Arts & Culture

Back By Popular Demand — The Music Inside Out Sessions will begin airing on both public radio stations in June. Thompkins' weekly, hour-long show Music Inside Out will go on hiatus.

Conversation with Summer Lyric Theatre artistic director Michael McKelvey.

Conversation with Louisiana Children’s Museum CEO Julia Bland.

Susan Larson talks with Gwendolyn Midlo Hall about her latest book, “Haunted by Slavery: A Memoir of a Southern White Woman in the Freedom Struggle”, and Corie Adjmi about her latest book, "Life and Other Shortcomings."

Fiddler and banjo player John Morris grew up in Clay County, West Virginia’s old-time music traditions. He learned banjo from his grandfather and guitar from his mother. John picked up the fiddle, absorbing tunes and stories of local fiddlers. He and his brother David played together as the Morris Brothers and started the Morris Family Old-Time Music Festival at their family home in Ivydale. John shared the story of how they got the festival started.

Conversation with Junebug Productions executive artistic director Stephanie Mckee-Anderson.

The Historic New Orleans Collection spotlights artist and photographer Lady Walker.

Lonnie Holley from Birmingham, Alabama is a self-taught artist and musician who uses everyday objects as sculpture that tells stories. Lonnie had a rough childhood, living with an abusive foster family who ran honky-tonk, where he was nicknamed “Tonky” McElroy. Lonnie tried to escape, hopping a train to New Orleans at nine. He was arrested at eleven and taken to the Alabama Industrial School for Negro Children, where Lonnie was made to pick one hundred pounds of cotton. His grandmother rescued him from the school and told him his name wasn’t Tonky McElroy but Lonnie Bradley Holley. For the last forty years, Holley has constructed artworks that have been seen at the Smithsonian’s American Art Museum, New York’s American Folk Art Museum, the High Museum in Atlanta, and the White House. After making home recordings for more than two decades on a keyboard Lonnie bought at a pawnshop, he released his first album at age sixty-two. His sound is experimental with lyrics improvised on the spot. Lonnie Holley explained how his artistic appreciation and ability stemmed from life at home with a large family.