Vault of Ages — Pledge Drive for Archive Preservation Set Nov. 28, 29
Pledge Drive for Archive Preservation Set Nov. 28, 29 Interview With
Director/Producer Pacifica Radio Archives
LOS ANGELES, Calif. Ever wondered what Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s laugh sounded like?
Well, if there was any place to find a recording of it, it would be in the Pacifica Radio Archives.
The archive of the five listener-supported Pacifica Radio stations house a virtual treasure trove of analog and digital recordings predating the rise of National Public Radio with tapes dating back from before the height of the Civil Rights movement to present day.
Looking for a recording of African American writer James Baldwin talking about artistic integrity? They’ve got it.
Looking for Aldous Huxley on human responsibility? They’ve got it.
Looking for Muhammad Ali, Noam Chomsky, Dorothy Dandridge, Bette Davis, Ossie Davis, Ruby Dee, Dolores Del Rio, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Johan Galtung, Mahatma Gandhi, Allen Ginsberg, Ruth Gordon, Fannie Lou Hamer, Jim Hightower, bell hooks, Langston Hughes, Molly Ivins, Mahalia Jackson, June Jordan, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., J. Krishnamurti, Malcolm X, Jim Morrison, The Peace Pilgrim, Ann Richards, Isaac Bashevis Singer, Jacques Tati, Maxine Hong Kingston, Jean Renoir, Alan Watts, Howard Zinn?
They’ve got something from them.
How about Rage Against the Machine rocking out in the streets of Los Angeles? Hey, they’ve got it, too.
In fact, Pacifica Radio will be broadcasting rare recordings from these and other social and artistic figures during a two-day marathon nationally-broadcasted special produced by the Pacifica Radio Archives (PRA).
All five Pacifica stations KPFA in Berkeley, Calif.; KPFK in Los Angeles, Calif.; KPFT in Houston, Texas; WBAI in New York City; and WPFW in Washington, D.C. will air the event on Tuesday, Nov. 28, and Wednesday, Nov. 29.
Purpose of the broadcast is to raise money for the on-going preservation of the archives as well as to show the Library of Congress that the America people value the historical contents of the archives.
Thus far, the PRA’s Preservation and Access Project has saved several hundred hours of unique recordings of American cultural and political history with the support from the Pacifica Radio Stations, donations from PRA friends, and modest grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Ford Foundation, and the Grammy Foundation.
Leading the effort to for the preservation of spoken word recordings is Archives Director Brian DeShazor.
On the final day of the fund drive broadcast, DeShazor will testify at the Los Angeles hearing of the National Recording Preservation Board of the Library of Congress to contribute to the National Recorded Sound Preservation Study on the current state of recorded sound preservation.
The Iconoclast’s Nathan Diebenow spoke with DeShazor last week ab
