KUOW Special Reports
Photo by Mwende Hahesy.
Sweet Earth: Lessons From the Land
Is it possible to eat locally in the Central Puget Sound region? What kinds of challenges face our local farmers? What can state and local government do to help? From King County's efforts to protect farmlands from encroaching development, to programs that try to find aspiring farmers to make that land productive, we'll hear about public and private initiatives to boost farming. We'll also learn how direct marketing can take farmers beyond the traditional farmers markets. And we'll explore the bond between farmers and the land they steward.
Sweet Earth, reported by Ruby de Luna, Phyllis Fletcher, Liz Jones, Anna King, Amy Radil and Marcie Sillman.
The Devil's Advocate of Washington Middle School: Chimuanya Okoro. Photo by Phyllis Fletcher.
Class of 2008
Thousands of students will graduate this year from schools in Washington State. As testing and graduation rates make the headlines, we pause to hear from some of the children behind the education numbers. Meet Rashard Brown, a graduate of the Renton School District; eighth–grader Chimuanya Okoro; sixth–grader Ossmar Zapata; and third–grader Marcelas Owens. They share their stories of overcoming loss, getting in trouble, cutting through the crowd, and looking ahead to the future as they graduate from schools in the Seattle area. We also get an update on the first Washington State high school class that must pass the WASL to graduate: the Class of 2008. Reported by KUOW's Phyllis Fletcher.
Class of 2008, reported by Phyllis Fletcher.
Booker T. Washington, the founder of Tuskegee Institute, c.1908 (Courtesy Library of Congress)
Lost Sounds
It's a common belief that African American artists were excluded from the fledgling recording industry of the 1890s. In fact, black entertainers were pioneers of commercial recording. The audio collection Lost Sounds highlights African American contributions in the earliest days of recorded sound. Prototypes of distinctly American music styles — Gospel, Rhythm and Blues, Jazz and Rock and Roll — are all represented in these early recordings.
Lost Sounds, hosted and produced by Amanda Wilde.
