Ann Reed is a rich & wonderful source of music, stories, and even a book now - check out Citizens of Campbell. She's been a mainstay of the women's and folk music scene in the Twin Cities of MN area for 40 years now, having produced some 24 albums. With her 12-string guitar, Ann can conjure the deepest heart connection, and she can also make us grin with a story or a clever line about RBG or the State Fair. Her music also heals people through the COMPAS Artful Aging Program, and she elicits the stories of women over 60 with her Life Gets Real podcast.
Our main topics today are tyranny & nonviolence. Andrew Fiala is Professor of Philosophy & also director of the Ethics Center at Cal State Fresno.
We'll dive deep in the Afro-Colombian music of Lucas Silva, pioneer of Champeta. Founder of Palenque Records (or on Facebook) via today's guest-host Patricia Stansbury (AKA Sunny Gardener). Patricia originally broadcast this interview last month as part of her Groundswell show on WRIR - Richmond Independent Radio.
Many hands were needed to help in the transition for the immense number of Afghans that fled Afghanistan with the fall of the government there to the Taliban last year. Among those answering the call was Sahar Taman, providing legal assistance to the 13,000 Afghans located to Fort McCoy, Wisconsin, last fall. The personal situations & the legal requirements were complex, demanding deeply dedicated work of both the heart and head.
Amar Ahmad is a young Muslim who has been working with Mass Peace Action the past 2 years, serving as co-chair of the Legislative/Political Committee as an organizer with the Fund Health Care, Not Warfare project, and with the Palestine/Israel Working Group. He is on the youthful end of the activists in the group, led into the work by wide-ranging reading.
Darryl Purpose says he's never had a real job, earning his living either from blackjack or making music, but he's worth every cent and more. Determined to live outside the box, Darryl's music regales the listener with beauty, inspiration, & free-flowing spirituality. His quirky contrarianism led him from a life of gambling into music via the Great Peace March for Nuclear Disarmament, and from there into a deep connection to the Earth perched above the Rocky Mountains.
Media can unite or divide, and the Conversations In Color (CIC) program on Converge Radio (101.9 FM) chooses to unite in depth instead of superficiality. Their mission statement is “To provide space for asking hard questions and open, honest conversation regarding race and racism in western Wisconsin and beyond”, and it's been enlarged to look at further spaces concerning marginalized groups.
Bryan Bielanski hails from Charlotte, North Carolina, though he's spending little enough time there as he takes his music almost everywhere in the US & in quite a few other countries as well. His band when starting out was called Angwish, but he morphed into Bryan's Super Happy Fun Time when he decided to go solo (see the bonus excerpt). His website says we should “Imagine Nirvana and the Beatles had a kid together who became an acoustic rock singer-songwriter”, and that then we'll understand Bryan's music.