This week on From on the Vault, Pacifica Radio Archives honors the incredible life of the talented and beautiful Lena Horne, who died on Sunday, May 9, 2010 at the age of 92. Horne was a powerful voice on Pacifica Radio over the years as she blazed the trail for minority artists of all kinds in music, film, dance, and radio. Lena, a Sound Portrait of a Multifaceted Lady, a candid interview conducted by Gene Dealessi in 1966, is our primary focus in this hour, because it perfectly demonstrates the scope and conviction of this amazing Black artist. We will also play a several short segments of Horne, as she introduces a 1968 broadcast on KPFK and also introduces Miriam Makeba at the Coconut Grove in Los Angeles.

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.

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This week on From on the Vault, we celebrate Karl Marx’s birthday with a performance of Marx in Soho, Howard Zinn’s play that resurrects the German philosopher in defense of his theory and character. A one-man play written in 1999, Marx in Soho starred Brian Jones and effectively potrayed Marx as a family man struggling to support his wife and children. This performance was recorded specifically for radio in 2001 by KPFK in Los Angeles.

We end this week by remembering the 40th anniversary of the Kent State shootings with audio selections from a powerful Pacifica Radio documentary Red, White and Blue Monday: May 4, 1970, produced by Bill Northwood and Claude Marks in December of 1970.

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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This week on From the Vault we end April and National Poetry Month with a rare 1969 recording of San Francisco’s poet laureate and first woman poet of the beat movement, Diane di Prima. But first we celebrate what would have Pacifica Radio founder Lewis Hill’s 91st birthday on May 1st with one of the earliest known recordings from Pacifica’s 61 year legacy. In 1949 when Pacifica Radio flagship station KPFA in Berkeley went on the air, Hill ended each day’s broadcast with a poem. He was passionate about poetry and was very much part of his creative contribution to the station. Today’s recording was from those early years, sometime between 1951and 1953. In this recording, Lewis Hill – in perhaps what is one few radio performances by this broadcasting pioneer – pays tribute to poet William Carlos Williams.

Then, we’ll move on to a vintage recording of acclaimed poet Diane di Prima, winner of numerous awards and Poet Laureate of San Francisco. Nearly twelve years after Lew Hill’s death, Radio Free People presented di Prima reading a chapter of an upcoming prose book Blessed are the Meek, Baby, a monologue “Zip Code”, and four-part poem “Canticle of St. Joan”. Recorded in March 1969 at St. Mark’s Church in the Bowery in New York City, this recording, and its subsequent broadcast on Pacifica Radio over forty years ago, proved the success of Lew Hill’s commitment to arts and humanities in public broadcasting.

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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This week on From the Vault, we celebrate National Poetry Month with one of the earliest recordings in the Pacifica Radio Archives collection, of perhaps the greatest Welsh poet, Dylan Thomas.

Only a year after KPFA went on the air in 1949, the station began recording Dylan Thomas. By 1952, less than a year before his death, Pacifica had recorded over seven hours of Thomas reading most of his own poetry and of others that he enjoyed. Today, we feature audio used today was recorded in 1950 at the University of California – Los Angeles, which begins with Thomas enjoying a rare moment of levity.

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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This week on From the Vault, we present Part Two of The War and Peace Broadcast: 35 Years Later, a 2005 documentary which features excerpts from the 1970 historic radio broadcast and explores select re-readings by some of 2005’s contemporary artists.

At 7:15 p.m. on December 2, 1970, as the Vietnam War raged, WBAI in New York kicked off a broadcast unique in radio history: Leo Tolstoy’s War and Peace read in its entirety by a star-studded cast, in celebration of the book’s 100-year publishing anniversary. This unprecedented marathon reading continued for the next four and one half days, stopping only for music breaks and nightly reports on the war.

1970 readers include Dustin Hoffman, Ann Bancroft, Mel Brooks, Julius Lester, Abbie Hoffman, William F. Buckley, Buck Henry, Carolyn Goodman and some 175 others from all walks of life. 2005 readers include Helen Thomas, Cindy Sheehan, Dr. Helen Caldicott, Arianna Huffington, Robert Fisk, Mike Farrell, Ed Asner, Shirley Knight, Count Nikolai Tolstoy (senior living member of Tolstoy family), and many others.

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

At 7:15 p.m. on December 2, 1970, as the Vietnam War raged, WBAI in New York kicked off a broadcast unique in radio history: Leo Tolstoy’s War and Peace read in its entirety by a star-studded cast, in celebration of the book’s 100-year publishing anniversary. This unprecedented marathon reading continued for the next four and one half days, stopping only for music breaks and nightly reports on the war. This week on From the Vault, we present Part One of The War and Peace Broadcast: 35 Years Later, a 2005 documentary which features excerpts from the 1970 historic radio broadcast and explores select re-readings by some of 2005’s contemporary artists.

1970 readers include Dustin Hoffman, Ann Bancroft, Mel Brooks, Julius Lester, Abbie Hoffman, William F. Buckley, Buck Henry, Carolyn Goodman and some 175 others from all walks of life. 2005 readers include Helen Thomas, Cindy Sheehan, Dr. Helen Caldicott, Arianna Huffington, Robert Fisk, Mike Farrell, Ed Asner, Shirley Knight, Count Nikolai Tolstoy (senior living member of Tolstoy family), and many others.

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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This week on From The Vault we present Part Three of a recently restored series from 1959 and 1960 called The American Woman. This comprehensive 14-part series is a masterpiece of scholarly research that profiles women in America from the colonial era in the 1600′s, through the Abolition and Suffrage Movements in the 1800′s, including the ongoing struggle of women for social justice.

Special guest commentator, Cultural Herstorian Amy Simon, guides us through Part Three of The American Woman, which profiles Margaret Fuller, author of Woman in the Nineteenth Century, considered the first major Feminist work in American when it was published in 1845.

The American Woman was preserved thanks to a grant from the American Archive Pilot Program.

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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This episode of From the Vault wraps up a month-long series honoring Women’s History Month by featuring novelist and diarist Anaïs Nin in a historic interview from Pacifica Radio Archives. This audio was selected by special guest poet and Anaïs Nin scholar Steven Reigns. Recorded in 1966 just before the release of Nin’s iconic, feminist work The Diary of Anaïs Nin, interviewer Francis Roberts speaks on intimate terms with Nin about her differing writing styles, the origins of her diary, and her relationships with notable figures such as Henry Miller, June Miller, Antonin Artaud, Otto Rank, and her father, Joaquin Nin. This sliver of sound nearly forty five years old introduces us to Nin’s life, and helps to explain her motivation to publish her highly personal diary of many thousands of pages; indeed, this recording cuts through the long-standing perception of a wild woman with a life highly erotic and relationships exaggerated, guiding us to remember instead that she was a magnificent and prolific writer and reader.

Please visit these sites for more information:

AnaisNin.com
SkyBluePress.com
StevenReigns.com

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 are excited to present a recently restored series from 1959 and 1960 called The American Woman. This comprehensive 14-part series is a masterpiece of scholarly research that profiles women in America from the colonial era in the 1600′s, through the Abolition and Suffrage Movements in the 1800′s, including the ongoing struggle of women for social justice.

Special guest commentator, Cultural Herstorian Amy Simon, guides us through Part Two of The American Woman, in which KPFA producer Virginia Maynard profiles Abolitionist Movement advocate Lucretia Mott. We also hear a dramatization of the landmark Women’s Rights Conference in Seneca Falls New York in 1948, where Elizabeth Cady Stanton read the “Declaration of Independence for Women,” and a dramatization of Sojourner Truth presenting her famous “Ain’t I A Woman” speech at the Women’s Rights Convention in Akron, Ohio in 1857.

The American Woman was preserved thanks to a grant from the American Archive Pilot Program.

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 are excited to present a recently restored series from 1959 and 1960 called The American Woman. This comprehensive 14-part series is a masterpiece of scholarly research that profiles women in America from the colonial era in the 1600′s, through the Abolition and Suffrage Movements in the 1800′s, including the ongoing struggle of women for social justice. Special guest commentator, Cultural Herstorian Amy Simon, leads us through Part One of The American Woman, which focuses on pioneer settler Anne Hutchinson.

The American Woman was preserved thanks to a grant from the American Archive Pilot Program.

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