This week on From the Vault we present a haunting tale written by Robert Louis Stevenson, the 19th century Scottish writer probably best known for his classic novels Treasure Island and The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. In 1979, producer Dudley Knight read Stevenson’s spooky tale The Body Snatcher on The Graveyard Shift, an old radio show that served as Pacifica Network’s dumping ground for everything macabre. Then, we dig the grave a bit deeper, to bring you a 1961 Colin Edwards interview with one of the most famous horror actors in history, Boris Karloff, best known for his iconic role as Frankenstein. Please enjoy this dark tale and rare interview from the Pacifica Radio Archives.

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 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 this episode of From the Vault, we proffer a sampling of historic recordings in hopes that they will constructively contribute to the debate over the implementation of the death penalty in the United States. Pacifica Radio throughout its history has been at the forefront of capital punishment news and analysis, and as a media institution has become well-respected for its frequency, volume, and depth of coverage. Audio selections today are drawn from the following Pacifica titles:

The Coming Death of Caryl Chessman (1959)
A documentary on the emotionally charged trial of Caryl Chessman and the debate over his May 2, 1960 execution. Produced by Gene Marine.

Meeting of the Minds – Steve Allen (1960)
Actors represent Aristotle, Montaigne, Hegel, Dostoyevsky, Freud, and Darwin in a discussion of the death penalty. Narrated by Steve Allen.

Death House Letters of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg (1967)
Lois Adler and Gerald Fritz read selections from the prison correspondence of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, who were tried, sentenced, and executed for espionage following the Soviet Union’s development of an atomic bomb. Narrated by Eric Nord.

Rubin ‘Hurricane’ Carter (1978)
Middleweight prizefighter Rubin “Hurricane” Carter shares his experiences in prison and hopes for release in an interview by Lynn Samuels at Trenton State Prison, New Jersey.

Democracy Now!: Rubin ‘Hurricane’ Carter (1998)
A delegation, led by former boxing champ Rubin Hurricane Carter who served 19 years for a crime he did not commit, travels to Texas to pressure authorities to grant clemency to death row inmate Joseph Stanley Faulder.

The Legal Lynching of Mumia Abu-Jamal (1995)
Actor and activist Mike Farrell introduces Leonard Weinglass, John Carlo Esposito, Marla Gibbs, and Roger Smith, who read from Mumia Abu-Jamal’s prison writings and are followed with a presentation by Ramona Africa, the last adult survivor of the MOVE bombing.

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 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 today’s episode of From the Vault we exhibit another round of rediscovered recordings which further showcase the amazing talent pool represented within Pacifica Radio Archives. First, we join WBAI host Wesley Brown in-studio to interview Pulitzer and Nobel Prize winning author Toni Morrison shortly after the 1981 release of her novel Tar Baby, which explores issues of African American self-acceptance and reconciliation. Then we check out a surprise studio performance by legendary Pacifica programmer Julius Lester – previously best-known for his insightful late 1960’s interviews of Muhammad Ali, June Jordan, and Vincent Harding among others – but perhaps also to be known in the future for this striking rendition of the folk classic Stagger Lee. Finally, we settle down to an interview with writer Walter Mosley following the 1997 release of Always Outnumbered, Always Outgunned, which introduces the character Socrates Forthlow – who encourages young readers to think about the consequences of their decisions.

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 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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It’s the little things citizens do. That’s what will make the difference. My little thing is planting trees.

~Wangari Maathai (April 1, 1940 – Sept 25, 2011)

On this edition of From the Vault we salute the tireless and visionary work of the late Nobel Peace Prize recipient Wangari Maathai, who led an environmental and peace movement that touched lives around the world. Through a mix of commentary and interviews from Pacifica Foundation Director Arlene Engelhardt, KPFK producer Asumpta Oturu, Hard Knock Radio Host Davey D, BBC host and From the Vault producer Joanne Griffith, KPFK host Doreen Key, and WPFW producer Fahima Seck, we come to appreciate the incredible depth of this human being, and draw inspiration from her life to change our own behaviors for the sake of humanity and the world. We’ll also hear Wangari Maathai on stage at Final Push: The Long Walk to Justice, an event designed to pressure world leaders at the 2005 G8 summit in Scotland, and Maathai participating in a special called “Women of The World,” an original 2008 production by the Pacifica Radio Archives.

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 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 explore the challenges that capital punishment presents for a civil society. Perhaps more adept than anyone at understanding the moral and ethical ramifications of the death penalty on society, Sister Helen Prejean is a Catholic nun who became known around the world for her book Dead Man Walking, which chronicles her experience ministering to death row inmates. Prejean, who has worked with inmates awaiting execution since 1981, manages to look at the condemned beyond conviction of guilt – and treat them with dignity on a basic level as human beings. Sister Helen Prejean delivers this compelling speech in May 2000 after an introduction by the Director of the Dismas House in New Mexico.

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 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 showcase a great example of creative genius recently rediscovered within Pacifica Radio Archives: a beautiful 1969 radio adaptation of James Thurber’s The 13 Clocks. Produced by WBAI production superstars Charles Potter and David Rapkin, Thurber’s 1950’s fantasy tale comes to life with delightful special effects – an arduous test of endurance and ingenuity using the equipment and techniques of the late 1960’s: reel to reel tape machines, multiple overdub and splicing, and hours and hours of painstaking setup. Over forty years after the original production and broadcast, we had the opportunity to speak with sound engineer David Rapkin, who explained the challenges he faced while making this important sound recording – now being shared again for the first time in over three decades.

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 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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Today on From the Vault we share compelling interviews with two actors of stage and screen, both at critical times in their career, focusing on live theater and particularly the New York Broadway stage. First, WBAI host David Rothenberg talks with Charles S. Dutton, starring at the time (1984) in the hit play Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, about Dutton’s evolution into acting while locked up in prison, among other things. Then, we move to an interview with the incomparable Harvey Fierstein, again with Rothenberg, conducted shortly after Fierstein had won Tony awards for both writing and performance in Torch Song Trilogy (1982), a potent work that also introduced to the world a young Matthew Broderick.

These recordings are two of the 150 hours of our recorded history that have been released on our website for you to browse, listen, and study as a result of a year-long preservation and access project funded in part by the National Endowment for the Arts and our loyal Pacifica station listeners.

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 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 this week is a ten-year retrospective of Pacifica’s 9/11 coverage, as it happened, and the pacific and progressive voices subsequently given safe harbor on Pacifica Stations in the time after the attacks. We begin with a montage produced by Pacifica Radio Archives one year after 9/11 – voices include Bertrand Russell, Howard Zinn, Dennis Kucinich, Gore Vidal, June Jordan, Michael Moore, Angela Davis, Thich Nhat Hanh, Mumia Abu Jamal, Cornel West, to name a few. Then, WBAI producer Michael Haskins recalls his journey to WBAI studios in the heart of the financial district in the midst of the attack, and former Pacifica producer and author Laurie Garrett muses on the events and consequences of 9/11, along with Gore Vidal, Noam Chomsky, Tariq Ali, Arundhati Roy, and others.

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 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 this edition of From the Vault we present a newly-discovered recording of the extraordinary Audre Lorde, a black feminist and lesbian writer, poet and activist who died of breast cancer in 1992. This rare recording, made on December 12, 1980 at Barnard College in New York City, includes an early reading from Lorde’s book The Cancer Journals as well as selected poetry, laced together with Lorde’s perspective on racism, sexism, and the general lack of humanity in the world. Eileen Zelisk, host of the WBAI series The Velvet Sledgehammer (a production of the WBAI Women’s Department), introduces Audre Lorde to the audience.

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 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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Today on From the Vault we present a short story that has stood the test of time, The Dead, from James Joyce’s classic 1914 book The Dubliners. This short story is read by the classic Irish American actress Geraldine Fitzgerald, whose Hollywood work included a starring role opposite Bette Davis in Dark Victory (1939), alongside Sir Lawrence Oliver in Wuthering Heights (1939), and Watch on the Rhine (1943).

Then we present an excerpt from Pacifica Radio’s 30th Anniversary Bloomsday broadcast featuring actor Alec Baldwin reading from Lord Alfred Tennyson’s take on Ulysses.

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 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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