Radio Curious

Independence Day begs the question of what freedom and independence means. For Independence Day, Radio Curious brings you an interview with the Headman and War Chief of the Winnemem Wintu tribe in Northern California.  The Winnemem Wintu declared war on the United States in 2004, in response to the “continued cultural genocide” against the indigenous tribe.  Since that time they have been in a state of war against the US Government, which refuses to officially recognize the tribe as Native Americans.  The Winnemem Wintu began their war by holding a traditional war dance at the California State capitol building in Sacramento.

In honor of Independence Day Radio Curious Associate Producer, Christina Aanestad, visits with Mark Franco, Headman and War Chief of the Winnemem Wintu tribe. His wife, Caleen Sisk-Franco is the Chief and Spiritual Leader of the Winnemem Wintu tribe. This interview was recorded in July 2010, at a coming of age ceremony on tribal land along the McCloud River in northern California, near an area where their former villages were flooded to make the Shasta Dam. The conversation began with Mark Franco describing what it means to be the Headman of the Winnemem Wintu tribe.

The Winnemem Wintu website is www.winnememwintu.us/. You may enjoy Christina Aanestad’s interview with Caleen Sisk-Franco, the Chief and Spiritual Leader of the Winnemem Wintu tribe, found here.

The book Mark Franco recommends is “Cadillac Desert:The American West and Its Disappearing Water,” by Marc Reisner.

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Since the last Ice Age ended about 12,000 years ago, human beings have traveled along the Klamath River and it tributaries in the northwest corner of California and the coast of southern Oregon.  Many people finding an abundance of food, have stayed. The main source of their food was salmon. The power of the myth of the salmon may derive from the fact that wild salmon spread out across the Pacific Northwest about the same time that human beings did, at the end of the last Ice Age.

In this edition of Radio Curious we have an archived visit with Steve Most, author of “River of Renewal, Myth & History in the Klamath Basin,” a book that tells the story of the history of the Klamath River and the people who have continuously lived there for the past 12,000 years. Steve Most is a playwright and documentary storyteller. Among many other works, he wrote the texts of the audio voices and videos for the permanent exhibit of the Washington State History Museum. In this interview recorded in mid-March 2007, I spoke with Steve Most from his home in Berkeley, California. We began our conversation when I asked him to give a perspective of the geological and human aspects of the Klamath River and its place in history.

Stephen Most recommends the “Essays and Letters of Ralph Waldo Emerson.”

Originally Broadcast: March 21, 2007

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It is said that in the early part of World War II, it took 500,000 Italian soldiers to occupy Ethiopia, and one Ethiopian soldier to conquer Rome.  19 years later, this one Ethiopian soldier, Abebe Bikila competed barefoot in the 1960 Olympiad marathon foot race in Rome, Italy, leaving all other runners in the dust.  Winning the 42 kms, 195 meter race, Abebe Bikila became the first African to win an Olympic Gold Medal.

Abebe Bikila, a shepherd from the plains of Abyssinia in rural Ethiopia, who had never been away from his family, stunned the world with his extraordinary victory.  He became the hero of Rome Olympiad and for years to come a national hero in Ethiopia.  Four years later he won the Marathon at the Tokyo Olympiad becoming the first person to win two Olympic Marathon Gold Medals.

Beyond igniting East Africa’s dominance in long distance running, Abebe Bikila became a quiet champion of hope for a continent that was in the midst of its struggle for self-determination.  During his career Bikila won 12 of the 15 marathons he entered. Abebe Bikila died of a brain hemorrhage on October 23^rd, 1972, two and a half years after his final race and victory in Norway.  He was 41 years old.

In this edition of Radio Curious we visit by phone with the Davey Frankel, from his home in Berlin, Germany and Rasselas Lakew, from his home in New York City.  They are the writers, directors and producers of the movie “The Athlete,” the story of Abebe Bikila.  Rasselas Lakew portrays Abebe Bikila in the lead role of “The Athlete,” and was born and grew up in Addis Abbaba, Ethiopia.  “The Athlete” which will be shown at the Mendocino Film Festival on Friday evening June 3, tells the powerful and tragic story Abebe Bikila, a quiet man, who in many ways meets the Homer’s description in the Odyssey: “… the distant Ethiopians, the father outposts of mankind, half of whom live where the sun goes down and half where the rises.”

This interview with Davey Frankel and Rasselas Lakew, which was recorded on May 9, 2011, began when I asked them explain what prompted them to write and produce “The Athlete.”

The movie that Davey Frankel recommends is “My Life Without Me,” directed by Isabel Coixet.   The movie that Rasselas La Lakew recommends is “Living Russian, Man With A Movie Camera,” directed by Dziga Vertov.

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The “Middle Water People” are a small tribe near Mount Shasta, in Northern California. During World War 2, they were relocated and their homeland was flooded to make the Shasta Dam.  After an 80 year lapse, the tribe has reinvigorated a ceremony there, called the Puberty Ceremony, which honors a girls transition into womanhood.  For 3 days and nights, men sing and dance on one side of a river, while the women, pass on traditions to girls on the other side.

The summer of 2011, the tribe will be holding the puberty ceremony for it’s future chief.  But holding a ceremony on stolen land can be a challenge. The forest service refuses to grant the tribe private access to their ancestral land along the McCloud river, because they are an “unrecognized” tribe.  Their ceremony is held with recreational boaters driving by, and camping as the tribe holds it’s right of passage. Under the guidance of their Chief and Spiritual Leader, Caleen Sisk Franco, the Winnemem-Wintu have sued the federal government to protect their rights and their ancestral land. She describes the puberty ceremony and it’s importance to their way of life.

Radio Curious Associate producer Christina Aanestad spoke with Caleen Sisk Franco, the chief and spiritual leader of the Winnemem Wintu tribe in Northern California in August 2011.

The Book Caleen Sisk Franco recommends is “Winnie the Pooh,”  by A.A. Milne.

For more information on the Winnemem Wintu you can visit their website: www.winnememwintu.us

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Radio Curious host and producer Barry Vogel and associate producer Janet Mendell attended the 10th international congress of the World Association of Community Broadcasters, known as AMARC.  AMARC is a network of more than 4,000 community radio stations, in more than 100 countries.

Founded in 1983, its goal is to democratize the media sector. AMARC advocates for the right to communicate at the international, national, local and neighborhood levels. It defends and promotes the interests of the community radio movement through global solidarity, networking and cooperation. The 10th AMARC congress was held near Buenos Aires, Argentina the second week of November 2010, with 500 delegates from 86 countries present.

In addition to presenting a workshop on interviewing skills, Radio Curious interviewed conference delegates from several different countries. In this edition of Radio Curious, the first in a series about local community radio around the world, we visit with Fadi Abuzada, a community radio activist in Palestine and AHM Bazlur Rahman, the CEO of the Bangladesh NGO’s Network for Radio and Communication.

The interviews were recorded in November 2010, in La Plata, Argentina.

Fadi Abuzada recommends the movie, The Little Town of Bethlehem.

AHM Bazlur Rahman recommends visiting his organizations website, www.bnnrc.net, instead of reading a book.

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A sports icon of the first half of the 20^th century, Jim Thorpe, was a Native American athlete who rose to athletic stardom at the Carlisle Indian Industrial School, winning two gold medals at the 1912 Summer Olympics and continued, despite some controversy, to gain fame in professional baseball and football. In this edition of Radio Curious we visit with Tom Weidlinger, the director and co-writer and co-producer of the movie “Jim Thorpe, The World’s Greatest Athlete.”  Tom Weidlinger spoke from his home in the San Francisco bay area on Sunday, May 30^th 2010.  I began by asking him “Who is Jim Thorpe?”

The book  Tom Weidlinger recommends is “Cutting For Stone” by Abraham Verghese.

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Howard Zinn’s productive insights into history came to an end with his death in January 2010.  This edition of Radio Curious shares a previously not broadcast interview with Howard Zinn, recorded on July 7, 2006, where he discusses the important role of civil disobedience in creating new social and legal policies which he states are impossible to foment using established legislative or judicial practices.  Radio Curious host, Barry Vogel, Esq. begins this memorial program with the last few paragraphs of the first chapter of “A People’s History of the United States, 1492 to Present,” written by Zinn and published in 1988.  Vogel also shares his recollection of Zinn when they met in Greenwood, Mississippi in 1963.  The song “Ain’t Gonna Let Segregation Turn Us Around,” sung by the Freedom Singers is found on Broadside Records #301, recorded in 1962.

The books Howard Zinn recommends are “Iraq: The Logic of Withdrawal,” by Anthony Arnov, and “Overthrow: America’s Century of Regime Change From Hawaii to Iraq,” by Stephen Kinzer.

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25 years before the Battle Of The Little Bighorn, 40 years before the Battle Of Wounded Knee, there was the Bloody Island Massacre in the spring of 1850 in Lake County, California, near a community which is now called Kelseyville. The massacre of the Lake County Pomo people, which was an immediate prelude to the massacre of the Mendocino County Pomo people in the Yokayo valley (where the community of Ukiah, the county seat of Mendocino County is now situated), was in retaliation for the Pomo’s murder of Charles Stone and Andrew Kelsey, brought about by the way Stone and Kelsey and other European settlers of that time treated the Pomo people. Ukiah resident Bill Walls has written a play about the events that led up to the massacres – “A Time Before Dogs: A True Tale of Two Executions That Led To The Bloody Island Massacre”. This massacre occurred in 1850, the play however ends in December 1849. Our guests in this edition of Radio Curious are Bill Walls and Denise Kawkeka, they read portions of the play and talk about the issues that led up to the massacre. I visited with Bill Walls and Denise Kawkeka in the studios of Ukiah Valley Community Television and began by asking Bill Walls what drew his attention to the background of this play.

This interview was recorded in the studios of Ukiah Valley Community Television on January 18th 2010.

The book that Denise Kawkeka recommends is “The Mutant Message Down Under,” by Marlo Morgan. Bill Walls recommends “Homer and Langley,” by E.L. Doctorow.

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Consider spending time on death row and turning that experience into the drive to get a doctorate? In this edition of Radio Curious we visit with Professor Rudolph Alexander Jr. Ph.D., author of “To Ascend Into The Shining World Again”. As a 17 year old student Rudolph Alexander found himself in a threatening situation in which he felt compelled to shoot another man. In his trial he felt he was badly misrepresented by his attorney and was convicted and sentenced to death by the electric chair in the State of Georgia. Following a U.S. Supreme Court decision in 1968, Rudolph’s sentence was changed to life imprisonment. He was later granted trusty status, which aided him in securing parole in 1975. Rebounding from his ordeal, Alexander began college, earning four degrees, including a Ph.D. in Social Work from the University of Minnesota. Presently Alexander is a full Professor at Ohio State University.

We spoke with Rudolph Alexander from his home in Ohio on October 26, 2009 and began by asking him to reflect on the extremes he has experienced in his life.

The book recommended by Rudolph Alexander is “My Grandfather’s Son: A Memoir,” by Justice Clarence Thomas, of the United States Supreme Court.

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