The Campaign for Access, Representation, and Equity for Immigrant Families (CARE4IF) Coalition, rallied at the State Capitol on Tuesday, February 3, to demand $175 million in funding for immigration legal services and the passage of the Access to Representation Act (ARA) and the Building Up Immigrant Legal Defense (BUILD) Act for the 2026 New York State Legislative Session. We hear first from Jahrain Roldan of the NY Immigration Coalition, followed by Senator Liu, Assemblymember Yudelka Tapia, Senator Rachel May, Assemblymember Phara Souffrant-Forrest and Senator Robert Jackson. With Mark Dunlea for Hudson Mohawk Magazine.

The Visibility Brigade movement was born in 2020 on an overpass in Paramus, NJ out of a frustration due to the lack of physical messaging in the real world about the existential crisis that we face as a nation. There are now hundreds of Visibility Brigade groups across the country, with their nonviolent, pro-democracy messages posted on overpasses, chalked on sidewalks, and all other public spaces! Locally, one Brigade gathers on the overpass at Western Avenue at Rt. 85 every Wednesday from 4 to 5 PM. Christine Primomo and John Arrighi discuss the Brigade with Mark Dunlea for Hudson Mohawk Magazine.

The Rensselaer County Democratic Legislators have introduced a resolution for the February 10, 2026 Regular Meeting condemning recent U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operations and calling for sweeping reforms including with the county’s participation in the federal 287(g) program, which allows local law enforcement to collaborate with ICE. Elizabeth Press spoke to new Democratic Legislator Jessica Ashley about the resolution.

This week, Thom Francis welcomes Judith Kerman to the mic. She shared her work as the featured reader at the Third Thursday Poetry Night at the Social Justice Center in Albany, NY, on August 21, 2025.

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For over 20 years, Dan Wilcox has hosted the Third Thursday Poetry Night, welcoming poets and writers from all over the region and beyond. This open mic with a featured reader series has seen hundreds of poets take the stage and share their work with a vibrant audience of artists, writers, and creators young and old. Whether it’s your first time reading poetry in public or you have been around the local literary community for years, the Third Thursday Poetry Night always feels like home.

Last August, poet Judith Kerman was the featured reader. As host Dan Wilcox noted on his blog, “She began, & continued, with poems that pretend to be, or are, definitions, from her book Definitions; her first example was “Diaspora" in nine small parts, images, obliquely, historically responding to the dictionary definition.” She continued with the philosophical “Algorhythm” and “Canned Soup,” a prose poem and meditation on soup. She wrapped up her set with “Scoliosis,” “Why I Never Married,” and one final definition poem, “Israel,” in 10 tiny parts.

Judith Kerman is a poet, performer, and artist who has published ten books or chapbooks of poetry. Her most recent work, Definitions, was published by Fomite Press in 2021. She has published two translations from Spanish: A Woman in Her Garden: Selected Poems of Dulce María Loynaz (White Pine Press, 2002) and Praises and Offenses: Three Women Poets from the Dominican Republic (BOA Editions, 2009). Kerman was a Fulbright Scholar to the Dominican Republic, where she translated poetry and fiction by Dominican women. She was also awarded the Abbie M. Kopps Poetry Prize and an Honorable Mention from the Great Lakes Colleges Association New Writers Award.

H Bosh Jr sat down with Analusette Shallello to learn more about her health,wellness, and fitness journey and how she hope to inspire people by tell her story. she also tells H Bosh Jr about how start her own fitness company DNA Bodyworx LLC .

Chris Hedges Special: The greatest evil in the world is war.

On January 28, the New York State legislature held a 12 hour hearing on the environmental and energy parts of the state budget. In part of our coverage, we hear from Allison Considine of the Building Decarbonization Coalition; Michael Hernandez of Rewiring America; Laurie Wheelock of the Public Utility Law Project; and Jonathan Cohen of the New York Solar Energy Industries Association. This has been Mark Dunlea for Hudson Mohawk Magazine.

A large snowstorm is a challenge for any municipality. With large snow piles, and a limited amount of space, it takes a lot of planning and coordination. Snow storms also increase the inaccessibility of cities which already hold many barriers to people navigating the city with mobility limitations, carts, and strollers and for those who rely on foot, bike, or bus traffic to get around. This week on Sunday and Monday, a large amount of snow fell on Troy, with a snow emergency declared for a couple days later. This resulted in many walking and biking paths being covered in snow. Capital Streets has been paying attention to this, and James Rath Executive Director of Capital Streets spoke with Sina Basila Hickey.

Joe Fama, the founder and longtime executive director of TAP, contributed immensely to the Sanctuary and our larger community. We are incredibly saddened by the news of his death. After hearing the news, two of our radio correspondents who had worked closely with Joe-- Nancy Klepsch who is a board member at TAP and Richard Sleeper who used to work at TAP-- shared these memories on our live program followed by part of a recorded interview from our archives.

Scott Laudati has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize three

times and won several awards for his fiction and poetry, including the

2018 “Riggs Gold Medal Essay Award,” “The Stark Award In Fiction In

Honor Of Henry R. Roth,” and the 2018 “The Jack Grapes Poetry

Prize.” Scott currently lives in Brooklyn, New York, and his social media is

@scottlaudati

Nancy Klepsch interviewed him for Take 5.