October 1, 1997 - In his new novel "Floating Kingdom", Minneapolis writer George Rabasa tells the story of a family living on a tiny island in the middle of the Rio Grande, smack in the middle of the border between the U.S. and Mexico. The patriarch Seguila makes his living guiding illegal immigrants across the border; his son-in-law makes his living robbing those same people. One day Seguilo and his grandson come across the battered form of a teenager from north of the border, who has run afoul of bandits. "Floating Kingdom" is about a family on the edge, on the edge of two nations, and the edge of survival.
October 2, 1997 - MPR’s Chris Roberts presents a report on The Jayhawks, who have decided to stay together and embark down a new musical path with album, "Sound of Lies." Roberts interviews band members Gary Louris and Marc Perlman about that new musical journey.
October 3, 1997 - An October edition of our "Voices of Minnesota" series, featuring two Minnesota stars in the music world, singer and Broadway performer Linda Eder; and violinist and jazz musician Clifford Brunzell.
October 13, 1997 - In the two decades since their arrival in the United States, the Hmong have established themselves as a part of America's ethnic landscape. They've created businesses, festivals, and radio and t-v programs. But perhaps one area in which they've been slower to integrate is medicine. There are just a handful of Hmong doctors nationwide, possibly due to their relatively short tenure in the United States. But Journalist Anne Fadiman points out it could also be attributed to the vast gulf between traditional Hmong medicine and Western medicine. Fadiman followed a California family who had a disastrous experience when their daughter Lia began having epileptic seizures. Her story is told in a new book called "The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down: A Hmong Child, Her American Doctors and the Collision of Two Cultures"
October 16, 1997 - If you're an experimental composer with classical roots, you'll probably face an uphill battle finding performance venues. The problem of getting your music heard may be compounded if you're a woman. Avant Fest, which opened last night at the Southern Theater in Minneapolis, pairs three female-led bands from Minneapolis with three from New York.
November 2, 1997 - Female vocal ensemble Anonymous 4 bring the music of Hildegard of Bingen to Saint Paul Sunday. Anonymous 4 perform the festal chants Hildegard composed to honor Ursula, a fifth-century saint who, along with the 11,000 women she inspired, chose martyrdom over forced pagan marriage.
November 5, 1997 - MPR’s Lorna Benson interviews Philip Blackburn and Chris Strouth about the creative world of electronic music. Blackburn is with the American Composers Forum in St. Paul, which promotes the work of avant-garde, jazz, classical and new age composers. Strouth works for Twin/Tone records, the label associated with Minneapolis' most famous rock bands, like The Replacements and Soul Asylum. Strouth also runs his own experimental electronica label, called "Ultramodern."
November 7, 1997 - Midday offers another program in the continuing "Voices of Minnesota" interview series, featuring conversations with Andre Lewis of the Honeywell Foundation; Win Wallin of Medtronic; and Dominique Serrand of Theatre de la Jeune Lune.
November 10, 1997 - MPR’s Mary Stucky profiles The Minnesota Klezmer Band. Stucky interviews band members Joseph Vass and Jerry Gotler, who describe what’s behind the music of klezmer.
November 17, 1997 - Bestselling author and historian Stephen Ambrose is in the Midday studios to talk about his role in the PBS series Lewis and Clark and his book about World War II titled Citizen Soldiers: The US Army from the Normandy Beaches to the Bulge to the Surrender of Germany. Program includes Listener call-in questions.