical family, he took the traditional Mexican songs he grew up hearing and blended them with jazz, country, rock 'n roll, and blues to create a distinctive voice in Tejano music. He discusses his transition from a shy boy to the front Hispanic Hisman of Little Joe and the Latinair...
Conversations with Wood: The Art of Luis Tapia
September 19, 2023 09:00 - 41 minutes - 37.8 MBSculptor and 2023 National Heritage Fellow Luis Tapia has helped to revitalize and transform the art of the santero (a person who makes religious imagery), a Hispanic tradition practiced in New Mexico and southern Colorado that goes back over 400 years. In this podcast, Tapia discusses his artistic journey. He began by reproducing traditional Santos (carved and painted statues of saints). But the Chicano movement, which revolved around farm workers' rights, was significant in his ar...
Meet Two People Who Make Performing Art Happen
September 12, 2023 09:00 - 42 minutes - 38.7 MBIt’s a two-part podcast looking at one topic: exploring ways arts are being encouraged in communities. First up, philanthropist Adrienne Arsht. Arsht discusses her long-term support for the arts-- at The Kennedy Center, at Lincoln Center, at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and reflecting upon her decision to make a sizable donation to sustain the performing arts center in Miami ---now the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts in Miami-Dade County which had been about close...
Is Storytelling a key to better public Health?
September 05, 2023 09:00 - 34 minutes - 31.5 MBA conversation with Dr. David Fakunle who uses the art of storytelling to promote public health by listening, understanding, and addressing the personal, social, and structural factors that contribute to health disparities. He powerfully combines science with art and is transforming discussions about the role of storytelling in healing. Dr. Fakunle shares his personal story of growing up in a family deeply rooted in the arts, especially music and storytelling. His childhood was mar...
The Kinetic Sculpture Race: Art in Motion
August 29, 2023 09:00 - 27 minutes - 25.6 MBWe are revisiting one of my favorite interviews—a 2013 conversation with Kati Texas about the Kinetic Sculpture Race. The Kinetic Grand Champion Race is a one-of-a-kind, multi-day event that combines engineering, art, athleticism, and a strong sense of fun. It involves teams competing with human-powered, artistically-themed contraptions that are engineered to race over land, mud, sand, and water terrains. Originating in 1969, this quirky competition has grown to become a significan...
In the Beginning: the Late Stan Lee Gave Us the Marvel Superheroes
August 22, 2023 09:00 - 30 minutes - 27.8 MBIn this visit to our archives, we dive deep into the mind of the legendary late Stan Lee, the maestro behind Marvel Comics' most iconic characters. From the origins of Spider-Man's creation, inspired by a simple insect on a wall, to the inception of the Fantastic Four, Stan Lee recounts his journey of transforming the world of comics. He delves into the realism he injected into his characters, from Peter Parker's New York residence to the X-Men's mutant origins. While discussing his...
Back to School: Teaching artist Emmett Phillips creates dynamic arts education programming through hip-hop.
August 15, 2023 09:00 - 36 minutes - 33.7 MBEmmett Phillips is a hip-hop artist, actor, poet, and teaching artist based in Des Moines, Iowa. In this podcast, Emmett shares his journey from his early days in hip-hop through his time in the military to becoming a teaching artist who empowers youth through the arts, specifically hip-hop. Emmett discusses hip-hop as a cultural movement that uplifts people, amplifies the voices of the oppressed, and expresses ideas and values with creativity and style. He talks about his personal...
It's Back to School--Let's talk about Arts Education
August 08, 2023 09:00 - 31 minutes - 28.6 MBAs we’re gearing up for “back to school”, it seemed like a good time to revisit my interview with Dr. Lisa Donovan about her work at the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts (MCLA) to increase access to arts education equitably in Berkshire County, Massachusetts. The college collaborates with numerous arts organizations, educators, business leaders, and social workers through a network funded by four collective impact grants from the National Endowment for the Arts. Dr. Donovan di...
Meet Artist Elizabeth James-Perry (Wampanoag, Aquinnah)
August 01, 2023 09:00 - 42 minutes - 39.1 MBWampum & Fiber Artist and 2023 National Heritage Fellow Elizabeth James-Perry (Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head, Aquinnah) is a brilliant artist, marine biologist, and advocate for cultural preservation, Native lifeways, and environmental stewardship. In this podcast, Elizabeth talks about the intersection of art and science and explains how these two passions inform her work. She discusses the vital role of the Atlantic Ocean in the Northeast and its significance to tribal communities,...
Phil Wiggins--a Life Playing the Blues
July 25, 2023 09:00 - 32 minutes - 29.7 MBThis week, we’re revisiting 2017 National Heritage Fellow Phil Wiggins, a true master of the blues harmonica. In this music-filled podcast, Phil discusses the significance of Piedmont blues, the art of blues harmonica, and his own commitment to preserving and passing down the blues heritage to future generations. He recounts how his passion for the instrument grew, meeting legendary guitarist and 1989 National Heritage Fellow John Cephas and partnering with him to become the iconic...
Author and Disability Advocate Rebekah Taussig Discusses Her Memoir "Sitting Pretty."
July 18, 2023 09:00 - 34 minutes - 31.3 MBTo mark Disability Pride month, we’re revisiting one of my favorite interviews: a 2020 conversation with Rebekah Taussig who discusses her memoir in essays (and current NEA Big Read title) Sitting Pretty: The View from My Ordinary Resilient Disabled Body. Rebekah, who has a Ph.D in Disability Studies and Creative Nonfiction, shares personal experiences that inform her book and shed light on the intersection of disability and identity, the daily obstacles and societal misconceptions...
Meet a force in Contemporary Music: Gil Rose
July 11, 2023 09:00 - 39 minutes - 36.2 MBGil Rose is a conductor and the founder and artistic director of the performing and recording ensemble the Boston Modern Orchestra Project (BMOP), which is dedicated exclusively to commissioning, performing, and recording music of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, and Odyssey Opera which is dedicated to performing lesser-known older operas as well as contemporary new works. Rose is also the founder of BMOP/Sound, BMOP’s independent record label, which was created in 2008...
A Conversation about the Singing Sergeants
July 04, 2023 09:00 - 21 minutes - 20.1 MBWe’re celebrating July 4 by revisiting our 2015 podcast with former Singing Sergeant and current Director of Music and Opera at the National Endowment for the Arts Ann Meier Baker. In this podcast, Meier Baker talks about the professional bands and ensembles associated with each branch of the military and her decision to audition for and then join the Singing Sergeants—which meant going through boot camp. That was the hard part. She then relates her experiences over the four year...
A Conversation with 2023 NEA Jazz Master Saxophonist Kenny Garrett
June 27, 2023 09:00 - 34 minutes - 32 MB023 NEA Jazz Master Kenny Garrett is a saxophonist, composer, and bandleader. He sees himself as a “preacher” on his saxophone—searching for that “one note that would touch people.” In this music-filled podcast, Garrett talks about his musical beginnings in Detroit, move to NYC, and time with the Duke Ellington Band, Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers, and Miles Davis, and the different lessons he learned from all of them. He discusses finding his musical voice, his role as a band ...
Historian and National Book Award-winner Tiya Miles Meets the Moment
June 20, 2023 09:00 - 35 minutes - 32.6 MBTiya Miles is best known as a historian and the author of the National Book Award winner All That She Carried: The Journey of Ashley’s Sack, A Black Family Keepsake. But Tiya had preceded All That She Carried with a novel The Cherokee Rose, published in 2015, which she has revised and has just been reissued with a new introduction. The novel moves from contemporary Georgia to the early 1800s and back again, as it explores the intertwined and sometime painful histories of indigenous...
Poet Jericho Brown Discusses his 2020 Pulitzer Prize-winner "The Tradition"
June 13, 2023 09:00 - 42 minutes - 38.5 MBToday, we’re celebrating Pride month by revisiting my 2021 conversation with poet, 2011 NEA Literature Fellow, and 2020 Pulitzer Prize-winner Jericho Brown. In this poetry-filled podcast, Brown walks us through his writing of his prize-winning collection The Tradition in particular and poetry in general. He reads a number of poems and discusses his creative process, his exploration of the themes of love, race, sexuality, violence, and spirituality in his work, explains the new poet...
Nicole Chung writes of family and loss with a focus on broader societal failures.
June 06, 2023 09:00 - 33 minutes - 30.7 MBNicole Chung has written two memoirs in five years—both about loss and family. The first is the highly acclaimed All You Can Ever Know which was a finalist for National Book Critics Circle Award. It explores the circumstances of her adoption as a Korean American by a white family who were advised take a colorblind approach to parenting, the implications of that decision for Chung, her successful search as an adult to find her birth family, and the loving support of her adoptive ...
Meet Asian American Choreographer Dana Tai Soon Burgess
May 30, 2023 09:00 - 28 minutes - 26.1 MBToday we’re closing our celebration of Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander Heritage Month by re-visiting our 2017 conversation with the acclaimed Washington DC-based dancer and choreographer Dana Tai Soon Burgess. Burgess and I spoke as his dance company was marking its 25th anniversary; so, the podcast is a retrospective of his philosophy and vision as a pioneering Asian American choreographer as well as a look at his first quarter century creating and leading th...
Veterans and the Arts
May 23, 2023 09:00 - 30 minutes - 28.2 MBThis is a two-part podcast: we begin with Christine Bial, the Director of Arts and Humanities Grants at Mid-America Arts Alliance which is a partner with National Endowment for the Arts in the Creative Forces Community Engagement Grant Program. She gives an overview of the program, its goals, scope, and examples of some of the programming. She also shares what was learned in the program’s first year. Then we hear from a grantee: Stephanie Shine is the supervisor and Lauren Gunn is t...
Filmmaker Jason Rhee creates a documentary about EJ Lee "the Korean Magic Johnson of NCAA women's basketball."
May 16, 2023 12:00 - 31 minutes - 29 MBJason Rhee is an emerging documentary filmmaker who is editing his first film: EJ Lee: All-American . Eun Jung Lee, known as EJ, was a college basketball star in the 1980s, nicknamed "the Korean Magic Johnson of NCAA women's basketball." She went on to work at her alma mater, University of Louisiana Monroe (ULM) as an assistant coach and recruiter for over twenty years. In 2022, at the age of sixty, after years of rejections, she finally was named head coach of a college basketball...
A Conversation with Amy Tan
May 09, 2023 20:00 - 28 minutes - 26 MBIn light of Amy Tan’s recent National Humanities Medal, Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, and Mother’s Day fast approaching, it seems like a fitting time to re-air my 2010 conversation with the author. In this podcast, Amy Tan explores her life and work, particularly her novel and early NEA Big Read selection "The Joy Luck Club." Tan discusses her upbringing, her relationship with her mother, growing up in a Chinese-American household and the cul...
Meg Medina is the first Latina to serve as the Library of Congress’s National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature
May 02, 2023 09:00 - 36 minutes - 33.2 MBIn this episode, we speak with Meg Medina, a Newbery award-winning author and the current Library of Congress National Ambassador for Young People's Literature. Meg has written numerous books for kids and young adults, including "Yaqui Delgado Wants to Kick Your Ass," “Burn, Baby, Burn” and the Merci Suárez triology which she just concluded. In this interview, Meg talks about growing up in the multi-cultural hotbed of Queens, NY as the first child born in North America to Cuban p...