February 05, 2010
The directors of the New Orleans and the Indianapolis art museums have a lot more riding on this weekend's Super Bowl than a couple of bucks in the office pool. After an arts blogger posed a challenge, they've each put up a treasured painting from their collections. The director of the losing city's museum will have to lend his masterpiece to the winner.
Brooklyn-based band Djarara plays the traditional Haitian street music known as rara, which features metal horns, bamboo trumpets, and drums. Every one of the 15 band members lost someone in the recent earthquake. They're continuing the music, and even rehearsing a new song to commemorate the tragedy. "Rara is life," says one of the musicians. Produced by WNYC's Janaya Williams.
Marlon James's novel The Book of Night Women is set on a Jamaican sugar plantation at the turn of the 19th century. It's about a rebellion led by a group of slaves. It is also the coming-of-age story of Lilith, the enslaved daughter of the plantation's overseer, and her conflicted feelings about violence as retribution. James talks about his use of dialect in the novel and why dialect is still controversial among Jamaican writers.
(Originally aired March 6, 2009)
When a young writer gets a day job with J.D. Salinger's agent, she becomes a better novelist. Joanna Smith Rakoff describes her time as the reluctant conduit between the writer and his fans.
The indie band features David Grubbs, Hannah Marcus, and Rick Moody, author of The Ice Storm, Purple America, and other novels. They join Kurt in the studio to play a few tunes and talk about their music.
(Originally aired July 9, 2005)
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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. 
