Art Works Podcast

With a trunk full of her mother’s saris, Kenyan author and performer Shaija Patel reclaims a lost history. 

Sherrie Maricle has played with jazz legends, leads an all-woman big band, and forges new roads for women in jazz.

In Translation: Verónica Castillo expands a traditional Mexican art form, the Tree of Life, to express the need for social justice in the 21st century.

Louisiana Swamp blues singer, composer and pianist Carol Fran looks back at her 60-year career.

Meet some of the greatest back-up singers! It may be only Twenty Feet from Stardom  but director Morgan Neville shows us just how long that walk can be.

"Art Makes You Smart" and Brian Kisida co-published a study that proves it! [27:05]

It's a music-filled podcast with New Orleans composer, producer, and pianist Allen Toussaint who combines elegance with funk. [29:29]

Pratibha Parmar discusses making the recent documentary about an iconic American writer, Alice Walker: Beauty in Truth , which can be seen on the American Masters’ website .

Daniel Beaty's play and bravura performance in The Tallest Tree in the Forest shines a light on the artistry and activism of Paul Robeson.

Tope Folarin becomes the first writer born outside of Africa to win the Caine Prize with his short story set in Texas in an evangelical Nigerian church. 

Jen Masengarb explains Chicago's rich architectural legacy and CAF’s role in bringing it public awareness. 

Jeff Orlowski goes to the Arctic to film James Balog’s documentation of the rapidly disappearing glaciers. We hear all about it. 

Here’s a peak at the Screen Actors’ Guild or SAG Award--the show where actors honor actors. 

Pianist Keith Jarrett - letting the music happen. [34:27]

Anthony Braxton may be considered avant garde but he embraces all musical traditions.

Bassist Richard Davis talks about his musical life outside of jazz -- working with folks like Van Morrison, Bruce Springsteen, Leonard Bernstein and Igor Stravinsky. 

One of the great bassists Richard Davis remembers a few of jazz musicians he's played with -- like Sun Ra, Ahmad Jamal, Sarah Vaughan, Elvin Jones, and Eric Dolphy.

Musician and teacher Jamey Aebersold believes that anyone can improvise and he's developed the tools to show them how. [27:11]

Kati Texas takes us behind the scenes of the Kinetic Sculpture Race, Grand Championship, where art and science go to play. [28:10]

McCraney shares his exuberant passion for live performance and his determination to bring theater to underserved kids in Miami.

Matt Kaplan takes a scientific look at the monsters that scare us…and why we love it. 

Sacred Harp singer David Ivey both preserves the tradition and widens the circle.

Nicholson Baker may have written three exuberant sex novels, but he turns to his other passion in his latest book, Traveling Sprinkler : the extraordinary details of the ordinary.

In the second part of a two-part interview, we hear Sheila as storyteller and learn about some of the folks who lived in Sodom, North Carolina.

Singer, musician and storyteller Sheila Kay Adams talks about (and sings) songs brought over from England, Scotland, and Ireland in the mid-17th century and kept alive by the people in the mountains of North Carolina.