Religious Roundtable: Between the wars in the Middle East, the selection of a new pope, and the American culture wars, religion has been much in the news lately. Host Frank Stasio takes a step back from the headlines and talks with North Carolina religious leaders about the issues that concern them. Guests include: Monsignor Tim O’Connor, pastor at Our Lady of Lourdes in Raleigh; Rabbi Jen Feldman of Chapel Hill Kehillah; and Imam Abdul Waheed of Ar Razzaq Islamic Center in Durham. Listener Call-In. (40:00)
Ca Dao: Saturday marks the 30th anniversary of the North Vietnamese tanks crashing through the gates of the Presidential Palace in Saigon, ending American involvement in the Vietnam War. Host Frank Stasio talks with poet John Balaban about “Ca Dao,” a sung form of folk poetry that Balaban recorded and later translated while serving in Vietnam as a conscientious objector. Balaban is poet in residence at North Carolina State University. He is author of “Locusts at the Edge of Summer: New and Selected Poems” (Copper Canyon Press/1997) and the memoir, “Remembering Heaven’s Face” (Poseidon Press/1991). (10:00)
Remembering the Raleigh May Day “Riot”: Commentator Willie Painter remembers an open-air music festival in Raleigh in 1978 that quickly went from a punk rock rebellion to an encounter with the police. Documented in detail by the Raleigh News & Observer writers and photographer caught up in the melee, the event remains a high point — or low point, depending on who you are — in the history of the Raleigh police department and North Carolina’s punk rock legacy. (7:00)