Dr. Francine Ringgold Transcript

November 14, 2007 | Leave a Comment

Dr. Kent Gustavson: [music fades] Welcome back to Authors Sound Off Radio. Today is the Oklahoma Centennial Special, and my next guest has contributed immensely to the state’s cultural heritage. Welcome to Dr. Francine Ringgold.

Dr. Francine Ringgold: Hi!

Dr. Gustavson: She’s the former Poet Laureate of Oklahoma, and longtime editor‑in‑chief of “Nimrod, ” the international journal of prose and poetry. How’s the weather down in Oklahoma on this centennial‑‑

Dr. Ringgold: Actually it’s gorgeous today! It’s sunny, it’s very gusty and about 60 degrees.

Dr. Gustavson: It’s often gusty down there in Oklahoma.

Dr. Ringgold: [laughs] Right.

Dr. Gustavson: Can you tell me a little bit first off about your Poet Laureate position?

Dr. Ringgold: Well, I was appointed, I think it was 2003, and it’s usually a two‑year appointment and I was reappointed in 2005. And the task, really, of the Poet Laureate is what you make it, as long as you in some way promote poetry and the love of poetry and writing poetry. So that’s what I try to do.

Dr. Gustavson: Now are you first a poet, or are you first an editor?

Dr. Ringgold: [joking] Ah, what a nasty question! Well‑‑

Dr. Gustavson: [laughs]

Dr. Ringgold: I think probably I’m… first an editor, in the sense that I spend more time doing that. But in some ways it’s simultaneous ‑‑ not that I write at the same time as I edit ‑‑ but I keep being nurtured by what I read, and developing new ideas as to what I want to do, but it’s sort of submerged when I’m working with other people, because when I’m working with other people or other work, I’m really trying to help it emerge.

Posted by admin | Filed Under Oklahoma, TRANSCRIPTS, Poetry, AUTHOR INTERVIEW, PODCAST

Jeshua Erickson | Songs

November 10, 2007 | Leave a Comment

Interview with Jeshua Erickson [8:31m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

We had the pleasure of speaking with Jeshua Erickson on the show this week, who has the gift of weaving politics into simple, truthful songs that cut deep.

“Jeshua Erickson’s songwriting reflects strong faith and clear vision. Both are evident in ‘Swords into Plowshares.’ It is hope-affirming music that reflects the times in which we live and is certain to speak to a wide range of discerning listeners,” wrote Jim Wallis, NYT bestselling author of “God’s Politics: Why the Right Has It Wrong and the Left Doesn’t Get It.”

“Jeshua Erickson helps us hear and understand that significant theological convictions can be sung. Indeed, the Christian commitment to nonviolence requires such singing. Thank God talented people like Jeshua make such singing a joy,” wrote Stanley Hauerwas, Time Magazine’s 2001 “Theologian of the Year.”

You can find Jeshua’s music for sale on the Sojourners website, and much more information about his music and life at his website www.jeshuaerickson.com

The following is from an article we nabbed out of the Albert Lea Tribune:

Of the album, Erickson wrote, “What does it mean to follow Jesus at a time when our country is hammering plowshares into swords rather than swords into plowshares? Besides questioning the Iraq war and offering a vision of hope in the midst of despair, ‘Swords into Plowshares’ seeks forgiveness for the lives of countless soldiers and civilians destroyed in our fight for ‘Iraqi freedom.’ ‘Swords into Plowshares’ began as ‘Plowshares into Swords,’ and as we brought our musicians and cover artist together, around the former, ‘Plowshares into Swords,’ we discovered something.

“After being in the studio and feeling these songs come to life, we felt hope and a strong sense of wanting to share this hope with others. Rather than declaring what we did not want, we thought it important to affirm hope in a peaceful tomorrow. Our vision and the final name for the album became ‘Swords into Plowshares.’”

Erickson has been writing and performing original music since attending Luther College in Decorah, Iowa. While he’s had formal musical training on the cello, he is self-taught on the piano and guitar.

“My dad is a Lutheran pastor, and we always had a guitar and piano around the house,” he said.

“After I got out of college, I had in mind singing, songwriting and performance,” Erickson said.

He started out working in a homeless shelter in Seattle, and during the week he wrote music. Then for two years, he worked as the bookstore coordinator at Holden Village, an ecumenical retreat center in the North Cascades of Washington state.

He’d play his guitar in the church there. “I had a captive audience all the time,” he said.

Erickson had an opportunity to work with many of the musicians who would come to Holden, and recorded a CD while he was there. He also wrote the theme song for Holden’s summer program, using Isaiah Chapter 43 as the text.

After Holden, Erickson traveled all the way across the country to Washington, D.C., where he worked as an intern at “Sojourners” and “Call to Renewal.” He lived in a house with nine other interns from all walks of life. He picked up from them a measure of activism that wasn’t just protest, but more “peaceful vigilance,” he said. Many of his songs on “Swords into Plowshares” came from his experiences there.

Posted by admin | Filed Under Folk, MUSICIAN INTERVIEW, PODCAST

H.L. Hix | Bush & Bin Laden

November 10, 2007 | Leave a Comment

Interview with H.L. Hix Segment 1 [13:02m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

This week we had the pleasure of speaking with poet, engineer, and prophetic wordsmith H.L Hix. He is an English professor at the University of Wyoming, and is the director of the Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing there.

Hix’s new book, God Bless, isn’t a scathing diatribe, and it isn’t a complacent commentary; it isn’t quite prose, but it’s not common poetry. This is truly a book we haven’t yet read.

He places texts taken from the mouths and words of George W. Bush during his presidency, and Osama bin Laden during his similar reign within hiding. Hix doesn’t intend to make a statement that either man is ideologically correct or incorrect, but his careful placements and arrangements of their words are powerful, sometimes irreverent, and always fascinating.

H.L. Hix was able to join us for the first two segments of the show.

Text below taken from University of Wyoming Press Release found here:

Oct. 24, 2007 — President George W. Bush and al-Qaeda founder Osama bin Laden have never had a conversation.

Until now.

In his latest book, “God Bless,” released this month by Etruscan Press, University of Wyoming English Professor H.L. Hix pits excerpts from Bush speeches against arguments from bin Laden in a unique poetic dialogue that embraces politics, literature, language and culture.

“These are two people who ought to be talking but aren’t, so I’m going to make up a dialogue between them,” says Hix, who also serves as director of UW’s Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing program. “I think there’s important dialogue that hasn’t happened, and I’m trying to generate that dialogue.”

In his book, Hix creates poems using Bush’s own words from speeches, executive orders and other public statements. He also constructs poetry from the letters, speeches and other discourses of bin Laden.

“God Bless” also includes candid interviews with a diverse panel of experts, ranging from M. Javad Zarif, the Iranian ambassador to the United Nations, to CNN terrorism analyst Peter Bergen.

“It’s a weird book. It was even a weird book for me,” says Hix, whose previous 10 books were poetry, philosophy or literary criticism. “I’ve never done anything like it before, and I don’t think I’ll ever do anything like it again.”

He laughs and adds, “I don’t know how it started happening, I just sort of found myself doing it.”

As part of his research for the book, Hix says he read more than 8,000 pages of speeches by the president, obtained from the official White House Web site, www.whitehouse.gov, and “pulled out language usage that I thought was interesting.”

He then studied bin Laden’s words and wrote what he called “interleaves” that use both direct quotations and reconstruction.

Unlike his previous books, Hix believes “God Bless” could receive mainstream media attention because of uniqueness and subject matter.

But, he says, “I have absolutely no idea what to expect because my previous books are philosophy, literary criticism and poetry and those types of books have tiny audiences, very few sales and very small press runs. In my ‘fantasy life,’ I hope it gets some real play and will be a prompt for dialogue.”

“God Bless” is available for purchase at local bookstores or on the Internet at www.etruscanpress.org or www.amazon.com. The cost is $19.95.

Posted by admin | Filed Under Politics, Poetry, AUTHOR INTERVIEW, PODCAST

Dr. Hassan | Vietnam & Iraq

November 10, 2007 | 1 Comment

Interview with Dr. Allen Hassan [12:02m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

We had the honor of speaking with Dr. Allen Hassan this week, physician, surgeon, attorney, veterinarian, and educator. His book “Failure to Atone” is riveting, honest, and very powerful in this time of elections, wars, and political obsession. He spoke to us of his patriotism, and of his disappointment with decisions that sometimes take far too much human life.

In a particularly poignant moment, Dr. Hassan told us about his recent visit to Vietnam, so many years later, to see what the reactions of citizens there would be now.

Dr. Hassan’s new book, Failure to Atone, is available from his website here, and wherever books are sold.

“A haunting read, every page poignantly real, and a cautionary tale against the worst that nations at war are capable of.”
— The Midwest Book Review

“A beautiful, extraordinary, and important book! Every American should read Dr. Allen Hassan’s Failure to Atone.”
— Ron Kovic, author, Born on the Fourth of July

The following biography is excerpted from Dr. Hassan’s website www.allenhassan.com:

As a physician and surgeon, the author of Failure to Atone: The True Story of a Jungle Surgeon in Vietnam served two tours of duty in Vietnam — the first as a representative of the American Medical Association’s Volunteer Physicians for Vietnam program, and the second as a representative of the Committee of Responsibility. After two tours in Vietnam witnessing civilians wounded and traumatized by war, Dr. Hassan has devoted much of his life to humanitarian service.

Dr. Hassan is an active member of the Flying Samaritans, doctors who volunteer their services to provide free medical help to the people in Baja, Mexico. A diplomate with American Academy of Experts in Traumatic Stress, Dr. Hassan is also an expert evaluator of traumatic stress disorder and other war-related injuries that afflict American veterans.

One of only a small number of Americans to hold both a medical and legal degree, in addition to a degree in veterinary medicine, Dr. Hassan served as president of the local Academy of Family Physicians in 1977, and president of the Academy of Law in Medicine in 1983. He is a diplomate with the American Board of Family Practice, the American College of Legal Medicine, the American Board of Forensic Examiners, and the American Academy of Experts in Traumatic Stress. Dr. Hassan is also board-qualified in sports medicine. He was a clinical instructor in family practice at the University of California-Davis medical school in Davis, California from 1976-1986

Dr. Hassan served in the US Marine Corps from 1954-1957. In the Marine Corps, he achieved the rank of sergeant, and received an appointment to Annapolis. Dr. Hassan received a DVM from Iowa State University in 1962, an MD from the University of Iowa in 1966, and a JD from Lincoln University in 1978. He became a full Commander in the US Coast Guard in 1986.

Dr. Hassan’s publications include the medical text, Evaluation, Treatment and Prevention of Head and/or Spinal Injury Problems, edited by Gervase Flick, MD, JD. He is at work on a new book on the medical and psychological evaluation of veterans injured and traumatized by war, tentatively titled Invisible Wounds.

Dr. Hassan has also started a fund to raise money for Vietnamese war victims. The Failure to Atone Fund was begun in Vietnam on April 30, 2007, and is co-chaired by Dr. Allen Hassan and Lt. General Nguyen Viet Thanh, a war hero in Vietnam. Both Dr. Hassan and First News-Tri Viet Publishing made substantial donations to initiate the fund. Donations to the Failure to Atone Fund may be made via credit card through his distributor at (800) 431-1579.

Posted by admin | Filed Under Medicine, Politics, AUTHOR INTERVIEW, PODCAST