“Americans have begun to understand that trouble does not start somewhere on the other side of town. It seems to originate inside the absolute middle of the homemade cherry pie.”
~June Jordan (1936-2002)

This week on From the Vault, we focus on the voice of poet and author June Jordan. Certainly one of the most-published African American writers, she tackled all subjects in her work: social issues, sexual issues, political issues, relations between the powerful and the powerless, gender issues and gender roles, among others. Her work is filled with the issues of our time, and laid out before us in beatiful rhythmic language.

Specifically, we’re concentrating on the period form 1968 to 1977. This is the period of time when she published her first book of poetry, entitled Who Look At Me, and her fame began to spread out of the African American community and into White America. It is also the period of time when June Jordan evolved emotionally from using mostly anger to drive her, to a time when love ruled her actions. After this period of evolution, she wrote her most famous works.

This first half of this week’s episode explores June Jordan’s transformation over ten years through newly restored and digitized audio from deep within Pacifica Radio Archives’ vault. The second half finds us visiting with Valerie Kinloch, author of Still Seeking an Attitude: Critical Reflections on the Work of June Jordan. Kinloch remembers Jordan and her work, and explains why the years 1968 through 1977 were such a critical period for this great American author.

Archival recordings used in this week’s episode, June Jordan:

BB3788.12 A Conversation with June Jordan MORE INFO

IZ0354 June Jordan Interview MORE INFO

WZ0124 To Create Love With Dry Eyes MORE INFO

PZ0554a-c The June Jordan Tribute Collection 3 CD Set MORE INFO

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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“The author of The Satanic Verses, a text written, edited, and published against Islam, against the Prophet of Islam, and against the Koran, along with all the editors and publishers aware of its contents, are condemned to capital punishment. I call on all valiant Muslims wherever they may be in the world to execute this sentence without delay, so that no one henceforth will dare insult the sacred beliefs of the Muslims.” ~Fatwa issued against Salman Rushdie on February 14, 1989 by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.

So exists to this day a standing, state-issued death warrant against Salman Rushdie, author of The Satanic Verses, a highly controversial work that is the focus of this week’s episode of From the Vault. Almost immediately after its publishing in 1989, the book was banned by the governments of several countries around the world and Muslim leaders spoke out in unison. Protests erupted in many cities, things were burned, and people died. The Satanic Verses had very quickly become perhaps the most famously “banned” book of the last 50 years, and even today the bounty on Salmon Rushdie’s head stands at $2.8 million.

Although The Satanic Verses was never officially banned by the United States government, many bookstore owners chose to hold it from their shelves, a few did not; it was the cause of two book store firebombings in California. On that same day, Pacifica Radio’s KPFA in Berkeley had scheduled a panel to discuss the book- which they recorded and submitted to the Pacifica Radio Archives nearly twenty years ago. Today, we’ll hear excerpts from this enlightening discussion that encompass a variety of views on The Satanic Verses, and what should ultimately happen with the book. Andy Ross, one of the invited panel-members, was noticeably absent from the day’s discussion; as owner of one of the firebombed bookstores, he stayed home for safety reasons.

This wouldn’t be a good show if we didn’t share the original controversy… the second half of From the Vault will do just that, with help from Frank Beacham and Peggy Weber, who produced a dramatic radio reading of The Satanic Verses only two days after the bookstore firebombings. Pacifica Radio’s KPFK in Los Angeles proudly broadcast the reading in February 1989, within a month of the book’s debut, as a exercise in free speech and a reaffirmation of Pacifica Radio’s mission. From the Vault proudly presents excerpts of this dramatic reading, heard now for the first time since its original broadcast 18 years ago.

Archival recordings used in this week’s episode, The Satanic Verses:

AZ0881 Rushdie Panel MORE INFO

KZ2179 Satanic Verses: A Live Radio Reading MORE INFO

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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“First of all, I am not teaching you anything. Right? I have said ‘just watch yourself.’ And in yourself is everything. You are the whole of mankind. The past and the present. And if you know how to look within yourself you have the whole history. And then you are not following the speaker or his teachings because he is not teaching you a thing!”
~Jiddu Krishnamurti (1895-1986)

As a young boy, Jiddu (J.) Krishnamurti was discovered playing on beach in India by one of the founders of the Theosophical movement, Charles Webster Leadbeater — who proclaimed young Krishnamurti to be the future vehicle for Lord Maitreya the World Teacher and arranged for his formal education and indoctrination into the Theosophical Society. There, Krishnamurti learned, taught, spoke and began to cultivate an international following; but as he grew older and wiser, it seems that Krishnamurti developed a disdain for the pedestal the Theosophical Society placed him upon. Eventually, he shunned the very organization that made him, and he denounced all organized religion in general as well. Krishnamurti spent the rest of his life teaching his unique perspective on the power of the self, to be achieved through courageous self-observation without judgment. He left this physical plane in 1986 at his retreat in Ojai, California.

For a man considered by much of the world to be one of the foremost minds on religion and philosophy in the 20th century, it is striking to consider that J. Krishnamurti seldom wrote down his teachings, so that ultimately, his teachings live on today only through audio and video recordings (and transcripts of those recordings). The Pacifica Radio Archives is currently preserving at least 27 recordings of J. Krishnamurti in its vault, and drawing from these special pieces we present this week’s episode of From the Vault.

The first part of this show studies Krishnamurti’s effect on two From the Vault volunteers, Joseph Falasca and Sylvia Lubow, both of whom had never heard Krishnamurti speak before or read transcripts of any of his speeches. Joseph and Sylvia’s exploration of a Krishnamurti talk from Santa Barbara in 1969 is a wonderful stepping stone into the very exestensial world of J. Krishnamurti. Only when you hear his voice will you understand why Sylvia and Joseph were moved so deeply, and why we at the Pacifica Radio Archives think these recordings are so important…

The second half of From the Vault finds show producer Christopher Sprinkle at the Krishnamurti’s retreat in Ojai, California, (home of the Krishnamurti Foundation of America) speaking with KFA Executive Director Mark Lee, Michael Kronen- who works in the library at the KFA Archive and was once Krishnamurti’s personal chef, and Mary Zimbalist, former Personal Assistant to J. Krishnamurti, and one of the original founders and trustees of both the Krishnamurti Foundation of America, Fundacion K Hispanoamericana, as well as a trustee at the Krishnamurti Foundation in the UK and the Krishnamurti Foundation of India. From the Vault would like to thank these guests and the Krishnamurti Foundation of America for providing gracious access and insight into the life of Jiddu Krishnamurti.

Archival recordings used in this week’s episode, J. Krishnamurti:

BB2295.01-.04 Krishnamurti at Santa Cruz MORE INFO

BB2295.04a-b Krishnamurti: Religion and Meditation MORE INFO

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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“Expose yourself to your deepest fear; after that, fear has no power, and the fear of freedom shrinks and vanishes. You are free.”
~Jim Morrison (1943-1971)

This week we’ll get a little better acquainted with the short life of rockstar, poet, and icon Jim Morrison with the help of an beautiful radio documentary called Artist in Hell, produced by Clare Spark in 1971. Of course, it would be easy to focus on Morrison’s wild antics and excess, as that kind of behavior always leaves a high water mark on someone’s life for the ages to see, but instead, we’ll hear his closest friends describe the life of a tortured genius, a man with not nearly enough names for all of the colors he wished to paint. The Doors bandmembers Robbie Krieger and Ray Manzarek speak candidly about their close friend, as does producer Paul Rothchild; David Birnie, Digby Deal, Harvey Purr and others read from Morrison’s poetry and his Lord’s Notes On Vision.

In the second half of From the Vault, we’ll hear The Doors keyboardist Ray Manzarek speaking at The Midnight Special Bookstore in Santa Monica on September 12, 1998. Manzarek speaks on The Doors and Morrison, reads some of Jim’s poetry, and he shares his insights and recollection on the transformation of four normal guys who met in Venice, hung out on the beach, and became one of the most legendary rock-n-roll bands the genre has yet seen.

Archival recordings used in this week’s episode, Jim Morrison, Poet:

BC0338a-d Jim Morrison: Artist in Hell MORE INFO

PZ0300.71 Voices of Pacifica: Ray Manzarek / Patti Smith MORE INFO

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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