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Monumental Movement in Brooklyn

Every year, men from Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church in Williamsburg, Brooklyn hoist a four-ton, 68-foot statue called the Giglio into the air and move it six blocks while dancing ‘the Giglio’ under the sweltering sun. The event commemorates the San Paolino de Nola Feast, which originated in Nola, Italy. This year, Weekend America correspondent Amber Cortes took us to the festival.

Check out the slideshow above, or just listen to the piece on Weekend America:

I recently had the opportunity to attend a gallery opening for “Kawthoolei: The Karen People of Burma,” an exhibit of beautiful black and white photographs by Swedish photographer Kristofer Dan-Bergman.

The photographs were taken in the Mai-La refugee camp on the Thai-Burma border and evoke the dignity in the faces and lives of the Karen people. The Karen, one of Burma’s largest ethnic minority groups, have been fighting for autonomy under a brutal Burma military dictatorship for decades.

The exhibit was a benefit for Outer Voices, a radio and internet documentary project that shares stories from grassroots women activists working in their communities in South East Asia and the Pacific Islands. “Kawthoolei” is their documentary on the Karen and it is one of a continuing series. Listen to Kawthoolei and check out this amazing project at: www.outervoices.org.

The piece I produced about the exhibit aired on the WBAI Arts Magazine.
Listen to it here.

Kawthoolei_Exhibit.mp3