Several interviews had to get shifted around and I wanted to try something new! There is no guest this week so I drew inspiration from the lockdown and from news stories that captured my attention over the past several days. I found stories and in several cases, audio to match. I do need to note that all the audio I’m sharing today is public domain, which means it is available for usage without breaking any copyright rules.  I took a deep dive into several public domain and archive websites and discovered an overwhelming amount of amazing audio, videos, photographs, and documents.
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The recent story of the Pentagon releasing UFO footage captured my imagination this week! UFO footage has been circulating for some time but an official release makes it all that more intriguing. All of the UFO coverage got me thinking about the vastness of the universe and how much we have yet to know about it.  With NASA getting ready for their next big launch on May 27th, I started looking for sound from NASA and came across some amazing audio files on the Internet Archive. 

The Internet Archive is home to thousands of files and I found clips of two Apollo missions to share with you today. The clips are short in length but there are hundreds of hours available.  This first one is from Apollo 11 which was the spaceflight that first landed humans on the Moon. Commander Neil Armstrong and lunar module pilot Buzz Aldrin formed the American crew that landed the Apollo Lunar Module Eagle on July 20, 1969.

Sound https://archive.org/details/Apollo11Audio/155-AAA.mp3
The next sound comes from Apollo 13 Full link here: https://archive.org/details/Apollo13Audio/405-AAA_TRACK-1.wav
Additional reading here: Mysteries of the Universe: https://www.nasa.gov/specials/60counting/universe.html

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Next, let's talk about literature. I've been catching up on my reading and finally got around to exploring new poetry. I came across the poetry of Gwendolyn Brooks. Gwendolyn Brooks was the first black author to be awarded the Pulitzer Prize. She was also the first black woman to be a poetry consultant to the Library of Congress. She pulled from her life and the injustices happening during the civil rights era for her art. I was able to find audio of her reading but it was copyrighted. So I decided to read one of her short but powerful poems titled We Real Cool. Click on the link above for audio. Here is a link to more audio from the Library of Congress. 

Please read about her here: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/gwendolyn-brooks
We Real Cool 
Launch Audio in a New Window
BY GWENDOLYN BROOKS
 The Pool Players.
Seven at the Golden Shovel.
We real cool. We
Left school. We
Lurk late. We
Strike straight. We
Sing sin. We
Thin gin. We
Jazz June. We
Die soon.
Here is link to where you can read an analysis of this poem: https://owlcation.com/humanities/Analysis-of-Poem-We-Real-Cool-by-Gwendolyn-Brooks
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One of the nicer things about being on lockdown has been all of the wonderful online cultural programmings. Many cultural institutions have held wonderful programming for free. As an opera fan, I searched for some performances online and came across an article in the NY times called 5 Minutes That Will Make You Love Opera.  That’s a bold heading.  The Times asked Patti Smith, John Turturro, Renée Fleming and others to pick the music that moves them. One of the pieces I loved was the one Patti Smith selected which is Puccini's "Tosca". "E lucevan le stelle" is a romantic aria from the third act. This is a great overview of the opera. 

Here is the link where the link came from: https://www.yourclassical.org/story/2019/02/07/daily-download-giacomo-puccini--tosca-e-lucevan-le-stelle

Did this article convert you into an opera lover?