The Mt. St. Helen’s Eruption Ballads: Coping Through Song
CAScade, Spring 2010
UO English professor and singer Dianne Dugaw (right) grew up 30 miles from Mt. St Helens and remembers the way the 
mountain loomed over the nearby small towns with an awe-inspiring presence.
After the volcano erupted in 1980, her father, the lone doctor in the region, treated many of the injured and her mother cooked breakfast for the National Guard. She describes the cataclysmic eruption as a traumatic and violent event for the people who lived in the volcano’s shadow.
Not surprisingly, she says, many local musicians responded to the disaster by writing songs, and Dugaw, who sings ballads herself about historical heroines, was immediately drawn to them.
Here is the interview. Here’s a link to the original piece, which includes mp3s of the ballads themselves.
California tribe sues for destruction of cultural sites
Free Speech Radio News, April 23, 2009
Last year, I traveled to Sacramento with the Winnemem Wintu, a traditional and unrecognized California tribe numbering about 125, as they performed a war dance and filed a lawsuit against several federal agencies accusing them of cultural genocide.
Here is the piece I produced for Free Speech Radio News.
Also, here’s an excellent photo album of the dance from Photographer Lonny Shavelson.
Las Vegas school aims to meet needs of homeless children
Free Speech Radio News, May 6, 2009
In March of 2009, I spent spring break living in a cheap motel across the street from Whitney Elementary School in Las Vegas. About 90 percent of the school’s students are homeless, and many of them live with their families in the motel.
Here’s the piece I produced for Free Speech Radio News.
Alex Kotlowitz – The Journalism of Empathy
Etude, Winter 2009
In December of 2008, I interviewed Alex Kotlowitz, author of There Are No Children Here, about his work as an immersion journalist for Etude, an online literary journal.
Listen to excerpts or the whole interview here.
