Making shopping decisions can be tough, but this holiday we’ve come to the rescue! Take a listen to our latest Arts Express Playhouse sketch, written and produced by your correspondent, and featuring the brilliant talent and skill of Mary Murphy and Lucy McMichael.
Click on the triangle or mp3 link above to hear the piece as broadcast today on the Arts Express radio show on WBAI-FM NY and Pacifica affiliates across the country
Julian Assange, the most important news publisher of our time, is unjustly imprisoned in Belmarsh Prison in England, with the threat of extradition to the US hanging over him. He is charged with violations of the Espionage Act, for publishing the truth about US war crimes. Prosecution under that act will gag him from talking in court about the very war crimes he revealed in secret documents.
There has been a global outcry at Assange’s imprisonment. Recently, Karen Sharpe has edited a book for the publisher OR Books consisting of quotes from Julian Assange’s speeches and writings called Julian Assange In His Own Words. With permission of the publisher, we present to you a reading from the book by some of our radio friends inspired by Assange’s courageous acts. It is critical that Assange’s words and ideas not be silenced; only massive public protest can hope to free him.
And so, now, with the help of our radio friends, Julian Assange In His Own Words.
Click on the grey triangle or mp3 link to hear the segment as broadcast today on Arts Express on WBAI FM NYC and Pacifica affiliates across the nation.
Kenneth Patchen’s poetry is a bullet right between the eyes.
Click on the triangle or mp3 link above to hear Mary Murphy and me read a selection of poems by Kenneth Patchen, as broadcast today on the Arts Express radio program on WBAI FM NYC and Pacifica affiliates across the country.
Thanks to New Directions Publishing Corporation for the following poems: “And When Freedom is Achieved,” “I Feel Drunk All the Time,” “The Way Men Live is a Lie,” “What I’d Like to Know Is,” “All The Roses of the World,” “No One Ever Works Alone,” “The Orange Bears,” “Should Be Sufficient,” “Lonesome Boy Blues,” and “Delighted With Bluepink” by Kenneth Patchen, from COLLECTED POEMS OF KENNETH PATCHEN, copyright ©1936, 1942, 1943, 1945, 1946, 1952, 1963, 1968 by Kenneth Patchen. Used by permission of New Directions Publishing Corp.
On location in Frostbite Falls, Minnesota, your intrepid correspondent brings you this live report from the 94th annual World Pun Competition.
Click on the triangle or mp3 link above to hear the report as broadcast today on Arts Express on WBAI FM NYC and Pacifica stations across the nation.
Today we’ll be celebrating the work of much-loved poet Denise Levertov, who published her poems over a span of 40 years and influenced generations of British and American poets.
Levertov has said that “I knew before I was ten that I was an artist-person and I had a destiny.”
Click the triangle or mp3 link above to hear the segment I produced, with the poems read by Mary Murphy, broadcast today on Arts Express on WBAI and Pacifica affiliates across the nation.
For Halloween, something special, an homage to the old-time 1940s suspense radio series Lights Out. I wrote and produced a modern update of the Lights Out episode called “Revolt of The Worms” for the Arts Express radio program, broadcast today over WBAI FM NYC and Pacifica affiliates across the nation.
“We caution you. This story is definitely not for the timid soul. So we tell you, calmly and very sincerely, if you frighten easily, turn off your radio now. And now if you haven’t already done so, turn off your… lights now… and listen to… Revolt of the Worms.”
Starring Mary Murphy, Josh Miccio and Reggie Johnson.
To listen, click on the triangle or image to play.
For Arts Express, I helped produce this reading of a short poem by Pablo Neruda, performed by the incomparable Mary Murphy.
To listen click on the triangle or link above.
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This month we celebrate the birthday of Polish poet Wisława Szymborska, the winner of the 1996 Nobel Prize for Literature, born July 2, 1923. Her experience of the German occupation of Poland during WWII was the backdrop to some of her most famous poems, but she was also a keen observer of everyday domestic life as well.
I recently had the pleasure of performing a selection of her poems along with Mary Murphy for the Arts Express radio program. All of the poems are from Szymborska’s recently published collection of works called MAP.
Click on the triangle or mp3 link above in order to hear the poems as broadcast today on Pacifica affiliates across the nation.
Many thanks for permission to publicly broadcast the poems granted by the Wisława Symborkska Foundation and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishers, the publishers of MAP, excellently translated by Clare Cavanagh and Staislav Baranczak.
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The delightful Mary Murphy as interviewer Merri Boast grills The Devil, played by me, in our original “Sympathy For The Devil” radio satire, broadcast today on the Arts Express radio program over WBAI 99.5FM, WBAI.org ,and Pacifica affiliates across the nation.
Click on the triangle or the mp3 file link above to listen.
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The remarkable Mary Murphy performs Kate Chopin’s proto-feminist classic short story, “The Story of An Hour.”
Click on the triangle above to hear Mary’s performance of the story on the segment I produced, as broadcast on WBAI NYC radio today and Pacifica affiliates across the country.
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Mary Murphy performs my piece, What’s Important? broadcast yesterday on WBAI’s Arts Express radio program.
You can listen by clicking on the triangle above.
Photo by Kat Jayne on Pexels.com
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The wonderful Mary Murphy reveals Three Secrets, a cat and mouse game, a radio play I wrote for Arts Express on the Pacifica Affiliates across the country.
Click on the triangle above to hear it as broadcast today.
Mary Murphy
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Mary Murphy keeps you hanging on the line in her performance of my short comic sketch “At The Sound Of The Tone,”
Click on the triangle above to hear the sketch as broadcast today for Arts Express radio on WBAI 99.5 FM NYC.
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Federico Garcia Lorca was an extraordinary poet, painter, composer, actor, director, playwright, and socialist. We celebrated his June birthday on Arts Express today with a short selection of his poems read in English by myself and the wonderful Mary Murphy.
You can hear the poems and a brief intro as broadcast on WBAI 99.5FM NYC by clicking on the grey triangle above.
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In celebration of Shakespeare’s birthday this past week, Mary Murphy and I put together a short segment about the Shakespearean sonnets, aired last night on the Arts Express program (on radio station WBAI 99.5 FM NYC). I talk a bit about the history and structure of the poems, and then we read five of our favorite lesser-known sonnets. Click on the triangle above to wish Will a Happy 455th.
By the way, the portrait above may just well be the only extant likeness of Shakespeare done in his lifetime. It is purported to be Shakespeare at age 39. I like the idea of seeing him with a full head of hair and a sly smile.
Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com
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As we end the year this Monday, we might think on Robert Burns. His most famous poem, written in 1788, was first set to music five years later. But it wasn’t until 1799, a few years after Burns premature death, that the poem was set to the melody we know today. Here’s our friend and Arts Express colleague Mary Murphy performing Auld Lang Syne with the original Scottish pronunciation and words of Robert Burns. Wishing all our readers a happy 2019, and remembrances to friends past and present.
Click on the grey triangle to listen.
Photo by luizclas on Pexels.com
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Mark Twain’s bittersweet short fairy story, as broadcast last week on the Arts Express radio program on WBAI 99.5FM NYC. Performed and produced by Mary Murphy and myself.
Click on the grey triangle to listen.
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Here’s our radio version of the little sketch, Gun Shy, as broadcast yesterday on WBAI, during the Arts Express radio program. Many thanks to The Mighty Arts Express Players, composed of Pearl Shifer and Mary Murphy, and thanks again to Prairie Miller for all the encouragement.
Click on the triangle to listen.
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Artist Peter Kuper is about to release a new version of his book Kafkaesque, a graphic rendering of several of Franz Kafka’s stories. Yesterday, the radio arts magazine Arts Express on WBAI 99.5 FM NYC broadcast an interview with Kuper conducted by correspondent and actor Mary Murphy. Following the interview, Mary and I perform two short Kafka stories, “Up in the Gallery,” and “An Imperial Message.” Click on the grey triangle above to listen.
More of Peter’s work can be seen at peterkuper.com
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My colleague Mary Murphy and I had such fun making the WBAI membership promos, that we created three more amusing promos, specifically for the Arts Express radio magazine show.
You can hear the three one-minute promos by clicking on the grey triangle above.
“Mrs. Dennison’s Head,”and “Oil of Dog” are two delightful macabre short stories by Ambrose Bierce which the the marvelous actor Mary Murphy and I performed on the Arts Express radio program yesterday.
Click on the grey triangles below to listen.
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Click here for “Mrs. Dennison’s Head,” read by Mary Murphy:
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Click here for “Oil of Dog,” read by Jack Shalom
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