For our Los Angeles documentary, we teamed up with California Is a Place in an intimate piece that focuses on the day-to-day life of working mariachis. From the daily uncertainty of employment and living conditions to the unquestionable passion and love for the music, State of the Re:Union explores how these practitioners of beloved culture are making their living and making home in LA.
To listen to our radio episode, Los Angeles – Home Sweet Home, or see other related collateral, visit our Los Angeles page. And please start the conversation about this documentary by commenting below.
blank
Listen to Our Radio Episode, Los Angeles – Home, Sweet Home:
When a chance to speak with Phil Collins comes around, you simply can’t turn it down. Seriously, that’s like a law or something. Anyway, we had the pleasure of chatting with him about Going Back, his new album of Motown covers, his work with the Little Dreams Foundation and in true SOTRU style, a rapid fire selection of questions. We hope you enjoy! (more…)
If you’ve heard our show before, you’ve heard the intimate letters residents have written to the place they call home. We feature these Dear ___ letters on the show, and here on the website, and we encourage anyone of you to write your own letter to your hometown.
Marian Naranjo is the eldest daughter of eight siblings, a mother of four children and a grandmother of six grandchildren. She’s a traditional potter and tribal member of Santa Clara Pueblo, located in north-central New Mexico in the area known to the nineteen sovereign Pueblo Nations and archeologists as the Tewa Basin. Marian says she claims her “ancestry from our last migration from the Puye cliff dwellings, located to the west within the Jemez Mountains. Within and around the four mountain ranges that surround the Tewa Basin are the sacred aboriginal ancestral homelands of the Pueblo peoples, my people, who have been the caretakers and guardians of these places for millennium.” (more…)
Every city probably has its sandwich—New Orleans its Po Boy, Philly its Cheesesteak, the Chicago-style hot dog with its neon green relish. The Twin Cities entry may not be as well known, but it is certainly a highly celebrated entity by Minnesotans: the Jucy Lucy.
Unlike places that have been thrown into a state of crisis by a disaster, Austin, Texas, has been thrown into crisis by success. Its population has skyrocketed, but along with the economic advantages has come a considerable identity crisis. Austin has long prided itself on its funkiness, and many residents have grown worried new development and growth might jeopardize the city’s countercultural “feel.” In this hour, SOTRU looks at the tension between “keeping Austin weird” and its growing success.
To discuss this episode, please comment on this post. We would love to hear your thoughts. Start the discussion!
It isn’t exactly Lake Wobegon anymore… Once known as the home of Midwestern Lutherans and Scandanavian farmers, the cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul are now wildly diverse. They have become cities of immigrants, from Tibetans to Somalis, Iraqis to the Khmer people of Cambodia. In this episode, SOTRU explores the worlds within the Twin Cities, from Ethopian Lutherans to Hmong rappers to a Somali community struggling with a devastating mystery.
To listen to our Twin Cities episode, take a look at our pictures from the area and much more, visit our Twin Cities page.
We want you to start the discussion. To share your thought, simply comment on this post and get the conversation going!
Chattanooga, Tennessee, is nicknamed the Scenic City for a good reason. With breathtaking vistas of the Appalachian mountains and the Tennessee River flowing through it, the city is rich with outdoor beauty. To add to its resume, Forbes ranked Chattanooga as the eighth most affordable city in America in 2009. But Chattanooga hasn’t always had such a gleaming reputation. In the early 20th century, the city was a bustling industrial, railroad, and manufacturing hub. After decades of industry, pollutants hung heavily in the air, shrouding those same beautiful mountains the area is known for. In 1969, the federal government deemed Chattanooga’s air quality the dirtiest in the nation. (more…)
Sadly, murder victims have been framed as statistics, especially in high crime cities. Father Bill Terry decided to do something about it and found a simple way to humanize these victims.
Visit our New Orleans page to listen to the Murder Board segment in our full hour radio episode or for further information about what we found in the Big Easy.
El Rey – You Can Never Leave the Music
