Words and Music

WQRT Indianapolis
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Words and Music is an audio series exploring the life and work of Indiana writers airing first on 99.1 WQRT Indianapolis. This series is made possible by Indiana Humanities and produced by WQRT/Big Car. Find out more info at wqrt.org

Episodes

  1. 01/12/2023

    Words and Music : Marguerite Young

    In this episode, we explore the story of groundbreaking utopian writer Marguerite Young who lived from 1908 until 1995. Born in Indianapolis but living most of her life in Greenwich Village in New York City, Young should be better known beyond literary insiders. Indiana author Susan Neville, who joins Jim Walker in this episode, and others are working to preserve Young’s legacy and keep her work in print. In 2022, Chatwin Books released Young’s collected poems. This is the first time a press has published a lifelong grouping of Young’s poems — previously out of print for decades. Dalkey Press will also put out a new edition of her hallucinatory masterpiece of a novel — Miss MacIntosh, My Darling — in 2023. Neville was able to spend time with Young after she returned to Indianapolis. We’ll hear her share an excerpt from, Where the Landscape Moved Like Waves, an essay she wrote about her experience interviewing Young. In addition to the conversation with Susan and more excerpts from her essay, you’ll hear passages of Young’s writing read by Shauta Marsh.

    58 min

  2. 01/12/2023

    Words and Music : Maurice Broaddus & Afrotfuturism

    Words and Music on WQRT is a series of audio programs highlighting the lives and work of Indiana Writers. The series — produced by Big Car Collaborative and first heard on our FM radio station, 99.1 WQRT and streaming at wqrt.org — is made possible by a grant from Indiana Humanities. In this episode, Indianapolis-based Afrofuturist writer Maurice Broaddus talks with Oreo Jones about the origins of Afrofuturism. Broaddus's books include the urban fantasy trilogy, The Knights of Breton Court, the steampunk works, Buffalo Soldier and Pimp My Airship, and the middle grade detective novels, The Usual Suspects and Unfadeable. His project, Sorcerers, is being adapted as a television show for AMC. As an editor, he’s worked on Dark Faith, Fireside Magazine, and Apex Magazine. Audio production for this episode, including music, by Oreo Jones. Excerpts from Octavia Butler read by Yeabsera Tabb.

    52 min

  3. 01/12/2023

    Words and Music : Jean Garrigue and Roger Mitchell

    Words and Music on WQRT is a series of audio programs highlighting the lives and work of Indiana Writers. The series — produced by Big Car Collaborative and first heard on our FM radio station, 99.1 WQRT and streaming at wqrt.org — is made possible by a grant from Indiana Humanities. In this episode, Indianapolis-based writers Susan Neville and Jim Walker talk with poet Roger Mitchell about his deep interest in preserving the legacy of Indiana-born poet Jean Garrigue. Mitchell, now retired from Indiana University, ran the school’s MFA program. He lives in upstate New York and now spends much of his time researching and writing an in-depth exploration of Garrige’s life and work. Mitchell, the author of numerous books of poetry and a work of nonfiction himself, hopes to see this project soon become a published biography of Garrigue — someone he never met before her death in 1972. Audio production for this episode, including music, by Jim Walker. Poetry read by Shauta Marsh.

    57 min

  4. 01/12/2023

    Words and Music : Lasana Kazembe and Rob Dixon

    In the fifth installment of Words & Music: An audio series exploring the life and work of Indiana writers, Jim Walker talks with poet Lasana Kazembe and jazz musician Rob Dixon who collaborated to create the multi-media performance, Firedance. Both artists are based in Indianapolis. Kazembe, a professor at IUPUI, is The Cabaret's inaugural Artist in Residence. Firedance is an original work Kazembe and Dixon created and performed at the Cabaret in May of 2022. This multimedia, multi-disciplinary event featured live musical performance with storytelling, dance, and live painting on stage. This work drew on the African cultural concept of Serudj-Ta, meaning: to repair and remake the world - the restorative practice by which we replenish the world in order to make it more beautiful and beneficial than we inherited it. Firedance follows Kazembe's highly acclaimed Voodoo of Hells Half Acre that aired on 250 PBS TV stations across the U.S. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RD1wht61KYM)

    1h 8m

  5. 01/12/2023

    Words and Music: Susan Neville's The Town of Whispering Dolls

    Words and Music on WQRT is a series of audio programs highlighting the lives and work of Indiana Writers. The series — produced by Big Car Collaborative and first heard on our FM radio station, 99.1 WQRT and streaming at wqrt.org — is made possible by a grant from Indiana Humanities. In this episode, Indianapolis author Susan Neville discusses her most recent collection of fiction stories — The Town of Whispering Dolls — and aspects of life in Indiana that inspired her work. This 2020 collection explores with care and detail the beauty, magic, darkness, danger, and depths of love and life that may go unnoticed in what some consider our “flyover state.” Big Car executive director Jim Walker – himself a writer — talks with Neville. He produced this conversation blended with musical transitions and excerpts read by the author. Neville has published six nonfiction books and three short-story collections. Find more about her and her writing at www.susan-neville.com.

    1h 19m

  6. 01/12/2023

    Words and Music : Adrian Matejka

    In the third installment of Words & Music: An audio series exploring the life and work of Indiana writers, we learn about two new books linked to music from poet Adrian Matejka. This program is made possible by a grant from Indiana Humanities. Matejka, who lives in Indianapolis, teaches at Indiana University in Bloomington and grew up in Germany, California, and in Indiana. He has two new books featuring his poetry just out. The first, published by Penguin, is called Somebody Else Sold the World. The other is really two smaller books in one in which Adrian and two visual artists friends collaborated in response to the music of Funkadelic in images and poems. Third Man Books is the publisher. Adrian also has four earlier collections of poems published and is the former Poet Laureate of Indiana. This episode is divided into two parts. In the first, Adrian introduces his story and talks a bit about his process. The second is a conversation between Adrian and host, Jim Walker.

    1h 4m

  7. 01/12/2023

    Words and Music: From The Belly - Etheridge Knight

    In the second installment of Words & Music: An audio series exploring the life and work of Indiana writers, Oreo Jones, explores the life and poetry of Etheridge Knight. This program is made possible by a grant from Indiana Humanities. Susan Neville, Adrian Matejka, Hanako Gavia, and Jones discuss Knight’s later years as a poet living in Indianapolis, his critically acclaimed publishings after prison, and the art of meddling. Born in rural Mississippi, Knight would grow to become one of the most prolific voices in the late Black Arts movement in the 70s. In a dreary jail cell in Michigan City, Knight would begin to find his true voice and calling as a pivotal writer of the 20th century. A couple years into his sentence, Etheridge would correspond with an American poet, author, teacher, and Pulitzer Prize winner Gwendolyn Brooks, and Detroit’s Dudley Randal from Broadside Press. His first published poetry book, “Poems From Prison,” make a splash in the literary world of poetry.

    44 min

  8. 01/11/2023

    Words and Music: In the Heart of the Heart of the Country

    In Part 1 of this audio series exploring the life and work of Indiana writers, Susan Neville, Adrian Matejka, Kevin McKelvey, and Jim Walker discuss the beauty and challenges of Indiana through the lens of William Gass's 1968 story, "In the Heart of the Heart of the Country." The episode features excerpts of the story and conversation about what it means to be a writer living and working in Indiana. This series is made possible by Indiana Humanities and produced by WQRT/Big Car. Susan Neville is author of creative nonfiction and short fiction. She teaches at Butler University. Adrian Matejka teaches at Indiana University and served as Indiana Poet Laureate for 2018-19. He's the author of five books. Kevin McKelvey is a place-based poet and artist. He teaches at University of Indianapolis and directs the M.A. in Social Practice Art. Jim Walker is a poet, artist, and teacher. A co-founder and executive director of Big Car Collaborative, Jim worked previously as a journalist .

    1h 5m
  • 8 Episodes

About

Words and Music is an audio series exploring the life and work of Indiana writers airing first on 99.1 WQRT Indianapolis. This series is made possible by Indiana Humanities and produced by WQRT/Big Car. Find out more info at wqrt.org

Information

  • Creator
    WQRT Indianapolis
  • Years Active
    2K
  • Episodes
    8
  • Rating
    Explicit