In honor of the work of pioneering Swiss chemist Albert Hofmann, who discovered the hallucinogenic properties of lysergic acid diethylamide in 1943, From the Vault presents the 1974 documentary One Billion Seconds Later: A Social History of LSD, winner of the prestigious Ohio State Award for Radio Excellence. Produced in 1974 by legendary radio producer Adi Gevins, this program explores acid’s social history, from its accidental discovery at Sandoz laboratories in Switzerland, through the halls of academia, to Golden Gate Park and beyond. Included are the voices of Albert Hofmann, Timothy Leary, Baba Ram Dass, Ken Kesey, and Dr. John Lilly, among others, who describe the LSD experience and speculate on acid’s importance an agent of therapy, religious sacrament, and revolution.

From the Vault is presented through the Pacifica Radio Archives Preservation and Access Project, funded in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts, past grants from the Grammy Foundation, the Ford Foundation, and the American Archive funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, along with the generous support of Pacifica Radio Listeners.

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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During the course of the week-long 2013 Earth Day celebration, acclaimed speaker, writer and political analyst Sabina Virgo turned her mediating, organizing and oratory skills in the direction of the environment. In this captivating speech, given at the invitation of the Eagle Environmental Club on the campus of Mount San Antonio College in Walnut, California, Sabina traces the history of corporate interests that have put the environment on a fatal course and the impact of our push back.

From the Vault is presented through the Pacifica Radio Archives Preservation and Access Project, funded in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts, past grants from the Grammy Foundation, the Ford Foundation, and the American Archive funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, along with the generous support of Pacifica Radio Listeners.

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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“Streets paved with opal sadness,
Lead me counterclockwise, to pockets of joy,
And jazz.”
Bob Kaufman, Cranial Guitar: Selected Poems

This week on From the Vault we continue with an amazing radio documentary about one of the most elusive poets of the twentieth century and the originator of the name ‘beatnik,’ Bob Kaufman. Written and produced in 1992 by David Henderson, with associate production and engineering by Vic Bedoin, Bob Kaufman, Poet: The Life and Times of an African-American Man features interviews with family members, scholars, and artist such as Amiri Baraka, Allen Ginsberg, Ossie Davis, Ruby Dee, and Roscoe Lee Brown. Despite his battles with alcohol, drugs, psychotherapy, and the justice system, Kaufman’s ragged life teems with poetic brilliance, as this documentary demonstrates. Highlights include a rare 1958 recording of Kaufman reading his epic poem Second April and a discussion of jazz with recordist Henry Jacobs. Part two of two.

From the Vault is presented through the Pacifica Radio Archives Preservation and Access Project, funded in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts, past grants from the Grammy Foundation, the Ford Foundation, and the American Archive funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, along with the generous support of Pacifica Radio Listeners.

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.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

“Streets paved with opal sadness,
Lead me counterclockwise, to pockets of joy,
And jazz.”
Bob Kaufman, Cranial Guitar: Selected Poems

This week on From the Vault we treat you an amazing radio documentary about one of the most elusive poets of the twentieth century and the originator of the name ‘beatnik,’ Bob Kaufman. Written and produced in 1992 by David Henderson, with associate production and engineering by Vic Bedoin, Bob Kaufman, Poet: The Life and Times of an African-American Man features interviews with family members, scholars, and artist such as Amiri Baraka, Allen Ginsberg, Ossie Davis, Ruby Dee, and Roscoe Lee Brown. Despite his battles with alcohol, drugs, psychotherapy, and the justice system, Kaufman’s ragged life teems with poetic brilliance, as this documentary demonstrates. Highlights include a rare 1958 recording of Kaufman reading his epic poem Second April and a discussion of jazz with recordist Henry Jacobs. Part one of two.

From the Vault is presented through the Pacifica Radio Archives Preservation and Access Project, funded in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts, past grants from the Grammy Foundation, the Ford Foundation, and the American Archive funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, along with the generous support of Pacifica Radio Listeners.

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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This week on From the Vault, Cal Green of WBAI’s The Critical People speaks with artist Andy Warhol about his film Chelsea Girls in a rather unconventional interview recorded on June 3, 1967. Joined in studio by Henry Geldzahler, associate curator of American painting and sculpture at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Paul Morrissey, film critic and director, and International Velvet and Ingrid Superstar (two of Warhol’s “Factory Girls”), Green and Warhol focus on how Chelsea Girls differs from Warhol’s previous cinematographic efforts. Not surprising, Warhol’s musings are filled with deflections, half truths, and feigned ignorance; yet through this all we still absorb Warhol’s personal examination of his filmmaking approach, in a most insightful and unique example of Pacifica Radio at its finest.

From the Vault is presented through the Pacifica Radio Archives Preservation and Access Project, funded in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts, past grants from the Grammy Foundation, the Ford Foundation, and the American Archive funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, along with the generous support of Pacifica Radio Listeners.

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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This week on From the Vault we celebrate National Poetry Month with the American poet, novelist, and memoirist May Sarton recorded at the College of Marin in Cali in1983 by the KPFA Women’s Department.

Born in Belgium in 1912 but raised in Cambridge, Massachusetts, May Sarton suffered through early attempts at acting and running her own theater, until in 1935 she devoted her life to writing. Producing over fifty volumes of poetry, novels, journals, essays, and children’s books before she died in 1995, Sarton was an open lesbian but rejected the narrow label of ‘lesbian writer.’ Seventy-one years old at the time of this recording, Sarton draws from her entire canon of poetry to explore the theme of the evening: the hazards and joys of being a poet.

Poems featured are Sun Boat, The Beautiful Pauses, At Muzot, Where Dream Begins, Binding the Dragon, The Godhead as a Lynx, Death and the Turtle, The Muse as Medusa, At Lindos, The Frog That Naked Creature, Of Molluscs, The Lady and the Unicorn, Dr Abshchied, and On a Winter Night.

From the Vault is presented through the Pacifica Radio Archives Preservation and Access Project, funded in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts, past grants from the Grammy Foundation, the Ford Foundation, and the American Archive funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, along with the generous support of Pacifica Radio Listeners.

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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This week on From the Vault we celebrate Chicana writer and one of the early voices of the Third Wave of Feminism, Cherrie Moraga, whose first solo authored work, Loving in the War Years, is considered one of the most influential works in Chicano Literature. First, we present an early 1983 recording of Moraga reading from Loving in the War Years, made by noted KPFA Women’s Department producer Cindy Madron. We follow that with a 2010 interview conducted by From the Vault producer Mark Torres; Moraga promotes her play Digging Up the Dirt, about coming to terms with the murders of two women in her life.

From the Vault is presented through the Pacifica Radio Archives Preservation and Access Project, funded in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts, past grants from the Grammy Foundation, the Ford Foundation, and the American Archive funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, along with the generous support of Pacifica Radio Listeners.

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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From the Vault focuses this week on a 1995 documentary about the United Farm Workers Union called The Flight of the Eagle. Produced by Chuy Varela from archival footage collected by Pacifica over the previous thirty years, this radio retrospective examines the evolution of the UFW from a local organization which mostly championed farm workers into a civil rights organization which fights for issues affecting the larger Latino community. The Flight of the Eagle gauges the impact of the 1965 Delano Strike and Dolores Huerta’s critical role in developing the UFW, the death of Cesar Chavez on the union, and the current challenges ahead for the organization.

From the Vault is presented through the Pacifica Radio Archives Preservation and Access Project, funded in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts, past grants from the Grammy Foundation, the Ford Foundation, and the American Archive funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, along with the generous support of Pacifica Radio Listeners.

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 this edition of From the Vault we skip back thirty years and listen to a program titled Women’s Wave – an examination of women in the punk, post-punk and new wave musical movements. Produced at KPFA in 1983 by Karen Sundheim and Elaine Jacobs, Women’s Wave includes interviews with female punk group members describing the difficult environment for achieving success in the male-dominated punk scene, and dealing with blowback from more conservative female musicians. Featured music is from bands including The Slits, The Au Pairs, Unknown Gender, Wilma, The Avengers, The Bags, and the Contractions.

From the Vault is presented through the Pacifica Radio Archives Preservation and Access Project, funded in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts, past grants from the Grammy Foundation, the Ford Foundation, and the American Archive funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, along with the generous support of Pacifica Radio Listeners.

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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This week on From the Vault, we go back nearly half a century and immerse ourselves in a radio documentary on the confrontation over Civil Rights in Selma, Alabama. The Second Battle of Selma, produced by legendary newsman Dale Minor in 1965 during his time at Pacifica station WBAI, includes rare audio of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and actuality of the march on Selma. This program, a fine example of early Pacifica Radio editing and storytelling style, remains as relevant today as it did almost fifty years ago when it was first broadcast.

From the Vault is presented through the Pacifica Radio Archives Preservation and Access Project, funded in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts, past grants from the Grammy Foundation, the Ford Foundation, and the American Archive funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, along with the generous support of Pacifica Radio Listeners.

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.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download