YARN

Jewelry

Story by: Hally Mahler
Recorded: August 2008, Dewey Beach, DE
Music: Rhythm of the Maasai (Hans Johnson, recordist); Them Mushrooms

While recovering from a debilitating illness, a public health specialist on safari encounters the mysterious Maasai tribe, and finds that, on the Dark Continent, some Western traditions have a slightly different interpretation.

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(11:25)

Hally Mahler lives and works in Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania.  You can read more about her journeys here.  Read more on the Maasai here.

Reflections on a summer place

Featuring the voices of Doug French, Isser Gallogly, Ruth Gallogly, Mark Loftis, Niki Naeve, Nadaleen Tempelman-Kluit, Eric Winick, Colin Young, Lisa Zullig, and others

Recorded: August 2008, Garden Island (Charlotte), VT
Music: Percy Faith & His Orchestra

A sound-infused portrait of life on a small island on Lake Champlain, where ten exhausted city-dwellers convene for a week, seeking relaxation and rejuvenation.

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(17:09)

Photo by Colin Young

The gravy card

Story by: Lisa Haas
Recorded: July 2008, New York, NY
Music: Angelo De Pippa & The Italian Musica

Attempting to connect with her fellow New Yorkers, a recent transplant from out west seeks refuge in her ethnic heritage, a tactic that works better than anticipated — not just at work, but all over town.

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(16:58)

Lisa Haas is a Brooklyn-based playwright, essayist, and monologist whose plays and solo pieces have been performed nationally and internationally. You can read more about Lisa and her work here.

Rubbed out

Story by: Anonymous
Recorded: June 2008, New York, NY
Music: Michael Hedges

A massage therapy student finds herself facing a potentially sticky situation when her supervisor allows their client to disrobe — an act that’s against the law in their state.

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(15:16)

The subject of this story chose not to reveal her name, and when you hear her story, I’m sure you'll understand why.

How are you who you are?

Produced by Eric Winick and Jay Allison for Transom.org
Recorded:  April 2005, Marblehead, MA (interview); May 2008, Woods Hole, MA (voiceover)
Music:  Ludwig van Beethoven

The Nadeaus were, to most eyes, an ideal family – enlightened, brilliant, prosperous. But then things turned upside down. In a remarkable series of events, Doug and Lynn Nadeau were forced to re-define their identities and affirm the foundation of their love.

Featured by PRX as a "Rainbow Radio" LGBT Pride Pick for June 2009.

Broadcast February 1, 2010 on KUT's "O'Dark 30" (Austin, TX).

A 12-minute version, "The Crossdressing Family Man From Down the Block," was broadcast November 28, 2008 on NPR's "All Things Considered."  Additional production by Larry Massett of Hearing Voices.  To stream the show, click here.

Broadcast June 9, 2009 on KUOW's "KUOW Presents" (Seattle).  Broadcast September 8, 2008 on KFAI's "Listening Lounge" (Minneapolis-St. Paul).  

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(21:13)

Additional support for this work was provided by the Open Studio Project, with funding from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

The scent of bafflement

Story by: Andrew Foley
Recorded: May 2008, Marblehead, MA
Music: Dmitri Shostakovitch

1947. Cambridge, Massachusetts. Having returned from World War II, a disillusioned young writer seeks guidance from noted author Vladimir Nabokov, only to find their conversation derailed when the maestro himself poses an impossible question.

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(13:51)

Andrew Foley, 86, is a writer, meditation teacher, and multi-hyphenate who resides in Brookline, Massachusetts. Vladimir Nabokov (1899-1977) was a multilingual Russian-American novelist and short story writer whose work includes The Real Life of Sebastian Knight, Pale Fire, and Lolita. His wife, Vera, is mentioned briefly in this piece. Nikolai Gogol (1809–1852) was a Ukrainian-born Russian writer; often called the “father of modern Russian realism,” he was one of the first Imperial Russian authors to criticize Russia’s way of life. The play The Inspector-General and the short story The Overcoat are among his masterpieces.

Damsel, distressed

Story by: Annie Lalla
Recorded: April 2008, New York, NY
Music: Preservation Hall Jazz Band

A painting mishap tests the limits of one young writer’s sanity when, newly-relocated to NYC, she becomes locked in her bathroom, with a tiny, 1′ x 1′ window her only means of communication with the outside world. 

Broadcast July 22, 2009 on "KUOW Presents" on KUOW-FM (Seattle) and July 5, 2008 on “Sidetrack” on WILL-AM (Urbana, IL). 

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(13:10)

Annie Lalla is a writer residing in Greenwich Village, NY whose online magazine “for the emotionally astute female intellectual,” Wonder, will launch soon. A prose version of this story can be found here.

Because she loved her

Story by: Kara Eldridge
Recorded: April 2008, New York, NY
Music: Brad Mehldau Trio

After suffering through a year of personal and academic setbacks, a high school senior plots revenge on her music teacher, only to turn her moment of triumph into a heartfelt tribute to her ailing mother.

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(13:41)

Kara Eldridge is a writer and actor who resides in Astoria, Queens, NY.

Squiddy, my love

Story by: Bill Kennedy
Recorded: April 2008, Brooklyn, NY
Music: Air

After a chance meeting at the end of an all-night rave, a young man and woman circumnavigate one another until they are reunited under the hot desert sun at Black Rock City, where circumstances conspire to tear them apart forever.

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(13:09)

Bill Kennedy is a writer, actor, fire-spinner, bartender, and storyteller from St. Louis, Missouri, currently residing in Ft. Greene, Brooklyn. Read more about Playa Del Fuego here and Burning Man here. Watch The Philadelphia Experiment in action here.

Faux Joe

Story by: Leslie Russell
Recorded: March 2008, Brooklyn, NY
Music: Django Reinhardt

Just out of college, new to the city, two young women cope with the cold, harsh reality of their new lives by seeking out their ideal romantic partner. Then, one morning, in the midst of their hellish daily commute, they meet him.

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(14:47)

Leslie Russell currently resides in Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn. She is an Event Planner for Marcey Brownstein Catering & Events, one of the city’s top catering firms.