KFAI's MinneCulture Presents

National Book Award-winning poet and translator, Robert Bly from New Letters on the Air ~ Minnesotan Robert Bly , the poet, translator, and cultural commentator has died . We’re celebrating Minnesota's first poet laureate with an hour of the author reading his work. Our main feature is an episode of New Letters on the Air which was recorded a decade ago at Rockhurst University’s Midwest Poets Series . Bly was there with world- renowned  sitarist David Whetstone in October of 2011 and reading from his latest collection of poems, Talking Into the Ear of a Donkey . He also treated the audience to selections from My Sentence Was a Thousand Years of Joy: Poems -- his uniquely American adaptation of the Mideastern ghazal form. Since 1977, New Letters on the Air has produced a weekly half-hour literary radio program from Kansas City, Missouri. We'll also hear a number of recitations and recordings of Bly in the studio over the years with Whetstone and top-tier tabla player ...

We Don't Talk Like That: 'Fargo' and the Midwest Psyche  by 2 Below Zero ~ In 2016, Todd Melby made an audio documentary about the 1996 movie 'Fargo'. His research started him down a rabbit hole which would eventually lead to the publication of his  fantastic  new book  A Lot Can Happen In the Middle of Nowhere: The Untold Story of the Making of Fargo .  W e're going to listen back to that original doc and remember what all the fuss was about. Initially, 'Fargo' stirred widespread curiosity about snowy winters,  funny accents , and bloody mayhem on the frozen tundra. It also won two Oscars and inspired a popular  television series . But how well did it actually capture and reflect the region? Producers  Diane Richard and Todd Melby  unravel the mystery behind the parkas, prowlers, and wood chippers in interviews with actors  William H. Macy , John Carroll Lynch, Stephen Park, Tony Denman,  dialect coach   Liz Himelstein , women...