August 29, 2010 marks the 40th Anniversary of what is now know as the Chicano Moratorium, where upwards of 30,000 protesters, mostly Mexican Americans or Chicanos, gathered in Laguna Park in East Los Angeles to peacefully protest the Vietnam War. By August of 1970, the mortality rate in the Vietnam War was disproportionately high within the Chicano demographic, while funding for schools, jobs, healthcare, housing, and other important areas of our daily infrastructure were grossly under-funded or non-existent. Activists, community leaders and students built a broad coalition of support and created a day of education, learning and music to help raise awareness of these discrepancies in the Chicano Community. The day would end tragically just as the rally was beginning in the park as Los Angeles County Sheriff’s attacked the non-violent crowd with tear gas and batons. The result was four dead, including Award Winning Los Angeles Times Journalist and News Director of KMEX Spanish Television, Ruben Salazar.

KPFK 90.7 FM Los Angeles covered the Chicano Moratorium, and on this episode of From the Vault, we’ll hear actuality from that fateful day in Laguna Park in East Los Angeles. Included in this program are comments from then KPFK La Raza Nueva host Moctezuma Esparza and Rosalio Munoz, event organizer and former UCLA student body President, the only speaker who spoke before the violence from the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s broke out.

But first, we’ll check in with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Muhammad Ali in 1968, as both would come out strongly against the war, and grow outspoken on America’s participation in the Vietnam War.

From the Vault is presented as part of the Pacifica Radio Archives Preservation and Access Project.

PURCHASE a copy of this program or learn more about the historic archival recordings used within this episode. To purchase a CD copy of this program by phone, please call Pacifica Radio Archives at 800.735.0230 x 262.

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On Friday evening, August 13, 2010 celebrities, musicians, and activists gathered under the stars at the open air Greek Theatre in Los Angeles California to wish United Farmworker co-founder Dolores Huerta a happy 80th Birthday.

In an event called Weaving Movements Together… Carlos Santana, Rage Against the Machine frontman Zach de la Rocha, Lila Downs and longtime Santana percussionist Pete Escobedo all perform at this event, held to pay tribute to Dolores’s tireless commitment to organizing.

Also wishing Dolores Huerta a happy birthday are:

- Actor and Activist Danny Glover
- Actor and Activist Martin Sheen
- Code Pink Co-founder Jodie Evans
- President Barrack Obama
- Arizona Congressman Raul Grijalva

…and of course we’ll hear from Dolores Huerta herself!

From the Vault is presented as part of the Pacifica Radio Archives Preservation and Access Project.

PURCHASE a copy of this program or learn more about the historic archival recordings used within this episode. To purchase a CD copy of this program by phone, please call Pacifica Radio Archives at 800.735.0230 x 262.

Click here to send an email to From the Vault.

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“What has kept the world safe from the bomb since 1945 has not been deterrence, in the sense of fear of specific weapons, so much as it’s been memory. The memory of what happened at Hiroshima.”
~John Hersey, writing in “Hiroshima.”

August 6th is the anniversary of the U.S. atomic bombing of Hiroshima, Japan. Pacifica Radio Archives commemorates the anniversary every year with a live recording of the radio adaptation of John Hersey’s Hiroshima, arguably the most famous work of the Pulitzer Prize winning novelist and reporter. An account of the bombing of Hiroshima in 1945 as told from the perspective of six survivors, it is written in a stark, objective voice that manages to be precise and all the more vivid for its understatement of events. A profoundly influential work, Hiroshima has long since been established as one of the classic accounts of the Second World War. This week, on From the Vault, we’ll here excerpts of Pacifica Radio Archives radio adaptation of John Hersey’s masterpiece.

The original radio adaptation of John Hersey’s Hiroshima stars Tyne Daly, Ruby Dee and Roscoe Lee Brown, Daniel Benzali, Roscoe Lee Browne, Esther K. Chae, Michael Chinyamurindi, Tony Plana, Jeanne Sakata, Chris Toshima and John Valentine. Produced by Brian DeShazor and Mark Torres, in association with Artists United and The Feminist Majority. Adapted for radio by John Valentine. Directed by Michael Haney. Music by Mark Snow.

But first we begin with an excerpt of a Boston University speech by Howard Zinn from November 11th, 2009 on American “Holy Wars.” In this talk, Zinn scours the American war record in search of a “good war” or “justifiable war.”

*The Pacifica Radio Archives’ recording of John Hersey’s “Hiroshima” received a National Federation of Community Broadcasters Special Merit Award in the Radio Drama category.

Click here to purchase a copy of this program or learn more about and purchase copies of the historic archival recordings used within this episode. To purchase a CD copy of this program by phone, please call Pacifica Radio Archives at 800.735.0230 x 262.

Click here to send an email to From the Vault.

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This week on From the Vault we present a condensed version of the Pacifica-produced award-winning series called The Bill of Rights Radio Education Project. Originally produced as a 15-part series in 1983, this series was designed to flush out the gray areas in which the Bill of Rights, established to offer protections to all Americans, has failed.

We’ve chosen 4 segments that we think are particularly relevant today:

–Due Process – The seemingly biased way in which the US offers political Asylum depending whether the country you come from is Conservative or Progressive.

–Censorship – The consequences of Censorship of books from Public Libraries and schools.

–How the the right to keep and bear arms doesn’t work for all Americans.

–Due process and fair trial for all Americans – The sordid contradictions of the Japanese/American Internment during World War II.

This series won the NFCB Golden Reel Award, the San Francisco State Broadcast Media Award, The American Bar Association Silver Gavel Award, The Ohio State Award for Broadcast Excellence, and an award from Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

This program is narrated by Kathy McAnally.

From the Vault is presented as part of the Pacifica Radio Archives Preservation and Access Project.

PURCHASE a copy of this program or learn more about and purchase copies of the historic archival recordings used within this episode. To purchase a CD copy of this program by phone, please call Pacifica Radio Archives at 800.735.0230 x 262.

Click here to send an email to From the Vault.

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This week on From the Vault, we enter the field of music as one of the great expressions of the creative spirit.

KPFK Music Director Maggie LePique interviewed 93 year old Les Paul before his weekly performance at the Iridium Club in New York City on April 7th, 2008. On a chilly Monday afternoon before his first set, Les Paul was in great form – what started out as a friendly conversation becomes a whirlwind overview of this legendary guitar player and inventor. From his early hard body electric guitar invention to the Les Pulverizer to his first ever multi-track recording to his blistering guitar technique, Les Paul is the original Guitar Hero.

From the Vault is presented as part of the Pacifica Radio Archives Preservation and Access Project.

LISTEN to this episode.

Click here to purchase a copy of this program or learn more about and purchase copies of the historic archival recordings used within this episode. To purchase a CD copy of this program by phone, please call Pacifica Radio Archives at 800.735.0230 x 262.

Click here to send an email to From the Vault.

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In the summer of 1999, the Gene Autry Museum of Western Heritage presented a brilliant Woody Guthrie exhibit called this This Land is Your Land: The Life and Legacy of Woodie Guthrie. On the final day of the exhibit, Sunday, September 26, 1999, Los Angeles based folk singer Ross Altman was invited to perform a program called The 10 Greatest Protest Songs of the 20th Century. This week on From the Vault, you’ll hear Ross Altman tell the stories and perform songs from folk greats such as Leadbelly, Phil Ochs, Pete Seeger, Florence Reece, and, of course, Woody Guthrie.

From the Vault is proudly presented as part of the Pacifica Radio Archives Preservation and Access Project.

PURCHASE a copy of this program or learn more about and purchase copies of the historic archival recordings used within this episode. To purchase a CD copy of this program by phone, please call Pacifica Radio Archives at 800.735.0230 x 262.

Click here to send an email to From the Vault.

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We push onward into our Summer Arts and Literature Series on From the Vault with the final readings from Fyodor Dostoevsky’s classic novel, Notes From Underground. First published in 1864, Notes from Underground is considered by many scholars to be Dostoevsky’s most philosophical effort, introducing to Underground Man, who is filled with self-contempt and self-betrayal without being aware of it. Dostoevsky’s novel – equally criticized with the same passion as it is championed – is widely considered to be a prologue to his later work. Ultimately, his writing would have a profound influence on writers such as Ernest Hemingway, James Joyce and Virginia Woolf.

In 1972, Kathy Dobkin produced the 3rd annual WBAI reading of a classic novel, this time choosing Notes From Underground. This fourth of four parts is read by Stacy Keach from a David Magarshack translation of the novel.

From the Vault is proudly presented as part of the Pacifica Radio Archives Preservation and Access Project.

PURCHASE a copy of this program or learn more about and purchase copies of the historic archival recordings used within this episode. To purchase a CD copy of this program by phone, please call Pacifica Radio Archives at 800.735.0230 x 262.

Click here to send an email to From the Vault.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

We continue our Summer Arts and Literature Series on From the Vault with more readings from Fyodor Dostoevsky’s classic novel, Notes From Underground. First published in 1864, Notes from Underground is considered by many scholars to be Dostoevsky’s most philosophical effort, introducing to Underground Man, who is filled with self-contempt and self-betrayal without being aware of it. Dostoevsky’s novel – equally criticized with the same passion as it is championed – is widely considered to be a prologue to his later work. Ultimately, his writing would have a profound influence on writers such as Ernest Hemingway, James Joyce and Virginia Woolf.

In 1972, Kathy Dobkin produced the 3rd annual WBAI reading of a classic novel, this time choosing Notes From Underground. This third of four parts is read by Stacy Keach from a David Magarshack translation of the novel.

From the Vault is proudly presented as part of the Pacifica Radio Archives Preservation and Access Project.

PURCHASE a copy of this program or learn more about and purchase copies of the historic archival recordings used within this episode. To purchase a CD copy of this program by phone, please call Pacifica Radio Archives at 800.735.0230 x 262.

Click here to send an email to From the Vault.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

We continue our Summer Arts and Literature Series on From the Vault with more readings from Fyodor Dostoevsky’s classic novel, Notes From Underground. First published in 1864, Notes from Underground is considered by many scholars to be Dostoevsky’s most philosophical effort, introducing to Underground Man, who is filled with self-contempt and self-betrayal without being aware of it. Dostoevsky’s novel – equally criticized with the same passion as it is championed – is widely considered to be a prologue to his later work. Ultimately, his writing would have a profound influence on writers such as Ernest Hemingway, James Joyce and Virginia Woolf.

In 1972, Kathy Dobkin produced the 3rd annual WBAI reading of a classic novel, this time choosing Notes From Underground. This second of four parts is read by Stacy Keach from a David Magarshack translation of the novel.

From the Vault is proudly presented as part of the Pacifica Radio Archives Preservation and Access Project.

PURCHASE a copy of this program or learn more about and purchase copies of the historic archival recordings used within this episode. To purchase a CD copy of this program by phone, please call Pacifica Radio Archives at 800.735.0230 x 262.

Click here to send an email to From the Vault.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

This week on From the Vault we continue our Summer Arts and Literature Series with a reading of Fyodor Dostoevsky’s classic novel, Notes From Underground. First published in 1864, Notes from Underground is considered by many scholars to be Dostoevsky’s most philosophical effort, introducing to Underground Man, who is filled with self-contempt and self-betrayal without being aware of it. Dostoevsky’s novel – equally criticized with the same passion as it is championed – is widely considered to be a prologue to his later work. Ultimately, his writing would have a profound influence on writers such as Ernest Hemingway, James Joyce and Virginia Woolf.

In 1972, Kathy Dobkin produced the 3rd annual WBAI reading of a classic novel, this time choosing Notes From Underground. This first of four parts is read by stage and film actor Morris Carnovsky.

From the Vault is proudly presented as part of the Pacifica Radio Archives Preservation and Access Project.

PURCHASE a copy of this program or learn more about and purchase copies of the historic archival recordings used within this episode. To purchase a CD copy of this program by phone, please call Pacifica Radio Archives at 800.735.0230 x 262.

Click here to send an email to From the Vault.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download