Hour 2 [REBROADCAST] PHILIP SCHULTZ is a famous poet and writer.  This poetry collection Failure won the 2008 Pulitzer Prize.  He founded and directs The Writers Studio in New York and has been teaching creative writing for years.  And yet, Schultz has dyslexia.  In his recent memoir, My Dyslexia, Schultz recounts his childhood struggles trying [...]

Filed under: arts, author, family issues, parenting, school issues |

Hour 2 [REBROADCAST] If the word “ukulele” conjures visions of slow, sleepy Hawaiian music, that’s just where virtuoso JAKE SHIMABUKURO wants you at the start of a show: He thrives upending the low expectations people have of his instrument. Because there’s very little about what he does on the traditional Hawaiian instrument that sounds “sleepy” [...]

Filed under: arts, entertainment, music |

Hour 2 [REBROADCAST] National Book Award-winning poet NIKKY FINNEY says if you have a good sense of yourself, you’ll have a good sense of your work. She should know – she’s been teaching writing for over 25 years. Finney joined us to discuss and read some of her poetry featured in her book, Head Off [...]

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Hour 2 SUZZY ROCHE and her sisters, Maggie and Terre, have been touring together and recording for over 30 years. Suzzy, the youngest, has written her first novel, "Wayward Saints," about the music industry, family and small-town ghosts of the past. We’ll talk to Roche about performing, writing in a different medium for the first [...]

Filed under: arts, author, culture, entertainment, family issues, music |

Hour 2 How do you tell the story of the infamous trial of the Scottsboro Boys in fierce, minstrel form? The last collaboration of  John Kander and Fred Ebb, the legendary musical theater team behind Chicago and Cabaret, was the 2010 Broadway production of The Scottsboro Boys, which was nominated for 12 Tony Awards. The [...]

Filed under: arts, culture, entertainment, history, music, social issues |

Hour 2 Philadelphia artist ZOE STRAUSS pays attention to the joy and the pain that comes with the city’s neighborhoods – the poverty, substance addiction, segregation and cultural diversity – and captures scenes many of us would never notice. Strauss was known in the art world the last decade for her annual one-day shows featuring [...]

Filed under: Philadelphia, arts, culture, history, military, world |

Hour 2 A music education program has changed the life trajectory of hundreds of thousands of underprivileged children in Venezuela and has recently come to Philadelphia. Curtis graduate STANFORD THOMPSON, the Executive Director of Play On, Philly!, uses this after-school Venezuelan program, “El Sistema,” to teach classical music to students at West Philly’s St. Francis [...]

Filed under: Philadelphia, arts, author, music, school issues, social issues |

Hour 2 [REBROADCAST] Interest in ballroom dancing is surging.  And if folks aren't learning it and doing it, they're watching it on television. Last fall, season 13 of ABC's Dancing with the Stars drew 19.5 million total viewers. In this hour of Radio Times, we'll go behind the scenes of competitive ballroom dancing.  We'll talk [...]

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Hour 2 [REBROADCAST] AMOS OZ is one of Israel's most acclaimed authors.  He is the author of thirteen novels and collections of short fiction and numerous works of non-fiction that have been published in book form and in commentary.   His most recent book, Scenes from Village Life ,which he calls a novel in stories, is [...]

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Hour 1 What kind of music should parents be playing for their kids? Should parents dive into the growing world of music aimed at children, or should they just play their favorite “adult” music and hope the kids grow to love it? This hour, we’re talking about kids’ music that parents won’t hate, from the [...]

Filed under: arts, culture, family issues, music, parenting |