Lou "The Glue" Marcelli died at 3:00 this morning. He was 85. Lou was the "Commodore" of the Dolphin Club, one of the oldest swimming and rowing clubs on the West Coast, open since 1877. Lou lived at the club and cooked nightly for the old timers, the bachelors, for those without a family to go home to. His calamari was legendary. Every day he would put on his bikini trunks, bathing cap and goggles and plungeinto the cold waters of the bay. "The main thing is to look it in the eye and go," Lou told us as we shivered on the shore and took our first swim with him. "You don't have to swim to Alcatraz, just go." Swim in Peace, Lou.

Lou The Glue, Rest in Peace

1- The Rise And Fall And Rise And Fall And Rise Of Thomas Alva Edison

Hidden Kitchens - The Romance & Sex Life Of The Date

Hidden Kitchens Australia - Aunty Beryl

Hidden Kitchens Mexico - The Tequila Chamber of Commerce

"Often buildings speak to you.” -Leslie E. Robertson, structural engineer responsible for building the original World Trade Center, from the Sonic Memorial Project featured this week on our podcast Fugitive Waves. http://kitchensisters.org/fugitivewaves

Listen To WTC, Leslie Robertson

Nicole Choi on Korean Cornbread

Groundbreaking writer, actress and comedian, Tina Fey hosts The Hidden World of Girls, two new hour-long specials inspired by the NPR series heard on Morning Edition and All Things Considered. From the dunes of the Sahara to a slumber party in Manhattan, from the dancehalls of Jamaica to a racetrack in Ramallah, Tina Fey takes us around the world into the secret life of girls and the women they become. Sound-rich, evocative, funny, and powerful--stories of coming of age, rituals and rites of passage, secret identities. Of women who crossed a line, blazed a trail, changed the tide. These specials are produced by Peabody Award-winning producers, The Kitchen Sisters (Davia Nelson & Nikki Silva), in collaboration with NPR reporters and foreign correspondents, independent producers and listeners around the world.

The Hidden World of Girls with Tina Fey-Hour 1

Every culture has its idealized woman, its standard of beauty that is valorized. And everywhere around the world women are altering themselves in small and major ways to achieve the celebrated look. History is full of body altering cosmetic methods, both medical and homegrown, that help women attain this ideal — foot binding, corseting, liposuction, face lifts… In this story we travel to Jamaica, to the streets of Kingston, where women have come up with their own unique beauty enhancement techniques.

Chicken Pills: The Hidden World of Jamaican Girls

Travellers. The people of walking. Sometimes called the gypsies of Ireland. They speak of non-Travellers as “the settled people.” Mistrusted for the most part and not well-understood. Nomads, moving in caravans, living in encampments on the side of the road. We listen to the stories of young Traveller women and explore some of the ancient and modern rituals clinging on the edge of the Celtic Boom.

The Hidden World of Traveller Girls

After the violent murder of her mother, photographer Deborah Luster takes thousands of haunting formal portraits of men and women incarcerated in Louisiana’s prisons. Working with poet CD Wright, she creates a project called One Big Self.

Deborah Luster: One Big Self

Although gays and lesbians can be imprisoned for life in Pakistan, rarely are such charges brought to court. Pakistani lesbians say it is often easier for them to engage in a sexual relationship because society simply doesn’t perceive women to have sexual desires. Produced by Habiba Nosheen.

Lesbian Lives in Pakistan

A group of babushkas, or elderly women, who live in Buranovo, Russia, have become a musical sensation. They sing Beatles tunes and songs by iconic Russian rocker Viktor Tsoi. They fly around the country for concerts. And it all started because they turned to music during tough times. Produced by David Greene.

Russia's Singing Babushkas

In 1983 Prince hired LA sound technician, Susan Rogers, one of the few women in the industry, to move to Minneapolis and help upgrade his home recording studio as he began work on the album and the movie Purple Rain. Susan, a trained recording technician with no sound engineering experience became the engineer of Purple Rain, Parade, Sign o' the Times, and all that Prince recorded for the next four years. For those four years, and almost every year after, Prince recorded at least a song a day and they worked together for 24 hours, 36 hours, 96 hours at a stretch, layering and perfecting his music and his hot funky sound. Yesterday we interviewed Susan, who is now a Professor at the Berklee School of Music in Boston, for our upcoming NPR series, The Keepers — about activist archivists, rogue librarians, collectors, curators and historians. It was Susan who started Prince’s massive archive during her time with the legendary artist who died a year today. Here is small smattering of the stories she told that will be heard on The Keepers and our podcast. We thank you Susan. We thank you Prince.

Prince and the Technician: Keep the Electrons Flowing

Home Movie Day, a global preservation celebration of people and their home movie collections, began in 2003. October 20, is the 16th Annual Home Movie Day and there are screenings,events and preservation parties around the world. Here’s an oldie but goodie, a story The Kitchen Sisters produced the year Home Movie Day launched. We hope you pick up a camera or camera-like object and film your people today. #keeperoftheday

Home Movie Day

We talk with Nicholas Meriwether, the first curator of the Grateful Dead Archive at UC Santa Cruz, about the band’s incredible collection of fan art.

“I’ve come to realize that the art movement that accompanied the rise of the Dead is as much a part of what we became in the public eye as the songs and our playing of them.”
– Robert Hunter, Lyricist, 2003

“If you want to know how the Dead was built, this is where you would go…the archive tells the whole story.”
– Mickey Hart, Rolling Stone Magazine, April 1, 2010

Grateful Dead Archive

#KeeperoftheDay No. 13 - Emma Goldman Papers Project. 

Emma Goldman was a woman ahead of her time, an anarchist, a Jewish immigrant to America. Born in the Russian Empire, her time in the United States was mostly between1885 and 1919. Goldman was a fierce and eloquent public presence, a speaker and organizer about the issues of injustice, poverty, women’s independence and freedom, about birth control, labor rights, and education. Her vision was one of egality, harmony, beauty and individual action. Goldman was deported from America in 1919 for speaking out against involuntary registration into the draft for WWI but even more so because she was an immigrant and a radical.

What began decades ago as a passion for justice and a need to know more about this revolutionary woman who spoke fiercely for human rights and beauty became the Emma Goldman Papers Project, now 38 years old, founded and directed by Candace Falk and housed at UC Berkeley. Candace and her team have spent decades documenting Goldman’s life, including her correspondence with Chinese anarchists, Mexican anarchists, and her circle of comrades and friends including novelists Jack London, Sinclair Lewis, HG Wells, Henry Miller, Aldous Huxley, Agnes Smedley, and figures as varied as Albert Einstein, Lady Astor, Eugene Debs, Peter Kropotkin, Margaret Sanger, Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, and Carlo Tresca. Candace tells us, “We have been collecting organizing and editing the papers, letters, surveillance materials, trial transcripts, newspaper clippings, unpublished writings and published writings of Emma Goldman and have some 22,000 documents related to her life in this amazing archive preserving the history of a woman whose voice is really needed now.”

In this clip, Goldman speaks to a reporter on her return to the United States after an exile of 15 years.

Emma Goldman Papers Project

Aaron Swartz Day co-founder Lisa Rein talks about about her work with the annual hackathon. Founded in 2013 after the death of activist and programming wunderkind Aaron Swartz, the event draws attention to Aaron’s story in hopes of protecting others from similar circumstances and offers a yearly showcase of the many projects initiated by Aaron as well as new projects inspired directly by him and his work. 

Lisa also talks about her background as archivist for Chelsea Manning: “When I learned more about Chelsea, without getting into whether you agree with what she did or what she didn’t do, she definitely followed her heart and wanted to improve the world and that's an Aaron Swartz Day thing.”

Produced by Michal Wisniowski and The Kitchen Sisters

Aaron Swartz Day

While recording stories for The Keepers we had the honor and pleasure of interviewing French director Agnès Varda. We sought her out for our story Archive Fever: Henri Langlois and The Cinémathèque Française because she knew Langlois back in the day.

We went to her home/production office in Paris—the apartment was filled with the scent of red peppers roasting. A bouquet of roses Martin Scorcese had given her upon receiving her Honorary Academy Award graced the table. Agnès talked about the Cinémathèque, but the interview veered off in other directions and became a kind of meditation on keeping, on cinema, on life. As her films have across the decades, she gave us much.

“Agnès Varda: Keep Faith in Art” was produced by Selene Ross & The Kitchen Sisters. Mixed by Jim McKee.

Agnès Varda: Keep Faith in Art

#KeeperoftheDay for Valentine's Day - The Kay Johnson Public Library in Valentine, Texas.

Listen to this story produced by Andrea Gutierrez for the Transom Traveling Workshop in Marfa, Texas about Valentine librarian Lety Navarrete.

"I’m a writer and former educator turned radio producer in Los Angeles. In summer 2018, I headed to Marfa, TX for the weeklong Transom Traveling Workshop, where radio maestro Rob Rosenthal showed a pack of us audio newbies how to tell a story with sound. After my original interview fell apart the last minute (the guest ghosted me), I drove 30 miles west to the town of Valentine, where I remembered seeing a tiny library when I passed through on the way to Marfa. It was my luck that librarian Lety Navarrete was there and, after some hesitation, willing to chat with me." -Andrea Gutierrez

Valentine, Texas Public Library

#KeeperoftheDay - Le Musée de f.p.c.

"We just started collecting slowly, not intentionally and we wake up 30 years later and we have this beautiful collection…”

Listen to Beverly McKenna, who co-founded McKenna Museums with her husband Dr. Dwight McKenna, talk about Le Musée de f.p.c., the historic house museum honoring the legacy of New Orleans' free people of color. https://www.lemuseedefpc.com/

Le Musée de f.p.c. / Free People of Color Museum

Listener RJ Ramey called The Keepers Hotline to tell us about Monroe Work (1866-1945), who was hired by Book Washington as Director of Research and Records at Tuskegee Institute and worked to document every known lynching in the United States. Ramey created a website, monroeworktoday.org, to share Work's story.

Monroe Work - Keeper of the Day

A call from The Keepers Hotline.

"Hi guys, my name is Steve Gainer. I am a cinematographer and curator of the American Society of Cinematographers Camera Museum in Los Angeles. Our collection is probably the most complete camera collection in the United States having to do with cinematographers. We don't just collect cameras because they're old and rare. We collect them because they have something to do with our previous members or current members..."

Do you have a keeper you want to nominate? Call The Keeper Hotline and leave a message: 415-496-9049.

American Society of Cinematographers Camera Museum

Earlier this week, the San Francisco Public Works’s Bureau of Urban Forestry honored poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti with their annual signature tree. Lawrence, who turns 100 on March 24, is being feted all over town. We were delighted to be there for the tree-planting ceremony and to sprinkle some fresh soil (with a gold-plated shovel) onto the luscious olive tree’s root. The tree is just across the street from Via Ferlinghetti in North Beach. On the sunny side of the street, of course. Pay it a visit when you’re next in town.

Listen to the speech from Carla Short, Superintendent of the Bureau of Urban Forestry, at the ceremony.

SF Signature Tree Honors Lawrence Ferlinghetti at 100

Some of the most surprising contributions to the Sonic Memorial project were the many tales of romance and marriage that took place at the top of the World Trade Center. We share some of those tales in this story.

Stories Of Love And Marriage At The Towers

The World's Champion One-handed Pool Player. "It just got in your blood like a man on dope, or drinking whiskey, you gotta have it. I'd die if I didn't get to play every day a little bit. The football shot, I'll show you that in a minute..." Ernie Morgan traveled the pool halls of America shooting exhibition pool nightly, telling his life story. 

The Legend of Ernest Morgan

Josh Shepperd, Director of the Radio Preservation Task Force at the Library of Congress called The Keeper Hotline to tell us about this incredible undertaking. 

"Radio history is pretty endangered and it turns out to be one of the largest and unexplored and unpreserved archives in the United States..."

Learn more: https://www.loc.gov/programs/national-recording-preservation-plan/about-this-program/radio-preservation-task-force/

Josh Shepperd - Radio Preservation Task Force

Oakland-based Juniper Ridge creates perfume, soap, and sachets from wild plants, collected by them or the clients themselves...
https://www.juniperridge.com/

The Making of Perfume

#KeeperoftheDay – Pacifica Radio Archives an affiliate of the Library of Congress Radio Preservation Task Force. “Chronicling the political, cultural and artistic movements of the second half of the 20th century.”

Here’s a gem from the archive. A 1956 interview with Rosa Parks.
https://www.pacificaradioarchives.org/recording/bb0566

Episode Title: Commentary of a Black Southern busrider / Rosa Parks
Series Title: Commentary by Sidney Roger
PRA Archive #: BB0566
Description: Discussion of Rosa Park’s refusal to give up her seat to a white man and the resulting bus boycott in Montgomery, Alabama. The interview was conducted by Sidney Rogers with Rosa Parks in 1956.
Station: KPFA
Date Recorded on: April 1956.
Date Broadcast on: KPFA, 20 Dec. 1962.
Item duration: 1 reel (16 min.) : 7 1/2 ips, mono.|16:30
Keywords: These terms will not bring up a complete list of all items in our catalog associated with this subject. Click here to search our entire catalog.
Roger, Sidney.
Blacks — Civil rights.
Protests, demonstrations, vigils, etc. — Montgomery (Ala.).
African Americans–Civil rights–History
Roger, Sydney
Parks, Rosa, 1913-2005
Contributor: Sidney Roger
Role: Host
Distributor: Los Angeles : Pacifica Radio Archive, 1962.

Pacifica Radio Archives

Pacifica Radio Archives - Rosa Parks 1956

#KeeperoftheDay – Latino Public Radio Consortium, an affiliate of the Library of Congress Radio Preservation Task Force.

Here is a clip with astronaut Jose Hernandez from the Historias de Si Se Puede series: “sixty-second radio stories about immigrants and second generation Latinos, who through persistent struggle have found success in music, the professions, politics, community involvement, and are now an inspiration to countless others.”

https://latinopublicradioconsortium.org/

Latino Public Radio Consortium - Jose Hernandez

Fadimata Walett Oumar, leader of the band Tartit from the Tombouctou Region of Mali, talks about the life of the nomadic Taureg people, coming of age and attitudes about love and divorce.

Hidden World of Tartit

Paul's Hat Works is a 100-year-old hat shop in San Francisco's Richmond District run by four women, where every hat is a story waiting to be told. Produced by Lauren Benichou for The Making Of...

The Making of a Hat

The Covid-19 pandemic disrupted routines in every corner of the globe. Photographers have been quick to document how the world looks different: public squares, streets, and airport terminals devoid of people. But one composer wants to capture what that shift sounds like. Pete Stollery is an electro-acoustic composer living in Scotland and he sees this as a rare moment to listen to the noises the world makes in lockdown and to create a living archive of the moment we're in.

Produced by Nina Sparling.

Explore the map and submit your sounds here:
https://sound-scotland.co.uk/news/covid-19-sound-map

COVID-19 Sound Map #KeeperoftheDay

Meet Itumeleng “Itu” Banda — a young, South African activist, award-winning radio host, and undeniable role model. A boundary-breaker and a storyteller. We met Itu at the 2019 International Congress of Youth Voices in Puerto Rico and recorded her stories.  

Motivated by a deep sense of responsibility for her community, and by personal experience with gun violence, Itu is committed to forging a future that is safer for people like and unlike herself. 

In her radio work, Itu is blazing a trail as a voice for young people, and making a point to open up space for female speakers and listeners. Here’s Itu.

This story was produced by Teddy Alexander with The Kitchen Sisters. Hear more stories from the International Congress of Youth Voices on our podcast, The Kitchen Sisters Present...

Itumeleng Banda #YouthOnFire

If you had one hour, one table and a rapt audience, what would you demo at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art? On Thursday & Friday, May 30 and 31st, The Making Of… goes live at SFMOMA. Visit http://kqed.org/makingof to submit.

The Making Of... at SFMOMA

The Kitchen Sisters, Peabody Award winning radio producers Davia Nelson & Nikki Silva, chronicle the hidden parts of history, the traditions and rituals people carry with them from one country to another, across one generation to the next. Stories of sonic pioneers, local kitchen visionaries, neighborhood heros, groundbreaking girls and path-finding women—people with a mission, a purpose, a story to tell. 

Our productions include the duPont-Columbia Award winning NPR series Hidden Kitchens, the Peabody Award winning NPR series Lost & Found Sound and The Sonic Memorial Project, The Hidden World of Girls, and The Making Of... {What people make in the Bay Area and why}, along with hundreds of other stories for public media.

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