Bookwaves/Artwaves is produced and hosted by Richard Wolinsky.

Announcements.

The Playground is presenting, in honor of Black Lives Matter, a Juneteenth Theatre Justice Project: Polar Bears, Black Boys & Prairie Fringed Orchids by Vincent Terrell Durham, June 19th at 7 pm. Via Zoom On Demand. Co-sponsored by 30 companies, including Berkeley Rep, Marin Theatre Company, Custom Made Theatre, Cal Shakes, Cutting Ball, etc.

Bookwaves:

Judy Juanita, author of the novel “Virgin Soul,” in conversation with host Richard Wolinsky, recorded spring, 2013.

Judy Juanita is a poet, novelist and playwright. In her younger days, as Judy Hart, while at San Francisco State, she served as editor in chief of The Black Panther newspaper, and lived in one of the Black Panther safe houses in 1967. Along the way she came to know such figures as Bobby Seale and Huey Newton.

In 2013, her first novel, Virgin Soul, was published. It’s a fictionalized memoir of her life in the black student movement and with the Panthers. This interview, recorded recorded in the spring of 2013, goes into detail about her life during the Panther days, about the relationship of the book to actual history, and about Judy Juanita’s life after the Panthers.

Since 2013, Judy Juanita has continued to write and teach Her collection of essays, DeFacto Feminism: Essays Straight Outta Oakland was published in 2016, and she recently had a story published in the collection Oakland Noir. Judy Juanita recently completed a second novel. Extended podcast.

Bookwaves:

Bonnie Tsui discusses her book, Why We Swim, which examines the human need for moving in water, from the history of swim strokes, to how physiology plays a role in swimming, to the history of swimming from ancient times in the Sahara to Rome and to the present, and how swimming became a sport.

Bonnie Tsui lives in the Bay Area and swims regularly at the Albany Pool, when it’s open, and also swims in San Francisco Bay. She is also the author of American Chinatown: A People’s History of Five Neighborhoods.

In the interview she discusses some of the topics in her book, and how the pandemic has affected Asian Americans. Recorded using internal Mac microphones on the zencastr website. Extended 34-minute podcast.

Bonnie Tsui portrait photo: copyright Lindsay Skiba. By permission of the publisher.

The post Bookwaves/Artwaves – June 18, 2020: Judy Juanita – Bonnie Tsui appeared first on KPFA.