November Audio
A selection of Hearing Voices autumn audio hours, with several for Native American Heritage Month, several more for Veterans Day, a special sonic feast for Thanksgiving, and two HV hours devoted to World AIDS Awareness Day.
Native American Heritage Month
Native America (HV-112)
Canoe Nations of the Northwest
A tour of our nation’s First Nations: NPR’s Alex Chadwick rides into the Bitterroot Mountains with Natives and Forest Service workers. We paddle the Pacific Coast with the Canoe Nations of the Northwest. And native poets Henry Real Bird, Joy Harjo, John Trudell and Keith Secola sing us the stories of their homes and ancestors. Native America[more…]
Solidod (HV-142)
Solidod and her husband (painting: Solidod)
The Life and Times of Solidod Woods, the last remaining member of her village of Mescalero Apache who lived on the edge of Death Valley. Solidod[more…]
Ayahuasqueros (HV-141)
In May 2012, Soundwalk Collective traveled into the heart of the Peruvian Amazon to document the ancient chanting rituals of the Ayahuasquero, the Master Shaman and practitioner of plant medicine. The shaman consumes a potent brew made from the Ayahuasca, a sacred vine of the Amazonian jungle, the “vine of the souls”. The brew induces a powerful psychedelic experience that causes visual and auditory hallucinations. This hour we present a radio essay by anthropologist Jeremy Narby, a impressionistic mix of the recordings of the Collective’s time with this plant and these people. Ayahuasqueros[more…]
Veterans Day
Vet Vox (HV-104)
Troops in Iraq (photo: Jake Warga)
For Veterans Day: Vietnam, Korean, and World War Two vets, recorded by StoryCorps, along with a Marine Sergeant’s recent “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” discharge. And we hear plug into the iPods of active-duty troops in Iraq, aksing them what they’re listening to, and what their lives are like. Vet Vox[more…]
Prisoners of War (HV-128)
Prisoner of War soldiers, then and now
In December 1944 the Allies were closing in on Germany. HHitler had a desperate plan to save the Third Reich, a massive assault he believed would so demoralize that the Allies, they would seek a separate peace, leaving only the Russian army on the eastern front. On December 16 the Germans unleashed an offensive that would become the most brutal battle of the European war: the Battle of the Bulge. Nineteen thousand Americans were killed, about the same number were taken prisoner. We hear from four Americans soldiers about their time — before, during and after — in a German POW camp. Prisoners of War[more…]
Vietnam Vets (HV-071)
Bloods: Black Veterans of the Vietnam War (book cover
The sounds of Saigon, 1972: in combat, on the radio, in the streets, were recorded by Claude Johner for the Folkways recording “Good Morning, Vietnam. Doug Peacock, former Green Beret medic, deals with the PTSD of vets, including himself (interviewed by Scott Carrier). Rich Kepler’s war experiences were bottled up and about to burst, until he released them in his poetry (producer: Larry Massett). And producer Katie Davis talks with African American vets, a sound-portrait based on the book Bloods: Black Veterans of the Vietnam War: An Oral History by Wallace Terry. Vietnam Vets[more…]
Veterans Day (HV-075)
Sgt, Clint Douglas, Afghanistan.
Voices from the Armed Forces: “Project Healing Waters” teaches wounded warriors, including amputees, to fly-fish; we spend a day catching trout at Rose River Farm in Virginia. “Operation Homecoming” is an NEA book project featuring writings and readings by vets returning from the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts. “Winter Soldiers” is testimony by soldiers and marines at the Iraq Veterans Against the War hearings. “Swords to Plowshares” follows a member of the Farmer-Veteran Coalition: farmers helping veterans helping farmers. And the last Vet we hear is from Afghanistan; he’s a former Taliban. Veteran’s Day[more…]
Thanksgiving
Let’s Eat (HV-038)
First Thanksgiving (detail) by Jean Louis Gerome Ferris (1863-1930)
An audio Thanksgiving feast. We binge on fattening stories, then purge with a documentary on refusing food. Scott Carrier tours a “Turkey Ranch,” following the gobbler from farmyard to frozen food. Joe Frank describes a typically twisted family “Thanksgiving Dinner” (from his program “Pilgrim”). Dean Olscher goes “Chowhounding in St. Paul,” searching for Hmong food, with cellphone assistance from Chowhound Jim Leff. And Annie Cheney offers a touching document of her eating disorder, “Concerning Breakfast” from Jay Allison’s Life Stories series. Let’s Eat[more…]
World AIDS Awareness Day
Portrait of a Plague (HV-039)
Baragwanath Hospital, Soweto, South Africa (photo: Sue Johnson)
Sister Agnes Ramashiga’s Radio Diaries of “Just Another Day At the World’s Biggest Hospital,” Soweto — 2000 patients check in daily, half HIV positive. Teenager documents their HIV “Positive Life,” by American RadioWorks. Poet Lisa Buscani is “Counting” on her mom’s health advice. “And Trouble Came: An African AIDS Diary” is Laura Kaminsky’s compositon for viola, cello, piano, and stories of Tamakloe: warrior, tailor, AIDS victim. Life-saving meds brought Krandall Kraus back from the dead, like “Lazarus.” And dying mot her’s writes her son “Letters to Butchie,” by Sound Portraits. Portrait of a Plague[more…]
AIDS Diaries (HV-077)
Documenting a disease: “Thembi’s Diary” follows a South African teenager as she records her life with AIDS, produced by Radio Diaries. In “LiveHopeLove” poet Kwame Dawes travels Jamaica talking to the many HIV/AIDS sufferers on his small island, produced by Outer Voices for the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting. Barbara and Dori Bryon are a “Family with AIDS,” the mother unknowingly passed the virus to her daughter in the womb. African children orphaned by AIDS store keepsakes of their parents in a “Memory Box.” produced by the Africa Learning Channel. And artists declare AIDS Awareness Day a “Day without Art.” AIDS Diaries[more…]