March 24, 2006
A documentary in theaters tells the story of the South's victory over the Union in the Civil War. Most of CSA: The Confederate States of America is obviously faked, but filmmaker Kevin Willmott didn't re-write American history as a joke. He set out to reveal a disturbing truth.
The singer and guitarist Billy Bragg burst on to the music scene in Britain in the early 1980s, singing about love and Margaret Thatcher (not in the same song). He got his inspiration to be a musician from a stint in the army, and he sounded like no one else at the time or since. Bragg's early albums have just been released in a CD boxed set, and he stopped by to play a few classics.
Aminah Robinson works with all kinds of materials and found objects —anything from wood to leather, textiles to mud. When Kurt Andersen spoke with Robinson, she explained how she takes her artistic cues from her ancestry and from her community, and the necessity of having physical contact with her materials.
If there were a competition to create a Broadway musical based on the least likely source material, Grey Gardens might be the winner. The show is adapted from the 1975 documentary that followed the reclusive aunt and cousin of Jackie O. Christine Ebersole, the star of Grey Gardens—the musical—and the show's composer Scott Frankel explain to Kurt Andersen why this story continues to fascinate audiences.
Studio 360 is a co-production of
Public
Radio International and
WNYC New York Public Radio, and is funded in part by
Ken and Lucy Lehman, the
National Endowment for the Arts, the Lily Auchincloss Foundation, and
DK Eyewitness Travel. Studio 360's American Icons series is supported in part by the
National Endowment for the Humanities. Our series on creativity and science is supported in part by the
Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. Our series on Underground Heroes is supported in part by the New York State Music Fund, established by the New York State Attorney General at Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors. 
