KFAI's MinneCulture Presents

Epic Tales   from Noise: A Human History of Sound and Listening In 1933, a young classics scholar called  Milman Parry  made a journey through the hill villages of the Balkans to record poets and singers. He captured an oral tradition that's all but died out - peasant performers who recited  epic tales  over days from memory without any form of prompt.  We'll learn how these ancient tales were  remembered  and passed down, and travel to the ancient  Theatre of Epidaurus  in Greece. Featuring archive extracts of traditional stories from the Balkans, Kyrgyzstan, West Africa, and India. Persuasion   from Noise: A Human History of Sound and Listening From  Cicero  to  Martin Luther King, Jr. , over the centuries,  great orators  have changed our minds,  given us hope , and sent us to the barricades. Professor  David Hendy  of the University of Sussex  reveals their rhetorical tricks, and explains why  President Obama 's  sharp  ear for dialogue is one of his greatest assets.

Voices of the Stringtown Poetry Workshop from Abby Wendle In the late 1970's, Mary McAnally led a poetry workshop for the inmates at Stringtown Prison in Oklahoma . She taught at the prison twice a week for three years, helping many of the prisoners get published in literary journals across the country. In this segment, we hear McAnally discuss the movement to rehabilitate prisoners. We also hear two of the prisoner poets, Milton Gracen and William "Indian Bill" Hogner, read and discuss their poetry. Warrior Poets by Samara Breger Clearly there is a need to increase understanding between cops and the communities they serve. And so t he Portland Police Department recently faced down a daunting task: writing poetry. Local performance artist Marty Pottenger wished to harness the transformative power of poetry to bring officers more in touch with their emotions, improve moral, and change preconceived notions about them. It should also make them better at their jo

Confronting Hatred from The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum This hour-long radio special , narrated by Morgan Freeman , examines the ways in which the Holocaust continues to inform contemporary discussions about hate speech, propaganda, and human rights . We hear stories from people confronting hatred in their lives, their communities, and sometimes in their own hearts . We hear how easily a young boy got recruited by skinheads in Pennsylvania, how one man is working to reshape international criminal law after the genocide in Rwanda, and how both an imam and a heavy metal rock band confront hatred in their communities.

A Ritual Soundscape   from Noise: A Human History of Sound and Listening Humans have  learned  to control sound for rituals with impressive monuments.  Prof. David Hendy   travels to the  Orkney Islands in Scotland to  hear the bizarre effect of beating a drum while standing in one of  Orkney’s Neolithic sites . The space feels like a theater stage, made for performance. When these literal sound effects were discovered -- they were exploited for use in magnificent rituals. T hese are the kind of places where our ancestors came to make a spectacular racket. But we'll also explore the places where they came in search of  silence  and sensory deprivation. The Rise of the Shamans   from Noise: A Human History of Sound and Listening Around the world  charismatic individuals  claim the ability to talk to spirits, heal illness and help crops grow. Proffessor Hendy will explain h ow sound - and its manipulation - is so central to the shaman's power. We'll travel all the way from

The Great Crepitation Contest of 1946   by Sidney S. Brown and Jules Lipton Sometime in the 1940s a clandestine recording was produced, allegedly by  Canadian Broadcast Corporation  staff. The details are remarkably scarce and the stories of the now legendary recording's origin conflict and vary wildly. Despite the complete haze of its background , my guess is you'll find it hard not to thoroughly enjoy the seriously  tongue- in- cheek   radio play-by-play or rather blow-by-blow of the epic battle between the reigning champ,  Lord Windesmear , and upcoming challenger,  Paul Boomer  narrated wonderfully  by famous sportscaster S.S. Brown. Certainly one for the record books.