February 2012
85 posts
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How a Freed Slave's Response to His Master Can...
by David McGuire, guest contributor
As we begin Black History Month, here’s a letter from 1865 making the rounds. In it, Jourdan Anderson, a former slave, responds to his former master Colonel P.H. Anderson, who had written to invite him back to the plantation — this time, with pay.
“Mandy says she would be afraid to go back without some proof that you were disposed to treat us justly and...
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Bourbon Barrels in a Plantation Home
by Susan Leem, associate producer
Barrels of the Vann House basement.
While researching the Chief Vann House in Chatsworth, Georgia, we happened upon these vivid images of bourbon barrels in the basement of the historic Cherokee plantation home. A hearty thanks to photographer John A. Lees, who was kind enough to permit us to use his photos in a slideshow for our recent show “Toward Living...
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“Their goddess of love is a very fascinating and complex idea. She is in fact...”
– —Maya Deren (1917-1961) describing the Vodou spirit Erzulie.
The experimental filmmaker was the first person to win a Guggenheim Fellowship for film. She used her grant to travel to in Haiti during the 1940s, immersing herself in Vodou rituals. Her 1953 book Divine Horsemen: The Voodoo Gods of...
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WatchWe’re in the audio business and are marveling. We can only imagine the possibilities of layering the hand movements of our favorite public radio personalities and putting them to music (think Brian Eno adapting his generative music app) to form some type of chamber piece.
From theatlanticvideo:
At the Intersection of Music and Data, Visualizing a Drummer’s Movements
Bartek Szlachcic, an...
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Overcoming Islamophobia in U.S. Presidential...
by Muqtedar Khan, guest contributor
A Muslim man holds a protest sign on Pennsylvania Ave NW in front of the White House. (photo: M.V. Jantsen/Flickr, cc by-nc-sa 2.0)
Islam has become an important part of American discourse leading up to the 2012 federal elections and candidates everywhere appear eager to take a position on Islam for political gain. Across the country, rising Islamophobia has...
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Ancient Jewish Scrolls Found in North Afghanistan →
When we think of Afghanistan, we often forget there was a medieval Jewry that is part of that region’s story. Hopefully, discovering a cache of ancient documents will unearth this rich history piece by piece.
~Trent Gilliss, senior editor
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“A life is not important except in the impact it has on other lives.”
– —Jackie Robinson (January 31, 1919–October 24, 1972), from the epitaph engraved on his tombstone in Brooklyn, New York
The Hall of Fame baseball player is credited with being the first African American to play in the Major Leagues, debuting with the Brooklyn Dodgers. He not only excelled...
January 2012
69 posts
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Civil Pen Pals as a Way to Know the Other
by Susan Leem, associate producer
After listening to our On Being’s Civil Conversations series, Michigander Carolyn Peterson wrote us expressing her hope for real-life opportunities to engage civilly with others differing in perspective:
“I would like someone to set up a website in which people could find political pen pals for civil, substantive conversations. For example, I am a...
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Shared Paradise: Church of Kopimism Reshapes...
by Robert M. Geraci, guest contributor
There’s a new flying spaghetti monster in the spiritual marketplace: the Church of Kopimism. The newly “established” religion has become the talk of the internet, in part because of its transparently “unreligious” outlook and in part because of the group’s social perspective. The Church of Kopimism, which received official recognition as a religious...
