Minnesota Sounds and Voices
- Minnesota artist Charles Beck celebrates 90 with strong artistic vision
Nature is often the subject of Minnesotan Charles Beck's art. Beck, a master woodcut artist, draws on the natural environment in prints that capture his modern views of the surrounding landscape -- with its wooded hills and lakes, and nearby flat farm fields of the Red River valley. Beck is being honored this weekend as he celebrates his 90th birthday.January 25, 2013 - Reading Corps guides immigrant children into mastery of English
When charter school principal Bondo Nyembwe sees a classroom filled with the children of immigrants, he feels a professional and personal commitment to help them learn to speak English.January 14, 2013 - Kaivama: Lighting dark winters with Finnish folk music
A Minnesota-based duo called Kaivama is dedicated to preserving and expanding the Finnish folk music tradition. And as we speak, its two members are tuning up for their midwinter tour.January 2, 2013 - Minnesota Sounds & Voices: Dean McFarlane, last in a line of stone carvers
Dean McFarlane is a 10th-generation master stone carver. His great-grandfather started the Minneapolis-based family stone carving company in 1916. But the line ends with McFarlane: There are no family members waiting in the wings to become master stone carvers.December 27, 2012 - Jon Drew's 126-year-old letterpress: Minnesota Sounds and Voices
There is an alternative to mass-produced holiday greeting cards: Those that are printed, one at a time, on a 126-year old letterpress. And this year, Jon Drew is making the cards as a labor of love, for the widow of the high school teacher who taught him the craft.December 18, 2012 - 'La Natividad' tells the nativity story as an immigrant's tale
The Spanish-English production by In the Heart of the Beast Puppet and Mask Theater blends the "no room at the inn" Bible story with current events.December 13, 2012 - Lutefisk and pickled herring: The Olsen Fish Company keeps tradition alive
It seems as though nearly every ethnic group has an exotic fish specialty, and Scandinavian Americans claim two: lutefisk and pickled herring. On assembly lines at the Olsen Fish Company in Minneapolis they cater to both, packing thousands of pounds of preserved fish into jars and boxes every year.December 4, 2012 - Paul Severson finds his calling with Project Haiti: Minnesota Sounds and Voices
When Minnesota surgeon Paul Severson first visited Haiti more than 20 years ago, the health care needs of that Caribbean nation went beyond anything he had ever seen. Severson founded Minnesota-based Project Haiti in response.November 21, 2012 - Carnatic music master Nirmala Rajasekar passes on love for music
Nirmala Rajasekar's childhood was filled with the Carnatic music of her native southern India. As a toddler she remembers being a performer in search of a microphone.November 14, 2012 - Balsam fir wreath making a sticky, rewarding business
Sam and Jenny McFadden run Jen's Wreaths, a balsam fir wreath business in Deer River, Minn. It's hard, sticky work, but the McFaddens say it's worth it.November 9, 2012 - One says pierogi, another says pyrohy: Comfort food at St. Constantine
Dumplings are a part of many ethnic food traditions. But in Minnesota Sounds and Voices this week, we're interested in potato-dumpling comfort food that can be traced back generations to the pierogi of Poland and the pyrohy in Ukrainian.October 25, 2012 - Zookeeper Pete Lee prefers the real thing, not Animal Planet
When it's feeding time at the Como Zoo in St. Paul, Pete Lee heads out to experience something that Animal Planet and YouTube can't provide.October 23, 2012 - Potter Donovan Palmquist builds kilns to fire others' creations
Donovan Palmquist, a potter who lives near Farmington, discovered that the best way to earn a living while creating his art is to build the kilns that other potters need.October 19, 2012 - Dick Kimmel on saving turkeys and traditional American music: Minnesota Sounds and Voices
Dick Kimmel spent more than 30 years helping restore Minnesota's wild turkey population. Now he's working on restoring the state's population of bluegrass pickers.October 5, 2012 - Minnesota Sounds and Voices: Ojibwe women singers learn from their ancestors' voices
A group of women singers from the Fond du Lac Indian Reservation have found artistic success and learned more about their own culture and language in the process.September 27, 2012
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MN Sounds and Voices Hearing what defines us
Reviving the 'community sing' tradition: Minnesota Sounds and Voices
The arrival of warm weather in Minneapolis marks a new beginning for "singing season," a nod to the past when thousands of people flocked to Minneapolis parks to sing together for the fun of it.
From the Audio Archives
1973: Defining Irish
Dr. Eoin McKiernan talks about what it means to be Irish.
