Episodes Summary:

A beautiful and powerful art exhibition is touring the country right now, called Pictures of Belonging, which explores three artists of Japanese descent - Miki Hayakawa, Hisako Hibi and Miné Okubo. The exhibition puts these artists and their work in their rightful place in the history of American art.

For this bonus episode, producer and lead writer David Taylor visits the exhibition at the Smithsonian American Art Museum and shares his insights about Miné Okubo, who was featured in Episode 9: Is This Land Your Land? She was a painter who was working with Diego Rivera on murals for the WPA when she was detained and sent to an incarceration camp during World War 2. She used her artwork to bear witness to the mass incarceration of Japanese Americans during the war.

Links and Resources:

Pictures of Belonging: Japanese American National Museum

Pictures of Belonging: Smithsonian American Art Museum

Citizen 13660 - a short film from the National Park Service

Sincerely, Miné Okubo - a short biography from the Japanese American National Museum

Further Reading:

Citizen 13360 by Miné Okubo

Miné Okubo: Following Her Own Road by Greg Robinson

Peaceful Painter: Memoirs of an Issei Woman Artist by Hisako Hibi

The Other American Moderns: Matsura, Ishigaki, Nora, Hayakawa by ShiPu Wang

Credits:

Director: Andrea Kalin

Producers: Andrea Kalin, David A. Taylor, James Mirabello

Editor: Amy Young

Featuring music from Pond5

Produced with support from the National Endowment for the Humanities, Florida Humanities, Virginia Humanities, Wisconsin Humanities, California Humanities and Humanities Nebraska.

For additional content, visit peoplesrecorder.info or follow us on social media: @peoplesrecorder

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The People’s Recorder was funded in part with a grant from Wisconsin Humanities. But did you know that Wisconsin Humanities also has their own podcast, Human Powered?

Hosted by Adam Carr and Dasha Kelly Hamilton, Human Powered focuses on the power of the humanities in Wisconsin's prisons. We wanted to share an episode from that terrific show with you today.

People in prisons are cut off from their families, their communities, and in some cases their own feelings. Making art in prison can be a way to affirm your humanity in a place that is often dehumanizing. So, when organizers of an exhibit of prison art put out a call for submissions, they were flooded with responses from incarcerated artists working without support, formal programs or materials. This episode tells the story of that exhibit.

Guests:

Joshua Gresl

John Tyson

Sarah Demerath

Debra Brehmer

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Learn more about Human Powered at www.wisconsinhumanities.org/podcast

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Episode Summary:

In the 1930s, the notion of making an incubator for creativity in a region devastated by the Great Depression got tested in Nebraska. This episode looks at what happened there when the Writers’ Project came to town, through a group of creatives from contrasting backgrounds, including a hobo, a nurse and a hardware store poet – all under the watchful eye of a university professor and a celebrated novelist.

Starting from chaos, they ignited a surprising alchemy and made the Lincoln office one of the most productive Writers’ Project hubs in the country. The Season 1 finale listens in as Americans face war clouds on the horizon, and a national radio show asks, “Can we count on youth to uphold the American Way?”

Speakers:

Stephen Cloyd, librarian and historian

Marilyn Holt, historian

James Reidel, biographer and poet

Douglas Brinkley, historian

Links and Resources:

Rudolph Umland and the Federal Writers' Project

The Nebraska Federal Writers' Project - Lincoln City Libraries

Mari Sandoz and the Writers' Project

Weldon Kees reads his poem, "1926"

WPA Guide to Nebraska (free PDF)

Prairie Schooner

Reading List:

Vanished Act: The Life and Art of Weldon Kees, by James Reidel

Nebraska During the New Deal, by Marilyn Irvin Holt

Soul of a People by David A. Taylor

The Worst Hard Time: The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dust Bowl, by Timothy Egan

The Collected Poems of Weldon Kees, edited by Donald Justice

Crazy Horse, by Mari Sandoz

Credits

Host: Chris Haley

Director: Andrea Kalin

Producers: Andrea Kalin, David A. Taylor, James Mirabello

Writer: David A. Taylor

Editor: Ethan Oser

Assistant Editor: Amy Young

Story Editor: Michael May

Additional Voices: Jared Buggage, Sam Hanks, JoJo Drake Kalin, Antonio Macias, James Mirabello, Mariko Miyazaki, Kate Rafter and Sarah Smack

Featuring music and archival from:

Aaron Copland

Alexandria Symphony Orchestra

Joseph Vitarelli

Bradford Ellis

Mike Sayre

Ceiri Torjussen

Pond5

Library of Congress

National Archives and Records Administration

New York Public Radio Archives Collection

Nebraska Public Media

For additional content, visit peoplesrecorder.info or follow us on social media: @peoplesrecorder

Produced with support from:

National Endowment for the Humanities

Humanities Nebraska

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.