February 18, 2002 - Author Nega Mezlekia grew up in waning days of Emperor Hailie Selassie's reign over Ethiopia. He was a fervant supporter of the communist uprising that ended Selassie's rule and brought down Ethopia's centuries old feudal system in 1974. But Mezlekia quickly became disillusioned as he saw family and friends die under the new totalitarianism. He escaped to Canada in 1985 and he has lived there ever since. He has now written two books about the strife in his homeland. "Notes from the Belly of the Hyena" is a memoir which won the prestigious Governor's Award in Canada. His new book is a novel, "The God who Begat a Jackal" which he says is part fable, part history. He told Minnesota Public Radio's Euan Kerr it's three stories woven into one.
February 11, 2002 -
December 31, 2001 - This evening round about midnight many people will join with friends to howl their way through "Auld Lang Syne" --- or at least the chorus anyway. Few people actually know much more of the song most connected with New Year. Minnesota Public Radio's Euan Kerr, doesn't know all the words either, but he knows most of them. He's here with a tutorial and a little history.
December 28, 2001 - The largest, and longest running study of hunger in America shows last year nearly half of the people using food-shelves were working, many at full time jobs. As Minnesota Public Radio's Mary Stucky reports, with the economy in recession, Second Harvest officials are braced for an unprecedented need for emergency food. {
December 21, 2001 - Established in the Treaty of Paris in 1783, the United States and British North America created the border.
December 17, 2001 - Gwendolyn Cates was 11 when her father first took her to visit a Navajo reservation. Her father had set out to learn the local language, and made friends on the reservation. Gwendolyn continued to visit as she grew older. Later she became a professional photographer. It was almost a natural when she was asked by the Men's Journal to travel to ten reservations around the country to document Indian Country. A book "Indian Country" grew from the assignment. It contains dozens of portraits, including many from Minnesota, the Dakotas, and Wisconsin. Cates told Minnesota Public Radio's Euan Kerr she wanted to dispel misconceptions about native people. The book includes pictures of many well known and not so well known Indians. One is a portrait of Leonard Peltier who is serving a life sentence for murder at the Federal Prison in Leavenworth, Kansas.
December 14, 2001 -
December 12, 2001 - Barrie Osborne says he was inspired to get into movies when a fellow student at Carlton College in Northfield made a film as a class project. That was back in the 1960's. Now he's a film producer with a long list of movies to his name, including Dick Tracy, Face Off and The Matrix. Osborne is in the Twin Cities tonight for a special sneak preview of his latest film: the highly anticipated adaptation of "Lord of the Rings." It's been a huge project. The three-hour film is only the first of three movies that will tell the whole of J.R.R. Tolkien's epic story. Osborne told Minnesota Public Radio's Euan Kerr the project needed a two thousand member crew all paying close attention to detail.
December 5, 2001 - The country's only literary journal with writing by Arab Americans is published in Minneapolis. It's called Mizna, an Arabic word for desert cloud, a symbol of shelter and hope. As Minnesota Public Radio's Mary Stucky reports, Mizna's editors hope the journal will create understanding across cultures.
December 4, 2001 - It's been quite a year for writer Emily Carter. In October she won the Whiting Writing Award, a 35-thousand dollar prize aimed at emerging talent. Her collection of short stories "Glory Goes and Gets Some" originally published in hardback by Coffeehouse press is now a Picador paperback. The stories in the book follow a heroin addicted HIV positive woman from the east coast through treatment and recovery in Minnesota. The book takes a gentle and humorous approach to some ugly realities.