Archive for the 'Update' Category

FTV 269 Japanese in California 1959

Posted in Update on July 11th, 2011

In this edition of From the Vault we present Pacifica Radio’s earliest known recording of Japanese Americans and their families from California talking about life in America. This extraordinary 1959 recording documents stories of family life before the war and how the internment process changed lives forever. Voices include ordinary citizens, teachers, students, lawyers, architects, and farmers, and Hito Okada, one of the founders and former presidents of the oldest and largest Asian civil rights group, the Japanese America Citizens League.

The original recording was produced by Marshall Windmiller from Pacifica Station KPFA 94.1 in Berkeley California.

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 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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FTV 268 Gwendolyn Brooks and LeRoi Jones, a.k.a. Amiri Baraka
Posted in Update on July 1st, 2011

This week on From the Vault we present one of Pacifica Radio’s newly-restored audio treasures, ‘rediscovered’ during preservation work funded by our most recent National Endowment for the Arts grant. This 1964 recording, fittingly titled A Poetry Reading, features Gwendolyn Brooks and LeRoi Jones and is as historically significant as any recording in the Pacifica Radio Archives collection. Gwendolyn Brooks delivers a remarkable performance, reading a range from her earliest work (A Street in Bronzeville, 1945) to her Pulitzer Prize-winning collection (Annie Allen, 1950) to her most current prose that year of 1964. LeRoi Jones reminds us of his roots in the Beat Generation and his talent as a Greenwich Village publisher with his last major reading before the assassination Malcolm X. After the assassination, Jones would leave his family, distance himself from the white Beat Poets, and relocate to Harlem — transforming himself into Black Nationalist Amiri Baraka.

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 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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FTV 267 Geronimo Pratt
Posted in Update on June 24th, 2011

On this edition of From the Vault we pay tribute to Elmer “Geronimo” Pratt, who died on June 3, 2011. This decorated Vietnam War Veteran and Minister of Defense for the Los Angeles chapter of the Black Panther Party was accused and convicted of murder in 1968, despite steadfastly maintaining his innocence. Pratt served the next 27 years of his life in prison; in 1997, Pratt’s conviction was overturned when new evidence surfaced that proved the prosecution’s chief witness, Julius Butler, was a police and FBI informant who lied under oath at the trial. After reaching a multimillion dollar settlement with City of Los Angeles and the U.S. Department of Justice, Pratt dedicated his life and resources to helping men and women he believed to be wrongly incarcerated, working until his death in his adopted homeland of Tanzania. Today we present chilling testimony of human conviction and perseverance, as Geronimo Pratt shares his story of life behind bars from an October, 1997 address at Pasadena City College in California.

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 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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FTV 266 Pacifica Radio in the United Kingdom
Posted in Update on June 17th, 2011

This week, From the Vault heads overseas to hear how audio from the Pacifica Radio Archives is shared with the audience of BBC Radio 5 Live’s Up All Night program in the United Kingdom. Producer and host, Joanne Griffith re-spins some of her favorite cuts from the past year, including Fela Kuti, Jack Nicholson and playwright Arthur Miller.

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 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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FTV 265 Gay Pride Month: Christopher Isherwood
Posted in Uncategorized, Update on June 10th, 2011

To celebrate Gay Pride Month, we chose Christopher Isherwood as the focus for this episode of From the Vault. Born in England in 1904, Isherwood came to the United States in 1939 and lived in Santa Monica, California from then until his death in 1986. Isherwood’s literary career began in 1928 with the publication of his first novel, All the Conspirators, and he is probably best known for The Berlin Stories, a collection of writing that fictionalized his life in pre-World War II Berlin; this book was later adapted as the stage play I am a Camera and the popular musical Caberet.

In this program, you will hear a number of rare recordings of Christopher Isherwood, including a recording of the play “The Ascent of F-6,” written by Isherwood and W.H. Auden in 1937 (adapted, produced and performed in 1962 at Pacifica station KPFK-Los Angeles by Isherwood and Auden themselves, among others), and an address by Isherwood called “A Personal Statement,” given at the University of California- Berkeley as part of the series The Writer at Mid-Century: The Moral Crisis (1962).

Later we’re joined by Sue Hodson, curator of literary manuscripts at the Huntington Library, who discusses the significance of Christopher Isherwood and the recordings held by Pacifica Radio Archives. Hodson joined the Pacifica Radio Archives’ advisory panel in 2003 to help select 50 significant recordings to be preserved under a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts; after identifying Pacifica’s Isherwood recordings as rare and important, they were designated for preservation through this grant. Pacifica Radio Archives later donated duplicates of its restored Isherwood recordings to the Huntington Library’s Christopher Isherwood Exhibit.

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 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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FTV 264 Master Class in Acting with Rod Steiger
Posted in Update on June 6th, 2011

This week on From the Vault we glimpse into the mind of one of the great actors of our time…

In 1967, Pacifica Radio produced a ten-part series called The Future of American Film with some of the great and up and coming filmmakers and actors of the day including Academy Award Winning screenwriter Paddy Chayefsky, director Francis Ford Coppola, and featured actor Rod Steiger, our focus today. Steiger is probably best known for winning the Best Actor Oscar for his portrayal of Chief of Police Bill alongside Sidney Poitier in the 1967 Southern murder thriller In the Heat of The Night, but his career began long before, performing alongside Marlon Brando in On The Waterfront (1954), singing his own part in the Academy Award winning film version of Oklahoma! (1955), and ultimately appearing in over 100 films during his career. In this episode, Rod Steiger discusses the joy of discovery in acting, an actor’s ability to create art and an insider’s peak at the business of Hollywood and Broadway.

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 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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FTV 263 The Freedom Riders’ 50th Anniversary
Posted in Update on May 27th, 2011

This week on From the Vault we celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the Freedom Rides that began in May of 1961. The Freedom Rides were an organized effort by Civil Rights activists to ride interstate buses to test two Supreme Court rulings: Boynton vs. Virginia, which prohibited racial segregation in restaurants and waiting rooms of bus terminals that crossed state lines, and Sarah Keys vs. Carolina Coach Company, which outlawed discrimination in interstate bus travel.

We begin with a 1960 conversation between legendary KPFA Public Affairs Director Elsa Knight Thompson and Civil Rights activist James Farmer, one of the co-founders of The Congress of Racial Equality (C.O.R.E.); this group helped organize and sponsor not only the Freedom Rides of 1961, but also the Sit-In Movement that began in 1960 at the Woolworth’s in Greensboro, North Carolina. Farmer and Thompson discuss the early non-violent campaign that would permeate the Civil Rights Movement, led by himself and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. – Chairman of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, John Lewis – first president of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, Roy Wilkins – Executive Director of the NAACP, and labor leader A. Phillip Randolph – Executive Director of the National Urban League. Then we turn our attention to another historic recording: Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee Field Secretary Matthew Jones reflecting on his role in the Civil Rights Movement, including the Sit-In Movement, the Freedom Rides, and later the voter registration drive leading up to the 1964 Presidential election.

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 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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FTV 262 Ganienkeh: An Iroquois Tale
Posted in Update on May 20th, 2011

This week on From the Vault, we continue our exploration of treaties signed and treaties broken between the United States and the indigenous tribes of North America with a presentation of Tim McGovern’s 1976 documentary Ganienkeh, an eye-opening probe into the theft of over nine million acres of land from the Six Nations Iroquois Confederacy, traditional land that was guaranteed and titled by six separate treaties, including a 1792 agreement signed by George Washington and Thomas Jefferson. Striking and profound, Ganienkeh excels at weaving together oral tradition passed down from tribal elders to tell the story of the Six Nations’ formation and prosperity, treaties made with and broken by the United States and Canada, and struggle since 1974 to formally reclaim their traditional homeland at Ganienkeh, an area in present-day northeastern New York.

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 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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FTV 261 Peggy Berryhill’s Why Wounded Knee?
Posted in Update on May 13th, 2011

This week on From the Vault we honor Peggy Berryhill, the 2011 winner of the prestigious Bader Award, given by the National Federation of Community Broadcasters in recognition of significant contributions to community radio. Peggy Berryhill’s work with Pacifica Radio stretches back several decades, starting with her insightful 1975 documentary Why Wounded Knee?, which chronicles the 71-day standoff in 1973 between federal law enforcement and indigenous American Indian tribes in the town of Wounded Knee, South Dakota. On February 27th, 1973, members of the American Indian Movement (AIM), led by Russell Means and Dennis Banks, occupied Wounded Knee (site of the 1890 massacre) to call attention to the deplorable conditions of the nearby Pine Ridge Indian Reservation and other reservations across America. As it might be, the United States Department of Justice responded with an onslaught of government officials, law enforcement officers, and soldiers with armored personnel carriers – surrounding the tiny town and actively engaging in firefights with AIM members for over two months. Why Wounded Knee? masterfully weaves actuality, music, and interviews together to examine the lives, problems, and struggles of Native Americans both on and off the reservation.

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 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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FTV 260 Manning Marable
Posted in Update on May 6th, 2011

This week on From The Vault we pay respect to one of the great American Historians, Manning Marable, who passed away on April 21, 2011. Born May 13, 1950, Marable was most recently professor of public affairs, history and African-American Studies at Columbia University, and had just completed a biography of human rights activist Malcolm X titled Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention. Although he never had the opportunity to discuss the biography on a book tour, Pacifica Radio produced a panel to commemorate on the birthday of Malcolm X in May of 1993, inviting four panelists, including Manning Marable, to explore Malcolm X’s philosophy and how his ideas relevant today and into the future. The resulting discussion addressed issues such as America a racist society, Malcolm X’s consideration as a hero for African Americans, and the evolution of Malcolm X’s positions over the course of his career as a Black Liberation leader.

Participants included Charlene Mitchell, Chair of the Committee of Correspondents and leader of the National Alliance Against Racism and Political Repression; Dr. Abdul Alim Muhammad, National Spokesman of the Honorable Louis Farrakhan and the Nation of Islam; Tom Porter,
General Manager of Pacifica station WPFW; and Manning Marable, Professor of History at the University of Colorado, Boulder.

Produced by Pacifica National Executive Producer Bill Wax.

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 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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