This month I bring you music tidings from Lahore, the town where I was born.  You will hear interviews with three Pakistani musicians: first, Noor Zehra playing the Sagar Veena, a stringed instrument created by her father Raza Kazim; then Ali Noor with one of Pakistan's most popular pop rock bands Noori, and lastly, Irum Taukir, a young woman who sings a Sufi song in Persian and Punjabi.

This program was broadcast on WPKN radio 89.5 fm Bridgeport on May 9, 2012.  Tidings from Hazel Kahan is heard on the second Wednesday each month at 7:30pm. Produced by Tony Ernst. (Photo by Les Wong.)

This month I bring you music tidings from Lahore, the town where I was born.  You will hear interviews with three Pakistani musicians: first, Noor Zehra playing the Sagar Veena, a stringed instrument created by her father Raza Kazim; then Ali Noor with one of Pakistan’s most popular pop rock bands Noori, and lastly, Irum Taukir, a young woman who sings a Sufi song in Persian and Punjabi.

This program was broadcast on WPKN radio 89.5 fm Bridgeport on May 9, 2012.  Tidings from Hazel Kahan is heard on the second Wednesday each month at 7:30pm. Produced by Tony Ernst. (Photo by Les Wong.)

PODCASTS

Paul Stoutenburgh, 24, North Fork native, environmental conservationist and film maker and Alex, 13, Cutchogue student.   North Fork bird and wild life recordings by Tom Damiani.  (December 5, 2012) 

http://hazelkahan.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/PaulStoutenburgh-NoFoWo-Dec-05-12-1.mp3

Lordy, Irish wolfhound and therapy dog, lives with Michael and Ingrid Edelson in Greenport.  (November 7, 2012)

http://hazelkahan.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/Lordy-NoFoWo-11-07-12.mp3

Billy Hands, auto mechanic, poet, performer and Orient resident. (September 5, 2012)  Music intermezzi by George Cork Maul and The Hidden City Orchestra.

http://hazelkahan.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/NoFoWo-BillyHands-09-05-2012.mp3

Steph Gaylor, Southold farmer, library professional, historiographer and breeder of heirloom vegetable seeds and plants. (August 1, 2012)

http://hazelkahan.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/NoFoWo-StephGaylor.Aug-01-12-1.mp3

Gerarda Boger, propagationist, maker of beach glass jewelry, emerging violin player and Southold resident. (July 4, 2012)

http://hazelkahan.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/NorthForkWorks-GerardaBoger-July-04-12-a3.mp3

Peggy Ehlers, spinner, wool classer, designer of fiber and knitting patterns and North Fork native.   (June 6, 2012)

http://hazelkahan.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/NorthForkWorks-June-06-12.mp3

Ron Rothman, proprietor Rothman's Hardware Store and gallery, musician,  host of musical events (including WPKN) and art shows, artist, author and Southold resident. (May 2, 2012)

http://ia601206.us.archive.org/3/items/RonRothman/RonRothman-NoFoWo-May-02-12-0.MP3

Bob Jester, chimney sweep, scientist, teacher and volunteer fireman. (April 4, 2012)

https://archive.org/download/NorthForkWorksBobJester/Jester-NoFoWo.mp3

David Nyce, furniture maker, musician, songwriter and Mayor of Greenport, New York is my first guest. (March 7, 2012)

https://archive.org/download/NorthForkWorksDavidNyce/NoFoWo-NyceMar-07-12.mp3

 

PODCASTS

Paul Stoutenburgh, 24, North Fork native, environmental conservationist and film maker and Alex, 13, Cutchogue student.   North Fork bird and wild life recordings by Tom Damiani.  (December 5, 2012) 

http://hazelkahan.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/PaulStoutenburgh-NoFoWo-Dec-05-12-1.mp3

Lordy, Irish wolfhound and therapy dog, lives with Michael and Ingrid Edelson in Greenport.  (November 7, 2012)

http://hazelkahan.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/Lordy-NoFoWo-11-07-12.mp3

Billy Hands, auto mechanic, poet, performer and Orient resident. (September 5, 2012)  Music intermezzi by George Cork Maul and The Hidden City Orchestra.

http://hazelkahan.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/NoFoWo-BillyHands-09-05-2012.mp3

Steph Gaylor, Southold farmer, library professional, historiographer and breeder of heirloom vegetable seeds and plants. (August 1, 2012)

http://hazelkahan.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/NoFoWo-StephGaylor.Aug-01-12-1.mp3

Gerarda Boger, propagationist, maker of beach glass jewelry, emerging violin player and Southold resident. (July 4, 2012)

http://hazelkahan.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/NorthForkWorks-GerardaBoger-July-04-12-a3.mp3

Peggy Ehlers, spinner, wool classer, designer of fiber and knitting patterns and North Fork native.   (June 6, 2012)

http://hazelkahan.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/NorthForkWorks-June-06-12.mp3

Ron Rothman, proprietor Rothman’s Hardware Store and gallery, musician,  host of musical events (including WPKN) and art shows, artist, author and Southold resident. (May 2, 2012)

http://ia601206.us.archive.org/3/items/RonRothman/RonRothman-NoFoWo-May-02-12-0.MP3

Bob Jester, chimney sweep, scientist, teacher and volunteer fireman. (April 4, 2012)

https://archive.org/download/NorthForkWorksBobJester/Jester-NoFoWo.mp3

David Nyce, furniture maker, musician, songwriter and Mayor of Greenport, New York is my first guest. (March 7, 2012)

https://archive.org/download/NorthForkWorksDavidNyce/NoFoWo-NyceMar-07-12.mp3

 

For the podcast of this interview, please link here.

Forbidden Cuba! Hidden by a veil of myths and misconceptions, romanticized, villified, desirable, tempting, waiting…

Most Americans have never been to Cuba and many, many would very much like to. Others say they wouldn’t dream of visiting that communist country run by Fidel—now Raoul--Castro and his evildoers. Still others conclude that any country that produces so much good music can’t be all that bad. People tell me it’s as dangerous to enter as it is leave Cuba as it is to leave.

No wonder then that the country remains a mysterious, forbidden but also enticing place in American minds.I’m not easily impressed by celebrity, McMansions, power, bling or people who make money from making money. I’m not even that impressed by people who speak many languages or publish many books or who have access to high places. What does impress me are people who believe deeply enough in an idea to nourish it and to give it form-- over the best part of a lifetime and against long odds.

One such person is Sandra Levinson and the organization she has devoted much of her working life to is the Center for Cuban Studies in Manhattan. Her idea is to show Cuba as it really is.

A native of Iowa, Sandy Levinson’s background includes a Fulbright scholarship, Stamford University, City College New York, Ramparts magazine and a group of academic friends, the “NY Review of Books crowd” she says, who, in the '70s, started a research library and media center to correct the grievous lack of information about the country, especially material that came directly from Cuba. Her knowledge of Cuba includes more than 300 trips to Cuba in the past 40 or so years.

Sandy raised money for these efforts by writing “The Venceremos Brigade: Young Americans sharing the life and work of revolutionary Cuba”, a collection of diaries published in 1971 by Simon & Schuster. She is currently at work on another book, "Thicker than Blood: the Cuban Revolution and Divided Families" to be published by Holt, Rinehart and Winston.

These ventures in the 70s culminated in The Center for Cuban Studies, which opened in May/June 1972 in a Greenwich village loft on West 4th Street and Barrow. The Center has moved three times since then.  CCS is now newly ensconced on West 29th Street, a bright, sunny loft that may be the next best thing on the East Coast to being in Cuba!

35 or more years have gone by since the Center for Cuban Studies came into being and yet nothing has much has changed. Their mission then as now was to reach opinion leaders, journalists, teachers and professionals, to inform and educate them about Cuba so that they in turn could broadcast it to their

own audiences. A whole new generation has grown up since then but US policy has not changed and the same stun...

In this updated interview with Robert Massoud, founder of Zatoun, a Toronto-based organization dedicated to supporting Palestine’s olive farmers, I ask him how the situation has changed since 2008, when we first spoke.  I am unhappy to report that things have seriously deteriorated in the past three years.

Update: This article (Electronic Intifada, March 11, 2013) explains how crucial fair trade is to the security of Palestine's olive famers.

In this updated interview with Robert Massoud, founder of Zatoun, a Toronto-based organization dedicated to supporting Palestine’s olive farmers, I ask him how the situation has changed since 2008, when we first spoke.  I am unhappy to report that things have seriously deteriorated in the past three years.

Update: This article (Electronic Intifada, March 11, 2013) explains how crucial fair trade is to the security of Palestine’s olive famers.

Writer, blogger, political analyst and adherent of Sufi thought, Raza Rumi reveals to us a Pakistan that the mainstream media has failed to provide.  Raza spoke to us from his home in Lahore.

Writer, blogger, political analyst and adherent of Sufi thought, Raza Rumi reveals to us a Pakistan that the mainstream media has failed to provide.  Raza spoke to us from his home in Lahore.

Susan Abulhawa, Palestinian author and activist, talks about her first novel,  the multigenerational story of a Palestinian family, set in the Jenin refugee camp.