August 22, 2008
She was three years old in 1980, when her family fled post-revolutionary Iran. Khakpour is 30 now, and her memories are woven into her lyrical, witty debut novel, Sons and Other Flammable Objects just out in paperback. Kurt talks with her about the book's loosely autobiographical portrait of a family like hers, adjusting to life in 1980s California and then post-9/11 America.
(Originally aired: October 12, 2007)
Just over a century ago in New Hampshire, Edward and Marian MacDowell opened the doors of America’s first official artists colony. Aaron Copland wrote "Billy the Kid" there. Willa Cather worked on Death Comes for the Archbishop. And Mike Daisey went to work on a monologue. He spent a month in one of the wooded cabins at the MacDowell Colony last summer, and shares this story with us.
(Originally aired: December 14, 2007)
A spell at the MacDowell Colony is one of the best perks an artist can get. Tara Geer, a visual artist, went twice to work on her drawings. She also interviewed a MacDowell legend, lunch delivery man Blake Tewksbury. But the whole time, she was afraid she’d be sent home.
(Originally aired: December 14, 2007)
Henry Alford is a writer who has never been to MacDowell. And he doesn’t really want to. No, what Henry wants to do is run the place. We give him a chance to try out for the job. Produced by Owen Agnew.
(Originally aired: December 14, 2007)
They got their start at the Alabama Institute for the Negro Blind in 1939. Sixty-nine years later, the band remains a gospel music institution. For their latest album, Down in New Orleans, the Blind Boys went to Louisiana for a new take on some classic spirituals. Blind Boys perform live in the studio and one of the group’s original members, Jimmy Carter, tells Kurt how they got started.
(Originally aired: February 22, 2008)
The Blind Boys of Alabama perform the song live in Studio 360.
Studio 360 is a co-production of
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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. 
