KFAI's MinneCulture Presents

State of the Re:Union is the effort of two talented radio producers: Zak Rosen and Alfred Letson. Their new show tours the USA, putting a new spin on cities you thought you knew. Their first visit is to Detroit find out how the area creates community and answer the question, “What happens to the people when their local government fails them?” Segments include: Letters to Detroit – Heard throughout the episode, residents read their a letter they’ve written to their city. Walking on Broken Glass – Two young Detroit artists collect broken car-window glass from the streets of the city and transform it into community based art. Interview with Grace Lee Boggs – 93 year old activist and her young protégé outline the issues Detroit faces and their ideas of how the city can move forward without the promise of industry or government. Avalon Bakery – Small-business owner Jackie Victor talks about Detroit’s open entrepreneurial landscape and how the city’s lack of infrastructure has brought th...

Joe Strummer, the legendary gravel-voiced punk-poet from The Clash, loved to listen to music on the radio. Even as he toured the world with "the only band that matters," he still had a dream to one day spin records for the BBC World Service, where he heard the latest UK hits over the shortwave band as a teenager in Africa. He finally got his wish in 1999, when BBC World Service premiered Joe Strummer's London Calling. Between then and 2002, Strummer hosted a series of programs with a simple format — one man and his eclectic record collection. On the Dec. 22 show, listen to an interview with Strummer. On the Dec. 29 show, listen to Joe Strummer's first show for the BBC, unedited.

This program follows the stories of 10 people whose relationships have profound implications on the way they live their lives. From the patient who's disability means he has to rely on his carer for the most basic of needs, to the hold a New York-based dominatrix has over her slave, these are the controlling forces in the lives of different people from different backgrounds across the world. Listen in at 7 p.m. on Dec. 15 on the Listening Lounge on KFAI, 90.3 FM Minneapolis and 106.7 FM St. Paul.

Dec. 1 Hearing Voices: Dog Plan Listen to stories about Afgan dogs, blind dogs, Barrett Golding's childhood dogs, dog dreams and a story by Minnesota's Kevin Kling called "Dogs." It's all from Hearing Voices and a really cool 29-minute show called "The Dog Plan." (I aired it Monday, but you'll find it in the KFAI archives.) Dec. 8 Radio Netherlands Documentary: Pride and Prejudice To be a gay man in the nineteenth century was to live in the shadows. And to be openly homosexual meant almost certain alienation from family and friends. But how does this compare to the twentieth century, a period of great social and legal change? Three men whose lives span the majority of the twentieth century discuss their lives, while the author of 'Strangers: Homosexual Love in the Nineteenth Century' looks at that century's highs and lows. By comparing the two we can see how social attitudes and norms have changed — perhaps not quite as much as we may thi...