A Four Part Series from TTBOOK!

Public Radio International

Wisconsin Public Radio

A SENSE OF PLACE

Program 09-05-24-A

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How much do you know about the place where you live? You probably know your neighbors, your local schools, the grocery store... but can you describe what your neighborhood looked like before there were houses in it? Can you name the native birds and plants and insects? How much local history can you tell? In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, constructing a sense of place. Lessons in the new localism. And, a history of walking.

SEGMENT 1:

Writer and ecologist Terry Tempest Williams talks with Steve Paulson about prairie dogs and their language and her trip to a village for genocide survivors in Rwanda. These are two of the landscapes featured in her new book, "Finding Beauty in a Broken World." Also, Martyn Stewart is one of audio engineers who went to Alaska in 2006 as part of the Arctic Soundscape Project to record the sounds of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. You can hear more of his work at the Western Soundscape Archive at the University of Uta and there's MORE HERE. And, several grammy-winning folk musicians have written songs based on the stories in a book called "Wilderness Plots" by Scott Russell Sanders. Now they've recorded an album and mounted a traveling stage show of songs and stories. Sanders talks with Anne Strainchamps and explains that his stories grow out of his on-going effort to understand the place where he lives and are based on real people and events.

SEGMENT 2:

Jerry Apps is a rural historian and chronicler of country life. His book "Old Farm" is a kind of deep history of his land in Wisconsin. Apps tells Anne Strainchamps he got the land from his father, who bought it on a whim for back taxes. Also, Caryl Owen, TTBOOK's Technical Director, provides an essay on her efforts to restore part of her Wisconsin property to its native prairie state.

Why we burn the prairie... because we go from this...

to this

SEGMENT 3:

Geoff Nicholson is the author of "The Lost Art of Walking: the History, Science and Literature of Pedestrianism." He tells Jim Fleming about his adventures trying to take walks in Los Angeles, about some famous walkers of the past, and the secret of a great walk. Also, Chinese actress Gong Lee takes us for a walk through Beijing. Also, Sean Bonner tells Anne Strainchamps about "Met Blogs" a worldwide network of city-focused blogs.

CD copies are available at 1-800-747-7444. Ask for program number 09-05-24-A.

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Books & CDs:

Geoff Nicholson, The Lost Art of Walking: The History, Science, Philosophy, and Literature of Pedestrianism (Riverhead)
Jerry Apps, Old Farm: A History (Wisconsin Historical Society Press)
Scott Russell Sanders, Wilderness Plots (Wooster Book Co)
Krista Detor, Tim Grimm, Carrie Newcomer, Tom Roznowski, Michael White, Wilderness Plots: A stunning compilation album by 5 exceptional midwestern songwriters, based on the work 'Wilderness Plots' by renowned author Scott Russell Sanders. (Rosehill Records)

Websites:

• -Sean Bonner’s Metblogs:
  www.metblogs.com
• -Beijing soundwalk, courtesy of Louis Vuitton Soundwalks. www.louisvuittonsoundwalk.com
• -Martyn Stewart interview prepared by Jeff Rice. Available from the Western Soundscape Archive at the J. Willard Marriott Library, University of Utah. www.westernsoundscape.org

Music:

• - After Terry Tempest Williams: “Kemokete,” Alexandra Youth Choir, on the CD “South African Choral” (Naxos)
• -“Living Things”, Tom Roznowski on “Wilderness Plots” (Rosehill Records). www.myspace.com/wildernessplots
• - “Fruit,” Tim Grimm on “Wilderness Plots”
• - “Ice Mountains and Hairy Elephants,” Krista Detor on “Wilderness Plots”
• - “One Woman and a Shovel,” Carrie Newcomer on “Wilderness Plots”
• -After Jerry Apps: Yo-Yo Ma, Edgar Meyer and Mark O’Connor, “1B” and “Poem for Carlita,” on the CD “Appalachian Journey” (SONY)
• -After Caryl Owen: Vandervelde, “Monapacataca, String Quartet No. 1” performed by the Enso String Quartet. Private recording, made available by the composer.
  http://www.janikavandervelde.com/
• -After Geoff Nicholson: “Walking After Midnight” (Don Hecht, Alan Block), performed by The Dang-Its, on their CD “Our Way”. (www.dang-its.com)
• - Close music: “Dumisani Maraire,” Kronos Quartet. On the CD “Pieces of Africa”. (Elektra)

Distribution dates: week of 05/24/2009 - hour 1 click HERE for timings and cues

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Questions and comments can be addressed to: flemingj@wpr.org

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