Podcast appearances and mentions of henry alsberg

Episode Summary:This episode features two more stories of outsiders remaking themselves and California history. Eluard McDaniel left the Jim Crow South for California as a boy, and remade himself as an activist and writer on the West Coast. His account of his life brought him national attention when it appeared in American Stuff, a book of creative works by members of the Federal Writers' Project and Federal Art Project selected by Henry Alsberg.Miné Okubo was a rising artist with the Federal Art Project who drew on her art and her life story to depict a hidden history of injustice during World War II in her book Citizen 13660. Even decades later, a culture of silence surrounded that experience – until her book won an American Book Award and became testimony that sought redress for Japanese Americans incarcerated during the war.Speakers:David Bradley, novelistSeiko Buckingham, niece of Miné OkuboJeanie Tanaka, niece of Miné OkuboDavid Kipen, journalist and authorLinks and Resources:"American Stuff" anthology by members of the Federal Writers' Project and prints by the Federal Art Project'Citizen 13660" short film by the National Park Service"Sincerely, Miné Okubo" short film from the Japanese American National Museum"Pictures of Belonging" 2024 art exhibitionEluard McDaniel entry, Abraham Lincoln Brigade ArchivesReading List:Citizen 13660, by Miné OkuboMiné Okubo: Following Her Own Road, by Greg RobinsonThe Dream and the Deal, by Jerre Mangione“Bumming in California” by Eluard McDaniel, in On the Fly: Hobo Literature and Songs, 1879 – 1941, PM PressThe Chaneysville Incident: A Novel, by David BradleyDear California, by David KipenBlack California, edited by Aparajita NandaCalifornia in the 1930s: The WPA Guide to the Golden State with introduction, by David KipenCredits: Host: Chris HaleyDirector: Andrea KalinProducers: Andrea Kalin, David A. Taylor, James MirabelloWriter: David A. TaylorEditor: Ethan OserAssistant Editor: Amy YoungStory Editor: Michael MayAdditional Voices: Jared Buggage, Mariko Miyasaki, Kate Rafter and Amy YoungFeaturing music and archival from: Pete SeegerJoseph VitarelliBradford EllisPond5Library of CongressNational Archives and Records AdministrationThe Ronald Reagan Presidential LibraryManny Harriman Video Oral History Collection, Tamiment Library and Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives, NYU Special Collections.For additional content, visit peoplesrecorder.info or follow us on social media: @peoplesrecorderProduced with support from: National Endowment for the HumanitiesCalifornia Humanities. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Episode Summary:In the depths of the Great Depression, the U.S government hired out-of-work writers and laid-off reporters and sent them out to record the stories of all kinds of Americans. Dubbed the Federal Writers' Project, historians have called the program a giant "listening project." In this introductory episode, host Chris Haley sets the stage, laying out 1930s America, the New Deal, and the cultural forces that both supported and opposed the Writers' Project. We meet the agency's national director Henry Alsberg and a handful of its writers across the country, including Zora Neale Hurston, Studs Terkel and Ralph Ellison. We also dig into the key questions that are still debated in public forums today: What history gets told? And who gets to tell it? Speakers:Scott Borchert, authorDavid Bradley, novelistDouglas Brinkley, historianTameka Hobbs, historianDavid Kipen, authorDena Epstein, daughter of federal writer Hilda PolacheckStuds Terkel, oral historianLinks and Resources:American Life Histories: Manuscripts from the Federal Writers' ProjectBorn to Slavery: Slave Narratives from the Federal Writers' ProjectAuthor Scott Borchert on the Federal Writers' Project and the WPA guidebooks Article on Library of Congress symposium on The Millions Further Reading:Soul of a People by David A. TaylorRepublic of Detours by Scott Borchert Barracoon by Zora Neale HurstonCalifornia in the 1930s by David KipenHard Times by Studs TerkelFirst-Person America by Ann Banks Henry Alsberg by Susan DeMasiLong Past Slavery by Catherine A. StewartCredits:Host: Chris HaleyDirector: Andrea KalinProducers: Andrea Kalin, David A. Taylor, James MirabelloWriter: David A. TaylorEditors: Steve Klingbiel and Ethan OserStory Editor: Michael MayAdditional Voices: Karen Simon, Robert Mirabello, Gary Hogan and Vince BrownFeaturing music and archival material from:Pond5Library of Congress National Archives New York Public LibrarySwing Time (RKO, 1936)Smithsonian FolkwaysFor additional content, visit peoplesrecorder.info or follow us on social media: @peoplesrecorderProduced with support from: National Endowment for the HumanitiesFlorida Humanities Virginia HumanitiesWisconsin HumanitiesCalifornia HumanitiesHumanities Nebraska Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Over the course of a long and adventurous life, Henry Alsberg was guided by the constancy of his passion for radical causes. This focus, as Susan Rubenstein DeMasi makes clear in Henry Alsberg: The Driving Force Behind the New Deal Federal Writers’ Project (McFarland, 2016) defined both his varied career choices and his greatest achievements. Alsbeg’s radicalism was a constant of his life from an early age, and led him to abandon his initial employment as a lawyer for more fulfilling work as a journalist and author. After several years in revolution-plagued eastern Europe as a correspondent during and after the First World War, Alsberg returned to the United States to become a theater producer. Despite the success of his English-language translation of the play The Dybbuk, by the time the Great Depression hit in the early 1930s Alsberg was facing the same challenges as millions of other Americans in finding work. Not only did the New Deals Federal Writers’ Project provide him with employment but, as DeMasi demonstrates, with projects such as the multivolume American Guide and the compiling of the oral histories of former slaves he shepherded some of the most enduring cultural legacies of the era, ones which serve as monuments to his own blend of political values and artistic creativity. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Over the course of a long and adventurous life, Henry Alsberg was guided by the constancy of his passion for radical causes. This focus, as Susan Rubenstein DeMasi makes clear in Henry Alsberg: The Driving Force Behind the New Deal Federal Writers’ Project (McFarland, 2016) defined both his varied career choices and his greatest achievements. Alsbeg’s radicalism was a constant of his life from an early age, and led him to abandon his initial employment as a lawyer for more fulfilling work as a journalist and author. After several years in revolution-plagued eastern Europe as a correspondent during and after the First World War, Alsberg returned to the United States to become a theater producer. Despite the success of his English-language translation of the play The Dybbuk, by the time the Great Depression hit in the early 1930s Alsberg was facing the same challenges as millions of other Americans in finding work. Not only did the New Deals Federal Writers’ Project provide him with employment but, as DeMasi demonstrates, with projects such as the multivolume American Guide and the compiling of the oral histories of former slaves he shepherded some of the most enduring cultural legacies of the era, ones which serve as monuments to his own blend of political values and artistic creativity. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Over the course of a long and adventurous life, Henry Alsberg was guided by the constancy of his passion for radical causes. This focus, as Susan Rubenstein DeMasi makes clear in Henry Alsberg: The Driving Force Behind the New Deal Federal Writers’ Project (McFarland, 2016) defined both his varied career choices and his greatest achievements. Alsbeg’s radicalism was a constant of his life from an early age, and led him to abandon his initial employment as a lawyer for more fulfilling work as a journalist and author. After several years in revolution-plagued eastern Europe as a correspondent during and after the First World War, Alsberg returned to the United States to become a theater producer. Despite the success of his English-language translation of the play The Dybbuk, by the time the Great Depression hit in the early 1930s Alsberg was facing the same challenges as millions of other Americans in finding work. Not only did the New Deals Federal Writers’ Project provide him with employment but, as DeMasi demonstrates, with projects such as the multivolume American Guide and the compiling of the oral histories of former slaves he shepherded some of the most enduring cultural legacies of the era, ones which serve as monuments to his own blend of political values and artistic creativity. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Over the course of a long and adventurous life, Henry Alsberg was guided by the constancy of his passion for radical causes. This focus, as Susan Rubenstein DeMasi makes clear in Henry Alsberg: The Driving Force Behind the New Deal Federal Writers’ Project (McFarland, 2016) defined both his varied career choices and his greatest achievements. Alsbeg’s radicalism was a constant of his life from an early age, and led him to abandon his initial employment as a lawyer for more fulfilling work as a journalist and author. After several years in revolution-plagued eastern Europe as a correspondent during and after the First World War, Alsberg returned to the United States to become a theater producer. Despite the success of his English-language translation of the play The Dybbuk, by the time the Great Depression hit in the early 1930s Alsberg was facing the same challenges as millions of other Americans in finding work. Not only did the New Deals Federal Writers’ Project provide him with employment but, as DeMasi demonstrates, with projects such as the multivolume American Guide and the compiling of the oral histories of former slaves he shepherded some of the most enduring cultural legacies of the era, ones which serve as monuments to his own blend of political values and artistic creativity. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Over the course of a long and adventurous life, Henry Alsberg was guided by the constancy of his passion for radical causes. This focus, as Susan Rubenstein DeMasi makes clear in Henry Alsberg: The Driving Force Behind the New Deal Federal Writers’ Project (McFarland, 2016) defined both his varied career choices and his greatest achievements. Alsbeg’s radicalism was a constant of his life from an early age, and led him to abandon his initial employment as a lawyer for more fulfilling work as a journalist and author. After several years in revolution-plagued eastern Europe as a correspondent during and after the First World War, Alsberg returned to the United States to become a theater producer. Despite the success of his English-language translation of the play The Dybbuk, by the time the Great Depression hit in the early 1930s Alsberg was facing the same challenges as millions of other Americans in finding work. Not only did the New Deals Federal Writers’ Project provide him with employment but, as DeMasi demonstrates, with projects such as the multivolume American Guide and the compiling of the oral histories of former slaves he shepherded some of the most enduring cultural legacies of the era, ones which serve as monuments to his own blend of political values and artistic creativity. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Over the course of a long and adventurous life, Henry Alsberg was guided by the constancy of his passion for radical causes. This focus, as Susan Rubenstein DeMasi makes clear in Henry Alsberg: The Driving Force Behind the New Deal Federal Writers’ Project (McFarland, 2016) defined both his varied career choices and his greatest achievements. Alsbeg’s radicalism was a constant of his life from an early age, and led him to abandon his initial employment as a lawyer for more fulfilling work as a journalist and author. After several years in revolution-plagued eastern Europe as a correspondent during and after the First World War, Alsberg returned to the United States to become a theater producer. Despite the success of his English-language translation of the play The Dybbuk, by the time the Great Depression hit in the early 1930s Alsberg was facing the same challenges as millions of other Americans in finding work. Not only did the New Deals Federal Writers’ Project provide him with employment but, as DeMasi demonstrates, with projects such as the multivolume American Guide and the compiling of the oral histories of former slaves he shepherded some of the most enduring cultural legacies of the era, ones which serve as monuments to his own blend of political values and artistic creativity. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices