All this month, NPR’s Weekend Edition Sunday has been asking what it has meant to be an American at various times in our nation’s history. Here’s the second of my two stories.
Tour guides in Philadelphia may have to hit the books this fall. A new law requires some professional guides to pass a history test, or face hefty fines. But a handful of guides say the law is violating their First Amendment rights. My story aired on NPR’s Weekend All Things Considered.
Fifteen years after her death, the music of folk singer Karen Dalton has never been more popular. My story aired this morning on Weekend Edition Saturday.
“Philadelphians crowded into a few densely populated blocks along the Delaware River. It was really quite a fragrant place, with open sewers running everywhere.” For the July Fourth weekend, the first of two stories for Weekend Edition Sunday on the question, Who is an American?
“We all felt like we didn’t want to do what was considered regular R&B at the time,” says India.Arie. “This was before anyone was saying ‘neo-soul’. We knew that we wanted to have control and try alternative routes of getting our music out there.” Listen to my story for All Things Considered.
