Pacifica Radio Archives Director Brian DeShazor will join Amy Goodman, Cornel West, Amiri Baraka, and others at the Schomburg Center in New York on Sunday December 9, 2007 for a special performance of James Baldwin: Down From the Mountaintop, a one-man play with Tony Award-nominee Calvin Levels. All proceeds to benefit the Pacifica Radio Archives; call 212-662-5605 for more information.

James Baldwin died twenty years ago on November 30, 2007; in celebration of his life, Pacifica Radio Arcives will feature a rebroadcast of From the Vault: James Baldwin.

“All I know about fear is that if you are afraid of it, walk toward it.” ~James Baldwin

James Baldwin was known to the world as the genius behind the works Go Tell It On the Mountain, Notes of a Native Son, Giovanni’s Room, and The Fire Next Time, among others. His work – whether fiction or nonfiction – brought the realities of life for African Americans in the United States to worldwide attention. His responsibility was to be, as he so often prefaced his speeches, “brutally honest.” That honesty brought him to the forefront of the political arena and sitting among the leadership in the fight for Civil Rights in the United States. This week, on From the Vault we’ll immerse ourselves in the political life of James Baldwin.

James Baldwin’s voice is as mesmerizing as Martin Luther King, Jr.’s, his ideas as revolutionary as Malcolm X’s, and yet he always seems to fit just somewhere in between the two. The Pacifica Radio Archives is fortunate to have a generous collection of Mr. Baldwin in his own voice, both in presentation and interview, that illustrate his leanings like no other. The recordings in this collection paint a vivid landscape of this remarkable man and his political beliefs, and it is in this spirit that James Baldwin passes from us to you.

From Baldwin’s speech after the murder of four children in Birmingham to his interview with Elsa Knight Thompson, From the Vault presents Baldwin truly speaking on Baldwin. You’ll also hear commentary on Mr. Baldwin by Molefi Asante, a contemporary African American intellectual and the leader of the Afrocentric school of thought, on what James Baldwin means to African Americans today.

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

Archival recordings used in this week’s episode, James Baldwin:

PZ0300.29a-c The James Baldwin Box Set MORE INFO

BB0873 James Baldwin: After the Murder of Four Children MORE INFO

BB3684 Two Short Strories MORE INFO

BB0641 Living and Growing in a White World MORE INFO

BB0838 Baldwin at the Masonic Temple MORE INFO

BB2011 Free and Brave MORE INFO

BB3297 The Negro in American Culture MORE INFO

BB4661 Men and women in the Arts Concerned with Vietnam: A Benefit for Martin Luther King, Jr. MORE INFO

BB5322 Black Muslims vs. the Sit-ins MORE INFO

BC0642 James Baldwin on Angela Davis 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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FROM THE VAULT IS ON FALL HIATUS AS STAFFERS PREPARE FOR THE ANNUAL PACIFICA RADIO ARCHIVES NATIONAL FUND DRIVE ON TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 27, 2007. FOR SEVERAL WEEKS, WE WILL BE FEATURING SELECT EPISODES OF FROM THE VAULT FROM THE PAST TWO YEARS.

This week, From the Vault will explore the recent global warming movement through more recently recorded audio materials now housed in the Pacifica Radio Archives vault. With the help of volunteer producer Alexandra Kravetz, we’ve put together a fascinating look at the relationship between scientific research on Earth’s ever-changing climate, the US Government, and Big Business. The sounds we will hear chronicle the twisted journey that facts undergo as they make their way from laboratories of hard science to the halls of Congress, and how corporate spin produces slick press releases and ironically named legislation to further the complacency of the masses. With audio from Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., Ross Gelbspan, Rep. Henry Waxman, Seth Schulman, Chris Mooney, Exploration’s Dr. Michio Kaku, Counterspin’s Steve Rendall, and Maria Armoudian.

The last ten minutes of this week’s episode is devoted to a special audio collage compiled by Pacifica Radio Archives’ senior producer, Mark Torres, showcasing some recently preserved recordings from the Archives’ Sound of Soul project.

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

Archival recordings used in this week’s episode, Spinning Disaster:

PZ0555.22 Explorations: March 2-8, 2004 MORE INFO

PZ0604.49 Explorations: September 6-12, 2005 MORE INFO

PZ0555.47 Explorations: August 24-30, 2004 MORE INFO

Materials were also taken from Counterspin from Friday , April 29, 2005, and Insiders with Maria Armoudian from Thursday, January 18, 2007.

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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On Tuesday, November 27, 2007, the Pacifica Radio Archives will present our 6th Annual National Broadcast: Sounds That Change the World. This week on From the Vault, we will be previewing selections from this broadcast, which will begin at 7:00am EST and run for 19 consecutive hours on all five Pacifica stations.

We presented our very first Archives National Broadcast in 2002 to raise funds for our aggressive Preservation and Access Project to digitize the 50,000-plus recordings in our vault. This project has made scores of important programs available to scholars, affiliates, researchers, students, and listeners – to date, we have digitized nearly 10,000 programs.

So sit back, relax, and enjoy some of the Pacifica’s finest moments on this special edition of From the Vault.

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

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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FROM THE VAULT IS ON FALL HIATUS AS STAFFERS PREPARE FOR THE ANNUAL PACIFICA RADIO ARCHIVES NATIONAL FUND DRIVE ON TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 27, 2007. FOR SEVERAL WEEKS, WE WILL BE FEATURING SELECT EPISODES OF FROM THE VAULT FROM THE PAST TWO YEARS.

“How do you ask a man to be the last soldier to die in Vietnam? How do you ask a man to be the last man to die for a mistake?” ~ John Kerry

Pacifica Radio Archives presents the From the Vault: The American Soldier, a special review of the recordings that helped define the legacy of Pacifica Radio’s coverage of war throughout the decades.

This week we’ll hear Dale Minor reporting from a battle zone in Vietnam for Pacifica Radio, John Kerry testifying before members of Congress during the Winter Soldier Investigations, and excerpts from an archival recording entitled War, Peace and Pacifica.

We’ll also listen to late Congressman William Fitts Ryan, a New York Democrat, interviewing retired USMC Four-star General David M. Shoup about Shoup’s outspoken views on American foreign policy in Southeast Asia. This interview, originally broadcast on WBAI in December 1967, finds its relevance once again in this new time of war.

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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FROM THE VAULT IS ON FALL HIATUS AS STAFFERS PREPARE FOR THE ANNUAL PACIFICA RADIO ARCHIVES NATIONAL FUND DRIVE ON TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 27, 2007.

***THE RECENT DEATH OF ENOLA GAY PILOT PAUL TIBBETS REMINDS OF THE DANGERS OF NUCLEAR PROLIFERATION — MAKING IT TIMELY THAT WE REVISIT PACIFICA ARCHIVES’ AWARD-WINNING PRODUCTION, “HIROSHIMA.”

“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 hear 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 Browne, Daniel Benzali, 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.

We’ll also sit down in history with the pilots and crew who dropped their deadly nuclear payload on the unsuspecting cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Robert Lewis, Richard Nelson, Charles W. Sweeney, Bill Fox and Abe Spitzer discuss their military experiences and the implications of atomic warfare for society in a dark yet fascinating 1961 recording called The Atomic Bombers — another fine example of rare and unusual audio preserved by the Pacifica Radio Archives.

*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.

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

Archival recordings used in this week’s episode, Hiroshima:

PZ0546a-b John Hersey’s “Hiroshima” MORE INFO

BB3035 The Atomic Bombers MORE INFO

Related archival recordings in the collection:

BB0597 On Nuclear Morality / Lord Bertrand Russell MORE INFO

KZ1272 Shigeko Sasamori addresses Physicians for Social Responsibility MORE INFO

AZ0660.02 Hiroshima Witness / Reverend Kiyoshi Tanimoto MORE INFO

AZ0545 A Walking tour of the Hiroshima Peace Museum MORE INFO

BB0136 Fallout and Disarmament / Linus Pauling and Edward Teller 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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