Places & Travel

Painter Jacob Lawrence died on June 9th at the age of 82. For six decades, Lawrence had been widely regarded as one of America's most important black artists. His work depicted the black American experience from the Civil War to the Civil Rights movement. (REBROADCAST from 5/16/88)

Book critic Maureen Corrigan reviews two new novels about China: “Becoming Madame Mao”(Houghton Mifflin) a fictional biography by Anchee Min, and the detective novel, “Death of a Red Heroine” (Soho) by Qui Xialong.

Authors Adam Cohen and Elizabeth Taylor are the authors of American Pharaoh: Mayor Richard J. Daley, His Battle for Chicago and the Nation” (Little, Brown & Co). In the book, the authors look at Daley’s legacy, how he transformed Chicago into a modern metropolis, but also turned it into the nation’s most segregated city.

Journalist Orville Schell talks about his new book Virtual Tibet: Searching for Shangri-La from the Himalayas to Hollywood (Metropolitan Books). For centuries now, the mountainous and remote nation of Tibet has been the object of Western fascination. Today, Tibet is the subject of movies and Hollywood celebrities have taken on Tibetan Freedom as their cause. Schell talks about Tibet, real and imagined, and takes us through the history of the West’s infatuation. Schell has covered China and Tibet for many years.

Brazilian film director Bruno Barreto. His new film “Bossa Nova” is a romantic comedy starring his wife, American actress, Amy Irving. Barreto’s other films are the critically acclaimed “Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands” and “Four Days in September” which was nominated for an Academy Award for best Foreign Language Film.

Book critic Maureen Corrigan reviews “American Moderns: Bohemian New York and the Creation of a New Century” by Christine Stansell.

We talk about the Taliban with Pakistani journalist Ahmed Rashid. His new book is called Taliban: Militant Islam, Oil, and Fundamentalism in Central Asia (Yale University Press). In the mid 1990s, the Taliban Movement gained power in Afghanistan, a country in the wake of a civil war. The Taliban declared they wanted to restore peace and enforce traditional Islamic law. Instead, The Taliban has shown itself to be a troubling development in Islamic radicalism. It has launched a genocidal campaign against Shiite Muslims in Afghanistan. It has sanctioned acts of international terrorism.

Writer Ernesto Quinonez His debut novel, “Bodega Dreams” (Vintage books), is set in Spanish Harlem. Like his narrator, Quinonez is half Ecuadorean, half-Puerto Rican. A reviewer in the Kirkus Reviews writes of the book, “Edgy, street-smart. . . An admirable debut, brimming with energy and refreshingly devoid of genre clichés.”

Rock historian Ed Ward tells us about the New Orleans Rock and Roll band, Huey “Piano” Smith and the Clowns.

Jazz critic Kevin Whitehead reviews "Life Overflowing" (Nada) featuring John Tchicai (Chick-EYE) and Charlie Kohlhase (COAL-hass) and "The Eternal Hang" (Accurate) featuring Dave Bryant.

Actress Anjelica Huston, the star of the films "The Grifters," "Prizi's Honor," and "The Dead" and daughter of film director John Huston. She directs and stars In the new film "Agnes Brown" adapted from the Brendan O'Carroll book, "The Mammy."

Joyce Horman is the widow of Charles Horman, an American living In Chile at the time of Pinochet's 1973 coup which overthrew the Socialist government of Salvador Allende. Horman was executed for his support of the Allende government. His story was told In the 1982 film "Missing" and Is the subject of the book "The Execution of Charles Horman, an American Sacrifice." The U.S. government had denied any complicity In Horman's death, but the recently declassified documents indicate otherwise.

Anthropologist and co-founder of the Argentine Forensic Anthropology Team, Mercedes Doretti. The group was founded in 1984 to investigate the fate of persons who had been “disappeared” by the former Argentinean military regime. The team consisting of an anthropologist, pathologist, radiologist, ballistic expert, and an archaeologist exhume grave sites, and the sites of massacres to determine the truth behind what happened, and to identify skeletal remains. Since their initial work in Argentina, the EAAF has worked in many other countries to investigate human rights abuses.

Travel writer Colin Thubron. His new book about his travels In the heart of Siberia Is "In Siberia" (HarperCollins). It's the third In his trilogy on the Russian landmass which Includes "Where Nights Are Longest" and "The Lost Heart of Asia." Thubron has also written books on the Middle East, China, and Central Asia.

Critic Maureen Corrigan reviews "Waiting" (Pantheon) by Ha Jin the winner of this year's National Book Award for fiction, a novel which is set in China during the Cultural Revolution.

Critic Milo Miles reviews some Cuban records that aren't by the Buena Vista Club: "Casa de la Trova" (Detour Records), "Bossa Cubana" by Los Zafiros (World Circuit/Nonesuch label), and "Estrellas de Areito" (World Circuit/Nonesuch label).

Writer Michael Lewis is the author of "The New New Thing" (Norton) about the Silicon Valley and the man behind the newest billion dollar-making venture. Lewis is also the author of the bestseller, "Liar's Poker" and has been the American editor of the British weekly, "The Spectator" and senior editor at The New Republic.

Writer and director Ziad Doueiri ("ZEE-odd Doe-AIR-ee") is making his feature film debut with, "West Beirut." It's set in 1975 during the Lebanese civil war and is largely autobiographical. The film received accolades from the Cannes Film Festival, and the Toronto International Film Festival. Doueiri and his family left Lebanon for California in 1983. Before making this film, Doueiri, was cameraman for all of Quentin Tarantino's films.

Book critic Maureen Corrigan reviews "Motherless Brooklyn" (Doubleday) by Jonathan Lethem, a mystery novel set in Greenpoint, Brooklyn.

Jazz critic Kevin Whitehead reviews the 4 CD box set "Central Avenue Sounds: Jazz in Los Angeles (1921-1956)" (Rhino).