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Green-Wood Cemetery, in the middle of Brooklyn, feels unexpectedly wild. The 478 acres are alive with big old trees, flowers, bees, fungus, birds, wild and feral animals. Yes, it's also full of dead people — the “permanent residents” of Green-Wood, as they refer to them, comprise a Who's Who of 19th century New York: famous actresses and Civil War generals, industrialists, businessmen, developers. There's Boss Tweed, there's Samuel Morris, inventor of the Morse code. But a visit to Green-Wood makes it clear that this cemetery is for the living. It's not just a burial ground. It's a breeding ground. A place of birth and renewal and life and excitement. Join Wild Talk producer Matt Dellinger as he strolls among the graves with Joseph Charap, Green-Wood's Director of Horticulture, and Sara Evans, the Manager of Horticulture Operations and Projects. The interviews were recorded last Spring, in April 2021, as vaccinations were first made widely available, the first time it seemed possible to imagine the worst of the coronavirus pandemic was behind us. “I don't think it's hokey to think of the cemetery as a place where you can think about life. And I think that the whole point. It was conceived that way, to have these large living organisms be in a place in which the dead were buried, it's showing, like, not in a subtle way, the continuity of life.” -Joseph Charap, Director of Horticulture
We discuss the Wide Awakes - their origins as an Abolitionist movement supporting Lincoln’s 1860 election campaign, and their revival in 2020 as a cape-clad artist network that believes in “joy as resistance “. See links below. Ruth Barnes, Joanne B. Eicher, Dress and Gender: Making and Meaning (first published in 1992): https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/dress-and-gender-9780854968657/ Kimono: Kyoto to Catwalk, V&A, London (to 25 October 2020): https://www.vam.ac.uk/exhibitions/kimono-kyoto-to-catwalk Jessica Mitford, Hons and Rebels (first published in 1960): https://www.weidenfeldandnicolson.co.uk/titles/jessica-mitford/hons-and-rebels/9781474605373/ Nancy Mitford, Love in a Cold Climate (first published in 1949): https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/282/2828/love-in-a-cold-climate/9780241974698.html Gerda Taro: https://www.icp.org/browse/archive/objects/militiawoman-training-on-the-beach-near-barcelona and https://www.icp.org/browse/archive/constituents/gerda-taro?all/all/all/all/0 Jon Grinspan, ‘”Young Men for War”: The Wide Awakes and Lincoln’s 1860 Presidential Campaign’, Journal of American History, 96 (Sept. 2009): http://archive.oah.org/special-issues/lincoln/contents/grinspan.html ‘Connecticut Wide-Awakes’, Connecticut Historical Society (6 January 2011): https://chs.org/2011/01/connecticut-wide-awakes/ 2020 Wideawakes: https://wideawakes.com/ and https://www.instagram.com/wideawakes/ and https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/wide-awakes/the-wide-awakes For Freedoms: https://forfreedoms.org/ Hank Willis Thomas: https://www.instagram.com/hankwillisthomas/ and https://www.hankwillisthomas.com/ Wildcat Ebony Brown: https://www.instagram.com/wildcatebonybrown/ Anya Ayoung Chee: https://www.anyaayoungchee.com/ and https://www.togetherwi.org/ Eric Gottesman: https://ericgottesman.net/ Coby Kennedy: https://www.cobykennedystudio.com/ Kambui Olujimi: https://kambuiolujimi.com/ Jose Parla: https://www.instagram.com/joseparla/ Matt Dellinger, ‘A Civil War Political Movement Reawakens — Complete With Capes’, New York Times (15 September 2020): https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/15/style/wide-awakes-civil-war-activists.html Rebecca Jamieson, ‘Without Joy, Nothing is Sustainable: The Artist First-Responders Waking Up Democracy with Play, Billboards, and Capes’, Pioneer Works (10 February 2020): https://pioneerworks.org/broadcast/for-freedoms-jamieson/ Jammal Lemy, ‘Wide Awakes’, Dazed (15 September 2020): https://www.dazeddigital.com/read-up-act-up-autumn-2020/article/50410/1/read-up-act-up-autumn-2020-wide-awakes-guest-edit Rujeko Hockley, ‘Joy as Resistance: Artist collective the Wide Awakes takes NYC this weekend. Why we’re marching’, New York Vulture (2 October 2020): https://www.vulture.com/2020/10/wide-awakes-march-nyc.html Brooke Bobb, ‘The Wide Awakes Are the Civil War–Era Activist Group Making a Comeback in Bold, Joyful Style’, Vogue (2 October 2020): https://www.vogue.com/article/wide-awakes-capes
Few projects have offered as many opportunities or as much controversy as the still under-construction I-69 that can be seen unfinished just behind Discovery Park. This episode’s guest, Matt Dellinger, literally wrote the book about it 10 years ago. Interstate 69: The Unfinished History of the Great American Highway took readers behind the scenes to experience the complex political, social and economic drama being this controversial road project. Now a decade after the book’s release, he shares an update on some of those he wrote about along with details not included in the book. Fans of Discovery Park will enjoy hearing more about Dellinger’s visit with Robert Kirkland just as construction was underway. Dellinger, who has written for The New Yorker, the Oxford American and Smithsonian, also led the way on digitizing the archives of publications like Esquire, Aviation Week, Maclean's and others and shares his thoughts on the past, present and future of journalism.
_ Feast Yr Ears _ is taking a trip through time talking to Matt Dellinger, journalist and Civil War reenactor, about what life was like for the Brooklyn 14th regiment. The Brooklyn 14th received its nickname, as Matt explains, the “Red Legged Devils,” during the First Battle of Bull Run. Referring to the regiment’s colorful red trousers as the regiment repeatedly charged up Henry House Hill, Confederate General Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson yelled to his men, “Hold On Boys! Here come those red legged devils again!” After the break, Harry and Matt discuss his book “Interstate 69: The Unfinished History of the Last Great American Highway,” as well as their favorite road trip memories.
This week James Howard Kunstler gets a much needed break from podcasting, while Duncan speaks to a representative of B-Cycle, a bicycle sharing company with programs through the U.S. Afterwards, Duncan tours Madison, Wisconsin on bike with a local guide and Matt Dellinger, author of Interstate 69 and blogger for WNYC’s Transportation Nation.
James Howard Kunstler is joined in the studio by author Matt Dellinger to discuss his new book, INTERSTATE 69. Also known as "The NAFTA Highway," I-69 is a proposed 1,400-mile mega-highway linking Canada to Mexico via the American heartland. This special one-hour conversation covers the economic development schemes, history, culture, conspiracy theories and colorful characters behind the story of what might be the last great American highway. Matt Dellinger has written for The New Yorker, the Atlantic, the Oxford American, the Wall Street Journal magazine, and the The New York Times. He lives in Brooklyn, New York, and blogs for public radio's TransportationNation.org. His website is http://www.mattdellinger.com/