Podcast appearances and mentions of davia nelson

Pie Down Here — Produced by Signal HillIn the 1980s, when Robin D.G. Kelley was 24 years old, he took a bus trip to the Deep South. He was researching and recording oral histories with farmworkers and Communist Party members who had organized a sharecroppers union in Alabama during the Great Depression.Kelly used those oral histories to write his award winning book, Hammer and Hoe: Alabama Communists during the Great Depression.Recently Kelley listened back to those early recordings with Signal Hill contributor Conor Gillies. He hadn't heard some of the recordings in decades. Memories came flooding back as Kelley reflected on the people, the story and the power of oral history. Robin Davis Gibran Kelley is an American historian and academic, and the Gary B. Nash Professor of American History at UCLA. His books include the prize-winning Thelonious Monk: The Life and Times of an American Original (Free Press, 2009); Freedom Dreams: The Black Radical Imagination (Beacon Press, 2002, new ed. 2022. His essays have appeared in dozens of publications, including The Nation, the New York Times, the New Yorker, New York Review of Books and more.Pie Down Here was produced by Conor Gillies and edited by Liza Yeager and Omar Etman, with help from the Signal Hill team: Jackson Roach, Annie Rosenthal, and Lio Wong. Music by Nathan Bowles. You can listen to the entire first issue of Signal Hill — eight original stories — on their website at signalhill.fm, or wherever you get podcasts. The Kitchen Sisters Present is produced by The Kitchen Sisters (Nikki Silva & Davia Nelson) with Nathan Dalton and Brandi Howell. The Kitchen Sisters Present is part of Radiotopia from PRX, a curated network of independent producers.

A pioneer in her field, Catherine Bauer Wurster was advisor to five presidents on urban planning and housing and was one of the primary authors of the Housing Act of 1937. During the 1930s she wrote the influential book Modern Housing and was one of the leaders of the "housers" movement, advocating for affordable housing for low-income families.  Catherine Bauer's life divided into two names and two geographies:  her urban east coast youth, and her later life in the Bay Area. She hobnobbed with the bohemian elite of the interwar years….brilliantly charming  the big architect names of the Weimar Republic, Paris cafe society, and the International Style:  Gropius, Mies, Corbusier, Oud, May, and her lover, Lewis Mumford. Her glamour and charismatic presence endeared her to trade unionists, labor leaders, and politicians—who she tried to turn to her vision of housing as a worthy responsibility of the government—sexier and leftier during the Depression. Her arguments were a harder sell in the red scare fifties and ran into a dreary deadlock in the suburban sixties, as she later wrote from her west coast stronghold at the University of California, Berkeley. In the Bay Area she developed an academic career that also included her husband architect William Wurster, a daughter, and a house on the bay – all surrounded by the nature she quickly grew to love. Her legacy lives on to this day, as even the latest of housing legislation echoes the progressive ideals she was advocating for in her prime.  Produced by Brandi Howell for the New Angle Voice podcast from the Beverly Willis Architecture Foundation. Editorial advising from Alexandra Lange. Thanks to host Cynthia Phifer Kracauer. Special thanks in this episode to Barbara Penner, Gwendolyn Wright, Sadie Super, Matthew Gordon Lasner, Katelin Penner, and Carol Galante.  Archival recordings are from the UC Berkeley Bancroft Library. Funding from the New York State Council on the Arts.The Kitchen Sisters Present is produced by The Kitchen Sisters (Nikki Silva & Davia Nelson) with Nathan Dalton and Brandi Howell. The Kitchen Sisters Present is part of Radiotopia from PRX.

Pushed to the side and rarely credited for her architectural work at Davis Brody,  Phyllis Birkby became a significant figure in extending the lesbian women's movement to architecture during the 1970s. Her environmental fantasy workshops played a crucial role in galvanizing the community, providing a creative and empowering space within a male-dominated profession. Growing out of other consciousness raising techniques, freed up in her classes, Phyllis released the rigor of her conventional training to get down on the floor,  and lead the group in sketching their fantasies however outlandish on giant rolls of butcher paper.  She encouraged the women to imagine architecture above, below, and beyond the norm. Birkby's work not only contributed to architectural discourse but also fostered a sense of collective identity among lesbian architects, highlighting the intersectionality of gender, sexuality, and professional identity in the field. In her later years, she focused on architecture for people marginalized in other ways – by addiction, by age, and by disability, again imagining spaces of community and support.This episode was produced by Brandi Howell for New Angle Voice, a podcast from Beverly Willis Architecture Foundation. Thanks to host Cynthia Phifer Kracauer.  Thanks also to Alexandra Lange for editorial advising.   Special thanks in this episode to Stephen Vider, MC Overholt, Gabrielle Esperdy, Matthew Wagstaffe, Leslie Kanes Weisman and the Smith College Special Collections.  Funding from the New York State Council on the Arts.  The Kitchen Sisters Present is produced by The Kitchen Sisters (Nikki Silva & Davia Nelson) with Nathan Dalton and Brandi Howell. The Kitchen Sisters Present is part of Radiotopia from PRX.kitchen@kitchensisters.org

July 17, 2024, Washington, D.C. Some 200 young people from across the nation aged 14-19 — aspiring poets, storytellers, MC's, activists — are gathered in the nation's capital for the 29th annual Brave New Voices Festival — four non-stop days of slam poetry competition, coaching, workshops, late-night freestyling and in 2024, voting information.In summer, as the election loomed larger and larger we decided to turn our microphone to young people across America to hear their thoughts and feelings about the nation, about voting, about the election. Everyone always says young people are the future. But the truth is they are the present. And it is all on their plate.The Kitchen Sisters and producer Bianca Giaever traveled to the Brave New Voices Festival to take in the poets and their poetry, to listen and take the pulse of the moment. The hope, the scope, the vote. On July 21, the day after the festival ended, President Biden dropped out of the race. Keep that in mind as you listen.  The Hope & The Scope was produced by The Kitchen Sisters (Nikki Silva & Davia Nelson) and Bianca Giaever and mixed by Jim McKee. In collaboration with Nathan Dalton and Brandi Howell.Funding for The Hope & the Scope comes from The Robert Sillins Family Foundation, Susan Sillins & The Buenas Obras Fund.Special thanks to all the poets, the teams, the coaches, to the fabulous Future Corps 2024 and to all the staff, volunteers and radiant community of Brave New Voices. And to all we interviewed at the festival.Very special thanks to Youth Speaks, trailblazers of local and national youth poetry slams, festivals, mentoring, youth education and development — creators of the Brave New Voices Festival. Deep bow to Executive Director Michelle Mush Lee, Communications Director Bijou McDaniel, Stephanie Cajina, Joan Osato, James Kass, to Paige Goedkoop, Jamie DeWolf and Pawn Shop Productions and especially to Bianca Giaever who joined us in Washington, D.C. and came with her mic blazing.The Kitchen Sisters Present... is part of Radiotopia from PRX, a network of independent, thought-provoking, deeply-produced, highly-entertaining podcasts that widen your world.Thanks for listening. Thanks for subscribing.

There was a moment at the 2024 Democratic National Convention when Oprah took the stage — and the crowd went wild. She spoke boldly about Kamala Harris and her place in a long line of strong Black women who have paved the way. At one point she veered into the story of Tessie Prevost Williams, who recently passed away,  and the New Orleans Four.November 14, 1960 — Four six-year-old girls— Leona Tate, Gail Etienne, Tessie Prevost and Ruby Bridges—flanked by Federal Marshals, walked through screaming crowds and policemen on horseback as they approached their new schools for the first time. Leona Tate thought it must be Mardi Gras. Gail thought they were going to kill her. Tessie Prevost's mother was scared to death handing over her daughter to a Federal Marshal for protection from the mob.Four years after the Supreme Court ruled to desegregate schools in Brown v. Board of Education, schools in the South were dragging their feet. Finally, in 1960, the NAACP and a daring judge selected two schools in New Orleans to push forward with integration — McDonogh No.19 Elementary and William Frantz.An application was put in the paper. From 135 families, four girls were selected. They were given psychological tests. Their families were prepared. Members of the Louisiana Legislature took out paid advertisements in the local paper encouraging parents to boycott the schools. There were threats of violence.When the girls going to McDonogh No.19 arrived in their classroom, the white children began to disappear. One by one their parents took them out of school. For a year and a half the girls were the only children in the school. Guarded night and day, they were not allowed to play outdoors. The windows were covered with brown paper.Since this story first aired in 2017, The Leona Tate Foundation for Social Change has created the TEP Interpretive Center (Tate, Etienne and Prevost Center) in the former McDonogh No. 19 school where the three girls broke the color barrier in 1960. Its mission is to engage visitors in the history of civil rights in New Orleans. Find out more at tepcenter.orgSpecial thanks to: The New Orleans Four: Leona Tate, Gail Etienne, Tessie Prevost Williams and Ruby Bridges. Retired Deputy US Marshalls Charlie Burke, Herschel Garner, and Al Butler. Tulane University. Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities, Louisiana Center for Civil Rights and Social Justice, The US Marshals Museum.We are especially grateful to Keith Plessy and Phoebe Fergusson for introducing us to this story, and to Brenda Square and Amistad Research Center History Department.   The Kitchen Sisters Present is produced by The Kitchen Sisters (Nikki Silva & Davia Nelson) with Nathan Dalton and Brandi Howell. We're part of the Radiotopia Network from PRX.

In honor of the Paris Olympics and the astounding contribution of the French to culture and art of the world, The Kitchen Sisters Present, Archive Fever: Henri Langlois and the history of the Cinémathèque Française, featuring Francis Ford Coppola, Wim Wenders, Tom Luddy, Lotte Eisner, Simone Signoret, Agnes Varda, Costa-Gavras, Barbet Schroeder.Henri Langlois never made a single film — but he's considered one of the most important figures in the history of filmmaking. Possessed by what French philosopher Jacques Derrida called "archive fever," Langlois began obsessively collecting films in the 1930s and by the outset of World War II, he had one of the largest film collections in the world. The archive's impact on the history of French cinema is legendary, as is the legacy of its controversial keeper.Langlois fell in love with film in his teens, just as silent films were being replaced by talkies. "In the early 30s they were destroying every silent movie," says film director Costa-Gavras, now president of Langlois' Cinémathèque Française. "He started collecting all those movies, not just to save them for the future, but to show them.""Langlois educated a whole generation of film archivists and filmmakers," says filmmaker Wim Wenders. "He spread the idea of saving the memory of mankind that is in the history of cinema."This story is part of The Keepers series — Activist archivists, rogue librarians, historians, collectors, curators — keepers of the culture and the free flow of information. Produced by The Kitchen Sisters (Nikki Silva & Davia Nelson) with Nathan Dalton and Brandi Howell. Mixed by Jim McKee.

Next up in our summer playlist, we bring you an episode of The Kitchen Sisters Present, a podcast featuring sound-rich stories ‘from the b-side of history.' This one is a musical treat! The Kitchen Sisters delve into the story of the founding of the Hiphop Archive and Research Institute at Harvard by Dr. Marcyliena Morgan, Professor of African and African American Studies and Professor Henry Louis Gates to “facilitate and encourage the pursuit of knowledge, art, culture, scholarship and responsible leadership through Hiphop.” You'll hear from Professor Morgan, Professor Gates, Nas, Nas Fellow Patrick Douthit aka 9th Wonder, The Hiphop Fellows working at the Archive, an array of Harvard archivists, and students studying at the Archive as well as the records, music and voices being preserved there.Then they take a look at the Cornell University Hip Hop Collection, founded in 2007, through a sampling of stories from Assistant Curator Jeff Ortiz, Johan Kugelberg author of “Born in the Bronx,” and hip hop pioneers Grandmaster Caz, Pebblee Poo, Roxanne Shante and more.This episode is part of The Kitchen Sisters' series THE KEEPERS—stories of activist archivists, rogue librarians, curators, collectors and historians—keepers of the culture and the cultures and collections they keep.We end this guest-feature with a short interview with the Smithsonian's Dwandalyn R. Reece, Curator of Music and Performing Arts at the Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and Culture. She and Lizzie talk about the process behind the creation of The Smithsonian Anthology of Hip-Hop and Rap. Special Thanks: At The Hiphop Archive at Harvard: Dr. Marcyliena Morgan, Executive Director and Professor of African and African American Studies + Dr. Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Alphonse Fletcher University Professor and Director of the Hutchins Center for African and African American Research + 9th Wonder (Patrick Douthit) + Harold Shawn + Harry Allen + Professor Tommie Shelby + Michael Davis + Brionna Atkins + Justin Porter + Robert Rush. At the Loeb Music Library: Josh Cantor + Sarah Adams. At the Hip Hop Collection, Cornell University Library: Ben Ortiz. At NPR: Rodney Carmichael. At large: Jeff Chang + Pedro Coen + NasThe Keepers is produced by The Kitchen Sisters, Davia Nelson & Nikki Silva, with Nathan Dalton and Brandi Howell.The Keepers Sonic Signature music is by Moondog.For more of The Kitchen Sisters Present, visit kitchensisters.org.

Route 66—The Main Street of America— the first continuously paved highway linking east and west was the most traveled and well known road in the US for almost fifty years. From Chicago, through the Ozarks, across Oklahoma, the Texas Panhandle, up the mesas of New Mexico and Arizona, and down into California to the Pacific Ocean. The first road of its kind, it came to represent America's mobility and freedom—inspiring countless stories, songs, and even a TV show.Songwriter Bobby Troup tells the story of his 1946 hit “Get Your Kicks on Route 66.” Mickey Mantle says, “If it hadn't been for US 66 I wouldn't have been a Yankee.” Stirling Silliphant, creator of the TV series “Route 66” talks about the program and its place in American folklore of the 60s.Studs Terkel reads from The Grapes of Wrath about the "Mother Road," and the great 1930s migration along Highway 66. We hear from musicians who recall what life on the road during the 1930s was like for them, including Clarence Love, Woody Guthrie, and Eldin Shamblin, who played guitar for Bob Wills and his Texas Playboys.We travel the history of the road from its beginnings through caverns and roadside attractions, into tourist traps and bunko joints, through the hard times of the Dust Bowl, Depression and the “Road of Flight,” and into the “Ghost Road” of the 1980s, as the interstates bypass the businesses and roadside attractions of another era.Produced by The Kitchen Sisters and narrated by actor David Selby. The Kitchen Sisters Present is produced by The Kitchen Sisters (Nikki Silva & Davia Nelson) with Nathan Dalton and Brandi Howell. Part of Radiotopia from PRX, a curated network of podcasts created by independent producers.

In 1977, a cavernous, rarely used sculpture gallery in the Brooklyn Museum was filled with drafting tables, their tops tilted to display collages of the work and under-told stories of women working in architecture in the United States.We revisit this first significant effort to publicly tell the little known stories of American women in architecture: “Women in American Architecture: A Historic and Contemporary Perspective.” On view at the Brooklyn Museum from February-April of 1977, the groundbreaking exhibition and simultaneous book, curated and edited by Susana Torre, clearly defined the state of play for women in the architecture profession. Alienated by the profound hostility expressed by the AIA, women architects came together and found an accepting cohort at the Architectural League of New York. They organized. They canvassed. They raised their consciousnesses. The project team identified subjects so previously obscured as to be unknown, and then with the energy and drive of a furious mob, they broke through and laid the groundwork for scholarship, social change, and recognition of women architects for the next fifty years.  Produced by Brandi Howell, for the Beverly Willis Architecture Foundation's podcast New Angle Voice.Special thanks to Susana Torre, Andrea Merrett, Suzanne Stephens, Cynthia Rock, Deborah Nevins, and Robert AM Stern. Editorial advising from Alexandra Lange and production assistance from Virginia Eskridge and Aislinn McNamara. Funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Graham Foundation.The Kitchen Sisters Present, part of PRX's Radiotopia network, is produced by The Kitchen Sisters (Nikki Silva & Davia Nelson) with Nathan Dalton and Brandi Howell. For more stories and information visit kitchensisters.org. 

As this year's hurricane season ramps up, we go to New Orleans for a kind of biblical reckoning. A story of science and prayer, with a cast of improbable partners—environmental architects and nuns—coming together to create a vision for living with water in New Orleans. Mirabeau Water Garden, one of the largest urban wetlands in the country designed to educate, inspire and to save its neighborhood from flooding.New Orleans. Surrounded by The Mississippi River and Lake Pontchartrain, besieged by hurricanes and tropical storms, permeated with man made canals, levees, pumping stations …. Water is a deep and controversial issue in New Orleans. What to do with it? Where to put it? How to get rid of it? How to live with it?David Waggonner, of Waggonner & Ball architecture and environment firm has been thinking and dreaming about these questions for years. One of the primary architects behind the Greater New Orleans Urban Water Plan, David envisions floating streets, pervious pavement, planting bioswales—“living with water” rather than pushing it down and pumping it out.In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina the Sisters of Saint Joseph convent in New Orleans was under eight feet of water. A year later, on a clear blue day, the building was struck by lightning. The Sisters prayed for a sign. And in walked David Waggonner with a vision.The Mirabeau Water Garden will become one of the largest urban wetlands in the country and a campus for water research and environmental education, demonstrating best practices for construction and urban water management in the city's lowest-lying and most vulnerable neighborhoods.The 25-acre parcel was donated to the City of New Orleans by the Sisters of Saint Joseph on condition that it be used to enhance and protect the neighborhood to “evoke a huge systemic shift in the way humans relate with water and land.”Produced by The Kitchen Sisters (Nikki Silva & Davia Nelson) with Nathan Dalton & Brandi Howell. For more stories and information visit kitchensisters.org

Broadcast legend Davia Nelson of The Kitchen Sisters discusses her career.

Niloufer Ichaporia King lives in a house with three kitchens. She prowls through six farmer's markets a week in search of unusual greens, roots, seeds, and traditional food plants from every immigrant culture. She is an anthropologist, a kitchen botanist, a one-of-a-kind cook, a Parsi from Bombay living in San Francisco, and the author of My Bombay Kitchen: Traditional and Modern Parsi Home Cooking. Niloufer is known for her ritual celebrations of Navroz, Parsi New Year, on the first day of Spring, when she creates an elaborate ceremonial meal based on the auspicious foods and traditions of her vanishing culture. The Parsi culture is some 3,000 years old and goes back from India to Persia. It's estimated that there are now under 100,000 Parsis in the world. Also featured in this Hidden Kitchens story are author Bharati Mukherjee, sharing her memories of the forbidden Bengali kitchen of her girlhood, with its four cooks and intricate rules of food preparation. And Harvard Professor Homi Bhabha, born in Mumbai to a Parsi family, who talks about auspicious lentils and the birth of his son. The Kitchen Sisters Present is produced by The Kitchen Sisters (Nikki Silva & Davia Nelson) with Nathan Dalton and Brandi Howell. We are part of Radiotopia from PRX, a curated network created specifically for independent podcasts—some of the best stories out there. Special thanks to the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and contributors to the non profit Kitchen Sisters Productions .

Jelly Roll Morton talks of being a “Spy Boy” in the Mardi Gras Indian parades of his youth. Bo Dollis, of the Wild Magnolias, tells of sewing his suit of feathers and beads all night long. Tootie Montana masks for the first time as Mardi Gras starts up again after World War II. Big Queen Ausettua makes connections between the black Mardi Gras Indian traditions of New Orleans and Africa. Sister Alison McCrary, a Catholic nun and social justice attorney, tells of Big Chief Tootie Montana's death at the podium in city council chambers defending the rights of the Mardi Gras Indians to parade without harassment. A collection of stories and interviews in honor of the Mardi Gras Indian tradition in New Orleans. With special thanks and a shout out to all of the “Keepers” who have documented, preserved and shared these stories, including the Folklife Center Collection at the Library of Congress, Nick Spitzer and American Routes, filmmaker Lisa Katzman, and WWOZ in New Orleans. The Kitchen Sisters Present is part of PRX's Radiotopia network and is produced by The Kitchen Sisters (Nikki Silva & Davia Nelson), with Nathan Dalton and Brandi Howell.

Sarah “Sally” Pillsbury and Jean B. Fletcher were both architects who married architects. The two women and their husbands were founding members of The Architects Collaborative (TAC), a visionary, idealistic architecture firm founded just after WWII. The two women, who had 13 children between them, lived with their families and several other founding partners in Six Moon Hill, a residential community in Lexington, Massachusetts, designed by the group. TAC was a world class firm of eight architects, including famed architect Walter Gropius, working collectively as a team, stressing anonymity of design. The group won design awards and competitions, and was hired by the National Institute of Architects to design their new headquarters.They also designed the Harvard Graduate Center, many civic and educational buildings, and the University of Baghdad. Soon after the founding of the firm in 1947, Sarah and Jean wrote an article for House & Garden titled “Architecture, Family Style” which – as their biographer Michael Kubo writes – constituted something of a manifesto for the changing needs of the postwar housewife. Produced by Brandi Howell for Beverly Willis Architecture Foundation's podcast New Angle: Voice with host Cynthia Krakauer. Editorial advising from Alexandra Lange.  Production assistants Virginia Eskridge and Aislinn McNamara. Special thanks to Sara Harkness and Joseph Fletcher, Michael Kubo and Amanda Kolson Hurley.  Current Six Moon Hill residents Linda Pagani and Barbara Katzenberg kindly opened their homes and shared their stories.  Long time TAC  partners Perry Neubauer and Gail Flynn were generous with their time as were Andrea Leers and Jane Weinzapfel.  The archival oral history of Sally Harkness comes from her interview with Wendy Cox. Funding for New Angle: Voice comes from National Endowment for the Humanities, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Graham Foundation. The Kitchen Sisters Present is produced by The Kitchen Sisters (Nikki Silva & Davia Nelson) with Brandi Howell and Nathan Dalton. Supported by the National Endowment for the Arts and contributors to the non profit Kitchen Sisters Productions. The Kitchen Sisters Present is part of Radiotopia from PRX, a curated network of podcasts created by independent producers.

Anna Wagner Keichline (1889–1943) was the first registered woman architect in Pennsylvania and was among the first registered women architects in the United States. During her long career, she designed dozens of commercial and residential buildings, as well as numerous industrial products. She was awarded seven patents for her innovative residential and building designs, including one for The Building Block (1927), popularly known as the K-brick, which was a forerunner of today's concrete block. Not every architect has the opportunity to build skyscrapers. In Bellefonte, Anna used her talents to improve the lives of her neighbors, by designing their houses and gathering places. She adopted a gently accommodating architectural style in the shadow of high Victorian lacery, and designed sturdy churches, theaters, homes, schools, and recreation facilities in her hometown that still stand well and firmly in their context. Produced by Brandi Howell for New Angle Voice podcast of the Beverly Willis Architecture Foundation. Host, Cynthia Kracauer. Editorial advising from Alexandra Lange. Thanks to production assistant Virginia Eskridge and special thanks to Nancy Perkins, Sarah Lichtman, and Jennifer Kaufmann-Buhler. Funding for this podcast comes from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Graham Foundation. The Kitchen Sisters Present is produced by The Kitchen Sisters (Nikki Silva & Davia Nelson) with Brandi Howell and Nathan Dalton. From PRX's Radiotopia network.

In this episode, we borrow a cup of sound from the podcast, What You're Eating, a production of FoodPrint.org, hosted by Jerusha Klemperer. In the episode, “Coffee: From Seed to Cup,” Jerusha interviewed coffee entrepreneur Bartholomew Jones, who co-founded CxffeeBlack, a "multimedia coffee educational company," with his wife Renata Henderson in Memphis, Tennessee in 2018. Bartholomew is an educator, an MC, a “coffee nerd,” and an amazing storyteller. Today, The Kitchen Sisters Present… Make Coffee Black Again, a co-production with What You're Eating. You can hear the entire episode, “Coffee: From Seed to Cup” at foodprint.org/what-youre-eating or by searching for What You're Eating on your podcast app of choice. The Kitchen Sisters Present is produced by The Kitchen Sisters, Nikki Silva and Davia Nelson, with Brandi Howell and Nathan Dalton. We're part of Radiotopia from PRX, a curated network of some of the best podcasts out there. Thanks for listening.

It was top secret. But everyone in Santa Fe knew there was something going on up on the hill in the remote, desert mountains of Los Alamos in 1943. J. Robert Oppenheimer and dozens of the top scientists and thinkers in the world were sequestered away up there - fenced in, with military guard towers all around. But there was one little sanctuary down along the river where they could escape and find solace, nature, normalcy —Edith Warner's Tea House. Edith Warner's small, rustic home and her legendary flourless chocolate cake brought solace to members of the Manhattan Project as they secretly worked to build the atomic bomb - reshaping the future of modern warfare. When they weren't at the lab, there was a good chance that Robert Oppenheimer and his colleagues were at Edith's tea room, savoring the fresh vegetables she grew in her garden and the chance to disconnect from the unimaginable weight of their task. Through Edith's eyes and the civilian bystanders who witnessed this extraordinary effort we see these souls in their last mundane moments before man and god bled together forever. Produced by Brandi Howell, Mary Franklin Harvin, and Zoe Kurland Special thanks to Jon Else, Meridel Rubenstein, Patty Templeton, Nick Lewis, Steven Horak from the Los Alamos National Lab, to Sharon Snyder and the staff of the Los Alamos Historical Society,  Ellen Bradbury Reed, and Paul Rainbird. The Kitchen Sisters Present, part of PRX's Radiotopia, is produced by The Kitchen Sisters (Nikki Silva & Davia Nelson) with Brandi Howell and Nathan Dalton.

Born in 1895 in Lynchburg, VA, Amaza Lee Meredith was an African American architect, artist and educator who taught at Virginia State College where she founded the art department. Despite the fact she was never a registered architect, she was one of the few Black architects practicing at the time, and one of the country's very few Black women architects. In 1939, Amaza designed Azurest South, a tidy white International Style house on the edge of the Virginia State University Campus, where she and her life-long partner Edna Meade Colson lived. Both women maintained significant teaching positions at the University, living openly queer lives. In 1947 Amaza and her sister Maude began developing Azura North, a 120 lot subdivision and vacation destination for middle class African Americans in Sag Harbor, New York, near the summer haunts of Melville, Steinbeck, Betty Friedan, Spaulding Gray. During the 1950s & 60s the community grew as a Black vacation spot attracting celebrities like Lena Horne and Harry Belafonte. Together, the homes and communities that Amaza Lee Meredith helped establish provided a sense of joy, pleasure, and a safe haven for members of the Black community, at a time when this wasn't always possible. This episode explores the intersections of sexuality, modernity, art, architecture, and the faith community that nurtured this pair of lovers.  Amaza and Edna found their home in each other and shared it openly with their church, their colleagues and their students. Special thanks to host Cynthia Kracauer, writers Jacqueline Taylor and Jessica Lynne, and to Brooke Williams who graciously provided Sag Harbor resident insights, as did advocates and preservationists Georgette Grier-Key, Michael Butler, and Renee Simons.  And to Reverend Grady Powell and Reverend Dr.  George WC Lyons from Gillfield Baptist Church in Petersburg, Virginia. Franklin Johnson-Norwood is the Director of Alumni Relations at Virginia State University, and our excellent tour guide for Azurest South, and to Christina Morris of the National Trust for Historic Preservation. This episode was produced by Brandi Howell for the podcast New Angle Voice, a presentation of the Beverly Willis Architecture Foundation. Editorial advising from Alexandra Lange and assistance from Virginia Eskridge. Funding provided by the National Endowment for the Humanities, the National Endowment for the Arts and the Graham Foundation. Take a look at the illustrated Amaza Lee Meredith profile on the Pioneering Women of Architecture website. The Kitchen Sisters Present is produced by The Kitchen Sisters (Nikki Silva & Davia Nelson) with Brandi Howell and Nathan Dalton. Funding for these programs comes from The National Endowment for the Arts, the Kaleta Doolin Foundation, and contributors to the non profit Kitchen Sisters Productions. The Kitchen Sisters Present is part of the Radiotopia Network from PRX.

Chris was a man possessed. “El Fanatico,” Ry Cooder called him. A song catcher, dedicated to recording the traditional, regional, down home music of America, his adopted home after his family left Germany at the close of WWII. Mance Lipscomb, Lightnin' Hopkins, Mississippi Fred McDowell, Big Mama Thornton, Clifton Chenier, Rose Maddox, Flaco Jimenez… the list is long and mighty. Chris Strachwitz was a keeper. His vault is jam-packed with 78s, 33s, 45s, reel-to-reels, cassettes, videos, photographs — an archive of all manner of recordings. And an avalanche of lifetime achievement awards — from the Grammy's, The Blues Hall of Fame, The National Endowment for the Arts – for some 60 years of recording and preserving the musical cultural heritage of this nation through his label, Arhoolie Records. In honor of Chris Strachwitz The Kitchen Sisters reprise The Passion of Chris Strachwitz, produced for The Goethe Institute's Big Pond series. With interviews with Linda Ronstadt and Bonnie Raitt. Also featuring selected interviews done by Chris Strachwitz with Howlin' Wolf and The Maddox Brothers and Rose. Produced by The Kitchen Sisters (Nikki Silva & Davia Nelson) with Nathan Dalton and Brandi Howell, mixed by Jim McKee. The Kitchen Sisters Present is part of the Radiotopia network from PRX.

Ada Louise Huxtable, who “invented” the profession of architecture critic, wrote countless articles for two great daily newspapers and had a gigantic influence on our understanding of the work of architects, real estate developers, city bureaucrats, and the city itself, over the course of six decades in print. Beginning in 1963, Huxtable was the first full-time architecture critic at an American newspaper. In 1970, she won the first Pulitzer Prize for distinguished criticism. With her impeccable civic values, cultivated aesthetic sensibility and lacerating accuracy, Ada Louise Huxtable, praised and razed. Huxtable, who was born and lived her life in New York City, raised the public's awareness of architecture and the urban environment. She wrote for the New York Times and later for the Wall Street Journal. She served as Curatorial Assistant for Architecture and Design at the Museum of Modern Art. Produced by Brandi Howell for the Beverley Willis Architecture Foundation's podcast, New Angle Voice. The Kitchen Sisters Present is produced by The Kitchen Sisters (Nikki Silva & Davia Nelson), with Brandi Howell and Nathan Dalton. It is part of the Radiotopia Network from PRX.

For some eight years now thirty-four Black women have gathered monthly around a big dining room table in the orange house on Orange Street in Oakland, CA—meeting, cooking, dancing, strategizing—grappling with the issues of eviction, erasure, gentrification, inadequate health care, and the sex trafficking of Black women and girls that are overwhelming their community. Spearheaded by dancer/choreographer Amara Tabor Smith and theater director Ellen Sebastian Chang, this House/Full of Black Women—artists, scholars, healers, nurses, midwives, an ice cream maker, a donut maker, an architect, a theater director, a choreographer, sex trafficking abolitionists and survivors—have come together to creatively address and bring their mission and visions to the streets. Over the years they have created performances, rituals, pop-up processions in the storefronts, galleries, warehouses, museums and streets of Oakland. This hour-long special features sound-rich “episodes” of performances and rituals, interviews with sex trafficking abolitionists, personal stories of growing up in the Bay Area, music, Black women dreaming, resisting, insisting. Produced by Ellen Sebastian Change, Sital Muktari and The Kitchen Sisters, narrated by Sital Muktari, mixed by Jim McKee, in collaboration with an evolving House/Full of Black Women collective, Nathan Dalton and Brandi Howell. Funding for this House/Full of Black Women Special comes from The Creative Work Fund, The National Endowment for the Arts, The Kaleta Doolin Foundation, The Texas Women's Foundation, Susan Sillins, listener contributions to The Kitchen Sisters Productions, and PRX. Original funding for House/Full of BlackWomen was provided by Creative Capital, Creative Work Fund, The Kenneth Rainin Foundation, MAP Fund, and the Hewlett 50. House/Full of Black Women is part of The Keepers series produced by The Kitchen Sisters, Davia Nelson and Nikki Silva, in collaboration with Brandi Howell and Nathan Dalton and mixed by Jim McKee. Archival sounds, recordings and compositions by Alexa Burrell. Visuals created by photographer Robbie Sweeney and designer Kevin Clarke. Ricardo Iamuuri Robinson created some of the soundscape. For names of all the many House/Full members who have had a hand in this project visit deepwatersdance.com.

In the early 1980s, Black students and the African American community at American University had been demonstrating for more access and inclusion in the university's community services. One of the demands was for four hours of time every Saturday on Radio station WAMU, the campus station. This demand was met and suddenly Black students and the community were pouring into the station on Saturdays to make radio, to learn the craft, to be heard. Judi Moore Smith heard the call and soon was producing 10 minutes every week during that four-hour Saturday slot. Someone heard one of Judi's pieces and urged her to apply for funding. She was already going to Union Temple Baptist Church in Anacostia near Washington DC, mesmerized by the preaching of Rev. Willie Wilson. She began to cross the country interviewing preachers and ministers, capturing their speaking styles, their preaching styles, listening, watching, realizing these were not only religious men delivering weekly sermons—these were performing artists. Judi lit the path with this piece and the creation of a deep archive of Black history and creative expression. It is one of the projects that has inspired us over the years—the spirit, the stylizing, the swagger, the soul, the poetry—and the music. Judi asked one of the preachers, Reverend Robert Pruitt, to do the narration for the piece and gathered a kind of congregation in the studio with him to enact call and response. Davia reached out to Judi this year to see if she had a copy of the piece. It was created in the days way before the internet and the archiving of everything. Luckily we found a cassette of it at the Pacifica Archives. Special Thanks to Judi Moore Latta for all her pioneering radio documentary work especially about Black culture, history and expression and her decades of teaching and working with hundreds of young people across the years. And thanks to Pacifica Archive. The Kitchen Sisters Present is produced by The Kitchen Sisters, Davia Nelson and Nikki Silva, with Brandi Howell and Nathan Dalton. The Kitchen Sisters receive support from the National Endowment for the Arts, and from generous contributors to The Kitchen Sisters nonprofit Productions. We're part of PRX's Radiotopia – a network of independently created and owned podcasts – some of the best stories out there.

In 2015 we presented this story about Curtis Carroll, the Stock Market Wizard of San Quentin. Everyone in San Quentin called him Wall Street. He was teaching his fellow prisoners about stocks and had become an informal financial adviser to fellow inmates and correctional officers. After serving 27 years of a 54 years to life sentence in prison, Curtis Carroll, has been released on parole. We hear his story and talk to him about what's next. When Wall Street was put in prison almost three decades ago he couldn't read or write. One day he stumbled on the financial section of the newspaper thinking it was the sports section, which his cellmate used to read to him. An inmate asked him if he played the stocks. “I had never heard the word before,” Wall Street said. “He explained to me how it works and said, ‘This is where white people keep their money.' When he said that I said, ‘Whoa, I think I stumbled across something here.' ” Wall Street taught himself how to read and write beginning with candy wrappers and clothing logos. He pored over financial news: the Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Forbes. On the inside, Wall Street didn't have access to a computer or the Internet, so he called his family members to check the closing prices for the day and told them what to buy. He says business is like a soap opera — he's always trying to anticipate what will happen next. “I like to know what the CEO's doing. I like to know who's in trouble.” “I'm in prison, but I'm on just the same playing field as Warren Buffett,” Carroll says. “I can pick the exact same companies. I can't buy as many shares, but technically we're just the same.” You can find out more about Wall Street, his life and Financial Empowerment, Emotional Literacy Project at ProjectFeel.org. He's also on Instagram (@CurtisWallstreetCarroll) and Youtube (@WallStreetCarroll). The Kitchen Sisters Present is produced by The Kitchen Sisters (Nikki Silva & Davia Nelson) with Brandi Howell and Nathan Dalton. Wall Street's original story was mixed by Jim McKee at Earwax Studios. We are part of PRX's Radiotopia Network. This episode was produced in collaboration with Nancy Mullane and Life of the Law. Many thanks! Special thanks to Curtis Carroll, San Quentin Financial Literacy Program, Anna Deavere Smith, Arnold Perkins, Troy Williams, Lt. Sam Robinson, Tom DeMartini, Zach Williams, Clarence Long, James Fox and the Prison Yoga Project, Tracy Wahl, Jacob Conrad, Nigel Poor, TED, Pop-Up Magazine, and NPR. The Kitchen Sisters are supported by NEA and contributions to the non-profit Kitchen Sisters Productions.

Since the devastating 2019 fire at Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, the ringing of the cathedral's bells has ceased. Sound artist, Bill Fontana, known for his sound sculptures of Golden Gate Bridge, temple bells in Kyoto, and trees in Sequoia National Forest, creates a new work giving voice to the silenced bells of Notre Dame. To create his new work, Silent Echoes, Fontana attached seismic accelerometers—sensors designed to detect vibrations—to each of its ten bells of Notre Dame. As the bells reverberate in response to the ambient sounds of Paris—rain, the calls of birds, the noise of the street—the live feed is transmitted to a series of speakers at the Centre Pompidou creating a haunting, immersive sound sculpture. Silent Echoes debuted at the Centre Pompidou in June, where, on the fifth floor terrace of the museum, visitors stood awash in the acoustics of the bells, with the towers of Notre Dame in view just across the Seine. Alisa Carroll of the podcast Alcôve interviewed Bill Fontana in San Francisco and Davia Nelson spoke with him in Paris before the opening of the exhibition. This story was produced by Jim McKee.  Sound design and mixing by Jim McKee. Special thanks to Alisa Carroll and Jim McKee for sharing this piece with The Kitchen Sisters Present. The Kitchen Sisters Present is produced by The Kitchen Sisters (Nikki Silva & Davia Nelson) with Brandi Howell and Nathan Dalton. For more info and stories visit kitchensisters.org The Kitchen Sisters Present is part of Radiotopia from PRX - a curated network of independent, creator owned podcasts.

Over 7000 hours of interviews, oral histories, songs, field recordings, along with photographs, notebooks, journals, and research material created by The Kitchen Sisters has recently been acquired by The Library of Congress where it will be preserved and made accessible to researchers, students, other producers and the general public into the future. Alexis Madrigal of KQED's Forum talks with Davia Nelson and Nikki Silva about the collection and their 40 year history of producing audio stories together. Stories featured and discussed include The Packhorse Librarians of Eastern Kentucky; The Birth of Rice A Roni; The Mohawk Iron Workers at the Twin Towers; and The Homobile—a Story of Transportation, Civil Rights and Glitter. The Kitchen Sisters have been working together since 1979 creating audio stories for NPR, public broadcast and their Kitchen Sisters' Present podcast. They are the producers, with Jay Allison, of the Peabody Award winning series Lost & Found Sound and The Sonic Memorial Project, the DuPont Columbia Award winning series Hidden Kitchens, the NPR series Hidden World of Girls, and The Keepers, Stories of Activist Archivists, Rogue Librarians, Historians, Curators, Collectors — keepers of the culture and the free flow of information. The Kitchen Sisters Productions is supported by National Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities, California Humanities, Creative Work Fund, Robert Sillins Family Foundation, TRA Fund, Kaleta A. Doolin Foundation, Franklin Legacy Foundation, Susie Tompkins Buell Fund, and Listener Contributions to The Kitchen Sisters Productions.   The Kitchen Sisters Present is part of PRX's Radiotopia podcast network.

Notre Dame + Centre PompidouBy placing listening devices on the surfaces of built and natural monuments, artist Bill Fontana captures uncanny natural music that reveals that these bodies are alive with sound. Fontana's latest project amplifies the voice of Notre Dame. Since the devastating fire of 2019, the ringing of the cathedral's bells has ceased. To create his new work, Silent Echoes, Fontana attached sensors designed to detect vibrations to each of the ten bells of Notre Dame. As the bells reverberate in response to the ambient sounds of Paris the live feed is transmitted to a series of speakers at the Centre Pompidou, creating a haunting, immersive sound sculpture. In this episode, Alcôve's Alisa Carroll interviews Fontana in San Francisco, and very special guest Davia Nelson of The Kitchen Sisters meets with Fontana in Paris. 

We trace the history of country music in Kenya, dating back to the 1920s and 30s when local populations first heard Jimmie Rodgers on early country western 78 records, to the current day, where the clubs of Nairobi are filled with rising stars bringing their own unique sounds to country music. Hear their takes on the hits of Don Williams, Kenny Rogers, Dolly Parton and more. And an interview and performance from Kenyan country singer Steve Rogers, radio and TV presenters Catherine Ndonye and David Kimitho, music historian Elijah Wald, and Olvido Records founder Gordon Ashworth. The music and stories of other artists in this episode include: John Nzenze. Reuben Kigame, Don Williams, Sir Elvis, Sammy Ngaku-Rosana, Herbert Misango, Frances Rugwiti, Carlos Kiba, Ythera Cowgirl, Steve Rogers, HM Karuiki, Joseph Kamaru. Produced by Brandi Howell for Afropop Worldwide The Kitchen Sisters Present is produced by The Kitchen Sisters (Nikki Silva & Davia Nelson) with Brandi Howell and Nathan Dalton. Support comes from the National Endowment for the Arts and contributors to the non-profit Kitchen Sisters Productions. The Kitchen Sisters Present is part of the Radiotopia Network from PRX.

The story of The Real Ambassadors, a jazz musical created by Dave Brubeck and Iola Brubeck for Louis Armstrong in the 1950/60s. The original show, featured Louis Armstrong, Carmen McCrae, Dave Brubeck and Lambert Hendricks and Bavan, and was performed live only once, at the Monterey Jazz Festival in 1962. This year's Monterey Jazz Festival, September 23-25, 2022, is the 60th Anniversary of the performance. The musical is based on the Jazz Ambassadors Program established by President Eisenhower and the US State Department during the Cold War as an effort to win hearts and minds around the world. Jazz musicians were sent out to represent the freedom and creativity of America through their art form. The irony is that Louis Armstrong, Dizzy Gillespie and most of the other Jazz Ambassadors were Black—they were treated like royalty around the world, but could not stay in hotels or play in integrated bands in their own country. The Brubeck's musical was a chance for Louis Armstrong to speak out about his deep feelings about racism and segregation in this country — feelings he rarely expressed publicly. The story features original music, rare archival recorded letters back and forth between the Brubecks and Louis Armstrong about the project, rehearsal recordings and interviews with Dave and Iola Brubeck. Other voices include: the Brubeck's sons, Chris and Dan Brubeck; Keith Hatschek, author of newly released book, "The Real Ambassadors;” Ricky Riccardi, Director of Research Collections for the Louis Armstrong House Museum; and singer/actress Yolande Bavan, the last surviving performer involved in the project.  The Real Ambassadors is a poignant tale of cultural exchange, anti-racism, jazz history, and it's a love story—between life-long husband and wife partners, Iola and Dave Brubeck and their vision for a better world. The Peabody Award winning Kitchen Sisters, Davia Nelson and Nikki Silva, have created hundreds of stories for NPR, public media and their Webby Award-winning podcast “The Kitchen Sisters Present.” Brandi Howell is a member of The Kitchen Sisters team and the producer of The Echo Chamber, a podcast about music and its social impact. The Real Ambassadors was produced by The Kitchen Sisters (Nikki Silva and Davia Nelson) and Brandi Howell in collaboration with Jackson Spenner. Mixed by Jim McKee. Thanks to Keith Hatschek, Chris, Brubeck, Dan Brubeck,  Ricky Riccardi, Yolande Bavan;  Lisa Cohen; and Wynton Marsalis.   Special thanks to: The Louis Armstrong Educational Foundation and the Louis Armstrong House Museum; Michael Bellacosa and the Brubeck Collection, Wilton Library, Wilton, Connecticut; The Complete Louis Armstrong Columbia & RCA Victor Studio Sessions 1946-66 Mosaic Records 270; The Milken Family Foundation Archive Oral History Project; and The Library of Congress. 

In the early morning hours of August 16, 2020, 12,000 lightning strikes exploded across northern California, igniting more than 585 wildfires. In the Santa Cruz Mountains scattered blazes grew into one massive burning organism — The CZU August Lightning Complex Fire — eating all in its path, scorching some 86,000 acres, destroying over 900 homes and Big Basin, California's first state park. We hear from young men and women from the Amah Mutsun Tribal band who have been working to clear and steward the land; archaeologists and historians from the historic Big Basin redwood State Park; and from residents of the Santa Cruz mountains who shared their experiences and stories for the historical record. This story grew out of a collaboration with the Santa Cruz Museum of Art and History. People who lost their homes in the blaze were invited to bring in artifacts sifted from the ashes to be photographed by award winning photographer Shmuel Thaler and to be interviewed by The Kitchen Sisters about the fire, their homes, the environment, their lives. For more stories, photos and a video about the fires and this project visit kitchensisters.org. Special thanks to: Valentin Lopez, Chairman of the Amah Mutsun Tribal Band; Mark Hylkema, Cultural Resources Program Manager, Tribal Liaison, Archeologist, CA State Parks Santa Cruz District; Martin Rizzo Martinez, Historian, CA State Parks Santa Cruz District; Jennifer Daly, Museum Collections Manager, CA State Parks, Santa Cruz District; Dana Frank, Professor of History, UCSC; Members of The Amah Mutsun Land Trust and Stewardship Program; and all of the many who shared their stories for the historical record. With support from The California Humanities and The National Endowment for the Arts. Produced by The Kitchen Sisters (Nikki Silva & Davia Nelson) and mixed by Jim McKee in collaboration with Grace Rubin, Brandi Howell and Nathan Dalton. In collaboration with photographer Shmuel Thaler and The Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History,

The Egg Wars—a hidden Gold Rush kitchen—when food was scarce and men died for eggs. We travel out to the forbidding Farallon Islands, 27 miles outside San Francisco's Golden Gate, home to the largest seabird colony in the United States. Over 250,000 birds on 14 acres. But it wasn't always so. One hundred seventy years ago it was the site of the “Egg Wars.” During the 1850s, egg hunters gathered over 3 million eggs, violently competing with each other, and nearly stripping the island bare. In 1969 the Point Reyes Bird observatory began working to protect the Farallones. The islands had been through a lot. The devastating fur trade of the 1800s. The Egg Wars. During WWII the Islands were used as a secret navy installation with over 70 people living on the island. From 1946-1970 nearly 50,000 drums of radioactive waste were dumped in the Farallon waters. Fisherman often shot high powered rifles at sea lions and helicopters were causing whales and other animals to panic. Today the Farallones are off limits to all but researchers, some who live out on the desolate island for months in the old lighthouse there. Surrounded by thousands of birds, they wear hard hats to keep the gulls from dive bombing their heads. The Islands are a sanctuary—The Farallon National Wildlife Refuge, managed by the US Fish and Wildlife Service. The Kitchen Sisters were given permission to travel out to the islands on one of the supply runs that goes out to the islands 2 times a month. The Farrallon National Wildlife Refuge is managed by US Fish and Wildlife Service Our story features: Gary Kamiya, journalist and author; Mary Jane Schram, Gulf of the Farallones National Marine Sanctuary; Peter Pyle, Farallon Biologist; Ava Crosante, Illustrator; Peter White, Author of Farallon Islands—Sentinels of the Golden Gate; Skipper Roger Cunningham; Pete Warzybok, Scientist Farallon Islands; Russ Bradly, Farallon Program Leader for Point Blue Conservation Science. Special thanks to: Melissa Pitkin, Point Blue Conservation; Doug Cordell and the San Francisco Bay National Wildlife Refuge Complex; Edward Jenkins; Julia Gulka; Sean Gee; Keith Hansen, Eve Williams, Gerry McChesnwey; and the Farallon Marine Sanctuary. The Kitchen Sisters Present is produced by The Kitchen Sisters, Nikki Silva and Davia Nelson, with Nathan Dalton and Brandi Howell. We are part of PRX's Radiotopia Network.

Davia Nelson, one half of the legendary Kitchen Sisters, shares the pair's incredible news: The Library of Congress will acquire the Kitchen Sisters' archive, decades of innovative audio work. Davia also talks with Rob about collaborating with performance artist Laurie Anderson on "The Great Amish Pandemic Sewing Frolic," a story about the power of working together.

Late last year Hillary Rodham Clinton and best-selling Canadian mystery writer, Louise Penny, came out with a ripping geo-political thriller called State of Terror that quickly hit the New York Times Best Seller List. At about that same time, Secretary Clinton's former close aide, Deputy Chief of Staff, and the vice chair of her 2016 presidential campaign, Huma Abedin, came out with her memoir, Both/And: A Life in Many Worlds, a story of her roots and the path that led her to work with the First Lady and the triumphs and controversies of her life. The two were crisscrossing the country separately on book tours at the same time. One night they both found themselves in San Francisco and were asked to be onstage together to talk about their new books. Davia Nelson was asked to be in conversation with them that evening and plugged in to the sound board. Here's an edited version of the night with a few surprises added in. State of Terror comes out in paperback in June, and Huma's book comes out in paperback in September. The wonderful actress Joan Allen reads the audio book version of Hillary and Louise Penny's bestseller and Huma reads her own beautiful audiobook. The Kitchen Sisters Present is proud member of Radiotopia, a network of independent, story driven, truth seeking, heart cracking podcasts from PRX.

The Kitchen Sisters, the audio project of Davia Nelson and Nikki Silva, has been collecting stories from “the B-side of history” since 1979. These stories dive into worlds hidden from the headlines, immersing listeners into the music, sounds and atmospheres of American culture, populated by famous and underrecognized figures alike. The Library of Congress announced in January that it will acquire the archive of the Kitchen Sisters, comprising photos, journals and more than 7,000 hours of audio. We'll play some of the audio from the Kitchen Sisters' most iconic episodes, set in the Bay Area and beyond, and we want to hear from you: What's one story from your family that shouldn't be lost to history?

The Wooster Group, perched on a street corner in Soho in downtown New York, has been at the forefront of experimental theater for some 40 years. Their startling performances unravel and transform classic texts by Brecht, Shakespeare, Chekhov, Eugene O'Neill, along with their own shocking original works. Six Obies, nine Bessies, accolades from around the world as they tour their works through Europe and Asia. Singular, rigorous, flamboyant. Theater. One of the more ephemeral of art forms. How to preserve the work, chronicle it, archive it for the ages? Yes, there are scripts, props, sets, costumes — a pair of muddy shoes from a 1981 production of Route 1 & 9. But what about experimental theater? Devoted to process, improvisation, the dense layering of ideas and texts and sound and image? How do you catalog something in a constant state of flux? Enter Clay Hapaz who started as an intern at The Wooster Group in 1992 and in 2002 became their official archivist. Voices you'll hear include Clay Hapaz, Kate Valk, Frances McDormand, Hilton Als, Peter Sellars, Spalding Gray and Elizabeth LeCompte. Produced by The Kitchen Sisters (Davia Nelson & Nikki Silva) and Evan Jacoby in collaboration with Brandi Howell and Nathan Dalton. Mixed by Jim McKee.   Special Thanks: Clay Hapaz, Kate Valk, Frances McDormand, Juliet Lashinsky-Revene, Hilton Als, Peter Sellars, The Wooster Group Drama Club and Elizabeth LeCompte. Music: Matt Dougherty (his company) and The Wooster Group's archive. Thanks also to Lumi Tan, Lewanne Jones and Claire Maske. Support for the Stories comes from The National Endowment for the Arts & Listener Contributions to The Kitchen Sisters Productions (Many thanks) The Kitchen Sisters Present is part of the Radiotopia Podcast Network on PRX. Thanks for listening

In the early morning hours of August 16, 2020, 12,000 lightning strikes exploded across northern California, igniting more than 585 wildfires. In the Santa Cruz Mountains scattered blazes grew into one massive burning organism — The CZU August Lightning Complex Fire — eating all in its path, scorching some 86,000 acres, destroying over 900 homes and Big Basin Redwoods, California's first state park. A year later the fire is still burning deep in some of the roots and stumps of ancient trees. In the aftermath, The Kitchen Sisters turned their microphones on the region, looking for what was lost and what has been found since lightning struck. This story grew out of a collaboration with the Santa Cruz Museum of Art and History. People who lost their homes in the blaze were invited to bring in artifacts found in the ashes to be photographed by award winning photographer Shmuel Thaler and interviewed by The Kitchen Sisters about the fire, their homes, the environment, their lives. These stories and photographs are part of an exhibition at the Santa Cruz Museum of Art and History. Produced by The Kitchen Sisters (Nikki Silva & Davia Nelson) and mixed by Jim McKee in collaboration with Grace Rubin, Brandi Howell and Nathan Dalton. Special thanks to photographer Shmuel Thaler, The Santa Cruz Museum of Art and History, The Amah Mutsun Land Trust and Stewardship Program, UCSC Professor Dana Frank, California State Parks, Mark Hylkema, Martin Rizzo Martinez, Jennifer Daly, and all of the many who shared their stories for the historical record. With support from The California Humanities and The National Endowment for the Arts.

On today's episode: Home recordings, people recording their friends, neighbors, and strangers — for a look at how we live, and who we are, by listening closely. Featuring a 5-year-old Sofia Coppola, and Patti Smith before she recorded her first album. Lost & Found Sound is the work of Nikki Silva and Davia Nelson, also known as The Kitchen Sisters. No one makes radio like the Kitchen Sisters. As Tom Waits put it, “Lost & Found Sound is beyond description.” You can find more of the Kitchen Sisters' recordings at http://www.kitchensisters.org/. For a transcript of this episode, send an email to transcripts@thisiscriminal.com with the episode name and number. Say hello on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Artwork by Julienne Alexander. Check out our online shop. This is Love is a proud member of Radiotopia from PRX. If you haven’t already, please follow the show and review us on Apple Podcasts! https://apple.co/2BmMZr5 We also make Criminal and Phoebe Reads a Mystery. Sponsors: Daily Harvest Go to dailyharvest.com and enter code thisislove to get twenty-five dollars off your first box! that’s daily harvest dot com code thisislove. eCreamery Visit www.ecreamery.com to see all the great packages available. Indeed Get started right now with a free $75 sponsored job credit to upgrade your job post at indeed.com/thisislove. Offer valid through june 30th. Progressive Get your quote online at Progressive.com and see how much you could be saving StoryWorth Get started right away with no shipping required by going to StoryWorth.com/thisislove. You’ll get $10 off your first purchase!

During the Gold Rush, people flocked to the San Francisco Bay Area to make their fortunes. A few entrepreneurial folks realized seabird eggs could provide protein to the hungry miners. Matthew Tuckner heard there was even a war fought over eggs on the Farallon Islands and wanted to know more. Additional Reading: The Gold Rush Delicacy That Started A War: Eggs The Kitchen Sisters Present podcast When California Went to War Over Eggs (Smithsonian Magazine) Originally reported by Nikki Silva and Davia Nelson for The Kitchen Sisters Present. Bay Curious is made by Katrina Schwartz, Suzie Racho and Brendan Willard. Additional support from Erika Aguilar, Jessica Placzek, Kyana Moghadam, Paul Lancour, Carly Severn, Ethan Lindsey, Vinnee Tong and Don Clyde.

The impact of Shonen Knife, the 1980s all-girl punk band from Osaka—a story of cultural exchange through the cassette tape. Shonen Knife, the three-woman band from Japan, formed in 1981—a time just before the internet drastically changed the way we consume and discover music. A time when a cassette tape, alongside fanzines and college radio created an environment that made possible the seemingly improbable circumstance of an all girl-band from Osaka opening for Nirvana, one of the biggest musical acts of the 90s. “Shonen means boy in Japanese and it’s a very old brand name of a pencil knife,” says Naoko Yamano. “And the word ‘shonen’ has very cute feeling and the knife has a little dangerous feeling, so when cute and dangerous combined together, it’s just like our band.  So I put that name.” Featuring interviews with Shonen Knife—Naoko Yamano, Atsuko Yamano, Risa Kawano; Karen Schoemer, former music critic of the New York Times; and Brooke McCorkle Okazaki, Assistant Professor of Music at Carleton College and author of Shonen Knife’s Happy Hour: Food, Gender, Rock and Roll. The Osaka Ramones was produced by Brandi Howell. The Kitchen Sisters Present is produced by The Kitchen Sisters, Davia Nelson & Nikki Silva, with Nathan Dalton and Brandi Howell. We’re part of PRX’s Radiotopia a curated network of independent producers creating some of the finest podcasts around.

Adamu Chan and Edmond Richardson met while they were incarcerated at San Quentin about two years ago, and have been best friends ever since. Adamu was released last fall, and they’ve kept in touch by writing letters to each other. We’ll hear part of an episode Adamu helped produce for the KALW Public Media podcast, “Uncuffed.” Then, we mark the loss of literary giant Lawrence Ferlinghetti, who died on February 22nd at the age of 101. Poet, activist, and publisher of many Beat poets of the 1950s and 60s, Ferlinghetti was considered by many to be the soul of San Francisco’s counterculture movement. The Kitchen Sisters, Nikki Silva and Davia Nelson, bring us an audio documentary they produced in honor of Ferlinghetti’s 99th birthday.

Stories of Black pioneers, seekers and entrepreneurs — self-made men and self-taught women, neighborhood heroes and visionaries. People who said "yes we can" and then did, hosted by Alfre Woodard. A man tapes the history of his town with a scavenged cassette recorder, a woman fights for social justice with a pie, a DJ ignites his community with a sound. Stories of Georgia Gilmore and the Club from Nowhere, a Secret Civil Rights Kitchen; of Hercules and of James Hemings, enslaved chefs of George Washington and Thomas Jefferson; of Walkin’ Talkin’ Bill Hawkins, Cleveland’s first black disc jockey; and more. A compilation of stories produced by The Kitchen Sisters (Nikki Silva & Davia Nelson) and Roman Mars, with Nathan Dalton and Brandi Howell. The Kitchen Sisters are proud members of PRX’s Radiotopia network.

With all the excitement surrounding the U.S. elections, it’s perhaps easy to forget that this week also marks the twenty-fifth anniversary of the assasination of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. And, as we work on our next new episode, we replay an episode we released exactly five years ago, on the occasion of the twentieth anniversary of the murder. This episode was produced by Shai Satran and Julie Subrin. Thanks to Davia Nelson, Niva Lanir, Uri Rosenwaks, Dani Zamir, David Harman, Matti Friedman, Guy Eckstein, Elad Stavi, Yonatan Glicksberg and Marie Röder.Collin Oldham composed and performed the original music in “Rabin Is Dead.” The end song is “HaStav Biladav” (‘Autumn Without Him’) by Noa (Achinoam Nini); lyrics by Natan Yonatan, and music by Achonoam Nini and Gil Dor). Stay connected with us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and by signing up for our newsletter at israelstory.org/newsletter/. For more, head to our site or Tablet Magazine. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Where can we turn for a scalable vision of a sustainable, equitable, and delicious future? Look no further than Chez Panisse founder Alice Waters, legendary maven of the “slow food movement,” and food labor activist Saru Jayaraman. Now they’re coming together, in a time of climate change, pandemics, and global hunger, to examine how we got here, and cook up a bold recipe for implementing transformative changes to our food system. You’ll savor this forward-thinking conversation, moderated by Davia Nelson.

There was a time when you couldn't go too long watching television without seeing a commercial for Rice-A-Roni. Many featured images of San Francisco, and ended with a catchy jingle — "Rice-A-Roni. The San Francisco Treat!" Bay Curious listener Kent Barnes has wondered if that advertising slogan is true. Was Rice-A-Roni actually created here in the Bay Area? Additional Resources Hear the full story on The Kitchen Sisters website Mrs. Captanian's Rice Pilaf Recipe on BayCurious.org Vote for which question you'd like to see us answer in our May voting round Original story produced by Nikki Silva and Davia Nelson of The Kitchen Sisters. Adapted for Bay Curious by Asal Ehsanipour. Bay Curious is made by Olivia Allen-Price, Katrina Schwartz, Asal Ehsanipour, Rob Speight. Additional support from Erika Aguilar, Jessica Placzek, Kyana Moghadam, Paul Lancour, Suzie Racho, Carly Severn, Bianca Hernandez, Ethan Lindsey, Michelle Wiley and Vinnee Tong.

Our guests are Dolores Huerta and Alice Waters, legendary activists working in different, but complementary areas of our food systems.  Huerta is co-founder of the United Farm Workers Association, and one of the most influential labor activists of our time. Waters is a chef and owner of Chez Panisse restaurant in Berkeley, California. A proponent of organic produce, and farm to table cuisine, Waters has brought a sustainable food curriculum -- and free, organic lunch -- to numerous schools through the Edible Schoolyard program.  On April 1, 2020 Dolores Huerta and Alice Waters talked to Davia Nelson of the Kitchen Sisters via video conference at their respective homes, under orders to shelter-in-place during the COVID-19 pandemic.

They say the average woman dies with a pound of lipstick in her stomach. “I have a feeling when I go they’ll find five,” says Davia Nelson of The Kitchen Sisters. Along with radio and podcasting, lipstick is a bit of an obsession. Over the years of producing and fundraising for our stories, we began to merge the two and started thinking that an intriguing way to raise money for public media storytelling might just be our own line of lipstick. The Kitchen Sisters are Dreaming in Public of starting a line of lipstick, partnering with the right makeup company to raise new monies for podcast and public radio producers for stories coming from new and exciting lips. And they are dreaming of chronicling the creation of this line in a podcast series called — Lipstick Traces. Sort of a StartUp for Makeup. Ours will be a sound and story themed line of lipsticks—Sonic Boom, Phantom Power, The Truth, Room Tone, The Allusionist… Lipstick Traces—Dreaming in Public of the power of a lipstick to seed new stories from new rouged lips. Dreaming in Public is the theme of this year’s Radiotopia Fundraiser mini features. All of the podcast creators in Radiotopia’s Network are producing works about the kinds of stories we might do with enough story-making funds—funds that allow us to to go deeper and further, out on the next limb with our stories. Your support for Radiotopia, a network of 18 fiercely independent shows, makes realizing those dreams possible. Take a listen to all of the Dreaming in Public stories at radiotopia.fm. Make your mark. Support The Kitchen Sisters Present and all of your favorite Radiotopia shows. Donate at radiotopia.fm

As part of The Keepers, The Kitchen Sisters series about activist archivists, rogue librarians and keepers of the truth and the free flow of information, we query Lawrence Weschler, archivist of "the odd, the marvelous, the passionate and slightly askew.” Lawrence Weschler leads us into the world of pronged ants, horned humans, mice on toast and other marvels of the mind of David Wilson and his “cabinet of wonder,” the Museum of Jurassic Technology. We take a deep dive into the discovery of a cache of thousands of reels of nitrate film stock buried under the permafrost in Dawson City, the heart of the gold rush in the Klondike, and the making of Bill Morrison’s film Frozen Time. Weschler weaves stories of memory palaces, archives of misery, the early history of museums, obsessed collectors and more. Lawrence Weschler was a staff writer for the New Yorker for 20 years. He is a contributing editor to McSweeney’s, The Threepenny Review and The Virginia Quarterly Review. He is the author of numerous books including Mr. Wilson’s Cabinet of Wonder: Pronged ants, Horned humans, Mice on Toast and other Marvels of Jurassic Technology. Seeing is Forgetting the Name of the Thing One Sees: A Life of Contemporary Artist Robert Irwin. True to Life: Twenty Five Years of Conversation with David Hockney. Waves Passing in the Night: Water Murch in the Land of Astrophysicists. And his most recent book, How Are You, Dr. Sacks?: a Biographical Memoir of Oliver Sacks. The Kitchen Sisters Present is produced by The Kitchen Sisters, Nikki Silva & Davia Nelson, with Nathan Dalton and Brandi Howell. Special thanks to our Kitchen Sisters’ production intern Grant MacHamer, for his work on this story. The Kitchen Sisters Present is part of PRX’s Radiotopia, a curated network of some of the best podcasts around. Visit kitchensisters.org for more.

Chris Strachwitz is a man possessed. “El Fanatico,” Ry Cooder calls him. A song catcher, dedicated to recording the traditional, regional, down home music of America, his adopted home after his family left Germany at the close of WWII. Mance Lipscomb, Lightnin’ Hopkins, Mississippi Fred McDowell, Big Mama Thornton, Clifton Chenier, Rose Maddox, Flaco Jimenez… the list is long and mighty. Chris Strachwitz is a keeper. His vault is jam-packed with 78s, 33s, 45s, reel-to-reels, cassettes, videos, photographs — an archive of all manner of recordings. And an avalanche of lifetime achievement awards — from the Grammy’s, The Blues Hall of Fame, The National Endowment for the Arts – for some 60 years of recording and preserving the musical cultural heritage of this nation through his label, Arhoolie Records. Featuring interviews with Linda Ronstadt and Bonnie Raitt. “The Passion of Chris Strachwitz” was produced by The Kitchen Sisters (Nikki Silva & Davia Nelson) with Nathan Dalton and Brandi Howell, mixed by Jim McKee. For The Goethe Institute’s Big Pond series.

In this bonus episode, we meet Davia Nelson (left), one half of The Kitchen Sisters along with Nikki Silva. Their podcast, The Keepers, spotlights activist archivists, rogue librarians, curators, collectors, historians and other keepers of culture. Because of their work, The Kitchen Sisters received SAA’s 2019 J. Franklin Jameson Archival Advocacy Award. Learn how The … Continue reading Season 2, Episode 4: Davia Nelson

During the depths of the Depression in the late 1930s, 300 craftspeople came together for two years to build an enormous scale model of the City of San Francisco. This Works Progress Administration (WPA) project was conceived as a way of putting artists to work while also creating a planning tool for the city to imagine its future. The massive work was meant to remain on public view for all to see, but World War II broke out and the 6,000 piece, hand-carved and painted wooden model was put into storage for almost 80 years. Model City This episode was produced by The Kitchen Sisters, Nikki Silva and Davia Nelson with Nathan Dalton and Brandi Howell. Mixed by Jim McKee Subscribe to Kitchen Sisters Present

During the depths of the Depression in the late 1930s, 300 craftspeople came together for two years to build an enormous scale model of the City of San Francisco. This Works Progress Administration (WPA) project was conceived as a way of putting artists to work while also creating a planning tool for the city to imagine its future. The massive work was meant to remain on public view for all to see, but World War II broke out and the 6,000 piece, hand-carved and painted wooden model was put into storage for almost 80 years. Model City This episode was produced by The Kitchen Sisters, Nikki Silva and Davia Nelson with Nathan Dalton and Brandi Howell. Mixed by Jim McKee Subscribe to Kitchen Sisters Present

This is part 2 of our Power and Pleasure of Podcasting event at USC (episode 33), which included performances from our guests. In this episode, we have the Q&A session that followed, where we were able to delve into the process of making and starting to podcast. To reiterate, we had Chenjerai Kumanyika (Uncivil), Davia Nelson and Nikki Silva (The Kitchen Sisters), Melinna Bobadilla and Brenda Gonzalez (Tamarindo), and Taz Ahmed and Zahra Noorbakhsh (#GoodMuslimBadMuslim). Our guests discuss the craft of podcasting and share the stories of this bottom-up way of discussing the issues they tackle for their respective community. They share the difficulties of podcasting, such as its status as "side project" or unpaid labor, as well as the emotional labor of podcasting. We also discussed choosing names and talking to the public, the "fear of Twitter" and more. Also, we see the variability of contexts from our guests: the decision of writing for themselves, owning their own content, as well being part of collectives or working for larger radio companies.

We recently hosted an event on Power and Pleasure of Podcasting at USC, and we have the live recording to share with you . The lineup included performances by Chenjerai Kumanyika (Uncivil), Davia Nelson and Nikki Silva (The Kitchen Sisters), Melinna Bobadilla and Brenda Gonzalez (Tamarindo), and Taz Ahmed and Zahra Noorbakhsh (#GoodMuslimBadMuslim). We had the privilege of having each of these podcasters share snippets of their episodes, to show us how the alternative storytelling of podcasting can add to larger narratives. We cover the present repercussions of the Civil War; and look at Keepers of cultures, putting the spotlight on librarians and archivists as the heroes of holding down the fort on facts. The hosts of Tamarindo, a podcast that focuses on the Latinx community in LA, do a Minicast from our event; and the #GoodMuslimBadMuslim hosts also do a live episode, where they issue a fatwa to the Muslim ban.

To tell a truly engaging story, you have to dig deep beneath the surface. When it comes to radio storytelling, Davia Nelson and Nikki Silva, also known as the Kitchen Sisters, are masters. Through projects like Lost and Found Sound and Hidden World of Girls, the independent producers tell stories for NPR and online "from the flip side of history." On this week s show, we take a journey in sound with these two radio luminaries, discuss their amazing trajectory on NPR, and learn how they came to uncover Hidden Kitchens, their duPont Columbia and James Beard Award winning radio series. As we hear the Kitchen Sisters stories, we also delve into a sampling of their soundscape, from their early days at KUSP, Santa Cruz s community radio station, to some of their favorite Hidden Kitchen visions. With their help, we ll even hear from heavyweight champion George Foreman about his famous grill a tool used in many marginalized communities. Then, we speak with an emerging kitchen sister in her own right, historic gastronomist Sarah Lohman. Her new book Eight Flavors The Untold Story of American Cuisine offers an in depth look at influentialingredients Americans use every day. Hunting through historical documents, Sarah uncovered the unique individuals behind each flavor, and shares tales of how these unsung heroes forever changed the American culinary landscape. And finally, we ll meet one of New Orleans most distinctive TV commercial personalities, Al Scramuzza of Seafood City. Al s comical and campy TV ads dominated the airwaves for decades. But even before he was a household name, Al was combining his acumen for business and marketing to turn a profit and to help catalyze the crawfish craze in the second half of the twentieth century. We re meeting fascinating characters and those who tell their stories on this week s Louisiana Eats For more of all things Louisiana Eats, be sure to visit us at PoppyTooker.com.

The audio producing duo The Kitchen Sisters started working together on a live local radio show in California back in the late 1970s. Since then Nikki Silva and Davia Nelson have made about 500 audio documentaries together, covering topics from space food to Spanish shepherds, from kimchi to the recording of Prince's album 'Purple Rain'. And over the decades they've refined a distinctive style; it's audio rich, full of found sounds, voicemail messages, and music, it's mainly recorded in the field, not in the studio, and there's not that much of them in their stories. We play a selection of The Kitchen Sisters' work, including Operation Hummus which tells the story of the cultural and political battle over the origins of a simple chickpea dish. Also Chicken Pills, which highlights some potentially dangerous beauty practices in Jamaica, and how some people will stop at nothing in their quest for a perfect body. And we speak to The Kitchen Sisters' Davia Nelson about how they find their stories, the emergence of their signature storytelling style, and how podcasting is changing the way they connect with a new generation of listeners.

The American audio producing duo The Kitchen Sisters have made hundreds of sound-rich documentaries over their 30-plus years in the business. This is one of their stories that involves a famous heavyweight boxer, and some unusual uses for the grill he brought to the masses. Next week we speak to one of The Kitchen Sisters, Davia Nelson, and play more of their stories.

This episode of Library Bytegeist is all about collectors and keepers. The people who go through life gathering and capturing and saving things. First up, we have a short story by Sarah Esocoff about Collector’s Night in NYC (minute 2:38 - 9:56). Then, we have an interview Nikki Silva, one half of a radio duo known as the Kitchen Sisters (minute 10:40 - 38:18). The Kitchen Sisters have produced hundreds of stories for NPR and other public radio programs. In this interview, Nikki breaks down how she and Davia Nelson find and use archival audio, and how they became accidental archivists in the process. The Kitchen Sisters are launching a new series called “The Keepers,” and they’re looking for stories about archivists, librarians, and curators. You can call The Keepers Hotline at 415-496-9049 and listen to their work on their podcast, "The Kitchen Sisters Present," part of Radiotopia's collective of independent producers. Transcript: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ejXGbKPEMWnAAIYF_-JuCWZlDpGkalbcg1yIkQX4RcE/edit?usp=sharing Hosted and Produced by Molly Schwartz Audio Mastering by Dalton Harts Music and Soundtracks: Opening track: “Magic” by Otis MacDonald from the YouTube Audio Library “Letter to Louie" by Mrs. B, a home recording from the Kitchen Sisters “The Road Ranger” by The Kitchen Sisters for NPR: http://www.kitchensisters.org/stories/early-work/ "The Legend of Ernest Morgan" by The Kitchen Sisters for NPR: https://soundcloud.com/kitchensisters/the-legend-of-ernest-morgan "An Unexpected Kitchen: The George Foreman Grill" by The Kitchen Sisters on "The Kitchen Sisters Present" podcast, part of Radiotopia: http://www.kitchensisters.org/fugitivewaves/george-foreman/ "Tennessee Williams: The Pennyland Recordings" by The Kitchen Sisters on "The Kitchen Sisters Present" podcast, part of Radiotopia: https://soundcloud.com/fugitivewaves/tennessee-williams-the-pennyland-recordings "First Day of School, 1960, New Orleans" by The Kitchen Sisters on "The Kitchen Sisters Present" podcast, part of Radiotopia: http://www.kitchensisters.org/present/first-day-of-school-1960-new-orleans/ The Keepers, a new Kitchen Sisters series coming to NPR’s Morning Edition, June 2018: http://www.kitchensisters.org/keepers/ Closing track: "A Gentleman" by Podington Bear from the Free Music Archive Tools used to record this podcast: The audio booth at METRO: bit.ly/MetroAudio RE20 microphone: www.electrovoice.com/product.php?id=91 oTranscribe: otranscribe.com/ Reaper: www.reaper.fm/ Izotope: www.izotope.com/en/products/repai…plug-in-pack.html

Mimi Chakarova is a Bulgarian-American filmmaker, photographer, journalism professor, activist, immigrant and single mother. Her documentary “Men a Love Story” premiered at the Telluride Film Festival in 2017 where Davia Nelson of The Kitchen Sisters interviewed her on stage. How can you not be mesmerized by a woman who makes a film called “The Price of Sex,” about women throughout Eastern Europe who are pushed into prostitution and who goes underground into that world herself to document the story. “I didn't intend to spend more than a year covering human trafficking,” says Mimi. It ended up taking a decade. “I didn't intend on reporting in more than two countries,” she says. “So, how did I end up in nine?” Mimi said, “Before my trips my mom used to ask, ‘It took us so many years to get out of poverty, why do you keep returning there?’ I would sit in her kitchen and the only answer that would come to mind was, it was so damn familiar.” Now Mimi has a new series of documentaries, “Still I Rise,” premiering online Friday, April 27th at stillirisefilms.org. “Still I Rise” is a short film series whose title pays homage to Maya Angelou's famous poem. It features individuals who've journeyed from the depths of hardship and struggle and have come out the other side. As an immigrant herself Mimi creates a platform where other immigrants can tell their own stories and show how even in the face of adversity they fight to rise.

Figuring out your personal process of progress can be tricky! Momma B is ready to help with advice for taking feedback on your work, balancing your creative pursuits with your responsibilities, and playing well with others. We also get stellar advice from some Nashville songbirds, a novelist currently on the NYT best seller list, and the one of NPR’s favorite duos. Leave us a message about your summer project progress at 1-706-9-ASK-MOM and your success could be included on a future episode. Complete show notes, questions, guest bios, and more available: www.advicefrom.mom/listen/
 This episode’s advice and insight were provided by: • The Kitchen Sisters, Davia Nelson & Nikki Silva; the producers of the duPont-Columbia and James Beard Award-winning series, Hidden Kitchens on NPR’s Morning Edition and two Peabody Award-winning NPR series, Lost & Found Sound and The Sonic Memorial Project. • Janelle Brown, a New York Times bestselling author of the novels All We Ever Wanted Was Everything, This Is Where We Live, and currently on the NYT best seller list, Watch Me Disappear. [ www.janellebrown.com ] • Kira Small; a nationally touring singer-songwriter, recording artist, 2015 International Songwriting Competition Finalist, 2012 Independent Music Awards winner and former member of Berklee College of Music’s Voice Faculty [ www.kirasmall.com ] • Whit Hill; a Nashville-based singer-songwriter and a winner of the Kerrville Folk Festival's New Folk competition—one of folk music's greatest honors. [ www.whithill.com] • Majo Molfino; a writer, speaker, women’s creative leadership coach and the host of Heroine [ www.majomolfino.com ] • Nathalie Arbel; a San Francisco-based writer and editor, currently working on a book called Data-Driven Marketing [ www.nathaliearbel.com ] • Hadley Davis Rierson; a Los Angeles-based writer for television (“Dawson’s Creek,” “Spin City,” “Scrubs”) and film (Disney’s “Ice Princess”), mother, wife and arts advocate. .·:*'`*:·..·:*'`*:·.·:*'`*:·..·:*'`*:·.·:*'`*:·. Momma B’s link goodie bag (with some research from RGB) If your book shelf needs some brain food: https://www.amazon.com/Prescription-Nutritional-Healing-Phyllis-Balch/dp/1583332367/ref=sr_1_5?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1500751613&sr=1-5&keywords=nutritional+healing If you really want to be understood, just carry Mom’s favorite book around: https://www.amazon.com/Please-Understand-Temperament-Character-Intelligence/dp/1885705026/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1501136160&sr=1-2&keywords=please+understand+me Momma B wants you to listen to lots of psychologists: https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/savvy-psychologist Janelle referenced a helpful app: https://freedom.to The digital double-bind study from Cornell and Temple on female entrepreneurs and gender hierarchies: http://mediarelations.cornell.edu/2017/04/04/gender-hierarchies-persist-online-despite-more-female-entrepreneurs/ Devon Proudfoot and researchers from Duke University explore gender creativity bias: http://www.fuqua.duke.edu/news_events/news-releases/aaron-kay-creativity/#.WXmEAcbMxE4 This research dig was inspired by a talk at Source Summit 2017 by Enrique Allen of Designer Fund: https://designerfund.com/design-leadership-insights-source-summit-2017 Advice from Mom is a production of Wise Ones Advice Services. It was produced by Juliet Hinely & Rebecca Garza-Bortman. Editing by Juliet Hinely. Mixing and mastered by Jake Young. Publicity by Jane Riccobono. Audio assistance by Bryan Garza. The theme music is by Love, Jerks—www.lovejerks.com. The song throughout this episode is Rebel in Motion by Scissors for Lefty—www.scissorsforlefty.com This podcast is for informational purposes only and is not intended to offer diagnosis or treatment of any medical or psychological condition. All treatment decisions should be made in partnership with your health professional.

What does it take to win an NBA Championship? On Monday night, June 12th, Oakland's Golden State Warriors, aka "Dub Nation" silenced the Cleveland Cavaliers to win the 2017 NBA Championship. Three days later, thousands of diverse, loyal, cheering, screaming fans filled the streets of Oakland to celebrate a victory many felt belonged as much to them, as to the players. For now at least. After 40 years homed in Oakland, the Warriors are moving across the Bay to a new arena in San Francisco. Life of the Law goes "In-Studio" to try and sort it all out -- the controversial calls of Game 5, winning team dynamics, playing by the rules, and the gentrification of team sports. LOTL's Osagie Obasogie, Nancy Mullane and Brittny Bottorff are joined "in-studio" at KQED by Fast Break blogger and attorney Adam Lauridsen. And...in case you missed Episode 111: NBA Champion GS Warriors vs SQ Warriors -- our feature story on the annual basketball game played between the Golden State Warriors and the San Quentin Warriors inside the prison on the lower yard, now's your chance. Listen to our post-game interview with the Warriors Draymond Green after he visits the prison cells to see first hand the inmate's living conditions. Life of the Law co-produced the story with the amazing Kitchen Sisters, Davia Nelson and Nikki Silva for NPR's All Things Considered. Production Notes: In-Studio: Dub Nation was edited and produced by Tony Gannon. Special thanks to Brittny Bottorff, Osagie Obasogie and Adam Lauridsen for joining us at KQED studios in San Francisco. Our post production editors are Kirsten Jusewicz-Haidle and Rachael Cain.  Music in this episode was composed by David Jassy. Jim Bennett and Howard Gelman of KQED Radio in San Francisco were our engineers. This episode of Life of the Law was funded in part by grants from the Law and Society Association, and the National Science Foundation. © Copyright 2017 Life of the Law. All rights reserved. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

It's official! The Golden State Warriors are the 2017 NBA Champions! Life of the Law honors the team and each of the players with this special episode. One day a year, the Golden State Warriors' coaches, managers, and players go behind the walls of San Quentin State Prison for a game on the prison's lower yard against the San Quentin Warriors, a team of hard-driving inmates. And like all real basketball, it's an annual battle of will and determination against time and rules. "I love coming in here. Although I'd never seen a cell.That's the scariest thing I've seen. A cell. Where the prisoners stay. I had never seen one of those. That's serious. If you ever want deterrence show somebody what that is. That's small. "  -- Bob Myers, Golden State Warriors General Manger after visiting the cells in San Quentin's North BlockYou may have heard the story we co-produced with the Kitchen Sisters that aired on NPR's All Things Considered. If you missed it, now's your chance to hear that story and for listeners of Life of the Law, an exclusive post-game visit by Draymond Green to the inmates cells to see what life inside the San Quentin is like for the men he knows from the yard. NBA Champions GS Warriors vs SQ Warriors Life of the Law's exclusive interview inside San Quentin State Prison with Golden State Warriors Draymond Green, Warriors General Manager Bob Myers, and  San Quentin's Curtis Carroll "Wall Street." Production Notes NBA Champions GS Warriors vs San Quentin Warriors was reported by Nancy Mullane and produced by Tony Gannon and theKitchen Sisters, Davia Nelson and Nikki Silva. Special thanks to Bob Myers, Draymond Green, Kevin Durant, and Raymond Ridder with  The Golden State Warriors; Lt. Sam Robinson, San Quentin Public Information Officer; Louis Scott of San Quentin Media; Zsa-Zsa Rensch and Phil Green; Curtis Carroll ("Wall Street"), and Jim McKee. Thanks also to Questlove, Fantastic Negrito, Too Short, and David Jassy for their music. Our Post Production Editors are Kirsten Jusewicz-Haidle and Rachael Cain. Our engineer was Howard Gelman of KQED Radio in San Francisco. Opening Music Credit: Fantastic Negrito, 'About a Bird.' Written and Produced by Xavier Dphrepaulezz  Piano and Organ by Lionel Holoman Bass Guitar by Cornelius Mims Guitar by Masa Kohama Additional Guitar by Xavier Dphrepaulezz Vocals by Xavier Dphrepaulezz  Engineered by Alexandro Maloles and Jabari Tawiah Mixed by Matt Winegar Mastered by Dave McNair Publishing by Angry Ant Publishing Art by Nick Francis This episode of Life of the Law was funded in part by donations from our listeners and by grants from the Law and Society Association, and the National Science Foundation. © Copyright 2017 Life of the Law. All rights reserved. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On this week s show, we take a journey in sound with two radio luminaries, Davia Nelson and Nikki Silva, also known as the Kitchen Sisters. Davia and Nikki visit our kitchen at the Southern Food and Beverage Museum to discuss their amazing trajectory on NPR as well as how they came to uncover Hidden Kitchens, their duPont Columbia Award winning series. As we hear the Kitchen Sisters stories, we also delve into a sampling of their soundscape, from their early days at KUSP, Santa Cruz s community radio station, to some of their favorite Hidden Kitchen visions. With their help, we ll even hear from heavyweight champion George Foreman about his famous grill a tool used in many marginalized communities. Our conversation with the Kitchen Sisters inspired us to explore a hidden kitchen in our own backyard, so we spend a day with two communities in New Orleans who come together through food. One is a set of volunteers from Trinity Episcopal Church, the Loaves and Fishes team, who prepare and deliver meals. The other is the community to whom they cater the homeless, the transient and those simply in need of a meal in the greater metropolitan area. We re having our very own hidden kitchen visions on this week s Louisiana Eats

This week: the mother reigns supreme. Kingdom of Women by Erin O'Dwyer with Timothy Nicastri (360documentaries, ABC, 2013) In remote village in the Yunnan province of China exists one of the only matriarchal cultures in the world. In fact, there isn't even a word in the Mosuo language for 'husband' or 'father.' Children are raised by their mother's brother and all of the property stays in her name. Women entertain as many lovers as they wish, who visit under the cloak of darkness and leave before dawn. The Hidden World of Traveller Girls by The Kitchen Sisters, Davia Nelson and Nikki Silva (Morning Edition, NPR, 2010) "Travellers" are sometimes thought of as the gypsies of Ireland. The girls marry young and have large families. By the time they’re well established, so is their authority in the community. Re:sound is produced by Katie Mingle. Hear more great stories at thirdcoastfestival.org.

Like so many other radiophiles, I was inspired to get into the medium by the work of great independent producers like the Kitchen Sisters—Nikki Silva and Davia Nelson. So it was really nice to finally sit down with Nikki and learn about her own radio beginnings. We listened to some of the earliest and still-cool Kitchen Sisters recordings ("Rattlesnakes," "The Road Ranger" and "Ernie Morgan, World Champion One-Handed Pool Player") and discussed the latest evolution of their work: "The Hidden World of Girls, Stories For Orchestra." Adapted from their "Hidden World of Girls" radio series, the new orchestral/multimedia production premieres at the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music on July 28 and 29. Listening to Nikki talk, you can hear one of the essential ingredients in the Kitchen Sisters' success: a lot of passion and a lot of heart.

Davia Nelson and Nikki Silva, NPR's Kitchen Sisters, discuss their radio show, "Hidden Kitchens," and some of New Haven's own hidden kitchens, with Melina Shannon Di-Pietro and Josh Viertel, co-directors of the Yale Sustainable Food Project.