This week on From the Vault we tackle the discussion on comprehensive immigration reform legislation… from a ‘then and now’ perspective.

In 1982, Armando Valdez, the Director of the Center for Chicano Research at Stanford University, hosted a discussion exploring the historical, emotional and legal issues raised by immigration reform; panelists included Joaquin Avila (President and Lead Counsel of the Mexican American Legal Defense Fund), Elizabeth Martinez (a Chicana feminist well-known for her work 500 Years of Chicano History in Pictures), and Ignacio de la Fuente (member of the International Molders and Allied Workers Union, Local 164).

For a contemporary perspective on immigration law reform, we share a recent conversation with Loyola Law School Immigrant Justice Clinic Co-director Marisa Montes, along with Alejandro Barajas, staff attorney.

From the Vault is presented as part of the Pacifica Radio Archives Preservation and Access Project, funded in part by an award from the GRAMMY Foundation and the National Historical Publications and Records Commission at the National Archives and Records Administration, and past grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Ford Foundation, and the American Archive funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, along with the generous support of Pacifica Radio Listeners. We also thank our partners and collaborators at the Pop-Up Archive, Amara, Other Minds Archives, George Blood Audio, and the California Audio Visual Preservation Project.

PURCHASE a copy of this program or learn more about 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.

This week on From the Vault we present a special interview with musician Van Morrison from 1971.

Van Morrison, after spending the 1960’s in New York, headed west to Marin County, California – just across the Golden Gate Bridge from San Francisco, and started recording his Tupelo Honey album. It was then that KPFA’s Dan McCloskey caught up with Van Morrison at his home, and they spoke at length about Van Morrison’s upbringing into Belfast, Ireland, early musical influences and successes, and his emergence as on the world’s leading songwriters and singers. The interview, in its original form, is masterfully cut with some of Van Morrison’s biggest hits.

From the Vault is presented as part of the Pacifica Radio Archives Preservation and Access Project, funded in part by an award from the GRAMMY Foundation and the National Historical Publications and Records Commission at the National Archives and Records Administration, and past grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Ford Foundation, and the American Archive funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, along with the generous support of Pacifica Radio Listeners. We also thank our partners and collaborators at the Pop-Up Archive, Amara, Other Minds Archives, George Blood Audio, and the California Audio Visual Preservation Project.

PURCHASE a copy of this program or learn more about 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.

This week on From the Vault we spend an hour with Dr. Bonnie Morris, who has devoted the last three decades to documenting and preserving the culture of the women’s music movement. Morris, whose book Eden Built by Eves (1999) was a finalist for the Lambda Literary Awards, and was the first comprehensive volume on women’s music festivals and their importance in shaping late 20th century lesbian identity, currently lectures at Georgetown University and George Washington University.

In this episode, Morris reads from her newest chapbook “Sixes and Sevens,” a non-fiction narrative of growing up in the 1960’s. An insightful look back at some of the most important moments in her young life, this reading was originally presented live on Pacifica Radio KPFK Los Angeles, during a broadcast of the radio show Travel Tips for Aztlan.

From the Vault is presented as part of the Pacifica Radio Archives Preservation and Access Project, funded in part by an award from the GRAMMY Foundation and the National Historical Publications and Records Commission at the National Archives and Records Administration, and past grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Ford Foundation, and the American Archive funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, along with the generous support of Pacifica Radio Listeners. We also thank our partners and collaborators at the Pop-Up Archive, Amara, Other Minds Archives, George Blood Audio, and the California Audio Visual Preservation Project.

PURCHASE a copy of this program or learn more about 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.

This week on From the Vault, we celebrate we celebrate the life of Al Jarreau, who had a connection with Pacifica beginning in 1968 that held strong until his death on February 12, 2017. There is no one better to help weave Jarreau’s early beginnings than Pacifica host Julio Martinez – musician, writer and host of KPFK’s Arts in Review, a program centered around theater, music, cabaret and dance. Martinez was Jarreau’s musical partner in the early years, from 1967 to 1975.

Woven into the rich narrative by Martinez, we’ll hear rare live performances of Love Not Now, A Day in the Life, Better than Anything, Lovely Lady Light Up, Something to Lose, and Wonder Well.

From the Vault is presented as part of the Pacifica Radio Archives Preservation and Access Project, funded in part by an award from the GRAMMY Foundation and the National Historical Publications and Records Commission at the National Archives and Records Administration, and past grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Ford Foundation, and the American Archive funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, along with the generous support of Pacifica Radio Listeners. We also thank our partners and collaborators at the Pop-Up Archive, Amara, Other Minds Archives, George Blood Audio, and the California Audio Visual Preservation Project.

PURCHASE a copy of this program or learn more about 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.

This week on From the Vault, we continue our celebration of Black History Month with a unique Pacifica concert recording featuring reggae singer Judy Mowatt (one-time member of the I-Three’s and backup singer for Bob Marley and the Wailers). In November 1983, Mowatt appeared live with the One Vibe Band at SOB’s in New York City (co-presented by WBAI-FM), performing “Only a Woman”, “Down in the Valley”, “Slave Queen”, “Concrete Jungle”, “Big Woman”, “Many Are Called”, “Sister’s Chant”, “One Love” (featuring Peter Tosh), “Only a Woman”, “Hush Baby Mother”, “You Don’t Care”, “The First Cut”, and “You’re my People.”

From the Vault is presented as part of the Pacifica Radio Archives Preservation and Access Project, funded in part by an award from the GRAMMY Foundation and the National Historical Publications and Records Commission at the National Archives and Records Administration, and past grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Ford Foundation, and the American Archive funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, along with the generous support of Pacifica Radio Listeners. We also thank our partners and collaborators at the Pop-Up Archive, Amara, Other Minds Archives, George Blood Audio, and the California Audio Visual Preservation Project.

PURCHASE a copy of this program or learn more about 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.

This week on From the Vault we spend some time with leading intellectual Noam Chomsky, who delivered a speech in 1992 at an event organized by WBAI in New York called Creeping Fascism. Here, Chomsky presents the notion that there is a misperception of American government as a service for society – by exploring ideas such as the facade of Democracy, the failure of international law, and how high-technology industries subsidize global militarism. Further, Chomsky argues that because global capitalism has been the major drive in U.S. politics since World War II, there is left little or no room to realize any potential benefits of socialism.

From the Vault is presented as part of the Pacifica Radio Archives Preservation and Access Project, funded in part by an award from the GRAMMY Foundation and the National Historical Publications and Records Commission at the National Archives and Records Administration, and past grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Ford Foundation, and the American Archive funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, along with the generous support of Pacifica Radio Listeners. We also thank our partners and collaborators at the Pop-Up Archive, Amara, Other Minds Archives, George Blood Audio, and the California Audio Visual Preservation Project.

PURCHASE a copy of this program or learn more about 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.

This week on From the Vault, we spend some time with experimental composer and musician Frank Zappa. Interviewed by Charles Amerkhanian on April 15th, 1991, Zappa speaks about his political philosophy and ambitions – and considers a serious bid for the US Presidency of the United States; he also examines the country’s involvement in the Gulf War, the problems with the Federal government, and the promise of Libertarianism.

From the Vault is presented as part of the Pacifica Radio Archives Preservation and Access Project, funded in part by an award from the GRAMMY Foundation and the National Historical Publications and Records Commission at the National Archives and Records Administration, and past grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Ford Foundation, and the American Archive funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, along with the generous support of Pacifica Radio Listeners. We also thank our partners and collaborators at the Pop-Up Archive, Amara, Other Minds Archives, George Blood Audio, and the California Audio Visual Preservation Project.

PURCHASE a copy of this program or learn more about 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.

This week on From the Vault, we celebrate the life and work of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. with two speeches he gave near the end of his life – two speeches that rarely get much attention.

By 1967, Dr. Martin Luther King’s strategy for organizing had evolved beyond just the Civil Rights Movement; he clearly saw how resources that could be helping the poor communities were being absorbed by the country’s military budget. King began strategizing for a broader-based Poor People’s Campaign that transcended Black communities, and instead focused outreach on any American who poor, regardless of race.

You will this topic discussed our first selection, a February 25th, 1967 address titled The Casualties of the War in Vietnam, which was sponsored by the Nation Magazine at a Nation Institute Conference in Los Angeles. Our second selection, titled Luncheon Address at California Democratic Council, shares a similar thread and was given in Anaheim, California on March 16, 1968, just weeks before his assassination.

From the Vault is presented as part of the Pacifica Radio Archives Preservation and Access Project, funded in part by an award from the GRAMMY Foundation and the National Historical Publications and Records Commission at the National Archives and Records Administration, and past grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Ford Foundation, and the American Archive funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, along with the generous support of Pacifica Radio Listeners. We also thank our partners and collaborators at the Pop-Up Archive, Amara, Other Minds Archives, George Blood Audio, and the California Audio Visual Preservation Project.

PURCHASE a copy of this program or learn more about 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.

This week on From the Vault we reach back to July 8th, 1996 and listen to a radio show called We the People, hosted by former and future California Governor Jerry Brown. We The People debuted on Pacifica Radio in early 1994 and ran until 1997, when Brown retired the series to begin what was to be a successful run for Mayor of Oakland, California in 1998.

In this episode, Brown interviews playwright and political historian Gore Vidal, who is at the top of his game in 1996. Vidal comments on the current state of media consolidation and the erosion of civil liberties as guaranteed in the Bill of Rights, with plenty of colorful historical anecdotes.

From the Vault is presented as part of the Pacifica Radio Archives Preservation and Access Project, funded in part by an award from the GRAMMY Foundation and the National Historical Publications and Records Commission at the National Archives and Records Administration, and past grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Ford Foundation, and the American Archive funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, along with the generous support of Pacifica Radio Listeners. We also thank our partners and collaborators at the Pop-Up Archive, Amara, Other Minds Archives, George Blood Audio, and the California Audio Visual Preservation Project.

PURCHASE a copy of this program or learn more about 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.

This week on From the Vault we present three original holiday radio dramas written by Julio Martinez, host of Arts in Review on KPFK in Los Angeles. First, we hear O. Henry’s classic 1905 tale The Gift of the Magi, then the story of the 1914 Christmas Truce during World War One, and finally Christmas in Tinseltown: the story of Irving Berlin’s White Christmas.

From the Vault is presented as part of the Pacifica Radio Archives Preservation and Access Project, funded in part by an award from the GRAMMY Foundation and the National Historical Publications and Records Commission at the National Archives and Records Administration, and past grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Ford Foundation, and the American Archive funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, along with the generous support of Pacifica Radio Listeners. We also thank our partners and collaborators at the Pop-Up Archive, Amara, Other Minds Archives, George Blood Audio, and the California Audio Visual Preservation Project.

PURCHASE a copy of this program or learn more about 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.