Re:sound #132: The Lost Show

This hour: looking for the intangible. What's lost and what might be found.

Last Words from Hopi High
by Brett Myers with the students of Hopi High ( Youth Radio , 2009)
Cultures are easy to lose -- by force, by dispersion, by neglect -- and bringing an entire culture back from the brink is a herculean task. But one good place to start is the language. For nearly a thousand years the Hopi people have lived on the same three mesas in Northern Arizona. And while they have deep roots there, their language has been gradually fading away.

Waiting for Godot in New Jersey
by Pejk Malinovski ( Studio 360 , 2009)
At the Lillian Booth Home in New Jersey, every old person is a former Ziegfeld dancer, actor, vaudevillian, comedian, band leader, or set designer. The Home is for retired folk who used to work in the entertainment industry. And while it might not be Broadway, the footlights are still burning.

Ghosts of Gary
by Robin Amer (Vocalo.org, 2009)
When a depressed city empties out, a ghost of the once-vibrant place remains. Gary, Indiana's history has been closely intertwined with the rise and fall of the steel industry. When it boomed, Gary boomed. And when it busted, well, so did the town. Robin Amer collected stories and impressions of Gary's semi-abandoned downtown, focusing on the once glamorous Palace Theater, where the Jackson Five (Gary's second largest export, after steel) used to perform.

The Sisters Fox
by Nate Dimeo ( The Memory Palace , 2008)
Many stories are simply lost to the past -- small tales that might be a footnote in a textbook or anecdotes that escape the record all together. Luckily for us, Nate DiMeo loves to unearth just such tidbits. This one begins in a little town in upstate New York in the 1840s, where two young sisters have just discovered a special talent.

This episode of Re:sound was produced by Delaney Hall and Jacob Anderson.