Troy-Pike Cultural Arts Center Executive Director Morgan Drinkard

Morgan Drinkard

Visual Arts program Manager Elliot Knight talks with Troy-Pike Cultural Arts Center Executive Director Morgan Drinkard.   Drinkard talks about the history of TPCAC, their facilities in downtown Troy, current  programming and partnerships throughout the community. (more)

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David Ivey, Sacred Harp singer

David Ivey

Deborah Boykin interviews David Ivey, a Sacred Harp singer and one of nine recipients of the National Heritage Fellowship awarded by the National Endowment for the Arts. In addition to the fellowship, he discusses his participation in the Cold Mountain soundtrack, establishingCamp Fa Sol La, and sacred harp singing as a long-standing tradition in his family.  (more)

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Martha Pullen of Huntsville

Heirloom sewing is the subject of this week’s program on Alabama Arts Radio.  Folklorist Anne Kimzey interviews Martha Pullen of Huntsville, an internationally-known sewing teacher, author, publisher and host of public television’s popular show Martha’s Sewing Room. (more)

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National Assembly of State Arts Agencies Jonathan Katz

National Assembly of State Arts Agencies
Jonathan Katz

This week Executive Director of the Arts Council, Al Head, talks with Jonathan Katz, long-time director of the National Assembly of State Arts Agencies about issues of national interest and relevance including congressional funding for the National Endowment for the Arts. Other topics include the public value of the arts, the impact of the emerging digital revolution on the arts and the current emphasis on arts education. Katz was in Alabama recently speaking at a statewide leadership institute for directors of arts organizations. 

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Alabama Bluesman Isaiah "Ike" Zimmerman

Alabama Bluesman Isaiah "Ike" Zimmerman

In June of 2011 a group of relatives came together in Alabama to commemorate a common bond, the late Isaiah "Ike" Zimmerman, an Alabama native originally from Grady. After making his home in Beauregard, Mississippi in the 1930s, he became a mentor to bluesman guitarist Robert Johnson. An accomplished blues guitarist and performer himself, Ike Zimmerman and his wife Ruth took Johnson into their home for over a year where Ike generously taught Johnson, then known as R.L., what he knew about the blues.  In this program Grey Brennan, Marketing Manager at the Alabama Department of Travel and Tourism and Steve Grauberger of ASCA interview two daughters of Ike Zimmerman, Loretha Z. Smith and Nelly Ruth Brown with their sons James Smith and Oscar Brown, to try and find more information about this interesting Alabamian and his relationship to Robert Johnson.

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Legendary Louvin Brothers of Sand Mountain

This program is a broadcast of a 1989 Radiovisions production. It features Russell Gulley Executive Director of the Big Wills Arts Council interviewing Charlie Louvin of the legendary Louvin Brothers of Sand Mountain. The program includes a narrative history of the Louvins as well as various recordings made by them. Russell Gulley and the Big Wills Arts Council of Ft. Payne Alabama produced the Radiovisions series that were released originally on cassette tape.

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Alabama Blues Project Summer Camp

Alabama Blues Project Summer Camp

This week Summer Upchurch interviews Alabama Blues Project Program Director Cara Lynn Teague and musician Bruce Andrewsabout the Alabama Blues Project's annual summer blues camp.

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Performing Arts/Dance Fellowship RecipientSudha Raghuram

Sudha Raghuram

Sudha Raghuram with a student

This week Summer Upchurch interviews Performing Arts/Dance Fellowship Recipient Sudha Raghuram, a performer and teacher of Bharatanatyam the most ancient of all classical dance forms of India. The main features of Bharatanatyam are "Abhinaya" (expression), "Rasa" (emotion), and "Mudras" (hand gestures).  Sudha talks about how she learned to dance in India as a child, her performances, aspects of costuming, and techniques of instruction for her students in Montgomery.

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Jessica Peterson proprietor of theSouthern Letterpress

This week on Alabama Arts radio, Visual Arts program Manager Elliot Knight talks with Jessica Peterson. Jessica is the proprietor of theSouthern Letterpress shop in downtown Northport and is recipient of a 2014 ASCA Visual Arts Fellowship. Listen to Jessica talk about the process of letterpress printing, her own creative philosophy, and what projects she will be working on over the next year. 

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Chloe Collins, the Executive Director of the Sidewalk Film Festival

This week, Summer Upchurch talks with Chloe Collins, the Executive Director of the Sidewalk Film Festival in Birmingham, Al and a recent ASCA fellowship recipient. Chloe talks about the process of producing the Sidewalk Film Festival every year and what it means for the Birmingham community as well as the independent film industry.

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Mark Leputa ASCA Fellowship recipient

This week on Alabama Arts Radio, Visual Arts Program Manager Elliot Knight talks with hot glass artist Mark Leputa.  Mark works at Orbix Hot Glass in Little River Canyon and is a 2013 ASCA Fellowship recipient.  Mark discusses how he got started working with glass, his recent solo exhibition in the Netherlands and talks about his artistic inspirations and process.  Learn more about mark and view his art at www.markleupta.com

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Craig Wedderspoon

Summer Upchurch, an ASCA intern, interviews Craig Wedderspoon, a 2013 Visual Arts Fellowship Recipient, in his studio in Tuscaloosa about his philosophies on teaching and art-making. Craig is an Associate Professor of Sculpture and 3D Design at the University of Alabama. His large metal and wooden installations are featured in Woods Quad at the UA Campus, and he is frequently commissioned to design permanent outdoor installations in locations around the United States. His upcoming exhibit at the Birmingham Museum of Art will begin on December 15th.

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ASCA Music Fellowship Recipient Kristi Tingle Higginbotham

Yvette Jones-Smedley interviews 2013 ASCA Music Fellowship Recipient Kristi Tingle Higginbotham.  Kristi, who has a distinguished stage career in Birmingham and is a frequent soloist with symphony orchestras in the U.S. and Canada, shares some age old wisdom for having longevity as a vocal artist in the Millennial Generation of Music.

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Claire Lynch

Claire Lynch, member of the Alabama Bluegrass Hall of Fame and IBMA award-winning vocalist, talks with Deborah Boykin about her experiences as a bluegrass singer, songwriter and bandleader. The program features songs from her most recent project, Dear Sister. The title song, which Lynch co-wrote with Louise Branscomb, is based on acollection of letters from a Confederate soldier to his sister in Alabama. (more)

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Mary Allison Haynie, director of the Alabama Folklife Association

This week Joey Brackner, director of the Alabama Center for Traditional Culture, talks with Mary Allison Haynie, director of the Alabama Folklife Association.  They discuss the AFA's traveling exhibit "Alabama in the Making" as well as upcoming workshops for researchers and teachers.

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Chantel Acevedo

Anne Kimzey interviews author Chantel Acevedo, recipient of a 2013 Literary Arts Fellowship from the Alabama State Council on the Arts.  During the program Ms. Acevedo reads from her recent work and discusses the influence of her Cuban-American heritage on her writing.  Acevedo is a professor of Creative Writing at Auburn University.  Her book Love and Ghost Letters won the 2006 Latino International Book Award for Best Historical Fiction. (more)

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Quinton Cockrell

This program is a rebroadcast of Yvette Jones-Smedley, Performing Arts Program Manager, interviewing Quinton Cockrell, ASCA’s 2006-2007 Theatre Fellowship recipient. Discussed are his plans to develop new works for the American stage and about his career as a professional actor in New York and in regional theatres across the country.  (more)

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Bob Sain and Daryn Glassbrook

This week on Alabama Arts Radio, Visual Arts Program Manager Elliot Knight talks with Bob Sain and Daryn Glassbrook of the Centre for the Living Arts in Mobile. The Centre for the Living Arts recently unveiled the Futures Project, which features new artwork from a variety of international artists, as well as community programming throughout the Mobile area.  The Futures Project is on display at Space 301 through January 2014. (more)

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Braxton Schuffert, Original Drifting Cowboy

Braxton Schuffert

Alabama musician Braxton Schuffert, a country singer and songwriter who was one of Hank Williams’s original Drifting Cowboys, died on April 26 at the age of 97. This program is a rebroadcast of his 2011 interview with folkorist Deborah Boykin.  Mr. Schuffert talks about his early life, his experience performing on WSFA radio and his long friendship with Williams, which began when Schuffert made a delivery to the boarding house run by Hank's mother. He also describes the experience of co-writing a song with Williams and talks about his own compositions.

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Alan and KarenJabbou

Karen Singer Jabbour and Alan Jabbour

Photo by Philip E. Coyle

This week Alabama Center for Traditional Culture Director Joey Brackner interviews Alan and KarenJabbour about their book published in 2010, Decoration Day in the Mountains: Traditions of Cemetery Decorations in the Southern Appalachians.

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Marcus Johnson and the Bay City Brass Band

Marcus Johnson and the Bay City Brass Band

This week's program is a rebroadcast of Anne Kimzey interviewing Marcus Johnson of the Bay City Brass Band of Mobile. They discuss brass band history and music in the Mobile Mardi Gras tradition.

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2013 Southern Makers Event Montgomery Alabama

This week, Visual Arts Program Manager Elliot Knight discusses the Southern Makers event, which will be held Saturday, May 4 from 2-7pm in the Union Station Train shed in downtown Montgomery. Southern Makers is a one day event celebrating Alabama creativity and innovation by bringing together highly curated, handpicked top talent - artists, chefs, breweries, craftsmen, designers - for one fantastic gathering to explore the contemporary side of Alabama's heritage of textiles, music, craftsmanship, and food.  Elliot talks with event organizers Andrea Jean (Goodwyn Mills and Cawood) and Edwin Marty (E.A.T. South) about the event and what will be offered on May 4.  Elliot also talks with fashion designer Natalie Chaninand woodworker Ethan Sawyer, who will both be at the event. 

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Alabama Dance Theatre Artistic Director Kitty Seale

In this program performing arts program manager Yvette Jones-Smedley interviews Alabama Dance Theatre Artistic Director Kitty Seale. (more)

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David Ivey and Jeff Sheppard Camp Fasola 2013

 David Ivey and Jeff Sheppard
Camp Fasola

This program is a rebroadcast of Joey Brackner interviewing David Ivey and Jeff Sheppard about the annual Camp Fasola held each year at Camp Lee near Anniston Alabama.

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8th annual Alabama Book Festival 2013

2013 Alabama Book Festival

This week Anne Kimzey interviews Jeanie Thompson, executive director of the Alabama Writers’ Forum, about the 8th annual Alabama Book Festival to be held Saturday, April 20th in Montgomery’s Old Alabama Town.  Jeanie will give a preview of the more than 40 authors appearing at the Book Festival plus special features such as the poetry tent and children’s area, as well as outreach activities for students and teachers.

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Artistic Director of the Plantation Heirs, Ernestine Robinson

Artistic Director of the Plantation Heirs, Ernestine Robinson

This show is a repeat of Steve Grauberger interviewing Auburn native Ernestine Hill Robinson about her life as a singer and the artistic director of the a cappella Negro Spiritual singing group, The Plantation Heirs. Musical examples are included in the program.

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Shweta Gamble, Executive Director of the Kentuck Arts Center in Northport, Ala

Shweta Gamble Executive Director of Kentuck Arts Center

This week, Visual Arts Program Manager Elliot Knight interviews Shweta Gamble, Executive Director of the Kentuck Arts Center in Northport, Ala.  Shweta discusses what the first six months on the job have been like for her at Kentuck and how her previous experience as a designer at a newspaper prepared her to take the lead in her new role.  The annual Kentuck Arts Festival is well-known throughout the region and is held the third weekend every October, but Shweta shares about the numerous and ongoing events, projects, and opportunities happening throughout the year at the Kentuck Art Center. 

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Leah Tucker, Executive Director of the Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame and theCarver Theatre in Birmingham

Steve Grauberger interviews Leah Tucker, Executive Director of the Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame and theCarver Theatre in Birmingham.  They discuss the history of the Carver Theatre and the Hall of Fame as well as various events and services provided by the organization. (more)

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Adam Vines, 2013 ASCA Literature Fellowship recipient.

Jeanie Thompson, executive director of the Alabama Writers’ Forum,interviews poet Adam Vines, 2013 ASCA Literature Fellowship recipient. Thompson talks with Vines about his latest collection of poems,The Coal Life, which was a 2012 finalist for the Miller William, Arkansas Poetry Prize. Exploring the rich metaphors of several generations of his coal-mining family, Vines uncovers his personal connection to Alabama’s landscape. Vines also talks with Thompson about his recent trip to New York City to visit museums and pursue his interest in ekphrastic poems (poems about works of art). He and Thompson also discuss how poems are made, what makes poetry “poetry,” and how poets contribute to the community of writers. Originally from Birmingham, Vines is Assistant Professor of English at the University of Alabama Birmingham, where he co-edits The Birmingham Poetry Review. (more)

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Old Alabama Town Curator Carole King

This week Elliot Knight, Visual Arts Program Manager, talks with Carole King about the 2013 Festival of Alabama Fiber Arts. The festival, now in its second year, will be held March 22nd and 23rd atOld Alabama Town in downtown Montgomery and will feature an exhibition of diverse fiber arts, demonstrating artists, workshops, and activities for the whole family to enjoy. 

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ASCA Visual Arts Fellowship recipients, John Douglas Powers and Sarah Cusimano Miles

This week Visual Arts Fellowship recipients, John Douglas Powers and Sarah Cusimano Miles, talk with Visual Arts Program Manager Elliot Knight about their artistic inspirations and processes, and the relationship between their personal work and teaching practice.  Powers, Miles, and three other recent ASCA Fellowship recipients have work on display until March 29, 2013 in the Alabama Artists Gallery in Montgomery.  (more)

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Diana Van Fossen of the Alabama Shakespeare Festival

Arts in Education Program Manager, Diana Green, interviews Diana Van Fossen of the Alabama Shakespeare Festival. Diana is the wife of artistic director, Geoffrey Sherman and is an accomplished actor and director in her own right. In this interview she discusses her process in the direction of Much Ado About Nothing, The Trojan Womenand her current direction of To Kill a Mockingbird.  (more)

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Alabama Poetry Out Loud finals February 18th 2013

In this program Arts in Education Program Manager, Diana Green, interviews students and teachers who attended the Finding Your Voice Workshop hosted by the Tuscaloosa Arts Council for Region 4. Some of these students were selected to participate in the State Poetry Out Loud finals February 18th. Green also interviews Diana Van Fossen, of the Alabama Shakespeare about the Shakespeare Festival partnership. (more)

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Alabama Craft Council director Scott Bennett

Visual Arts Program Manager Elliot Knight interviews Alabama Craft Council director Scott Bennett about the 28th annual Alabama Clay Conference.  The conference will be held February 21-24 in Birmingham.  Bennett talks about the history of the Clay Conference, the new collaboration between the Clay Conference and the Birmingham Museum of Art’s Ceramic Symposium, and gives an overview of what attendees can expect from this year’s conference. (more)

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Michael Richardson creator of the Red String Wayang Theatre.

Education Program Specialist Diana Green interviews Michael Richardson creator of the Red String Wayang Theatre. After receiving a Fulbright Fellowship to Indonesia in 1985, Richardson began working on new shadow puppet designs for western stories. From 1985-92, Richardson gave over 2000 performances in the Mid-Atlantic region. Diana talks to Michael about his participation in ASCA's Alabama Touring Artists in the Schools program. (more)


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Mike Cooley, co-founder of the Drive-By Truckers

Mike Cooley, co-founder of the Drive-By Truckers, talks with Deborah Boykin about his songwriting,  his career with DBT, and recent solo performances. (more)

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Al Head, executive director of the Alabama State Council on the Arts

This week Anne Kimzey interviews Al Head, executive director of the Alabama State Council on the Arts.  Head was recently honored in Washington, D.C. as a recipient of the 2012 Bess Lomax Hawes National Heritage Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts for his role as a traditional arts advocate during his 40-year career directing cultural agencies in three states.
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Kyle Abraham director of the Abraham.In.Motion Dance Company

Rosemary Johnson, Executive Director for the Alabama Dance Council, and Leah Tucker, Director of the Carver Theater and the Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame, talk to Kyle Abraham director of the Abraham.In.Motion Dance Company about his background that influenced his choreography of two productions,  The Radio Show and Pavement that will be performed in Birmingham in January 2013.

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Richard Lee Young with the Alabama Roots Music Society

Richard Lee Young with  the Alabama Roots Music Society talks to Steve Grauberger about the various musical artists presented by the Society. (more)

Sounds of the Seasons

This program features musical artists in Alabama who have performed for the Alabama State Council on the Arts in past Sounds of the Seasons programs presented at the State Capitol. The Mariachi Garibaldi, soprano Bessie Sheldon,  The Tribe of Judah gospel singers and instrumentalist Bobby Horton are presented this week for your listening pleasure. (more)

Alabama author Rick Bragg

This program, is a rebroadcast that originally aired in 2009. It features Alabama State Council on the Arts Executive Director Al Head interviewing renowned Alabama author Rick Bragg about his upbringing in Alabama and his writing career. They discuss Bragg's books, All Over But the Shoutin', Ava's Man, The Prince of Frogtown, and his newest book The Most They Ever Had which is a group of essays built around stories of mill workers at the now defunct Union Yarn Mill in Jacksonville Alabama. (more)

Musician and bandleader Scott Ward

Musician and bandleader Scott Ward talks with Deborah Boykin about the musicians who have influenced him, beginning with members of his family and extending to include David Hood, Spooner Oldham and other Muscle Shoals writers and muscians.  His first CD, Muscle Shoals Down Through Decatur  is a tribute to songwriters from that area. He also talks about his most recent CD project, A Heaping Helping. This recording, which features contributions from Christine Ohlman, Bekka Bramlett, Jay Gonzalez, and the Decoys, among others.(more)

Poet Dr. Virginia Gilbert

This is a rebroadcast of  Anne Kimzey, literary arts program manager with the Alabama State Council on the Arts, interviewing poet Dr. Virginia Gilbert of Madison about her work and her time serving in the Peace Corps in Korea. Gilbert received a Literary Arts Fellowship award from the State Arts Council in 2010 and has recently retired from the English faculty of Alabama A & M University.(more)

Ralph “Soul” Jackson

Ralph “Soul” Jackson is a singer and song writer whose career began when he was still in high school in Phenix City. He talks with Deborah Boykin about his first recording session at FAME studios in Muscle Shoals, where he got his nickname from producer Rick Hall and teamed up with legendary keyboard player Spooner Oldham.  Jackson also discusses his songwriting technique and performance style, as well as his recent CD.(more)

Poet Sonia Sanchez

This is a rebroadcast of  Alabama Writer's Forum Director Jeanie Thompson interviewing poet, playwright, educator and activist Sonia Sanchez.  Sanchez talks about her belief in the power of poetry to help people survive their circumstances, including alienation and incarceration. She also speaks about her early life in Alabama, her father Wilson L. Driver, a 1980 Inductee in the Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame, and her formative experiences with the Black Arts Movement and the development of Black Studies programs around the country. (more)

Decoy Carver Jason Russell

This week Anne Kimzey, folklorist with the Alabama State Council on the Arts, interviews Jason Russell of Gadsden an award-winning maker of traditional hunting decoys.  Mr. Russell is  teaching his craft to student Kevin Asbury through the support of the Alabama Folk Arts Apprenticeship Program.   Mr. Russell and Mr. Asbury talk about their interest in duck hunting and take listeners through the process of making realistic and functional decoys.(more)

Seven shape gosple music

This program is a repeat of Community Arts Program Manager Deb Boykin interviewing Steve Grauberger about the folklife CD project Traditional Musics of Alabama Volume 5 New Book Gospel Shapenote Singing produced by the Alabama Center for Traditional Culture and the Alabama Folklife Association.  (To read extended liner notes about this tradition click here.)  (more)

Thomas Birch

Executive Director Al Head interviews Thomas L. Birch, former National Assembly of State Arts Agencies (NASAA) legislative counsel, recipient of NASAA's 2012 President's Award for Outstanding Advocacy. From 1981 to 2012, Birch served as NASAA's legislative counsel, representing the interests of state arts agencies on Capitol Hill. For the past 10 years, Birch chaired the Cultural Advocacy Group's national coalition of arts and humanities allies carrying a unified message to Congress about the value of the arts in federal policy.(more)

William Ferris

This program is a rebroadcast of a 2006 program of Joey Brackner interviewing folklorist William Ferris of the University of North Carolina about southern culture and his experiences as director of the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Center for the Study of Southern Culture at Ole Miss. (more)

Bob Friedman

This week Anne Kimzey, folklorist with the Alabama State Council on the Arts, interviews Bob Friedman, bass singer for  The Pillars gospel quartet of Birmingham.  During the program Friedman discusses his musical roots in New York City, the political activism that brought him to Alabama, his work with WJLD radio and his interest in African American gospel quartet singing.  Friedman and the Pillars participate in the Alabama Folk Arts Apprenticeship program, teaching their traditional a capella singing style to a younger generation. (more)

John O'neal

This is a repeat of a 2011 program of Alabama State Arts Council Director Al Head interviewing John O'Neal, actor, playwright, founder and now retired artistic director of Junebug Productions based in New Orleans. As a civil rights activist beginning in the early 1960s he co-founded the Free Southern Theater. He is probably best know for his widely toured character Junebug Jabbo Jones, a mythic figure who symbolizes the wisdom of common people.  O’Neal has written eighteen plays, a musical comedy,  poetry and several essays.  He is a winner of a Ford Foundation’s Leadership for a Changing World award (2005), the Award of Merit from the Association of Performing Arts Presenters (2010) and the United States Artists Award. (more)

Howard Bankhead, executive director of Tennessee Valley Jazz Society

Barbara Edwards, Deputy Director of the Council, interviews Howard Bankhead, executive director of Tennessee Valley Jazz Society, Inc. and the 2013 recipient of the Council Arts Administration Fellowship Award. Under Howard’s leadership, Tennessee Valley Jazz Society has presented “Jazz Education-in-the Schools” programs since 1998. Approximately, 26,500 young people living in the metro Huntsville area have been exposed to jazz artists and jazz music. Additionally, the organization sponsors the annual Jazz-N-June Festival. (more)

Cast King and Matt Downer

This program is a rebroadcast of a 2005 interview by Anne Kimzey with musicians Cast King and Matt Downer from Sand Mountain.  Guitarist and songwriter Cast King and his former band The Country Drifters recorded with Sun Records of Memphis in the 1950s.  Matt Downer, a young musician, worked with Mr. King for a few years to learn his guitar style and to record his music and life history.   During the program Mr. King performed three of the approximately 500 songs he wrote in his lifetime. Cast King died in 2007. (more)

Bettie Champion

In this program folklorist Anne Kimzey and Bettie Champion of Mobile discuss the art of making traditional seafood gumbo, an important part of the culinary heritage of the Gulf Coast.   Ms. Champion, who learned her recipe from her mother, created the Gumbo Academy to teach interested cooks everything they need to know to make this complicated dish, from cleaning the crabs, to preparing the roux, to serving the finished gumbo over rice. (more)

Distinguished Artist Award winner Beth Nielsen Chapman

This program is a rebroadcast from 2008 of Executive Director Al Head interviewing 2009 Distinguished Artist Award winner Beth Nielsen Chapman about her life as a popular  singer/songwriter and as an educator. They also discuss Chapman's inspirations and her unique process of songwriting. (more)

Individual Fellowship Recipient Jess Marie Walker

ASCA intern Summer Upchurch interviews Individual Fellowship Recipient Jess Marie Walker about her life as an artist and an educator. Inspired by nature, music, and the art of public installation pieces, Jess Marie's background varies as much as her interests. Her work is highly collaborative and has been brought to fruition by HoWaYaDa, an artist collective, and by Pretty Much Collective. Her pieces range from a large-scale collaborative and interactive musical piece (where artists play kettles, rocks, and whatever is on-hand) to a smaller-scale collaborative piece celebrating the beauty of line-drawing and mountains. Her experiments with sound, form, and public exposure have been hosted in museums in Birmingham, Minneapolis, Long Island, Brooklyn, and Fairhope, among others. She currently lives in Montevallo with her youngest son. (more)

Donna Walker-Kuhne

This week's program is a rebroadcast of a 2006 show with Barbara Edwards interviewing Donna Walker-Kuhne.  Walker-Kuhne, recognized as the nation's foremost expert on Audience Diversification by the Arts and Business Council, was a presenter at the 2007 Bill Bates Leadership Institute. In the interview Walker-Kuhne discusses practical strategies and methods to engage diverse communities in the arts and the importance of marketing to diverse audiences. (more)

Alabama Arts Podcast, Leah Stephens, Executive Director of ClefWorks

Yvette Jones-Smedley interviews Leah Stephens, Executive Director of ClefWorks, Inc., of Montgomery, Alabama.  ClefWorks, founded in 2006 has presented headliners in the classical chamber music industry including Jack Quartet, Fireworks Ensemble, and in 2012,  Ethel String Quartet.  Leah shares her passion for the genre of music and her enthusiasm for introducing chamber music to young audiences.  ClefWorks also sponsors an annual Composition Competition.  For more information visit the website at www.clefworks.org. (more)

 http://www.arts.alabama.gov/actc/1/20120819clefworks.mp3

Alabama Arts Podcast, Cloverdale Playhouse

ASCA intern Diedre Graham interviews Greg Thornton about his many years performing with the Alabama Shakespeare Festival  and now as the Artistic Director of the Cloverdale Playhouse in Montgomery. In the second half of the program Diedre talks to Emily Dauber Flowers, Managing Director for the Cloverdale Playhouse. Discussed are the various programs and events presented at the Playhouse.
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Alabama Arts Podcast, Patricia White, co-founder of Slash Pine Press

Summer Upchurch, an intern at the Arts Council, interviews Patricia White, co-founder of Slash Pine Press, an organization housed at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa. Slash Pine Press started as an independent printing press, the brain child of Patti White and Joseph Wood. Now, the program is run by four staff members: Patti White, Joseph Wood, Lucas Southworth, and Brian Oliu. Now in its fourth year, Slash Pine achieves its goals through a community-centered internship program that can be taken as a class at the University of Alabama. Each semester two instructors and ten interns stitch one to three poetry chapbooks (handmade books sent to the program as manuscripts), plan several community events such as poetry hikes (art installations in which readers and listeners walk over several miles together, stopping at intervals to read poetry outdoors), and participate in creative exchanges with other universities’ creative writing students. The program functions as an English or Writing class, but dedicates itself to community engagement and poetic education.
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http://www.arts.alabama.gov/actc/1/20120805pattiwhiteslashpine.mp3

Alabama Arts Podcast, Mozell Benson

On July 16th Alabama lost one of its most celebrated quilters.  Mozell Benson was 78 years old when she died at her home last week in Waverly.  Mrs. Benson’s quilts first gained national attention in the exhibit “Signs and Symbols: African American Quilts from the Rural South.”  Her work has also been displayed at the Smithsonian Institution and the American Folklife Museum. In 2001 Mrs. Benson was honored with a National Heritage Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts, our nation’s highest award for the folk and traditional arts.  The following program is a rebroadcast of Anne Kimzey’s 2007 interview with Mozell Benson and her daughter Sylvia Stephens in which they discuss their participation in the State Arts Council’s Folk Arts Apprenticeship Program and also the experience of having a home and quilt studio built for Mrs. Benson by students in the Design/Build Master’s program at Auburn University’s School of Architecture.
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http://www.arts.alabama.gov/actc/1/20120729mozellre.mp3

Alabama Arts Podcast, Russell Gulley

Russell Gulley, musician, songwriter, and co-founder of the band Jackson Highway, recalls his early days in Muscle Shoals, his work with producer Jimmy Johnson, and his return to roots music in current performances in an interview with Deborah Boykin, community arts program manager.
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http://www.arts.alabama.gov/actc/1/20120722russellgulley.mp3

Alabama Arts Podcast, Mark Driscoll, Director of Historic Sites for the Alabama Historical Commission

Joey Brackner, director of the Alabama Center for Traditional Culture, interviews Mark Driscoll, director of Historic Sites for the Alabama Historical Commission, about the Freedom Rides Museum in Montgomery Alabama.
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Alabama Arts Radio Podcast, Brant Beene General Manager of The Historic Alabama Theatre

Alabama Center for Traditional Culture Director Joey Brackner interviews Brant Beene the General Manager of The Historic Alabama Theatre and Development Director for the Lyric Theatre for Birmingham Landmarks, Inc.
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Alabama Arts Radio Podcast, Singer-songwriter, Maxwell Russell

Singer-songwriter Maxwell Russell talks with Deborah Boykin about his career, his writing, and his efforts to promote other songwriters. A well-known North Alabama performer, Russell sponsors a songwriters’ showcase each week  at a Sheffield restaurant.  His son Kirk, also a musician, writer and vocalist, also appears to talk about his band, Abstract Theory.
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Alabama Arts Radio Podcast, The Thomas Sister Singers from Alexander City

This program is a rebroadcast of a 2006 show of Steve Grauberger interviewing the Thomas Sister Singers from Alexander City, Phyllis, Margie and Bernice. Both Margie and Bernice have since passed but at the time Margie and Bernice Thomas had been singing gospel music for over 60 years in and around Alexander City, performing on radio and TV as early as the 1950s with three other of their sisters all known collectively as the Thomas Sister Singers.   Included in the program are songs sung by Margie and Bernice Thomas, and Margie's daughter Phyllis, recorded at their home in 2005. Watch a video clip of the Thomas Sisters singing "Not Made With Hands", click here.
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Alabama Arts Podcast, Alabama Folk Pottery author Joey Brackner

This program is a rebroadcast of Anne Kimzey interviewing Joey Brackner Director of the Alabama Center for Traditional Culture about his book, Alabama Folk Pottery, released in 2006 by the University of Alabama Press. Brackner discusses various aspects detailed in the publication.   You can hear a podcast of the 2006 symposium on southern pottery held at the Birmingham Museum of Art.
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Alabama Arts Podcast, David Norwood, general manager of WAWL radio in Moulton

This week, David Norwood, general manager of WAWL radio in Moulton, discusses Downtown Live!  This four-week series brought performers from the surrounding area to Moulton’s courthouse square for Friday evening concerts.  Community Arts program manager Deborah Boykin talks with Norwood and the Thompsons, a Lawrence County duo who also perform one of their original songs. (more)
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Alabama State Poetry Out Loud Winners

Arts in Education Program Manager Diana Green interviews the 2012 Winners of Alabama’s Poetry Out Loud Program. First place in Original poetry recitation went to Doris-Anne Darbouze from Auburn High School. Bonnie Chen, also from Auburn High School, received an Honorable Mention for her original poetry recitation. The Poetry Out Loud State Championship was awarded to Peggy Payne from Mooresville, Alabama. Peggy traveled to Washington DC to compete nationally with 52 other state champions, a Washington DC champion, and a champion from the Virgin Islands. Poetry Out Loud is a National Poetry Recitation Contest supported by the National Endowment for the Arts and the Poetry Foundation. The State Finals for the program are held in partnership with the Alabama Alliance for Arts Education and the Alabama Shakespeare Festival, where students perform on the Festival Stage in Montgomery. (more)

Alabama Arts Podcast, Patti Hendrix Lovoy executive director of VSA Alabama

Deputy Director, Barbara Edwards, interviews Patti Hendrix Lovoy, the Council’s 2011 Arts Administration Fellowship recipient.   The Council makes available each year a $5,000 Arts Administration Fellowship award.  This award is given to an arts administrator to improve his/her skills and ability to better serve his/her organization and the community.  Patti is the executive director of VSA Alabama.  In the interview, Patti talks about the impact of the professional opportunities afford her though the Arts Administration Fellowship award. (more)

Alabama Arts Podcast, Eldon Bryson musician and instrument maker from Mobile

Community Arts Program manager Deb Boykin interviews Eldon Bryson, a musician and instrument maker from Mobile.  Bryson, now 82, recalls his childhood in South Carolina, where he and his older brother often sang with Bill Monroe in the early days of bluegrass music. He recounts how a luthier  there taught him to repair old fiddles and shares some of his knowledge about fiddle-making.   He plays an original fiddle tune which he often performs when he and his band play each weekend at a Mississippi restaurant. (more)

Alabama Arts Podcast, Mary Ann Pettway, director of the Gee’s Bend Quilters Collective

Community Arts program manager, Deb Boykin talks with Mary Ann Pettway, director of the Gee’s Bend Quilters Collective. Ms. Pettway discusses the rich quilting tradition in her community and her experiences in learning from her elders and teaching a new generation through ASCA’s Folk Arts Apprenticeship program. Also a fine singer, Ms. Pettway is joined by Mary Lee Bendolph and Nancy Pettway to sing traditional gospel songs from Gee’s Bend. (more)

Alabama Arts Radio, Andrew Grace

Alabama Center for Traditional Culture Director Joey Brackner interviews University of Alabama film maker Andrew Grace about his new film, "Eating Alabama." (more)

Folklife Author Jack Solomon

Steve Grauberger interviews, Alabama folklore scholar, teacher and writer Jack Solomon at his home in Tallassee, Alabama. He discusses various books he produced with his late wife Olivia and talks about his life with her and his long career as a teacher and college professor. Their books include Cracklin Bread and Asfidity, Zickary Zan, Ghosts and Goosebumps, Sweet Bunch of Daisies, and Honey in the Rock.

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Alabama Arts Radio, Joe Dan Boy Author of "Judge Jackson and the Colored Sacred Harp"

This program is a repeat of a 2003 interview by Joey Brackner with Joe Dan Boyd about his book on Judge Jackson, the Ozark, Alabama man who published the "Colored Sacred Harp" tunebook in the 1930's. Included in the show are historic musical examples of African American songsters.

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