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This week: The EPA approved the registration of three dicamba products, despite previous federal court decisions invalidating earlier registrations and a growing number of complaints about the products’ safety. Plus, new research from Purdue University and an international team of researchers finds the same clouds that have helped Indiana feed the world could also be speaking volumes about the effect our actions have on the earth’s climate.
Rhoda Ethelbah-Case (Whiteriver, Arizona)
Born and raised in the White Mountain Apache Reservation, Rhoda grew up the child of musicians Matthew J. Kane (Midnite) and wife Lee Kane. Midnite and Lee founded the band Apache Spirit and performed together for forty-seven years, covering the entire southwestern United States and playing a variety of different venues. They recorded fifteen albums and won the First Country Folk category for the Native American musical awards. Today, as a family band, Apache Spirit livens casino, club and rodeo audiences and dance floors with their hefty mix of country, Native Contemporary Originals, Oldies but Goodies, Rock N’ Roll and Blues. Currently she is the leader, background vocalist, keyboard, and drummer for Apache Spirit, Chris Kane Trio, and Lady Krow Roadshow & Rez Rootz. Currently, Rhoda manages and is the vocalist, keyboard, and drummer for Apache Spirit, Chris Kane Trio, and Lady Krow Roadshow & Rez Rootz. She is also a motivational speaker.
Interviewed by Raquel Paraíso, 11/07/2020.
In the first episode of our post-election series, we go live with Robinson Meyer of The Atlantic, Yessenia Funes of Atmos Magazine, Britt Wray of Gen Dread, Dharna Noor of Earther, and independent reporter/consultant Mythili Sampathkumar to discuss the environmental news you need to watch (and how to cope with the associated anxiety) as we move forward.
Shanahan, James, Yan, Harry, Torres-Lugo, Christopher
Summary:
The 2020 election will likely be on our minds for some time. But how did we get here? Dean Shanahan speaks with Harry Yan and Christopher Torres-Lugo, two graduate students who are researching election interference.
Yan and Lugo work at IU’s Observatory on Social Media, known familiarly as OSoMe, or “awesome.” The three discuss detecting bots, online election narratives, how the field is becoming more polarized— and what we might learn from it all.
This item is a set of examples from the collection [United States, North and South Carolina, Georgia, African Americans, 1920s-1930s] collected by Lawrence Gellert. Some content and language may be offensive. The examples have been selected to accompany the monograph, A Sound History: Lawrence Gellert, Black Musical Protest, and White Denial, by Steven Garabedian, published by the University of Massachusetts Press in 2020. The larger collection of Lawrence Gellert recordings are described in the IUCAT record (https://iucat.iu.edu/catalog/2231335 ). Some of these recordings were made using a primitive recording device and the audio quality is very poor. Titles are taken from those provided in Gellert's notes or have been created based on the song content. Gellert did not document the names of performers for their safety, and that is why the performers for most of these recordings are unknown.
The HathiTrust Digital Library (HTDL) was founded in 2008 with just over 2 million volumes in the collection. Today there are over 17 million volumes ranging from 6th-century psalters to 21st-century academic texts. The diverse contents of the HTDL include government documents, academic journal articles, and monographs from all the disciplines one would find represented in a typical academic research library. While the majority of materials are in English, there are many volumes in German, French, Spanish, Italian, Arabic, Chinese, Russian, and Latin. Researchers may perform text analysis on the contents of HTDL by utilizing the many text analysis tools and data sets provided by the HathiTrust Research Center (HTRC).
The HathiTrust Research Center (HTRC), based at IU Bloomington, develops infrastructure, tools, and services to support Text Data Mining of the HTDL corpus. These include off-the-shelf web-based text analysis tools, a secure data capsule computing environment for analysis of rights-restricted content, and the HTRC Extracted Features Data Set, which provides volume-level and page-level word counts and other metadata for the entire corpus.
This presentation will discuss the current contents of the HTDL collection and its benefits as a data source and provide examples of existing research facilitated by HTDL collections and HTRC resources. In addition, this presentation will give an overview of the various HTRC text analysis tools and the different options for analyzing public domain and copyrighted material.
We voted, and we hope you did, too! On this election night Air Check, we only prognosticate a little bit. We otherwise discuss climate ghost towns, climate refuges or "havens," and the columns on Emily's future home spreadsheet.
Andre Johnson (Washington, D.C.)
Andre “Whiteboy” Johnson is a singer and guitarist based in Washington, D.C. Johnson is the lead guitarist and founding member of D.C. go-go band Rare Essence. In 1976, Johnson co-founded Rare Essence with friends in elementary school. Originally the Young Dynamos, they later changed their name and expanded their lineup, becoming one of the city’s premiere go-go institutions, putting on marathon shows that ran until 5 a.m. and performing regularly six to seven nights a week. Since the 1980s, the band has released dozens of studio albums, mixtape albums, live albums, compilations, and singles. They have performed with Run DMC, Wale, DJ Kool, LL Cool J, Doug E. Fresh, Biz Markie, Ice Cube, Heavy D and the Boyz, Wu Tang Clan, Redman and Method Man, French Montana, Scarface, TLC, Eric B and Rakim, YoYo, Shabba Ranks, The Roots, Erykah Badu, Thievery Corporation, KRS-1, and go-go icons Chuck Brown, Trouble Funk, The Junk Yard Band, and EU.
Interviewed by Tamar Sella, 11/02/2020.
Ashley Frith (Providence, Rhode Island)
Ashley Frith is a musician, composer, and educator based in Providence, Rhode Island. Ashley studied viola with Lila Brown at The Boston Conservatory. She was the music director, composer, and lyricist for the Trinity Repertory Company’s 2018-19 season production of Jose Rivera’s Marisol, directed by Brian Mertes. She has composed music for a production on allyship with Off the Page Education in NYC. Ashley has held resident musician and teaching artist positions with Newport String Project, Revolution of Hope, the Greater Miami Youth Symphony, and Community Music Works in Providence, Rhode Island. At Community Music Works, she serves as Director of Racial Equity and Belonging, where she performs, teaches, and develops anti-racism curricula. Ashley also explores the use of sound as a healing modality, in combination with mindfulness practices, and the effect these tools can have on mental health.
Interviewed by Tamar Sella, 11/02/2020.
Lyla June (Albuquerque, New Mexico)
Lyla June is an Indigenous environmental scientist, doctoral student, educator, community organizer, and musician of Diné (Navajo), Tsétsêhéstâhese (Cheyenne), and European lineages from Taos, NM. Her dynamic, multi-genre performance and speech style has invigorated and inspired audiences across the globe towards personal, collective, and ecological healing. Her messages focus on the climate crisis, Indigenous rights, supporting youth, inter-cultural healing, historical trauma, and traditional land stewardship practices. She blends her undergraduate studies in human ecology at Stanford University, her graduate work in Native American Pedagogy at the University of New Mexico, and the indigenous worldview she grew up with to inform her perspectives and solutions. Her internationally-acclaimed performances and speeches are conveyed through the medium of prayer, hip-hop, poetry, acoustic music, and speech. Her personal goal is to grow closer to Creator by learning how to love deeper.
Interviewed by Raquel Paraíso, 11/02/2020.
Morgan Morrison (Harpers Ferry, West Virginia)
Morgan Morrison is a musician based in Harpers Ferry, West Virginia. Morgan comes from a family of professional musicians across diverse genres. She began studying the music of Virginia in her teens in various music festivals across the state, but her musical interests span many genres across the world. She plays guitar, bouzouki, and sings. Morgan is a band member and principal manager of the band Furnace Mountain, and performs extensively in the United States and internationally. She teaches mandolin and guitar to local students. Morgan also coordinates more than 200 volunteers for the annual River & Roots Festival and Watermelon Park Festival in Clarke County, and is the Program Director of Barns of Rose Hill, a nonprofit performing arts venue and community center located in historic downtown Berryville, Virginia.
Interviewed by Tamar Sella, 11/02/2020.
Dewa Ayu Dewi Larassanti (Bay Area, California)
Dewa Ayu Larassanti is a Balinese dancer, musician, and vocalist who regularly teaches at Sanggar Çudamani, a Balinese performing arts school founded by her parents in Pengosekan, Bali. With Çudamani, she has toured Greece, Japan, Canada, and the United States. Ayu grew up both in the Bay Area and in Bali, experiencing the challenges and the beauty of two worlds. She loves to study different forms of music and dance, including choral music, jazz dance, and hip hop. She is a student at University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).
Interviewed by Raquel Paraíso, 10/31/2020.
Montanette “Mooody” Miller (Washington, D.C.)
Montanette “Mooody” Miller is a singer based in Washington, D.C. In addition to her solo musical projects, she is a singer in the go-go band Suttle Squad. Forming as Suttle Thoughts in 1994, the band later became known as Suttle, Suttle Squad, or Squad Suttle. Suttle has opened for national recording artists such as The Isley Brothers, Jay Holiday, and Anthony David. The band has held weekly performances every Friday night at the Historical Takoma Station, one of the longest running Friday night happy hours for any go-go band. The Squad has also performed for local events and community rallies such as the Safeway Barbecue Battle, the Howard Theater, A Tribute to the Legendary Father of Go-Go, Chuck Brown, MPD Beat the Streets Annual Event, Six Annual Chuck Brown Day Virtual Party, and Bethesda Blues & Jazz. In addition to performing locally, Suttle Squad has toured as far as Cancun, Puerto Rico, Dallas, and Miami.
Interviewed by Tamar Sella, 10/31/2020.
Access to fresh, affordable produce varies widely across the U.S., with some of us enjoying yards with soil safe for gardening and others miles from a grocery store. But one thing remains consistent: every tomato, chickpea, and grain of rice carries with it a full lifecycle of environmental impacts.
In this Air Check, we talk about food from seed to landfill (or compost) and where we can look to improve the ways we engage with agriculture on micro and macro levels.
CRISPR screening is a genetic loss-of-function approach that identifies the genes in a particular pool, such as DNA Damage Response (229 genes), Protein Kinases (746 genes), or Transcription factors (1580 genes), which are responsible for the phenotype of your interests. Chemical Genomics Core Facility (CGCF) researchers will assist you with experimental design, CRISPR library selection, high-throughput equipment training and usage. In this seminar, Jingwei Meng presents the usage of the current DNA Damage Response library in two recent screening projects and explains the existing standard protocols for such arrayed CRISPR screening at CGCF. The CGCF is currently collecting potential CRISPR-related projects and closely working with the IU Genome Editing Center (IUGEC) to bring researchers an integrated service suite of genome technology.
Angelica Garcia (Richmond, Virginia)
Angelica Garcia is a songwriter and vocalist based in Richmond, Virginia. Growing up in a musical and multigenerational environment, Garcia recalls Mexican ranchera music always playing throughout her home, which included Garcia’s mother, who was a professional singer of mostly mariachi and Latin pop. Garcia attended the magnet high school LACHSA (Los Angeles County High School for the Arts). In Richmond, she has released studio albums including Medicine For Birds (2016) and Cha Cha Palace (2020), both with Spacebomb Records. She released several music videos, and her song “Jícama” became widely known when Barack Obama selected the track for his 2019 year-end list. Her music explores Latinx identity and her roots in Los Angeles, and she has donated proceeds from her work to regionally based organizations supporting migrant families in the U.S. such as ¡MIRA!, Annunciation House, and Immigrant Families Together.
Interviewed by Tamar Sella, 10/29/2020
Aubrey Atwater (Warren, Rhode Island)
Aubrey Atwater is a musician, vocalist, writer, public radio commentator, and dancer based in Warren, Rhode Island. Atwater presents programs of folk music, dance, and spoken word, and has performed and taught across the United States as well as England, Ireland, and Canada. She sings and plays the mountain dulcimer, old-time banjo, guitar, mandolin, and Irish tin whistle, and also performs with percussive clogging. In both teaching and performance, Aubrey conveys the heritage behind traditional folk music and dance, showing an expertise of folk history and its key players. Part of the acclaimed duo Atwater-Donnelly, Aubrey and her husband Elwood Donnelly perform with up to eight other band members and have thirteen recordings and six books to their credit. Atwater and Donnelly are both on the performing rosters for the Rhode Island State Council of the Arts and the New England Foundation for the Arts.
Interviewed by Tamar Sella, 10/29/2020.
Dakota Karper (Capon Bridge, West Virginia)
Dakota Karper is an Appalachian fiddler, vocalist and storyteller based in Capon Bridge, West Virginia. Born and raised in rural West Virginia, Dakota grew up surrounded by old-time Appalachian string band music and began studying the music at a young age. Absorbing as much as possible, she apprenticed under fiddler Joe Herrmann, spent weeks at Augusta Heritage Center, played various music festivals in and around West Virginia, and studied classical violin at the Shenandoah Arts Academy in Winchester, Virginia. After living in Baltimore, Maryland, for seven years, Dakota moved back to her roots in Capon Bridge, West Virginia, where she teaches Appalachian fiddle, as well as performs in the surrounding areas. Dakota was a founding member of the Short Mountain String Band and Hay Fever. In 2019 Dakota opened her own traditional roots music school called The Cat and The Fiddle.
Interviewed by Tamar Sella, 10/29/2020.
IU NewsNet weekly newscasts
This clip contains content generated for IU News Net, a student run news organization from Indiana University. The tape features students reporting on COVID-19, sports, and events happening in Bloomington, Indiana.
0:46 Preshow Teases
0:47 Student anchor Meredith Struewing tosses the story to her co-anchor
0:59 Student Gage Griffin reads the lead-in for a story about an out-of-state shooting of an IU
Student
*1:17 Student Noelle Friel tells the story about the shooting IU Media School student Ethan
Williams who was shot during a trip to New York
*3:27 Noelle switches to another story about an IU Student, Skylar Bradley, who was shot in
Alabama while breaking up a fight
3:52 Meredith reads the lead-in for a package on mental health (IU Care Referral)
6:31 Gage Griffin reads a lead-in for a package about IU Health Center
6:46 Student reporter Tamar Sher talks about virtual counseling sessions at the IU Health Center
7:46 Meredith reads a voiceover about IU 2000th positive mitigation test
8:57 Meredith reads a voiceover about IU’s testing stations.
9:21 Gage Griffin reads a voiceover about the amount of people who have voted early in the
2020 election
10:42 Meredith reads the teases about Halloween costumes and the Great Glass Pumpkin Patch
11:00 The tease wipe plays
11:08 Gage Griffin tells the story of how the pandemic has taken its toll of costume sales
13:06 Meredith reads a voiceover about Bloomington’s trick-or-treat hours
14:00 Meredith tosses a package about the Great Glass Pumpkin patch to student reporter Holden
Abshire
14:23 Holden Abshire tells the story about the Great Glass Pumpkin Patch, an art sale on
Kirkwood Avenue
15:58 Gage Griffin teases the upcoming stories from the sports news
16:23 Sports wipe runs
16:31 Meredith introduces the sports news after the break
16:43 Student reporter Connor Hines talks about Indiana Quarterback Michael Penix Jr. in a
game against Penn State
18:18 Connor Hines tells how IU Football won against Penn State 36 to 35 after a legendary
touchdown from Penix Jr.
18:55 Student reporter Griffin Gonzalez is on the Kirkwood Avenue interviewing fans right after
the victory at the football game
20:45 Connor Hines tells the audience about the upcoming IU Football game against Rutgers
20:53 Meredith ends the newscast by encouraging the audience to follow them on Facebook
21:14 Credits roll with the names Noelle Friel, Gage Griffin, Alex Harrison, Connor Hines,
Meredith Struweing, Lexi Vennetti, Jordan Gould, Tamar Sher, Holden Abshire, Griffin
Gonzalez, Drew Frey, and Andrew Lamparski
Where strong Alabama activist roots meet inadequate wastewater infrastructure, you find the work of Catherine Coleman Flowers. What began as a fight for improved environmental health in Lowndes County has stretched to connect those fighting for environmental justice across the nation with necessary resources.
In this episode, Catherine talks with host Janet McCabe about the pervasive issue of wastewater, how it intersects with climate change, and what it's going to take to solve these problems.
Check out her new book, Waste: One Woman's Fight Against America's Dirty Secret
IU alumnus Bob Shanks made his name as a New York television producer, helping to launch shows like “Good Morning America” and “20/20.” He passed away this month, and in his honor we bring you a conversation from 2016, when Shanks returned to the Media School to accept a Distinguished Alumni Award.
Host Jim Shanahan talked with Shanks about his path to New York from Lebanon, Indiana. We hear how he parlayed proximity into a seat at the table, moving from waiting on executives to calling the shots at some of New York’s most well-known shows. This is Part 1 of a 2-part series.
Cantor Yvon Shore (Cincinnati, Ohio)
Cantor Yvon F. Shore is a cantor and educator based in Cincinnati, Ohio, where she is the Director of Liturgical Arts and Music at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion. She earned a master’s degree in Sacred Music and Ordination through HUC-JIR, New York in 1995. She received a bachelor’s degree in Music Education from West Chester University, College of Visual and Performing Arts with a double major in flute and conducting. Cantor Shore took additional studies in ethnomusicology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York with Bathja Bayer, Amnon Shiloah, Edwin Seroussi, and Johoash Hirshberg. She continued graduate studies with an emphasis in musicology at the University of Cincinnati, College Conservatory of Music. At HUC, she teachers and oversees curricula, as well as leads prayer services. She has taught and lectured on topics from Music of the Moroccan Jewish Community to Classical Reform Jewish Music and Prayer.
Interviewed by Tamar Sella, 10/27/2020.
Karen A. Smith (Oakland, California)
Karen A. Smith is a vocalist, sound healer, dancer, and eternal student of music and dance from around the world. She adores and sings music from a wide variety of genres in a wide variety of settings, including, but not limited to, Afro-Cuban and Afro-Brazilian Yoruba chants and songs, Sanskrit mantras, Hawaiian oli and mele, Haitian Creole songs, R&B, and inspirational music. She studies and performs with numerous cultural organizations in the Bay Area including Arenas Dance Company, Na Lei Hulu I Ka Weiku, Brasarte, Cuba Caribe, Alafia Dance Ensemble, Las Que Son Son, and many others. She conducts sacred sound and movement workshops in local spiritual communities. When she is not singing or dancing, she is teaching, making jewelry, or baking delicious pies. A New York native of Jamaican, American-Indian, and African ancestry, Karen feels honored and grateful for the opportunity to share her vocal gifts as a part of the Loco Bloco Ensemble.
Interviewed by Raquel Paraíso, 10/26/2020.
LaRhonda Steele (Portland, Oregon)
Gospel, jazz, and blues singer LaRhonda Steele began her musical journey in Jones, Oklahoma, at age 13 singing her first solo in church. Her journey continued to Portland, Oregon and beyond culminating into a powerful legacy of musical experiences. Throughout her musical career, she has enjoyed working with local, national, and international artists including Gino Vannelli, Curtis Salgado, Norman Sylvester, Janice Marie Scroggins, and Tharp Memory. She is the 2017–2019 Muddy Award winner for Best Female Vocalist presented by the Cascade Blues Association and is a member of the Cascade Blues Association Hall of Fame. Performing in Porretta, Italy, at the 30th annual Porretta Soul Festival honoring American Soul Music; Lincoln Center with Obo Addy in 2005; and her yearly appearances at the Waterfront Blues Festivals are just a few of the many highlights of her career. LaRhonda currently enjoys directing the nonprofit Portland Interfaith Gospel Choir, serving as music director of the Portland Center for Spiritual Living, performing with her own LaRhonda Steele Band, vocal coaching, and songwriting. LaRhonda will be inducted into the Oregon Music Hall of Fame in 2021 since the 2020 inductees have to wait a year due to COVID.
Interviewed by Raquel Paraíso, 10/26/2020.
Moises Nuñez (Portland, Maine)
Moises Nuñez aka Mosart212 is a DJ, producer, electronic artist, and educator based in Portland, Maine. His productions and DJ sets feature breaks, funk, bloops, bleeps, and rare finds from far corners of the globe. His released recordings include the EP 212 Pill (Morebeats.lesssleep Collective, 2018), and he is the host of the podcast Symphony Sessions. A mainstay in the Portland, Maine, arts community, he has performed at venues including Space Gallery and the Portland Museum of Art, in addition to touring across the Northeast and beyond. Nuñez was the winner of the Phoenix’s best DJ Music Award in 2011. Outside of music, he has worked as an educator with the Great Schools Partnership, where his focus is on issues of teen violence, restorative justice practices, the social-emotional education of teens, family engagement, and creating inclusive school environments for students.
Interviewed by Tamar Sella, 10/26/2020.
Shin-Yi Yang (Cambridge, Massachusetts)
Shin-Yi Yang is a musician and educator based in Cambridge, Massachusetts. She plays both guqin and guzheng, and is the founder of the Boston Guzheng Ensemble and Boston Qin Society. She is a two-time winner of the Traditional Arts Apprenticeship given by the Massachusetts Cultural Council’s Folk Arts and Heritage Program, and recipient of the 2008 Chinese Culture Connection Award. She has performed in the greater Boston area, and given performances and lecture demonstrations in venues including Yale University, New England Conservatory, and multiple museums. As a contemporary musician, she has premiered compositions and performed with ensembles such as IIIZ+ in venues including the 38e Rugissants Festival. A native of Taiwan, Shin-Yi has studied guzheng and guqin with teachers including Wang Ruey-Yuh, Tzay-Pyng, and See-Wah, and is a graduate of the National Taiwan Academy of Arts and the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts.
Interviewed by Tamar Sella, 10/26/2020.
This week: The EPA has removed all or parts of 27 Superfund sites, including three Indiana sites, from the National Priorities List. Is the contamination threat at those sites really gone? Plus, an Indiana University professor will chair the EPA's scientific advisory board.
Virtual book event held on October 26, 2020 featuring librarian and author Megan Rosenbloom as she discusses her new book, Dark Archives: A Librarian’s Investigation into the Science and History of Books Bound in Human Skin. The event was cosponsored by the Indiana University School of Medicine’s Ruth Lilly Medical Library and the Indiana Medical History Museum.
Interview of Cozart-Steele on the Transgender Singing Voice Conference which started at Earlham College in Richmond, IN in 2017 and the success with helping a transgender student in the process. It is now a biannual conference.
Bertram Levy (Port Townsend, Washington)
Bertram Levy is one of the few accomplished bandoneonistas in North America. In 1989, Bertram first heard the instrument played live by Astor Piazzolla. He was so moved by Piazzolla’s music that he abandoned all his other musical endeavors to pursue the bandoneón. At that time Bertram was in his late forties and had achieved an international reputation as a banjo and concertina virtuoso. He had been featured on more than a dozen albums, including the Smithsonian CD compilation American Folk Music. He had also authored the definitive concertina tutor The Concertina Demystified, was chosen as banjo player of the year by Frets magazine, and was highlighted in several national broadcasts of The Prairie Home Companion with Garrison Keillor. In addition, he created and directed the most prestigious instrumental folk music festival in the United States: the Festival of American Fiddle Tunes. Bertram’s first bandoneón lessons were with Miguel Varvello in Buenos Aires in 1991 and later in Paris with Cesar Stroscio. In 2005, Bertram enrolled in the Conservatorio Manuel de Falla in Buenos Aires to study classical bandoneon with the great Rodolfo Daluisio. He founded Tangoheart in 1999 to introduce Pacific Northwest audiences to authentic Argentine tango. He currently lives both in Washington State and in Buenos Aires, where he continues his studies with Rodolfo Daluisio.
Interviewed by Raquel Paraíso, 10/23/2020.
Chris Newell (Bar Harbor, Maine)
Chris Newell (Passamaquoddy) is a musician and educator based in Bar Harbor, Maine. He was born and raised in Motahkmikuhk (Indian Township, ME) and is a proud citizen of the Passamaquoddy Tribe at Indian Township. Chris has been a member of the Mystic River singers, an award-winning inter-tribal pow wow drum group based in Connecticut. The group traveled across North America singing and learning at community pow wows. Beyond, Chris has served as Education Supervisor for the Mashantucket Pequot Museum and Research Center and co-founded the Akomawt Educational Initiative addressing the lack of Native history and social studies in public schools and other institutions. He spearheaded Akomawt’s collaboration with the Leventhal Map Center’s exhibit America Transformed: Mapping the 19th Century, earning the 2019 Excellence Award from the New England Museum Association. Chris serves as Executive Director and Senior Partner to Wabanaki Nations in the Abbe Museum in Bar Harbor, Maine.
Interviewed by Tamar Sella, 10/23/20.
Dewa Berata (Los Angeles, California)
Bapak I Dewa Putu Berata is an internationally acclaimed Balinese musician, teacher, and composer based out of the San Francisco Bay Area and Pengosekan, Bali. A graduate of STSI Denpasar (Bali’s National Academy of the Arts), he has been an artistic collaborator with dance troupes, theater companies, and music ensembles in multiple countries. He has served as Gamelan Sekar Jaya’s Guest Music Director many times since his first residency in 1994. Berata is the founder and director of Çudamani, one of Bali’s most innovative and acclaimed gamelan ensembles that has toured extensively including appearances at the Cultural Olympiade (Greece), EXPO (Japan), Tong Tong Festival (Holland), and Lincoln Center & Zellerbach Hall (USA). Çudamani has become one of the most vibrant centers of artistic activity in Bali, endeavoring to study rare classic forms of Balinese arts. Berata’s life’s work has been dedicated not only to the arts, but to creating community by providing opportunities for active arts engagement to children, youth, women, and elders. He is also the musical director for Gamelan Sekar Jaya, a nonprofit organization dedicated to fostering artistic exchange between Bali and the United States and to sharing the excitement of this exchange with diverse audiences in California, the US, and abroad.
Interviewed by Raquel Paraíso, 10/23/2020.
Larry Lee (Saipan, Northern Mariana Islands)
Larry Lee is a ukulele player and music educator based in Saipan, the largest of the Northern Mariana Islands. Originally from Hawaii, Larry moved to the Marianas around 1990. He has served as music instructor at Northern Marianas College, developing and teaching ukulele courses. He has also taught at junior high schools on the island as well as private lessons and classes at the Public Library. He has performed regularly at venues such as the Surf Club restaurant and produced music videos with his son, musician Kui Lee. Lee is also the co-founder and organizer of the annual Marianas Ukulele Festival, which has received funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities to produce a documentary video about ukulele in the Northern Mariana Islands in 2020.
Interviewed by Tamar Sella, 10/23/2020.
Rabbi Sandra Lawson (Elon, North Carolina)
Rabbi Sandra Lawson is a rabbi, activist, public speaker, and musician based in Elon, North Carolina. Known for teaching Judaism in unique ways, Rabbi Sandra is known as the Snapchat Rabbi, and she has been featured in the Jewish Telegraph Agency as one of 10 Jews you should follow on Snapchat” and “The 50 Jews everyone should follow on Twitter.” She was ordained as a rabbi by the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College. Rabbi Sandra is a guitar player and singer. Her musical projects include the Barefoot, Bluegrass and Blues on the Porch virtual series, and The Torah of the Blues, which explores connections between Judaism and the Blues in relation to her perspective as a Black rabbi with southern roots. Rabbi Sandra serves as Associate Chaplain for Jewish Life at Elon University.
Interviewed by Tamar Sella, 10/23/2020.
Sandhya Sridhar (Nashua, New Hampshire)
Sandhya Sridhar is a teacher and performer of Carnatic music based in Nashua, New Hampshire. Growing up in Matunga, Bombay, she studied at the Shanmukhananda Sabha arts center and under the tutelage of Smt.Alamelu mani. In New Hampshire, she founded the Aradhana School, a studio devoted to preserving, propagating, and increasing awareness of Carnatic music. In addition to music lessons and interactive lecture-demonstrations, the studio also sponsors performances at community events. Sandhya has taught students who have performed in several premiere venues of the Greater New England area and have won many prestigious prizes. Sandhya has been a grantee of the Traditional Arts Apprenticeship program at the New Hampshire State Council of the Arts, and has been inducted into the Council’s Board. She also serves on the board of directors of MIT’s MITHAS, an organization that hosts Hindustani and Carnatic Classical music concerts in the Greater Boston area.
Interviewed by Tamar Sella, 10/23/2020.