Medgar Evers Memorial June 19, 2013 | 5:00 am

This week on From the Vault, we present this timeless Pacifica documentary that seats the listener front and center at the funeral of Medgar Evers, the following mourning procession, and the demonstrations and near-riot that ensued in its aftermath.
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Albert Camus: A Memorial Tribute 1961 June 12, 2013 | 5:00 am

In this episode of From the Vault we present a 1961 memorial tribute of Nobel Prize for Literature author Albert Camus, who died in 1960.
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Building Bridges with Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee June 5, 2013 | 5:00 am

Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee. Davis and Dee sat down with longtime Pacifica hosts Mimi Rosenberg and Ken Nash in 1998 to reflect on their lifetime of work, as both artist and activists, with consideration to the changing culture of social activism, and the “abolition of poverty” as one of the greatest challenges of their lifetimes.
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Oyelo! Out Loud! The Nuyorican Poets Café May 29, 2013 | 5:00 am

On this edition of From The Vault we feature a special edition of Grace Cavalieri’s Poet and the Poem series called Oyelo! Out Loud! The Nuyorican Poets Café, which showcases the work of Puerto Rican poets.
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One Billion Seconds Later: A Social History of LSD May 22, 2013 | 5:00 am

From the Vault presents the 1974 documentary One Billion Seconds Later: A Social History of LSD, winner of the prestigious Ohio State Award for Radio Excellence.
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Sabina Virgo – Earth Day 2013 May 15, 2013 | 5:00 am

During the course of the week-long 2013 Earth Day celebration, acclaimed speaker, writer and political analyst Sabina Virgo turned her mediating, organizing and oratory skills in the direction of the environment. In this captivating speech, given at the invitation of the Eagle Environmental Club on the campus of Mount San Antonio College in Walnut, California, Sabina traces the history of corporate interests that have put the environment on a fatal course and the impact of our push back.
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FTV 364 Bob Kaufman, Poet: The Life and Times of an African-American Man, Part 2 of 2 May 8, 2013 | 5:00 am

Written and produced in 1992 by David Henderson, with associate production and engineering by Vic Bedoin, Bob Kaufman, Poet: The Life and Times of an African-American Man features interviews with family members, scholars, and artist such as Amiri Baraka, Allen Ginsberg, Ossie Davis, Ruby Dee, and Roscoe Lee Brown. Despite his battles with alcohol, drugs, psychotherapy, and the justice system, Kaufman’s ragged life teems with poetic brilliance, as this documentary demonstrates. Highlights include a rare 1958 recording of Kaufman reading his epic poem Second April and a discussion of jazz with recordist Henry Jacobs. Part two of two.
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FTV 363 Bob Kaufman, Poet: The Life and Times of an African-American Man, Part 1 of 2 May 1, 2013 | 5:00 am

Written and produced in 1992 by David Henderson, with associate production and engineering by Vic Bedoin, Bob Kaufman, Poet: The Life and Times of an African-American Man features interviews with family members, scholars, and artist such as Amiri Baraka, Allen Ginsberg, Ossie Davis, Ruby Dee, and Roscoe Lee Brown. Despite his battles with alcohol, drugs, psychotherapy, and the justice system, Kaufman’s ragged life teems with poetic brilliance, as this documentary demonstrates. Highlights include a rare 1958 recording of Kaufman reading his epic poem Second April and a discussion of jazz with recordist Henry Jacobs. Part one of two.
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Andy Warhol April 24, 2013 | 5:00 am

Cal Green of WBAI’s The Critical People speaks with artist Andy Warhol about his film Chelsea Girls in a rather unconventional interview recorded on June 3, 1967. Joined in studio by Henry Geldzahler, associate curator of American painting and sculpture at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Paul Morrissey, film critic and director, and International Velvet and Ingrid Superstar (two of Warhol’s “Factory Girls”), Green and Warhol focus on how Chelsea Girls differs from Warhol’s previous cinematographic efforts.
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Poet May Sarton 1983 April 17, 2013 | 5:00 am

This week we celebrate National Poetry Month with the American poet, novelist, and memoirist May Sarton recorded in College of Marin, 1983 by the KPFA Women's Department
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FTV features Cherrie Moraga April 10, 2013 | 5:00 am

This week on From the Vault we celebrate Chicana writer Cherrie Moraga.
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The Flight of the Eagle: UFW Retrospective April 3, 2013 | 5:00 am

From the Vault focuses this week on a 1995 documentary about the United Farm Workers Union called The Flight of the Eagle.
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FTV #358–Women’s Wave: Women in Punk and New Wave March 27, 2013 | 5:00 am

On this edition of From the Vault we skip back thirty years and listen to a program titled Women’s Wave – an examination of women in the punk, post-punk and new wave musical movements.
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The Second Battle of Selma March 20, 2013 | 5:00 am

This week on From the Vault, we go back nearly half a century and immerse ourselves in a radio documentary on the confrontation over Civil Rights in Selma, Alabama. The Second Battle of Selma, produced by legendary newsman Dale Minor in 1965 during his time at Pacifica station WBAI, includes rare audio of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and actuality of the march on Selma.
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Derek Bell – Irish Folk Musician March 13, 2013 | 5:00 am

This week on From the Vault, KPFA producer Padraigin McGillicuddy mixes interview and music to showcase Derek Bell, one of the great Irish folk musicians, in this 1979 program, The Harp That Once through Tara’s Halls: Derek Bell, the Man and the Music. Bell, a virtuoso of the Celtic harp, also played and composed for the piano, oboe, English horn, and hammered dulcimer.
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Sylvia Plath March 6, 2013 | 5:00 am

“And by the way, everything in life is writable about if you have the outgoing guts to do it, and the imagination to improvise. The worst enemy to creativity is self-doubt.”~Sylvia Plath
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Redefining Black Power – State of the Union 2013 Edition February 27, 2013 | 5:00 am

This week on From the Vault, continuing our celebration of Black History Month, we visit with Joanne Griffith, award-winning broadcaster, journalist, and editor of Redefining Black Power: Reflections on the State of Black America (City Lights, 2012). This book, written in collaboration with the Pacifica Radio Archives, considers the impact of the election of the first black President on relevant issues facing America today, from economics, cultural education and the law, to the cultural impact of mass media.
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Negro History Week 1962 February 20, 2013 | 5:00 am

This week on From the Vault we continue our celebration of Black History Month by revisiting an early Pacifica recording titled Special Program Commemorating Negro History Week. KPFA’s famed Public Affairs director Elsa Knight Thompson and producer Mike Tigar, taking a cue from Dr. Carter Godwin Goodson (who created Negro History Week in February 1926 to coincide with the Birthdays of Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass), celebrated Negro History Week on public radio for the first time in 1962.
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Malcolm X: Prospects for Freedom Part 2 February 13, 2013 | 5:00 am

Part 2 of Malcolm X's February 1965 speech plus Q & A with the audience. This was one month before his assassination
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Malcolm X: Prospects for Freedom, Pt 1 February 6, 2013 | 5:00 am

In celebration of Black History Month, From the Vault presents the iconic Malcolm X speech “Prospects for Freedom” in its entirety (unedited) over two episodes. Recorded a month before his assassination in February 1965, this historic recording truly captures the essence of Malcolm X, as he describes his vision of what will drive Black action for civil rights in the coming years.
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Dear Brother Erika: Union Worker January 30, 2013 | 5:00 am

This week on From the Vault we listen to a 1973 program that shines with the passion of Pacifica Radio, Dear Brother Erika – the story of Erika Seastrom, one of the first women to join the previously all-male printers union. Not only does this forty-year-old recording preserve a first-person account of Seastrom’s fiery print shop career, it also perfectly registers the indomitable spirit in her voice: through her Brooklyn accent, her raw candor, and her unwavering humor under what were surely the most difficult of circumstances.
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The Sound of Poetry January 23, 2013 | 5:00 am

This week on From the Vault we travel back in time over fifty years to listen a long-forgotten recording that was broadcast only once (May 24th, 1962) on Pacifica radio station KPFA in Berkeley: The Sound of Poetry, produced by the late cultural and literary critic John Leonard and narrated by John Ohliger. Living under a completely inadequate catalog description, this program was ignored for five decades as it sat protected deep inside the Pacifica vault, until Archives Director Brian DeShazor sat down for a listen…

Here’s what Brian heard:

1. Kenneth Rexroth – “Married Blues”
2. W. B. Yeats – “The Lake Isle of Innisfree” (recorded Oct. 4, 1932)
3. Rainer Maria Rilke – “Marie” (performed by KPFA Readers Theater)
4. Dorothy Parker – “Parable for a Certain Virgin”
5. T.S. Elliot – “Preludes”
6. Langston Hughes – “I Had My Clothes Cleaned…”
7. Edith Sitwell – “Where Is All the Bright Company Gone…”
8. William Carlos Williams – “On Spring”
9. Robert Browning – “My Last Duchess” (read by Ed Schell)
10. Josephine Miles – “Hysteric Sparks of Silk”
11. Yvor Winters – “Reptilian Green”
12. Richard Eberhardt in Berkeley – “Throwing the Apple”
13. Louise Bogan – “Medusa”
14. Richard Wilbur – “After the Last Bulletins”
17. Allen Ginsberg – “A Supermarket in California”
18. Theodore Roethke – “The Long Alley”
19. Kenneth Fearing – “Dirge” (dramatized by the KPFA Reader’s Theater)
20. Robert Duncan – “Best of Ways…”
21. Edna St. Millay – “Childhood is the Kingdom Where Nobody Dies”
22. Franz Kafka – “A Common Confusion” (read by Al Jacobs)
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Free Music Store: Seals and Crofts January 16, 2013 | 5:00 am

This week on From the Vault we present legendary rock duo Seals and Crofts performing live on WBAI’s storied show, Free Music Store. Although the Free Music Store show was on-air for only three years (1969-1972), it’s producers had a knack for landing bands and artists just before the their rise to fame and fortune. Seals and Crofts were certainly no exception. Still not yet a household name, and with most of their commercial hits yet to be written, Seals and Crofts took the stage at WBAI’s old “church” studios on November 14, 1971 – the very first time they would ever perform in front of a live studio audience.
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Women Composers with JoAnn Falletta, Pt 2 of 2 January 9, 2013 | 5:00 am

The Women’s Philharmonic plays Ellen Zwilich’s “Concerto grosso 1985″, Marianna Martines’ “Sinfonia in C”, Camilla de Rossi’s “Il sacrificio del Abramo”, and excerpts from Elisabeth Jacquet de La Guerre’s cantata “Jonas
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Women Composers January 2, 2013 | 5:00 am

This week, From the Vault jumps back a couple of decades to a 1992 International Women’s Day special by KPFK’s Jude McGee on women composers in classical music, with in-studio guest JoAnn Falletta – conductor of the Women’s Philharmonic
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FTV 344: Julio’s Holiday: Keeping Christmas Well December 19, 2012 | 5:00 am

This week on From the Vault we premiere you a new radio drama from KPFK-Los Angeles host Julio Martinez and the Arts in Review Repertory Players, Keeping Christmas Well, a story about the origins of A Christmas Carol, by Charles Dickens. But before we get to Ebenezer Scrooge and the Cratchit family, we’ll hear a 1988 WBAI-New York radio drama production of Grace Paley’s The Loudest Voice, about a Jewish girl in 1930’s New York who, because of her clear, loud voice and expressive reading, is chosen to narrate her school’s Christmas play.
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FTV 343 Julio’s Holiday: The Nutcracker’s Journey December 12, 2012 | 5:00 am

This week on From The Vault, KPFK Arts In Review host Julio Martinez presents original productions of two holiday classics: O. Henry’s The Gift of The Magi and Dylan Thomas’s A Child’s Christmas In Wales. We also showcase a new radio production sure to be a classic called The Nutcracker’s Journey, featuring the Arts in Review Repertory Players, about the interesting story of the creation of The Nutcracker Ballet, a project Tchaikovsky never wanted to do.
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Anna Karenina December 5, 2012 | 5:00 am

This week on From the Vault, we dive into one of the greatest love stories ever penned, Leo Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina – through a rediscovered 1974 recording of the reading of the novel in its entirety. Produced by Ruth Seymour at Pacifica’s station KPFK in Los Angeles on the occasion of the centennial of the novel’s original publication in 1874, Anna Karenina took over forty hours to record and was presented in serial form, with musical interludes selected by famed KPFK music director Mario Cassetta. After a present-day recording by Ruth Seymore of her original written 1974 folio introduction for the production, we’ll hear a sampling of the more than 100 actors and actresses who participated, starting with Henry Fonda on page one.
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FTV 341 Russell Means November 28, 2012 | 5:00 am

This week on From the Vault we offer a tribute to legendary Native American activist Russell Means (1939-2012) through the broadcast of a recording titled Native American Spiritual Values. Means was a prominent member of the American Indian Movement (AIM), a defendant in the 1973 Native American occupation of Wounded Knee, and appeared in several films throughout the 1990’s, using his influence and celebrity to draw attention to the decline of Indian culture.
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FTV 340 The 10 Greatest Protest Songs of the 20th Century November 21, 2012 | 5:00 am

In the summer of 1999, the Gene Autry Museum of Western Heritage presented a brilliant Woody Guthrie exhibit called this This Land is Your Land: The Life and Legacy of Woodie Guthrie. On the final day of the exhibit, Sunday, September 26, 1999, Los Angeles based folk singer Ross Altman was invited to perform a program called The 10 Greatest Protest Songs of the 20th Century. This week on From the Vault, you’ll hear Ross Altman tell the stories and perform songs from folk greats such as Leadbelly, Phil Ochs, Pete Seeger, Florence Reece, and, of course, Woody Guthrie.
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FTV 339 2012 Season Review, Part 7 November 14, 2012 | 5:00 am

This week on From the Vault continue to feature selections our favorite episodes of the past year:

Leonard Cohen, 1974

Master of poetry, art, and spirituality, Leonard Cohen is interviewed by WBAI’s Kathleen Kendel on December 4th, 1974 while touring his fourth studio record “New Skin for the Old Ceremony.”.

Jimmy Cliff

Twenty seven year old Jimmy Cliff, one of the pioneering forces of reggae music, is interviewed in 1975 at WBAI studios in New York City about the 1972 release of the Jamaican cult crime flick The Harder They Come
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FTV#338 2012 Season Review, Part 6 November 7, 2012 | 5:00 am

Documentary Pioneers Albert and David Maysles

Spend some time with documentarian brothers Albert and David Maysles, whose unconventional subject choices led to groundbreaking films such as Salesman (1968) and Gimme Shelter, the iconic 1970 film chronicling the infamous (and deadly) 1969 Rolling Stones performance at the Altamont Speedway in northern California. First, from 1971, David Maysles speaks candidly about his experiences with Mick Jagger, Brian Jones, Keith Richards, and other elements of the Rolling Stones before and after the infamous concert at the Altamont Speedway; then, in 1976 Albert Maysles discusses the cult film classic Grey Gardens.

Rudy Gernreich, Fashion Icon

Hear a fascinating 1971 interview with controversial twentieth century fashion designer Rudi Gernreich, who gained fame in 1964 for his “Monokini” (topless swim suit for women). Perhaps his most striking presentation, however, was the show for his spring collection for Harmon knitwear in 1971, in which Gernreich accessorized his clothing designs with Mao caps, desert boots, dog tags and rifles; the show was an effort to publicly expose the intersection of art, fashion, and the resistance of embattled women. Interviewed in January 1971 by KPFK’s Clare Loeb, Rudi Gernreich explains his controversial fashion show and discusses his career and life.
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2012 Season Review Part 5 October 31, 2012 | 5:00 am

This week on From the Vault continue to feature selections our favorite episodes of the past year:

Cello Master Class with János Starker

and

Trumpeter Donald Byrd
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FTV 336 2012 Season Review, Part 4 October 24, 2012 | 5:00 am

Ray Bradbury

We pay homage to legendary sci-fi writer Ray Bradbury through two classic recordings from Pacifica Radio Archives: The World of Ray Bradbury (1964) – in which Bradbury traces the evolution of his unique writing style, from his childhood to that day; and a recording from the International Colloquium on Mars (1973), in which Bradbury reflects on the literary and visionary masters before him that inspired him as a child to dream.

Poetry of Bukowski and Levertov

Celebrate National Poetry Month with the earliest known recordings of poet and cult icon Charles Bukowski (August 5, 1962, Los Angeles – he gave KPFK listeners a Bukowski earful!) and British-born American poet Denise Levertov, who frequently framed her poetry to express her personal politics (November 10, 1961, UC Berkeley Speech Department poetry reading).
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2012 Season Review, Part 3 October 17, 2012 | 5:00 am

This week on From the Vault continue to feature selections our favorite episodes of the past year:

Gloria Steinem – 1997 Kennedy Lecture Series

Les Guérillères: Feminist Radio Drama
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Season Review part 2 October 10, 2012 | 5:00 am

1) Redefining Black Power
2) Freddie Hubbard Live at La Bastille Jazz Club
3) The Art of Muckraking
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Season Highlights October 3, 2012 | 5:00 am

Occupy Alcaltraz

Two Painters: Van Gogh and Lichenstein

Big Mama Thornton
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Jimmy Cliff September 26, 2012 | 5:00 am

This week on From the Vault we hear from a 27-year old Jimmy Cliff, one of the pioneering forces of reggae music, in the form of a 1975 interview recorded at WBAI studios in New York City. Longtime KPFK Reggae Central radio host and author Chuck Foster guides us through the life and music of Jimmy Cliff, starting from his earliest days of hustling songs in Kingston, Jamaica in the early 1960’s, to his latest album Rebirth, released in 2012. Our featured Jimmy Cliff interview from Pacifica Radio Archives focuses on the 1972 release of the Jamaican cult crime flick The Harder They Come (in which Cliff stars), which wasn’t widely released in the United States until after a run of very popular midnight showings in major North American cities throughout 1974 and 1975.
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FTV#331 Who is Reverend Sun Myung Moon? September 19, 2012 | 5:00 am

On this week’s From the Vault we listen back to a 1975 recording that examines the happenings of Unification Church founder Sun Myung Moon, who died on September 3, 2012 at the age of 92.
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Rita Mae Brown September 12, 2012 | 5:00 am

On this week's From the Vault we present a recording of a distinguished novelist of the second wave of Feminism Rita Mae Brown recorded at the comfortable surroundings of The historic Women's Building in Los Angeles on July 4th, 1976.
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Leonard Cohen 1974 September 5, 2012 | 5:00 am

Cervantes, Yeats, Whitman, The Bible, Frederico Garcia Lorca, Henry Miller, Camus, Sartre, the Old Masters are the people who helped shape The Modern Master and subject of This Edition of From The Vault: Leonard Cohen.

Leonard has taken poetry, art and spirituality to sell out crowds around the world since his first record in 1967.

Here on From The Vault we present a historic interview with Leonard Cohen from December 4th 1974 while touring his fourth studio record New Skin for the Old Ceremony.
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Rudy Gernreich, Fashion Icon August 22, 2012 | 5:00 am

In this episode of From the Vault, we'll hear a fascinating 1971 interview with controversial twentieth century fashion designer Rudi Gernreich, with a contemporary introduction by WBAI's Andrea Katz. Although Gernreich became internationally famous for his 1964 "Monokini," or topless swim suit for women, his most striking presentation was the show for his spring collection for Harmon knitwear in 1971.
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Documentary Pioneers Albert and David Maysles August 15, 2012 | 5:00 am

This week on From the Vault we spend some time with documentarian brothers Albert and David Maysles, whose unconventional subject choices led to groundbreaking films such as 1968’s Salesman, which takes to the road with a travelling Bible salesman, and Gimme Shelter, the iconic 1970 film chronicling the infamous (and deadly) 1969 Rolling Stones performance at the Altamont Speedway in northern California. First, from 1971, we sit in with younger brother David Maysles and writer Richard Geldstein in an interview at WBAI studios in New York with producer Jospeph Gelmis; David speaks candidly about his experiences with Mick Jagger, Brian Jones, Keith Richards, and other elements of the Rolling Stones before and after the infamous concert at the Altamont Speedway.
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Gore Vidal Tribute August 8, 2012 | 5:00 am

From the Vault salutes the life and work of the great American playwright, author, actor and commentator Gore Vidal, whose unique perspective has been fully-preserved, digitized, and made publicly available by Pacifica Radio Archives for humanity’s benefit. Spanning over 40 years, nearly two dozen recordings capturing Gore Vidal in his own voice constitute one of Pacifica’s most cherished collections, and embody the full range of Vidal’s superb intelligence and keen wit.
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FTV 324 San Diego Folk Festival – Songwriters’ Workshop August 1, 2012 | 5:00 am

We’ll hear performances from Mary McCaslin, “Young Wesley;” Jim Ringer, “Father Time;” Bruce Utah Phillips, “Jesse Garcia;” Hazel Dickens, “Black Lung;” Alice Gerrard, “Missing Jenny;” John Wilcox, “Tree of Life;” Patty Hall, “Daddy Please;” Debby McClatchy, “California Faith;” John Bosley, “Humerous Song;” and Tom Waits, “Heart of Saturday Night” and “Better Off Without a Wife.”
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FTV 323 Highlights from the San Diego Folk Festival, 1974-77 July 25, 2012 | 5:00 am

A shelf of old recordings from the San Diego Folk Festival has been unearthed from the Pacifica Radio Archives including folk music, including country blues, 1950's country western, . The musicians performing at the festival including some amazing names like Rose Maddox, Patsy Montana, Lydia Mendoza, and The Balfa Brothers. So please – sit back and enjoy this priceless collection of live recordings from thirty years past, courtesy of the Pacifica Radio Archives.
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FTV#322 Music of the Portuguese Revolution July 18, 2012 | 5:00 am

O Que Faz Falta(What Still Needs to be Done): The Music of the Portuguese Revolution is engaging musical documentary on fifty years of struggle which triumphed in securing freedom and democracy for the people of Portugal and former Portuguese colonies.
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Poetry Icon William Carlos Williams June 27, 2012 | 5:00 am

Poetry Icon William Carlos Williams is featured in this week's From The Vault.
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