Dancers in Walla Walla’s second annual Day of the Dead parade. (Credit: Susan Shain / NWPB) Listen (Runtime 1:06) Read While many cities in the Northwest celebrate Day of the […]Read More
Award-winning poet Ricardo Ruiz focuses on telling the stories of his community, for his community. NWPB’s Rachel Sun interviewed Ruiz about that work, and his approach to collaborative storytelling through poetry.Read More
El galardonado poeta Ricardo Ruiz se centra en contar las historias de su comunidad, para su comunidad. Read More
Shrub-steppe habitats are threatened in Washington state. (Credit: Richard Droker / Flickr Creative Commons) watch Listen (Runtime 0:58) Read Driving through central Washington might look like scrubland from the highway. […]Read More
Brent Bowen started playing pinball as a kid in the Tri-Cities. Now, he owns seven pinball machines and hopes to start a league in the Tri-Cities, where there’s a dearth […]Read More
We are celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month and here is a story about how music programs and certificates are expanding Mariachi knowledge among younger generations in Washington.Read More
We are celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month and NWPB tells us about Lupita Infante, a prominent American singer and heir of the Infante’s legacy. She recently visited Central Washington and inspired younger mariachis.Read More
We are celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month and it is a story on how the Mariachi Culture has settled into Central Washington and how different organizations are helping grow this tradition. Read More
We heard a rumor that Paula Poundstone was heading to our neck of the woods, so NWPB's Thom Kokenge caught up with her to find out what she's up to. Read More
Photo of Sam Penney recording Traverse Talks at the Nez Perce National Historic Park on March 10, 2022. Imagine a stranger took your family’s heirlooms and then offered you an […]Read More
Imagine a stranger took your family’s heirlooms and then offered you an opportunity to purchase them back before selling them at auction. In 1993, the Nez Perce tribe raised $608,100 […]Read More
Dr. Jacqueline Wilson of Yakama Can an instrument suit your personality? Dr. Jacqueline Wilson of Yakama would say so. She believes her personality fits best with a large, low sounding, […]Read More
Sara Minkara lost her sight at the age of seven but gained a greater awareness of herself and the world around her. Because she can’t interact with labels from a […]Read More
Photo of Sara Minkara. Sara Minkara lost her sight at the age of seven but gained a greater awareness of herself and the world around her. Because she can’t interact […]Read More
John and Deb Anderson standing outside the beachcombing museum. Listen (Runtime 4:30) Read Deep, dark, and mysterious. Most people think that whatever falls into the ocean is lost forever, but […]Read More
Photo of disability culture activist Petra Kuppers. Petra Kuppers holds many titles: disability culture activist, community performance artist, disabled woman, academic and writer, among more. She’s written several books, primarily […]Read More
Disability culture activist, community performance artist, and author of Eco Soma, Petra Kuppers, encourages listeners to contemplate the relationship they have with everyday objects in their life. In this episode […]Read More
Listen (Runtime 1:12) Read The 2nd Annual Celebration of Community, Diversity & Culture” will be held this weekend August 6th from 12 to 8 p.m. in Kennewick. The last few […]Read More
The classic black-and-white photos from early decades of the American West often fail to capture the diversity of the people who came here. Chinese migrants helped build the railroads and were big in gold mining. Basque people from Spain became known for sheep herding. The first Filipino cannery workers arrived around the turn of the last century. Now, Oregon Read More
Photo of Jiemei Lin recording Traverse Talks in the Pullman studios on November 17, 2021. Born in Hangzhou, China, Pullman-based artist Jiemei Lin has made a home and a name for […]Read More
The pandemic is still churning, but as we round the corner on its second year, we can look back on how we’ve adapted, created and lived. One mark of this perseverance is the rollout of the Tacoma Creates program, the first program in Washington state under recent Cultural Access Legislation. Read More
The Pacific Northwest is rightfully proud of its thriving microbrewery scene. Most beer lovers probably consider the rise of craft brewing a phenomenon of the past few decades. But the first brewpubs in the Northwest date so far back that archaeologists were called in to excavate the remnants of one in Jacksonville, Oregon.Read More
With the sale of print books rising just over 8% and all unit sales of books surpassing 750 million, Black bookstores would play an integral role in feeding the nation's "sudden" appetite in the plight of Black people.Read More
The Pacific Northwest might seem like an unlikely place for mermaids and mermaid culture to catch on given the cold water here. Yet, putting on an eye-catching tail and pretending to be a mythical sea being is a thing across the Northwest. There's even a brand new mermaid museum near Aberdeen, Washington.Read More
Race and challenging assumptions about race is central to what Black Violin does: Outside of playing for fun or for creative expression, Marcus finds it particularly satisfying to disarm people who don't expect him to be a violin scholar. "The number-one reason I play violin," he says, "is because I'm not 'supposed to.' "Read More
Lunar New Year hits differently this year. It's an annual holiday celebrated on a bedrock of bringing families, across the country and overseas, together for home-cooked meals and lots of catching up.Read More
Outside the Supreme Court, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg had another life in pop culture as a symbol of dissent and feminism. The Notorious RBG was celebrated in memes, movies, T-shirts and tote bagsRead More
The TV series, which debuted on the streaming service this month, has sparked debates about colorism, classism and caste-ism.Read More
In a survey of more than 750 museum directors, 33% of them said there was either a "significant risk" of closing permanently by next fall or that they didn't know if their institutions would survive.Read More
The video shows a white police killings seen nationwide — but there's a third identifiable person: an Asian American officer seen running interference with the crowd and standing watch. He's now-former Minneapolis police officer Tou Thao, a Hmong American — which is how you know this isn't "any" city. It's Minneapolis.Read More
Kwame Alexander, NPR's poet in residence, reads the latest crowdsourced poem, this one focused on how you've been affected by and coping during the global coronavirus pandemic. Read More
Our kids' books columnist, Juanita Giles, gave her daughter Fry Bread: A Native American Family Story for Christmas; she says the book's depiction of food and history mirrors her family's experiences.Read More
This week, two Native American men, Faran Sohappy and Tim Brooks, who live in the Grand Coulee area, are going back east to complete what has been a surprising adventure. They are finalists, along with Chicago singer/songwriter Joan Hammel (who is not Native), for a Native American Music Award. Read More
Hold music is camouflaged sound — it needs to obviously exist, while also barely doing so. Small wonder, then, that its biggest "hit" does none of that.Read More
If you’re a seasoned purple-stained Huckleberry Head, or if you’re just starting to forage the forests of the Northwest, here are some tips about huckleberries you should know.Read More
After 18 years, Apple is killing iTunes — sort of. The software is being broken into separate pieces for separate uses on Mac computers: Music, podcasts and TV will soon have their own apps.Read More
For the Mexican holiday Dia de los Muertos, or Day of the Dead, writing rhyming poems called calaveras literarias — mocking epitaphs for the dead or satire targeting the living — has become a proud tradition.Read More
The shelves in Umesh Soni's little store in downtown Mumbai are neatly stacked with soaps. There are handmade translucent bars, brightly colored circular soaps in tropical variants and square black bathing bars. It looks like any other soap shop. Except all the soaps include cow dung and cow urine as ingredients.
Why make soap from this stuff?Read More
Hear Walla Walla Chamber Music Festival Artistic Director Timothy Christie perform Mendelssohn’s String Quartet in A minor, Op. 13 on January 16 as part of the Winter Festival. Walla […]Read More
Antonin Dvorak’s 8th Symphony (1890) is one of several significant works which premiered on February 2. WIKIMEDIA COMMONS Music history refreshes itself every time you enjoy a favorite piece, […]Read More
Frank Dominguez is your guide to music from Spain, Mexico, Argentina, Bolivia, Chile and the Latin world Concierto, WDAV Classical Public Radio Gigi Yellen and Concierto host Frank Dominguez […]Read More
The Arlington National Cemetery showing the tradition of honoring grave stones of veterans with the American flag on Memorial Day. CREDIT WIKIMEDIA COMMONS Music for Memorial Day serves two […]Read More
Asad Ali, 63, was unemployed for four years when Pakistan clamped down on live music in 1977. He now plays the guitar for Sachal Studios Orchestra around the globe […]Read More
