democracyroad

Winners and Losers: Welcome, Takesha Martinez, Mayor of Hagerstown

 
Enlighten Radio Presents
Winners and Losers: Welcome, Takesha Martinez, Mayor of Hagerstown
Ordinary citizens can confront the powers of the world, and make poetry while they work.
 
 
Fridays, 7:30ish AM
Hosts: Karen Valentine, John Case
 
Special Guests:
James Boyd, Takesha Martinez
James Boyd joins Karen and John with a special guest: Takesha Ann Martinez, Mayor of Hagerstown, Md. Takesha's story is one of the most powerful one in US local politics.
This Episode Recorded August 20, 2024 at the Red Caboose Studio, Harpers Ferry, WV
 
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The Poetry Show: Classical Muses

 
 
Enlighten Radio Presents
 
Prelude to a Lifetime of Preludes
 
 
Could there really have been life before Bach? And what about Passion Without Discipline? Angela Torres, Lars Gustafson, Diane Seuss, Nikki Wallschlaeger
Broadcast LIVE Wednesdays, 10 AM on https://player.enlightenradio.org
Hosts: Janet Harrison, John Case
This Episode Recorded August 28, 2024
Prelude and Fugue
by Angela Narciso Torres Something of late November sifting through a window brings back this prelude-
two voices blend, I lean into the keys, draw back when the voices part.
How the body remembers-Señora V in a floral sundress, rose talcum hand soft
on the curve of my spine imprinting what she knew of love and time. How could I know
what those notes would mean decades of preludes ahead.
 
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The Poetry Show: Jazz, Gin, Bourbon? Does not matter where ya been...

 
 
Enlighten Radio Presents
 
Soledad Grandfather
 
 
The Featured poem is Robert Hayden's 'Soledad'. It turns out that Case's speculation about a poetical connection to the Soledad Prison rebellion of 1971 and the "Soledad Brothers" is complete fantasy! Hayden's poem does address imprisonment, and race, and addiction, but first appeared in the 1940's.
Broadcast LIVE Wednesdays, 10 AM on https://player.enlightenradio.org
Hosts: Janet Harrison, John Case
This Episode Recorded August 14, 2024
Soledad
by Robert Hayden
(And I, I am no longer of that world)
Naked, he lies in the blinded room chain-smoking, cradled by drugs, by jazz as never by any lover's cradling flesh.
Miles Davis coolly blows for him: O pena negra, sensual Flamenco blues; the red clay foxfire voice of Lady Day
(lady of the pure black magnolias) sobsings her sorrow and loss and fare you well, dryweeps the pain his treacherous jailers
have released him from for a while. His fears and his unfinished self await him down in the anywhere streets.
He hides on the dark side of the moon, takes refuge in a stained-glass cell, flies to a clockless country of crystal.
Only the ghost of Lady Day knows where he is. Only the music. And he swings oh swings: beyond complete immortal now.
 
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The Poetry Show: The Blues Poetica

 
 
Enlighten Radio Presents
 
So weary....I might as well be Dead.
 
 
Poetry inspired by the Blues music traditions. Langston Hughes, WH Auden, Shelly Ann Williams, Billy Collins
Broadcast LIVE Wednesdays, 10 AM on https://player.enlightenradio.org
Hosts: Janet Harrison, John Case
This Episode Recorded August 7, 2024
Riverbank Blues
Sterling A. Brown 1901 – 1989
A man git his feet set in a sticky mudbank, A man git dis yellow water in his blood, No need for hopin', no need for doin', Muddy streams keep him fixed for good.
Little Muddy, Big Muddy, Moreau and Osage, Little Mary's, Big Mary's, Cedar Creek, Flood deir muddy water roundabout a man's roots, Keep him soaked and stranded and git him weak.
Lazy sun shinin' on a little cabin, Lazy moon glistenin' over river trees; Ole river whisperin', lappin' 'gainst de long roots: "Plenty of rest and peace in these . . ."
Big mules, black loam, apple and peach trees, But seems lak de river washes us down Past de rich farms, away from de fat lands, Dumps us in some ornery riverbank town.
Went down to the river, sot me down an' listened, Heard de water talkin' quiet, quiet lak an' slow: "Ain' no need fo' hurry, take yo' time, take yo' time . . ." Heard it sayin'—"Baby, hyeahs de way life go . . ."
Dat is what it tole me as I watched it slowly rollin', But somp'n way inside me rared up an' say, "Better be movin' . . . better be travelin' . . . Riverbank'll git you ef you stay . . ."
Towns are sinkin' deeper, deeper in de riverbank, Takin' on de ways of deir sulky Ole Man— Takin' on his creepy ways, takin' on his evil ways, "Bes' git way, a long way . . . whiles you can. Man got his sea too lak de Mississippi Ain't got so long for a whole lot longer way, Man better move some, better not git rooted Muddy water fool you, ef you stay . . ."
From The Collected Poems of Sterling A. Brown by Sterling A. Brown.
 
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Enlighten Radio: The Storytelling Hour: August 26: Birthdays, Saints Days and Celebrations

The Last Stop Cafe: Is Football Dying?

 
Enlighten Radio Presents
The Last Stop Cafe: Is Football Dying?
Is Pro Football a sport anymore? Or Just a Biz?
 
 
Broadcasts LIVE, Mondays, 7:15 AM Eastern
Hosts: Mike Cuccherini, John Case, James Boyd
The Turd Sandwich Cafe has been sold. It found a better offer. The Last Stop Cafe cannot guarantee you won't be served a shit sandwich by Fate. But you do not have to eat it here. Outside -- a big decision, maybe a big mistake, awaits. But in here, it's a game -- and we are playing along, noting the desert, wolves, mountains and abyss beyond.
This Episode Recorded August 26, 2024 at the Red Caboose Studio, Harpers Ferry, WV
 
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Enlighten Radio: The Storytelling Hour: August 19: More Mirrors

The Poetry Show: The Theme of Song

 
Enlighten Radio Presents
 
That Singer Stole Sy Song:
From the Heel to the Throat
 
 
Poems on the theme of Song from Alice Ostriker, WB Yeats, Alan Shapiro, Elizabeth Bishop, and Susan Jackson, and Langston Hughes
Broadcast LIVE Wednesdays, 10 AM on https://player.enlightenradio.org
Hosts: Janet Harrison, John Case
This Episode Recorded July 31, 2024
 
The Radio Is Playing Ray Charles
by Susan Jackson
Georgia, Georgia the whole day through… just an old sweet song… I’m leaning into you in the smoke and the slow dancing those low notes working their way up my spine stirring up the night throaty voices in the corner singing along our hips touching like moonlight through the pines moonlight like a folded handkerchief slanting through the window that night Georgia, Georgia just a sweet and simple song… and our whole life laying out like a road still ahead of us.
 
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