Name: Richard Smallwood Anthem of Praise in Kansas City by Steve Mencher
Duration: 1 min 4 s
Description: At the Harmony Interfaith Concert Sunday, November 8, in Kansas City, Missouri, a Mount Washington Baptist Church choir led by Rev. Willie Thornton sings Richard Smallwood's "Anthem of Praise." We're meeting the community to start our #BeyondBelief project, part of #FindingAmerica from AIR and CPB.

Excerpts from the 2021 Season of Living Downstream: The Environmental Justice Podcast
Guide to Living Downstream montage of 2021 episodes

1 – 00:00 – 11:41
Excerpts from beginning and end ("Mister's family also has a lot of hope…") of Generations in Houston's 5th Ward Contend with Contamination, Cancer Clusters.
https://open.spotify.com/episode/6gGCYAx1CfD08mkEoMQNyY

2 – 11:42 – 15:09
Excerpt from Chicken Country, North Carolina: Justice on the Factory Floor 
https://open.spotify.com/episode/6gGCYAx1CfD08mkEoMQNyY
Victoria Bouloubasis has been covering this part of North Carolina for several years. She's fluent in Spanish, and does much of her reporting in that language. Our decision to use Spanish voices in the episode, which she translates, contrasts with the standard practice of talking over voices that aren't in English.

3 – 15:09 – 17:58
Excerpt from Struggling to Breathe in the Bronx 
https://open.spotify.com/episode/3QoOQnZXGsWII3XHo8iJoS
Reporter Ese Olumhense grew up with her family in the Bronx. Her father, who had immigrated from Africa, moved the family to Westchester when she was young. That's when her childhood asthma disappeared.
This story was partially funded by the Fund for Investigative Journalism, and as you will hear, Olumhense broke new ground by combing through records of where New York City's COVID cases were highest, and cross-referencing them with areas impacted by pollution from the city's highways.
Since the reporting was done during the height of COVID, we improvised sound gathering and reporting techniques, like having the mom keep an audio journal, including giving her son his daily doses of asthma medicine.

4 – 17:58 – 19:00
Excerpt from West Oakland's Diesel Death Zone
Lots of hard science in this episode. But we're taking the time to introduce you to the neighborhood and to Miss Margaret, who leads her community's effort to improve its air.

5 – 19:01 – 23:46
Excerpt from Catherine Coleman Flowers: Warrior for Environmental Justice
Catherine Coleman Flowers may be one of the most visible environmental justice advocates in the country, especially after receiving a MacArthur "genius" grant in 2020. Drawn from several discussions, this episode includes excerpts from her new memoir, Waste, and what we consider to be a relevant digression about how her faith animates and motivates her. Flowers' focus is on improving access to sanitation for poor families in the South, many of whom "straight pipe" their sewage into their back yards.

6 – 23:47 – 26:35
Excerpt from Health, Wealth and Race in Today's Louisiana
Shalina Chatlani reported this story, deepening and broadening available information to describe and prove how farmers and landowners in one small Louisiana town had mineral assets and rights to cultivate land stolen from them. She brilliantly gets onto the record the casual, systemic racism that is growing worse in New Iberia. 

7 – 26:35 – 29:56
Excerpt from The Sea Next Door
The two young women at the heart of this episode were just graduating high school, during this pandemic, and hosted the episode, while helping report and write this extraordinary story about the Salton Sea. They were mentored by two other women: a young, local Latina documentary filmmaker; and a longtime science and environment correspondent who has worked throughout California for many years.

Entire Season on Spotify –
https://open.spotify.com/show/1tPKsb6vtQkuJjNrn5MEij
Season Two Starts in April, 2021 with Struggling to Breathe in the Bronx

Living Downstream Season Two Montage - April thru October 2021

Steve in conversation with Marika Partridge talks about the cultural festival in Austin that regulars call "South By." After the gatherings were cancelled in 2020 and 2021, 2021 was enthusiastically in person and featured luminaries like Willie Nelson, Dolly Parton, Gabby Giffords, Magic Johnson, Sheryl Crow - and so many more.

Steve Reports from SXSW 2022 - with Marika Partidge on WOWD, Takoma Park, MD

The Class of 1969 at the High School of Music and Art experienced a senior year unlike any before or since. The school year began in the chaos of a teachers' strike, and ended at our graduation in Carnegie Hall, as we sped into uncertain futures. At the helm was the youngest principal to ever take over a New York City high school, Richard A. Klein. Mr. Klein died on June 27, 2024, at the age of 94. We interviewed him less than 3 weeks before his death, and he remembered us well.

Episode 4 - Welcome to the Titanic, Captain

John Rubinstein narrates a tour through the reconstruction of Carnegie Hall.

Carnegie Hall Construction

At the Harmony Interfaith Concert Sunday, November 8, in Kansas City, Missouri, a Mount Washington Baptist Church choir led by Rev. Willie Thornton sings Richard Smallwood's "Anthem of Praise." We're meeting the community to start our #BeyondBelief project, part of #FindingAmerica from AIR and CPB.

Richard Smallwood Anthem of Praise in Kansas City

here's a heartfelt ballad co-written with my old friend Bunny Hull featuring the amazing vocals of Beverly Staunton Chitwood and the legendary Dean Parks on guitar

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a retake of an old tune of mine from the way back machine featuring Mark Egan(bass), Steve Rucker(drums) Dave Fernandez (sax) and Lindsey Blair (gtr)

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Here's a brand new song that brings back the old days... co-written with my dear friend Pamela Phillips Oland

featuring the amazing Michael Mayo on vocals... Bob Mann on guitar.. Erik Kertes on bass and Tom Brechtlein on drums

Richard Smallwood Anthem of Praise in Kansas City

Steve Mencher

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