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Playlist: O'Dark 30 episode 71 (2-19)

Compiled By: KUT

Caption: PRX default Playlist image

KUT's O’Dark 30 helps you prepare your taxes with the best from the world of independent radio production. Every Sunday at midnight on Austin's KUT 90.5 and also at 4pm on digital KUT2 we present 3 hours of a little bit of everything from the world of independent radio production.

Episode 71 (2-19) includes this here darling #1...Walt Whitman: Song of Myself...The Wind-Energy for Sustainability...Fresh Greens 2.0...At the Humana Festival, The Playwright's the Thing...Eye Contact...KUT's Portrait of an Artist: Berndt Mader...RN Documentary: Verbal Fireworks...Taco Land

Walt Whitman: Song of Myself

From WNYC | 58:58

WNYC presents "Walt Whitman: Song of Myself." Hour hosted by Carl Hancock Rux, the program peels back Walt Whitman's "Leaves of Grass" and we discover that this groundbreaking work was the product of a man so far ahead of his time that we are just now able to fully appreciate his work.

Whitmanimageversions One hundred and fifty years have passed since Walt Whitman first published Leaves of Grass, a collection of twelve poems that irrevocably altered the development of poetry and literature. His magnum opus shattered existing notions of poetry, breaking all existing conventions in terms of subject matter, language, and style. Leaves of Grass opened the door not only for poets, but writers, artists, musicians, and thinkers to break down barriers in their own work; despite never reaching a mass audience during the artist's lifetime, its tremendous impact is being felt a century and a half later. Today, we are still trying to understand who Whitman was, what he was saying, and what he was styling himself to be. Hosted by Carl Hancock Rux, "Walt Whitman: Song of Myself" explores how a 36-year old freelance journalist and part-time house-builder living in Brooklyn created his outrageous, groundbreaking work. We join Whitman on a walk through the urban streets, imagining the sights, sounds and music, from Stephen Foster to Italian opera, that profoundly affected him and indelibly shaped his poetry. The city transformed Whitman, and Whitman in turn transformed the wild diversity and intensity of the city into a radical, passionate vision for America. In his poetry, he refused to be censored: he celebrated the body and sexuality; he embraced the invisible and the disenfranchised, from women to slaves to prostitutes. His hopes to heal the country of its deep political divisions through his poetry were dashed by the Civil War, but his work lives on as a vital life-affirming force. In this hour-long special, Rux speaks with writers, poets, musicians, and scholars who tell the story of this extraordinary, self-styled celebrity. Guests include writers Michael Cunningham and Phillip Lopate; poets Martin Espada, hailed by some as a contemporary Whitman, and Ishle Yi Park, Queens poet laureate; composers John Adams and Ned Rorem; choreographer Bill T. Jones; Whitman scholars Karen Karbiener and David Reynolds; and many, many others. Actors including Jeffrey Wright and Paul Giammatti share readings of Whitman's poetry, which, one hundred and fifty years on, still astonishes.

The Wind - Energy for Sustainability

From The humble Farmer | :53

Do you know why people oppose wind power?

Humbleoats_small You don't need to start a profitable war to gain control of the wind.

Fresh Greens 2.0

From New Hampshire Public Radio | 51:26

NHPR teams up with Generation PRX and the Terrascope Youth Radio group at MIT for another one-hour youth special. "Fresh Greens 2.0" examines what it means to be "green." Youth radio producers from around the country reflect on their observations and seek out programs and efforts designed to have a positive impact on the environment.

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NHPR has once again teamed up with Generation PRX and the Terrascope Youth Radio group at MIT to produce a new youth special.  Fresh Greens 2.0 examines what it means to be "green." Youth radio producers from around the country reflect on their observations as they seek out programs and efforts designed to have a positive impact on the environment. 

This project invited youth radio groups to submit pieces for inclusion in our one-hour special and they submitted a number of interesting, thoughtful and well produced pieces for inclusion in the show.  The show features pieces produced by Terrascope Youth Radio in Cambridge, Blunt Youth Radio in Portland, ME, Youth Media Project in Santa Fe, WHJE Radio in Indiana, Weekday High in Seattle and Urban Sprouts in San Francisco. 

The pieces explore everything from the affect of a vegetarian diet on the environment to the difference between artificial turf and natural grass.  At risk teens in San Francisco rhyme and rap about community gardening and kids in Bellingham, Washington learn how to compost. The show is narrated and produced by students from the Terrascope Youth Radio project.

At the Humana Festival, the Playwright's the Thing

From Graham Shelby | 03:10

The Humana Festival of New American plays is to theatre what Sundance is to film or SXSW is to music. For 35 years, the festival has focused on giving playwrights their due.

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When you go to the theatre to see a production of a classic, think Shakespeare or even A Christmas Carol, your focus is probably on the actors. Or the director. Or the costumes and set design.

That’s because those stories are well known and part of the reason people see familiar plays is to see how an old story is being retold.  But that’s not how it works at the Humana Festival of New American Plays.

The 35th edition of the festival is happening at Actors Theatre of Louisville, Kentucky.  As WFPL's Graham Shelby reports, at the Humana Festival, all the stories and characters are new, and the focus is on the playwrights.

Eye Contact

From The Truth | 03:31

the fear of being the follower

Playing
Eye Contact
From
The Truth

Subway2_small Produced for Weekend America, first broadcast on June 25, 2005

"More than a reflection of the inner monologue of strangers on a subway, Jonathan Mitchell’s piece Eye Contact, originally made in 2005 for Weekend America, explores the anxieties of coincidence and all the fears and awkwardness that can surround interactions in public spaces. Using improvising actors to represent multiple narrators, the piece is woven through with the anxiety of uncanny parallels fueling these uncomfortable, albeit everyday, scenarios." - Kyla Imberg, The [Un]observed


 

RN Documentary: Verbal Fireworks

From Radio Netherlands Worldwide | Part of the RN Documentaries series | 27:30

A profile of Alix Olson - award winning spoken word performance artist/activist considered by some “one of the ten most dangerous women in America.”

10881733_small Alix Olson has been called a “spoken word diva,” a “road poet on a mission” and a “word warrior.” She calls her voice her “weapon of choice” and her powerful work contains equal doses of humor, anger and compassion. A champion slam poet, Olson introduced the new urban literary genre to Europe at Rotterdam’s Poetry International. As an activist, she’s been honored for her exceptional commitment to social justice in Washington D.C. But at the same time, a conservative women’s organization put her on their list of Ten Most Dangerous Women in America.

Taco Land

From Big Shed Audio | Part of the Place + Memory series | 08:24

San Antonio is home to underground music mecca--an understated cinderblock shrine on the banks of the San Antonio river--Taco Land.

Playing
Taco Land
From
Big Shed Audio

Ramportrait-eriksanden-squarish_small Over a span of 25 years, an unassuming beer joint in San Antontio became a fabled house of unground musical magic.  National acts like Yo La Tengo and the Minutemen played there.  The Dead Milkmen wrote a song about it.  And almost every other night, it nurtured a thriving punk and underground music scene.  And at the heart of Taco Land was an iconic man named Ramiro Ayala.  He ran Taco Land for 40 years, until he was murdered during a robbery in the Summer of 2005.  The memories of customers, music from San Antonio bands and arcival tape take us there.