Alabama Arts Radio podcast for April 21st, Valentina Fogher

Georgine Clarke interviews Valentina Fogher, Collaborator of Cultural Activities for the City of Pietrasanta, Italy, about the Cultural Exchange Exchange between the State of Alabama and Italy. The program began in the summer of 2008 when Alabama took artists, musicians, exhibitions, film, and literature to Pietrasanta. From April 16-May 2, 2009, Italian artists, dancers, musicians, and film will be in Alabama. The focus of activities will be in Montgomery, with additional programs in Birmingham and Sylacauga. The City of Montgomery will sign a Sister City agreement with Pietrasanta. The theme of the Exchange this year is Michelangelo and His Heirs.

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Alabama Arts Radio podcast for April 14th, Poet Jim Murphy

Poet Jim Murphy is interviewed by Jeanie Thompson, executive director of the Alabama Writers’ Forum. Murphy is the author of Heaven Overland, published this year by Kennesaw State University Press. He is associate professor of English at the University of Montevallo, and his poems have appeared in The Southern Review, Southern Humanities Review, Brooklyn Review, Painted Bride Quarterly, Cimarron Review, Fine Madness, The Alaska Quarterly Review, Puerto del Sol, and in other journals, as well as in The Memphis Sun (Kent State University Press, 2000). He serves as Director of the Montevallo Literary Festival, held on campus each spring, and as an editor in poetry for Red Mountain Review, a Birmingham-based literary journal.

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Alabama Arts Radio podcast for April 7th, Author Mary Ward Brown

Randy Shoults, Community Arts and Literature Program Manager, travels to Selma to attend the public library's 'Lunch at the Library' program series and record their guest writer, Mary Ward Brown as she discusses her just published memoir, Fanning the Spark. After Ms. Ward’s presentation, long time friend and Instructor of English at University of North Alabama, Pam Kingsbury conducts a short interview.

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Alabama Arts Podcast for March 31st 2009

Alabama native and National Old-Time Banjo Champion Robert Montgomery talks with Deborah Boykin about his musical influences and the upcoming Chicken and Egg Festival in Moulton on April 18-19, 2009. In the program he demonstrates old-time banjo styles and discusses his recordings.

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Alabama Arts Radio podcast for March 17th, Christian Harmony Singing School

Steve Grauberger visits County Line Church in Corner Alabama to interview Cassie Allen and Emily Creel about their Christian Harmony singing school and next day singing held February 7th and 8th, 2009. Discussed in this program is the history of the 1958 Alabama edition of William Walker's Christian Harmony and the necessity of holding singing schools to teach shape-note singing. Also included in the program are songs recorded during this year's event.
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Alabama Arts Radio podcast for March 10th, Folklorist Paddy Bowman

Deborah Boykin interviews folklorist Paddy Bowman, Director for Local Learning. The National Network for Folk Arts in Education about her recent workshop for Alabama educators at the statewide Arts Education Summit. Bowman, who moved to north Alabama as a teenager, uses this experience to explain the importance of community and culture in the classroom.
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Alabama Arts Radio podcast for March 3rd, 24th annual Clay Conference

In honor of the 24th annual Alabama Clay Conference sponsored by the Alabama Craft Council and planned for Huntsville March 13-15, Georgine Clarke interviews Chris Greenman and Steve Loucks. Greenman is on the art faculty of Alabama State University and Loucks teaches at Jacksonville State University. Both are art professors as well as professional craft artists working in clay. The discussion covers the process of producing ceramic pieces, marketing, and the importance of the annual conference.

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Alabama Arts Radio podcast for Feb. 24th, Jerry Brown folk potter

To help promote the upcoming Jerry Brown Arts Festival , this program is a rebroadcast of Joey Brackner interviewing Jerry Brown about the process of pottery making at his shop in Hamilton Alabama. This year the Jerry Brown Arts Festival is located at the Old WalMart Building at 1500 Military Street South, in Hamilton on March 7-8, 2009.

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Alabama Arts Radio for Feb 17th, Cinque Cullar

Barbara Edwards, Deputy Director, interviews Cinque Cullar. Mr. Cullar is founder and artistic director for the Tribe of Judah, a youth gospel group of students from Alabama State University and the Montgomery community. Mr. Cullar and Ms. Edwards talks about the newly released Black Belt Gospel Tour CD featuring students from Tuskegee Booker T.Washington High School, Greensboro East High School, Selma High School, Francis Marion High School and Judson College Voices of Praise.

Alabama Arts Radio for Feb 10th, Kathleen Driskell

Jeanie Thompson, executive director of the Alabama Writers’ Forum, interviews poet and teacher Kathleen Driskell, author of Seed Across Snow and Laughing Sickness. Driskell’s poems have appeared in leading literary journals and she teaches in the Spalding University Brief Residency MFA Writing Program in Louisville, KY. Driskell will be in Alabama April 17-18, 2009, to participate in an Alabama High School Teacher Workshop on Friday and the Alabama Book Festival Poetry Tent on Saturday.
Driskell reads from Seed Across Snow and talks about her subjects in poems – domestic emergencies, motherhood, and everyday life that resonates with lush language and a deeply held sense of the world’s value. She also discusses teaching creative writing, and the value of the arts in our schools.
Thompson interviewed Driskell in the studios of WFPL in Louisville, Kentucky, and extends thanks to the staff for assistance.

Alabama Arts Podcast for January 27th 2009

This is a rebroadcast of our program on the Alabama Arts Education Summit 2008. This year the Summit will take place in Troy, Alabama February 18-20, 2009. The theme for this year's statewide conference is ”Speaking with One Voice." In this radio show, performing arts program manager Yvette Daniel interviews the four partners that were instrumental in the planning and implementation of the 2008 Summit: Diana Green, arts in education program manager at the Council, Donna Russell, executive director of the Alabama Alliance for Arts Education, Martha Lockett, executive director of the Alabama Institute for Education in the Arts, and Sara Wright, director of academic innovative initiatives at the Alabama State Department of Education.
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Alabama Arts Podcast for January 20th 2009

This program is a rebroadcast of Alabama shapenote music and its history, in preparation for this year's Annual Capitol Rotunda Four-Book Shapenote Singing that will be held January 31st at the Alabama Department of Archives and History off of Union St between Adams and Washington in Montgomery. The singing will start at 9:30 am and end at 3pm. The public is welcome to come and listen or sing. For more information call 334-242-4076, x-225.
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Alabama Arts Podcast for January 13th 2009

In the first half of the program Joey Brackner interviews Film maker Robert Clem about his new film Gospel Highway. In the second half Joey interviews Auguster Maul, lead singer for the Delta Aires Quartet.
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Alabama Arts Podcast for January 6th 2009

This program is a rebroadcast of ASCA folklorist Joey Brackner interviewing preeminent Alabama historian Dr. Wayne Flynt about his book Alabama in the Twentieth Century. In the interview Dr. Flynt outlines the significant cultural contributions of Alabamians during the late century. Wayne Flynt is the Distinguished University Professor of History at Auburn University.
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Alabama Arts Podcast for Dec 30th 2008

Henri's Notion creates a musical mix of traditional Celtic and American music as well as their own compositions that have a rhythm and voice reflective of their Southern heritage, which lends a pleasing familiarity to the music.
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Alabama Arts Podcast for Dec 23rd 2008

Seasonal music from husband and wife duo, Annette and Bret Heim, who combine the flute and classical guitar in an exquisite, intimate experience. Their ability to bring their audience into their performances ensures repeat request and performances. They present compositions by living American and British composers of note in an audience-friendly way. Their performance at the National Czech and Slovak Museum was described as "absolutely astonishing."
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Alabama Arts Podcast for Dec 16th 2008

A full program of music of The Four Eagles Quartet a capella gospel group is presented from a program originally recorded during the "Sounds of the Seasons" performance series held at the Alabama State Capitol building in 2002.
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Alabama Arts Podcast for Dec 9th 2008

Joey Brackner interviews renowned folklorist Henry Glassie about his life and research of vernacular architecture in the Southern United States, and particularly in Alabama.
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Alabama Arts Podcast for Dec 2nd 2008

Joey Brackner interviews linguists Dr. Thomas Nunnally and Dr. Catherine Davies about the new Tributaries: Journal of the Alabama Foliklife Association Vol X that deals entirely with the dialects of Alabamians and southern speech.
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Alabama Arts Podcast for Nov 25th 2008

This program is a rebroadcast of Steve Grauberger interviewing Doug Back on the history of Classic Banjo. The program includes musical examples from Back's CD releases, The Banjo Goes Highbrow and The Big Trio Reprise on the Belmando label.
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Alabama Arts Radio for Nov 18th, 2008

Yvette Daniel interviews actor Ella Joyce about here one woman play A Rose Among Thorns: A Dramatic Tribute to Rosa Parks.
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Alabama Arts Radio for Nov 11th 2008

ASCA Literature Fellowship Recipient in Poetry, Jennifer Horne talks with Jeanie Thompson, Executive Director of the Alabama Writers' Forum, about Horne's love of Southern farming and gardening, her work as an anthologist, and her forthcoming poetry collection Bottle Tree (WordTech, 2010). Horne's anthologies include Working the Dirt: An Anthology of Southern Poets, published in 2003 by New South Books, and All Out of Faith: Southern Women Writers on Spirituality, edited with Wendy Reed and published by the University of Alabama Press. Horne holds an MFA from the University of Alabama, has published poems online in StorySouth.com and other literary journals, and is poetry book reviews editor for the Forum's Book Reviews on line.
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Alabama Arts Radio for Oct. 28th

Betty Ann Lloyd interviews Kathryn Tucker Windham about the John Reese photo exhibit featuring the people of Gees Bend, now on display at Gees Bend Quilt Collective. Kathryn also discusses her time as a newspaper reporter and amateur photographer.

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Alabama Arts Radio for Oct. 21st

Randy Shoults interviews Jannetta Whitt-Mitchell about various aspects of the Gulf Coast Ethnic and Heritage Jazz Festival that takes place during the first weekend in August each year in Mobile.
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Alabama Arts Podcast for Oct. 14 2008

Arts Council Executive Director Al Head interviews 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.

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Alabama Arts Radio for October 7th 2008

Yvette Daniel, Performing Arts Program Manager interviews George Culver the Executive Director of the Historic Ritz Theatre of Talladega, Alabama. On October 31st and November 1st 2008. the Ritz will be hosting Hal Holbrook in MARK TWAIN TONIGHT. These performances are billed as among the final few of this historic production's run. Culver also discusses educational programs connected to Ritz Theatre presentations and the interesting history of this historic theater in Talladega.

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Alabama Arts Radio Podcast for Tuesday, September 30th

Anne Kimzey, folklorist with the Alabama State Council on the Arts, interviews Jefferson County quilter Bettye Kimbrell about her work with 4-H Club students and their quilt exhibit at Birmingham Botanical Gardens. Kimbrell is a 2008 recipient of a National Heritage Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts. The exhibition The Quilts of Bettye Kimbrell: Celebrating the National Heritage Fellowship is on display at the Alabama Artists' Gallery in the RSA Tower, 201 Monroe Street, Montgomery from September 19 - October 31, 2008. A reception honoring Mrs. Kimbrell is scheduled for Tuesday, October 7, 2008, from 4-6 p.m.
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Alabama Arts Podcast for Sept 23 2008

Joey Brackner interviews editors Jeff Jakeman, Claire Wilson and Ben Berntson about the new online Encyclopedia of Alabama.
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Alabama Arts Radio for Sept 16th 2008

Georgine Clarke interviews Tuscaloosa quilt artist Yvonne Wells, whose quilts are known as story or picture quilts. Her hand-stitched fabric constructions use rich symbolism and vivid colors, with themes ranging from religion to social and political issues. She also frequently produces whimsical and humorous pieces. Of particular note are her portrayals of the Civil Rights movement, with quilts depicting the history of slavery as well as icons Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Rosa Parks. She has represented the State of Alabama in international cultural programs in France and Italy. In the interview, Yvonne talks about her choice of materials and also discusses two projects: twelve quilts she describes as "a book" titled On the Move and a group depicting the Seven Deadly Sins.

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Alabama Arts Radio Podcast for Sept 9th

Arts Council Executive Director Al Head interviews Bill Ivey, Director of the Curb Center for Art, Enterprise, and Public Policy at Vanderbilt University. Subjects discussed are Ivey's background as past head of the National Endowment for the Arts, his involvement with the Curb Center and issues concerning Ivey's recently published book, arts, inc.: How Greed and Neglect Have Destroyed Our Cultural Rights.

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Alabama Arts Radio Podcast for Tuesday, Sept 2nd

Joey Brackner interviews Eric McKinney and Russell Gulley about the Annual Dekalb Fiddling Convention held in Ft Payne.

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Alabama Arts Radio Podcast for Tuesday, August 26th

Joey Brackner interviews Sally Smith and Jamie Lawrence of Alabama Contemporary Theater. They discuss "Birmingham Rhapsody" a play being developed from oral histories that the theater has been collecting about Birmingham's Civil Rights era.

Alabama Arts Radio Podcast for Tuesday August 19th

Georgine Clarke interviews Alabama artist Stephen Savage of Daphne. Savage received the 2002 Alabama State Council on the Arts Individual Artist Fellowship in photography in 2002. He teaches and also produces both commercial and fine art photography. The discussion covers elements of the art form and the uses of digital photography as well as current approaches to teaching. Savage describes the Alabama Photo Book project which he is producing with print maker and art book designer Amos Paul Kennedy, Jr. In this project participating Alabama photographers provide a photograph which is used with limited text to produce a simple eight page book
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Alabama Arts Radio Podcast for Tuesday August 12th

Sand Mountain fiddler Gene Ivey is the subject of this week’s program on Alabama Arts Radio. Folklorist Anne Kimzey talks to Mr. Ivey and his apprentice Joseph Coleman about playing music and making handcrafted fiddles at Ivey’s workshop in Ider.
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Alabama Arts Radio Podcast for Tuesday August 5th

This show is a repeat of an earlier broadcast in acknowledgment of playwright and educator Billie Jean Young as a recipient of the 2008 Alabama State Council on the Arts Fellowship in the area of theater. Fellowships are the most prestigious of grants awarded to individuals by the Council. In this program, Steve Grauberger interviews actor and playwright Dr. Billie Jean Young, in Yantley Alabama, about her play Oh Mary Don't you Weep: The Margaret Ann Knott Legacy. Also interviewed is Choctaw, County educator and civil rights activist Carrie Mae Johnson.
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Alabama Arts Radio Podcast for Tuesday July 29th

In this program, Anne Kimzey, folklorist with the Alabama State Council on the Arts, travels to the Alabama Folk School at Camp McDowell near Jasper. She talks with Folk School director Megan Huston and potter Sandra Heaven about pottery making and other craft and music classes offered in this natural retreat setting.
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Alabama Arts Radio Podcast for July 22nd 2008

Rebroadcast of Steve Grauberger interviewing Kevin Nutt, of CaseQuarter Records talking about his research on early blues recording artist Ed Bell from Greenville, Alabama. His Tributaries article on the subject can be obtained at Alabamafolklife.org. Kevin can be heard weekly, online, at WFMU with his radio program Sinners Crossroads.
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Alabama Arts Radio Series Tuesday, July 15th

This program is a rebroadcast of Steve Grauberger interviewing Stanley Smith, John Etheridge, and Bill Aplin, elected officers of the Sacred Harp Book Company (Cooper revision), includes Sacred Harp singing examples.
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Alabama Arts Radio Podcast for July 8th 2008

Meagan Vucovich, summer intern for the Alabama State Council on the Arts, interviews Patti Hendrix Lovoy, director of VSA Arts of Alabama, along with Ali DeCamillis, art therapist, Dr. Rodney Tucker, director of the UAB Palliative Care Unit, Dr. Avi Madan-Swain, a Pediatric Psychologist/Neuropsychologist at UAB. The discussion focuses on VSA Arts of Alabama’s Arts in Healthcare program.
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Alabama Arts Radio Podcast for July 1st 2008

This is a repeat of Gina Clifford, director of Design Alabama, interviewing Cheryl Morgan, Professor at Auburn University and Director of the Center for Architecture and Urban Studies, about Your Town Alabama Workshop. Your Town Workshop is an intensive two-and-half day event that includes: lectures, case-study presentations, and interactive group problem solving scenarios involving community planning and design work in a hypothetical small town.
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Alabama Arts Radio Podcast for June 24th 2008

This program is a rebroadcast of Joey Brackner interviewing Alabama's curator of historic song - Bobby Horton. Best known for his CDs of Civil War era music and membership in the popular band Three On a String, Mr. Horton also discusses his family's musical heritage and his work composing songs for numerous Ken Burns' documentary films. Bobby Horton was a recipient of a 2005 Governor's Arts Award.
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Alabama Arts Radio Podcast for June 17th

DesignAlabama was honored to have Thomas Hylton, of Save Our Land, Save Our Towns as a speaker at their 2008 DesignAlabama Mayors Design Summit. As a former newspaper, man, this Pennyslvania native and resident has turned a passion for a walkable world into a successful non-profit organization promoting walkable communites, downtown redevelopment and historic preservation. Join us during this radio program as we learn more about what individuals and communties can do to save our land and save our towns.
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Alabama Arts Radio Podcast for June 10 2008

Anne Kimzey, folklorist with the Alabama State Council on the Arts, interviews Birmingham photographer Mark Gooch about his career and his recent project documenting Alabama folk artists for the exhibition Carry On: Celebrating Twenty Years of the Alabama Folk Arts Apprenticeship Program. (click here for PDF)
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Alabama Arts Radio Podcast for June 3rd 2008

Jeanie Thompson, executive director of the Alabama Writers' Forum, interviews poet and Gadsden, Alabama native Jake Adam York, whose collection A Murmuration of Starlings was recently published by Southern Illinois University Press. The book won the Crab Orchard Review Open Poetry Competition in 2007. Thompson talks with York about the elegies for slain civil rights workers and other individuals, including Emmit Till who was killed in Money, Mississippi, that comprise the collection. York's previous book, Murder Ballads, contains the first of these elegies, and he plans to continue the sequence through several more poetry collections. He teaches at the University of Colorado in Denver where he directs the undergraduate creative writing program.
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Alabama Arts Radio Podcast for May 27th 2008

In this program Anne Kimzey, folklorist with the Alabama State Council on the Arts, interviews Jefferson County quilter Bettye Kimbrell about her work with 4-H Club students and their quilt exhibit at Birmingham Botanical Gardens. Kimbrell is a 2008 recipient of a National Heritage Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts.
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Alabama Arts Radio Podcast for May 20th 2008

Jeanie Thompson, executive director of the Alabama Writers’ Forum, interviews two writers who participated in the 3rd Annual Alabama Book Festival on April 19. Kate Gale, founding editor of Red Hen Press of Los Angeles, California, and Richard Goodman, author of French Dirt and The Soul of Creative Writing, also taught writing techniques and discussed publishing on April 18 at the inaugural creative writing workshop open to the general public as part of the Festival outreach. Dr. Gale is a poet (Fishers of Men, Selling the Hammock, Mating Season) novelist, and librettist. She maintains a busy teaching schedule in the Los Angeles area, manages Red Hen Press – one of the top selling poetry/prose independent presses in California – and pursues her own writing. Mr. Goodman teaches in the Spalding University Brief Residency MFA Writing Program in Louisville, KY. He lives in New York, NY. Dr. Gale read in the poetry venue, dubbed Poetry SouthWest, for the cross fertilization of Southern and Western writers. Richard Goodman read from his two books and discussed writing with festival-goers.
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Alabama Arts Radio Podcast for May 13th 2008

Yvette Daniel interviews Alabama Shakespeare Festival's Chief Operating Officer Michael Vigilant about upcoming events and his new play Bear Country. Also on this program is an interview with Elyzabeth Wilder about her new play Furniture of Home. Both plays were developed through the Southern Writers Project at the Alabama Shakespeare Festival.
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Alabama Arts Radio Podcast for May 6th 2008

Deborah Boykin interviews Mary and Bill Smith about their work in the Folk Arts Apprenticeship program.
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Alabama Arts Radio Podcast for April 29th 2008

Part III of our Series on the Alabama Arts Education Summit held in Troy, Alabama February 21-23, 2008. Focusing on the essential link of communities and K-12 schools, Diana Green interview Dr. Lisa Stamps, principal at Gordo Elementary in Pickens County, about the partnerships she has developed to enhance the arts in her school, and how the Summit supported her efforts.
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Alabama Arts Radio Podcast for April 22nd 2008

Part II of our Series on the Alabama Arts Education Summit held in Troy, Alabama February 21-23, 2008. Focusing on the essential link needed between higher education and K-12 schools, Diana Green, arts in education program manager interviews Professor and arts educator Larry Percy, who hosted the Summit at Troy University in Troy Alabama. Mr. Percy discusses the potential for higher education to take a leading role in providing quality arts education in K-12 schools.
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