KUCI: Ask A Leader

In the thick of strike-mode is our first guest Ada Briceno, Co-President of UNITE-HERE Local 11, representing over 30,000 hotel workers, 60 hotels in Los Angeles County, Orange County and Arizona. In the second segment (approx. minute 29:00), Youssef Kaddeche, transportation commissioner for Irvine City Council member Kathleen Treseder, talks e-bikes in around town; the software and the hardware of it all.

Music credits: Chimora, “Africano Americano,” Sounds of Africa - album; Gershwin Piano Quartet, “An American in Paris;” and Jimmy Scott performing, “Nothing Compares 2 U.”

Today's guests are theater people with The Wayward Artist and the South Coast Rep, with plays we can all see in the next couple of weeks right here in the OC. We’ll begin with Craig Tyrl, Artistic Director of The Wayward Artist to talk about "Avenue Q," which runs until this Sunday, July 30th at the Grand Central Art Center in Santa Ana. Details are available at: https://www.thewaywardartist.org/avenue-q.

In the second segment (approx min 20:20) playwright, actor, and singer Sandra Delgado talks about how she built her own immersive experience of a play "La Havana Madrid" which runs til Aug 4th at SCR’s Outside, at Mission San Juan Capistrano. Details are available at: https://www.scr.org/plays/plays-landing/outside-scr/. Both productions have the host's stamp of approval.

Music credits: Chimora, “Africano Americano,” Sounds of Africa - album; Avenue Q, “There’s a Fine, Fine Line,” sung by Stephanie D’Abruzzo; Malavoi, “Ti Djo’,” Salsa Mundo – album.

Along the US Mexican Border is one particular segment; reflecting on the software and the hardware on that *space* is Ricardo Arana Camarena, the director of the food justice project “Cultiva ya!” and co-creator of the community garden project around the binational garden of native plants on the Mexican side of Friendship Park. It’s hot alright on planet earth; and conditions along that slice of the border no less so. It’s a special part of the border, unlike no other; a mere 105 miles from this station.

Music credits: Chimora, “Africano Americano,” Sounds of Africa - album; El Santo Golpe, “La Cosecha,” NYCT-7036 – album.

Dr. Goonesinghe had just a bit more to say about the daily gratitude journal practice.

Dr. Iresha Goonesinghe, specializing in Cardiology and Internal Medicine, with a former private practice in Ridgecrest, CA, speaks as CEO at Compassionate Doctors. With her remarkable blend of life-long individual practice of meditation and clinical grounding, Dr. Goonesinghe’s work has always been focused on root causes in medical situations. She previously launched a couple of blogs: PeoplePower77.Blogspot.com and UnitingTheUSA.blogspot.com, most recently she’s here for us with Compassionate Doctors in CA, focusing on Helping Hand not for profit work and Vipassana Meditation. We’ll revisit together some of what she brought in May 2017, and see what this #BeMyBestMovement is all about.

Music credits: Chimora, “Africano Americano,” Sounds of Africa - album; Alice Coltrane, “Vrindavana Sanchara,” Spiritual Eternal: The Coltrane Warner Bros. Studio Recordings – album.

This is an extension to Jackie's interview; two observations about the impact of civic engagement on policy and word choices for refugees.

Jackie Menter, founder and executive director of the Orange County Jewish Coalition for Refugees, picks up where we left on her last appearance on 6/13. She starts with what we were treated to on the June 20 World Refugee Day Open House held at the nearby Merage Jewish Community Center in their Holocaust Memorial Garden; then plot the complicated immigration infrastructure that is being restored in the Biden administration; then she'll conclude with some assignments for how listeners to get involved.

Music credits: Chimora, “Africano Americano,” Sounds of Africa - album; Charlie Haden-Liberation Music Orchestra, “America The Beautiful,” Not in Our Name - album.

For the full hour are human rights activist and veteran journalist Colin Stewart - and writer, actor journalist Rob Salerno who cover the scope and background of the Anti-Homosexuality Law of 2023 adopted in Uganda May 30th this year after many years of proposals, and then draw actual connections from Orange County. An essential guide toward following trends and specific cases, offering useful tools is: https://76crimes.com/

Music credits: Chimora, “Africano Americano,” Sounds of Africa - album; Dobet Gnahoré, "Dala,” Na Afriki – album.

Today my guests are: Alexis Tutunnique and Elizaveta Gogidze, both principal dancers with the United Ukrainian Ballet Company, an assemblage of refugee dancers from all over Ukraine, who will perform at our Segerstrom Hall, 6/29-7/2nd, in Alexei Ratmansky’s version of the ghost story “Giselle, with surprising nuances and a hopeful ending in place of the usual bleak one. They’ve performed in the Netherlands, the UK, Singapore, Australia and the US; we are fortunate to have them in our neighborhood. We’ll hear what these artists are doing, what’s on their minds. Details for tickets and times are available at:https://www.scfta.org/events/2023/united-ukrainian-ballet.

Music credits: Chimora, “Africano Americano,” Sounds of Africa - album; and

Vsevolod Zaderatsky, Preludes and Fugues in a minor, performed by Irma Klimenko.

Note to listeners: In 1937 Ukrainian composer Vsevolod Zaderatsky (1891-1953) was one of those who fell under the Great Terror – the most brutal of Stalinist repressions. In earlier years all his compositions were destroyed to render him silent. Zaderatsky was accused of being a teacher for young Tsarevich, of formalism – a fraught word, which means one’s music is not approved by the Party – and of “anti-Soviet statements” that musical life in Ukraine was superior to that in Yaroslavl (Russia), where he worked before. This prelude and fugue was written during his imprisonment in GULAG – on fragments of telegram forms, without access to any musical instrument – and performed publicly only in 2014, 75 years after the composer’s death. Please listen to the whole work.

We open with Melissa Saavedra Gill, founder and CEO of Steamy Lit, prior to the book convention (August 18-19) in Anaheim celebrating diversity in romance and the romance genre. Representation, relevance, and agency all are on the menu.

In the second segment (minute approx. minute 35:23), Jackie Mentor with OC Jewish Coalition for Refugees will return in advance of her organization’s June 20 World Refugee Day Open House, to which the public is most welcome. Please rsvp to: https://tinyurl.com/WRDRSVP.

Music credits: Chimora, “Africano Americano,” Sounds of Africa - album; Buena Vista Social Club, Lorena, "Chan Chan,” Buena Vista Social Club cover; Souad Massi, “Hayati,” Raoui – album.