Senior Women Web > Culture & Arts

PBS is presenting a four-hour series, hosted by Robert Redford program entitled The New Heroes, profiling 12 people who are characterized as being social entrepreneurs, those who seek to identify and solve social problems on a large scale.

Kailash Satyarthi; South Asian Coalition on Child Servitude (SACCS). Works to end forced child labor in South Asia.

Moses Zulu; Development Aid from People to People in Zambia (Children's Town). Educates and integrates AIDS orphans in Africa.

Mimi Silbert; Delancey Street Foundation. Criminal rehabilitation center in which residents run various business enterprises.

David Green and Dr. V:; Aurolab. Hospital and manufacturer of medical devices serving poor people, mainly in India.

Nick Moon and Martin Fisher; Appropriate Technology for Enterprise Creation (ApproTEC). Manufactures and markets simple agricultural tools that aid in business development in Africa.

Fabio Rosa; Agroelectric System of Appropriate Technology (STA) and The Institute for Development of Natural Energy and Sustainability (IDEAAS). Distributes alternative energy sources in rural Brazil.

Albina Ruiz; Ciudad Saludable. Alternative waste management organization in Peru.

Inderjit Khurana; Ruchika School Social Service Wing, Train Platform Schools. Educational opportunity for indigent children in India.

Sompop Jantraka; Development and Education Program for Daughters Community Center (DEPDC). Education and socialization program for girls and women in Thailand who would otherwise be forced into prostitution.

Poetry Contest for the Over 50

Established in 1986, the Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize is one of the most prestigious given to American poets, and at $100,000 it is one of the largest literary honors for work in the English language.

The Poetry Foundation seeks one book-length poetry manuscript to be published in the forthcoming Emily Dickinson Poetry Series. The competition is open to any American citizen fifty years of age or over who has not previously published a book-length volume of poetry. In addition to publication and pro motion of the manuscript, the winner will receive a prize of $10,000.

Read the Submission Guidelines at the Poetry Foundation. We apologize that we did not discover this opportunity before this. We hope that this is the first of numerous opportunities.

Oscar Film Scores and the Art Acting

For several years NPR has offered a program of oscar nominated film scores guided by film buff Andy Trudeau. In part one of a three-part series, he speaks with NPR's Sheilah Kast about nominees Jan A.P. Kaczmarek for Finding Neverland and Thomas Newman for Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events; part two (termed Fantasy and Fright) concentrates on The Village, with music composed by James Newton Howard and Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban with a score from John Williams. Part three focuses on The Passion of the Christ composed by John Debney. Trudeau lists his all time top ten favorite film scores

Other appreciations of screen composers Elmer Bernstein, John Barry, the Barrons, Thomas Newman and Jerry Goldsmith can be found at the site.

A separate program examines the record number of African Americans nominated this year, and commentator Rochelle Riley comments on what this means for black actors and actresses.

For another look at acting whether it be on stage, the cinema or television, NPR's Lynn Neary explores the art and evolution of acting:

All actors, whether they know it or not, owe a debt to Constantine Stanislavsky, a businessman turned actor who revolutionized the art of acting. Stanislavsky set out to create what he called a "believable truth" onstage.

Many Oscar winners have studied with famous acting teachers such as Lee Strasberg and Stella Adler. Their teaching methods remain a huge influence on the art of acting, both on the silver screen and on the live stage.

For some actors, the Method has become an ossified idea instead of an evolving system - which is what Stanislavsky first envisioned it to be. Now some actors and writers are trying a number of approaches that put a writer's words front-and-center.

Another Kennedy Auction

There will probably no end of interest in the Kennedy's; seeing how they lived (and what they bought or inherited) is endlessly fascinating to most.

Sotheby's is auctioning off Property of the Kennedy Family Homes and the most interesting pieces are, of course, the personal ones. A Charles Addams Fanciful Victorian House by the Shore is inscribed To Jackie, like Newport. A pen and ink drawing of Jacqueline Kennedy by Franz Bueb is up for sale as is a red flannel wool blanket with applied black monogram JFK. A painting by Aaron Shikler of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis in a sailboat and one of her with Caroline and John Jr. in a treehouse are part of the many lots. A set of napkins with stitched monogrammedJBK, a horse blanket monogrammed with JKO, a Louis Vuitton hatbox and a black velvet, diamond, coral and emerald Cartier purse are reminders of our obsession with this family and, in this case, Jacquie in particular.

There are photos we haven't seen such as two color pictures taken while she was in Honolulu studying Chinese painting and calligraphy, a watercolor on paper presumably of Jacquie Resting Up (in London). There are some very familiar Jacques Lowe, George Thames and Stanley Tetrick photographs of the Kennedy family and yet, there is an unfamiliar glimpse of Richard and Pat Nixon by Wayne Miller.

Diane Rehm &
Gretchen Helfrich

For over 25 years, radio host Diane Rehm has been hosting an on-air interview show with public figures and authors from her Washington, DC studio at WAMU.

The Diane Rehm Show is distributed nationally and internationally by NPR and NPR Worldwide, and can be heard online (both live and archived audio streams are available) and on Sirius satellite radio. Diane's weekly U.S. audience alone is estimated at 1.4 million. In 1998, Diane was diagnosed with spasmodic dysphonia, a neurological condition that causes strained, difficult speech. After finding treatment, she wrote several articles and produced a program about the little-known disorder.

At the site is an excerpt from the book written with her husband, Toward Commitment:

"Having been married once before, I did come to our marriage with both assumptions and expectations. My first assumption was that this marriage was forever. I vowed to myself that divorce would never again be a factor in my life. I assumed I had learned enough about myself - and how to live with another person - through that failure, that I would be a perfect partner to John. After all, I told myself, I was no longer the same person who had married at nineteen. I was now a "mature" twenty-three. I had lost my parents. I had successfully lived on my own for the first time in my life. I had virtually separated myself from my community of origin here in Washington. I assumed that, because of those experiences, I had become a wiser, more independent person."

Gretchen Helfrich is the host of Odyssey produced by Chicago Public Radio. The program "explores topics ranging from religion in the public sphere to reasoning about risk; pacifism to post-national identity; memory to Microsoft; societal views on mental health to the state of marriage."

"Odyssey's guests have varying and complementary views and are invited to investigate ideas and issues - rather than just to debate them. The first part of the program is an in-depth discussion of ideas that influence the world in which we live. Towards the end of each show, listeners are invited to call in and join the conversation."

Television: The New Heroes

Poetry Contest for the Over 50

Oscar Film Scores and the Art Acting

Another Kennedy Auction

Diane Rehm & Gretchen Helfrich

Diane Rehm &
Gretchen Helfrich