Audio by Adam » Immigrants and Ethnic Life

“All-Seeing Eye of God” Goes from Blue to Brown

adamphillips — Mon, 27 Sep 2010 01:55:42 +0000

The Eye is also in the eye of the beholder. When Saint Jerome’s, a church in the South Bronx, was constructed at the turn of the 20th century, it was built by immigrant artisans, mostly from Ireland and Italy, where the human eyes were often blue. So of course, they imagined the All-Seeing Eye of God as blue also, and that’s just how they painted the giant Eye-of-God mural on their church ceiling. Now the neighborhood has changed, and almost all the services are in Spanish for the brown-eyed Mexicans who now live there. It came to be time to restore the mural, and so now God’s Eye is brown. This is the story.

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“Deep-Down Irishness” (NPR 1989)

adamphillips — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 22:43:20 +0000

A survey look at what being Irish is all about deep down –from the “fairy faith” to its music, to Celtic myth, to sean nos and storytelling. Collected entirely in the West of Ireland down some very very back roads.

See also “Visions and Beliefs in the West Ireland,” which focuses on the spirituality and folkways of the Irish Gaeltacht.

Black “Born Again” Christian Hair Salons

adamphillips — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 23:33:47 +0000

The Bible says that a woman’s hair is a glory to her, and they take that quite literally at several African American beauty salons that are springing up in the Washington DC and other urban areas. Come with me on my visit to a salon where being “born again,” amazing hair-dos and “prayerful” and joyous sisterhood intertwine in a sacred (often musical) weave.

Gifts of the Rainforest: Indigenous Healing Systems of Belize (NPR)

adamphillips — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 20:45:59 +0000

A sound-rich odyssey in which Adam explores various healing systems that use the plants of the rainforest for physical and spiritual healing. Includes interviews with Mayan shamans, and peasant Catholic and Creole healers. Related posts: The Romance and Poetry of Space (VOA 1995) “Deep-Down Irishness” (NPR 1989) Montana’s Blackfeet Indians: Tradition Meets Today Related posts:

Hillbilly Stereotypes (VOA 1999)

adamphillips — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 19:48:08 +0000

Adam went down to the coal-rich mountains of the southern Appalachian mountains, where “hillbillies” are presumed to live. Through on-site interviews and a survey look at American pop culture, he examines the hillbilly stereotype, its roots and impact. Related posts: Profile of A Moonshiner (VOA 1999) Black Mountain Kentucky and Mountaintop Strip Mining Grieving New [...] Related posts:

Jewish Humor in America (VOA 1993)

adamphillips — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 18:53:20 +0000

A sound-rich look at the ways the Jews in America have influenced what Americans find funny, while expressing themselves and their take on life at the same time. Related posts: Profile: Jules Feiffer Profile: Art Spiegelman “Maus” Creator & Comics and Graphics Novel Artist The Pentacle and the Wand: Contemporary Witchcraft in America Related posts:

Migrant Farmworkers: How They Live and What They Do

adamphillips — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 04:23:36 +0000

If California were a nation of its own, it would have the twelth largest economy in the world; agriculture would be a huge percentage of it. Much of the labor that produces is done by migrant farm workers who come to the US, sometimes illegally, and follow the crops, before returning home to Mexico and places even further south. I spent some time with migrant farmworkers in California’s immense – and immensely fertile – Central Valley, and filed this report for the VOA.

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Montana’s Blackfeet Indians: Tradition Meets Today

adamphillips — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 16:12:49 +0000

Native Americans are far more likely than their mainstream counterparts to die young and be poor along the way. This story examines, through interviews and sound, how the Blackfeet Tribe of western Montana are trying to hold on to traditional ways while bettering themselves economically. Related posts: Gifts of the Rainforest: Indigenous Healing Systems of [...] Related posts:

Native American “Drying the Tears” Ceremony (post 9/11)

adamphillips — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 04:30:55 +0000

New York City was full of ritual, ceremony, art and other forms of creative and numinous expression in the months following September 11th. This tells the story of one old ceremony that Native Americans brought to the Museum of the American Indian, near Ground Zero after several months had elapsed. It was a ceremonial moment to mark the necessity for drying the tears and moving on.

Profile: Art Spiegelman “Maus” Creator & Comics and Graphics Novel Artist

adamphillips — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 21:56:08 +0000

Art Spiegelman is most famous for his Pulitzer Prize winning work “Maus,” a graphic novel about the Holocaust in which Nazis are portrayed as cats, and Jews are depicted as mice. In this profile, Spiegelman talks about his roots as a Mad Magazine afficionado, underground cartoonist, and his experience growing up in a Queens NY family overshadowed by the Shoah.