Creative Life on WCAI

Eric Kaiser started wood carving for a simple reason: he wanted a creative challenge. He decided to focus on one subject only, over and over. Birds. This fascination gave Eric a career and a passion that has lasted him over thirty seven years.

Eric Kaiser started wood carving for a simple reason: he wanted a creative challenge. He decided to focus on one subject only, over and over. Birds. This fascination gave Eric a career and a passion that has lasted him over thirty seven years.

New Bedford is well-known for its vibrant Portuguese cultural scene; more than half of its residents claim Portuguese ancestry. What’s less well-known is New Bedford’s place in the world of fado , the music known as the “Soul of Portugal.” The city is home to two of America’s most established Fado performers, Ana and Jose Vinagre.

The Youth Ambassador Program ( YAP ) is a project between the National Park Service, and Third Eye Youth Empowerment in New Bedford, Massachusetts. Founded by Ben Gilbarg and Frankie Barrows. YAP members communicate national park themes and local history through hip hop.

Kaycee Snowden and her mom Laurel have a lot in common. They are both natives of the Cape, they both love making things, and they both battled alcoholism for years. Now they’re both sober - Kaycee for 7 years and Laurel for 37. While Kaycee may never surpass her mom in sober time, she has jumped ahead in one key way: she’s really good at making stuff out of yarn. The student has become the teacher. She knits. She makes hats, scarves, even the occasional tank top. It’s a kind of therapy, creative

Growing up on the Cape, Jane Fay Baker developed an eye for objects and creatures that might otherwise go unnoticed. Later in life, her artwork became a reflection of her own life on the Cape. A recent woodcut series features navigational buoys.

Phil Mello has been photographing New Bedford’s working waterfront for over 40 years. He started as an amateur, documenting the inner world of the fishing industry in which he worked. His photography has become part of a major Library of Congress project to capture and preserve the faces of New Bedford’s fishing industry.

Cape Cod is a popular place to retire. But for 75-year-old actress and playwright Lynda Sturner, moving to Truro was a chance to start anew. In 2010, she packed up her apartment in Manhattan and moved full-time to her summer home in Truro. She's recently written - with playwright Jim Dalglish - one of the most personal plays of her career. It’s called “A Talented Woman.”

Brooks Angelini is a Fall River based photographer and artist. The asylums he photographs were shuttered in the 1970s after public outcry regarding practices like lobotomies, electroshock therapy, and forced confinement. Many of the buildings were left completely intact, like time capsules showcasing a mental health ideology gone by. Through his pictures, Angelini bears witness to the lives and struggles of the patients who were confined to these institutions.

In more ways than one, Mwalim sees himself reflected in blues music. Mwalim is a musician in Mashpee who has a mixed Black and Native heritage. He’s part of a growing number of people who share a curious theory of the origins of the blues—that the genre has both Black and Native musical roots. Through his music, Mwalim is on a mission to share this idea.