Terry Gross

Actress Amy Madigan. She's now playing on Broadway as Stella in "A Streetcar Named Desire" opposite Jessica Lange and Alec Baldwin. You may remember her as Kevin Costner's wife in the film "Field of Dreams." She's also played in the films "Uncle Buck" and "Roe V. Wade," among others.

Film critic Stephen Schiff reviews the new Whoopi Goldberg movie, "Sister Act." (Buena Vista Pictures)

Writer and professor Gayle Pemberton. She is associate director of Afro-American Studies at Princeton University. Her new book, The Hottest Water in Chicago: on family, race, time, and American culture, is a collection of autobiographical essays. Pemberton was born into a northern black middle-class family in the late 1940s. (by Faber & Faber)

Journalist and lawyer Wendy Kaminer (cam-AH-ner). Her new book, I'm Dysfunctional, You’re Dysfunctional, is a critical look at the recovery and self-help movement. Kaminer believes that the movement tends to trivialize suffering by refusing to distinguish among levels of suffering or victimization (for instance, one recovery expert suggests that childhood is a holocaust.) Kaminer also considers the political implications for democracy if people view themselves as victims. (by Addison-Wesley Publishing Company).

Journalist Bill Buford. He traveled for eight years with "soccer thugs" -- England's hardcore soccer fans known for their violent outbreaks surrounding England's soccer games. Buford witnessed "lads" urinating on fellow spectators, commuter trains being demolished, a pub being robbed, and saw stabbings. He wanted to understand the violence that has caused many deaths (including the death of 66 fans asphyxiated in a crush of people trying to get out of a stadium in Glasgow in 1971).

Singer Angelina Réaux. She's gained international recognition for her interpretation of Kurt Weill music. She performed in a one-woman show, "Stranger Here Myself," a collection of Weill music, dramatically linked. (A recording of the show is on the Koch Classics International label). Réaux also performs in Opera and Concert engagements and collaborated with Leonard Bernstein in a some of his final projects: recordings of "West Side Story" and "A Quiet Place." She began her career in Broadway musicals.

Dorothy Beam. Her son Joe Beam died of AIDS three years ago. He was a writer who was in the process of editing his second anthology of Black gay writing. Dorothy helped finish the work her son started, along with editor Essex Hemphill. The collection is "Brother to Brother: New Writings by Black Gay Men," (published by Alyson Publications). Joseph Beam's first anthology is "In the Life: A Black Gay Anthology." RERUN. (originally aired 2/25/92) (Interview by Marty Moss-Coane)

Nigerian writer Ben Okri. His novel, "The Famished Road," won Britian's prestigious Booker Prize in 1991. It's about a young boy growing up in a poor African village. He's written four other novels and a collection of short stories. Besides "The Famished Road," the only other book of his published in the U.S. is his book of short stories. (Interview by Marty Moss-Coane)

Singer Barbara Lea ("lee") with a musical tribute to Cole Porter. She had her start singing in the 1950s in Boston and then moved to New York where she recorded her first album in 1955 to critical acclaim. She dropped out of singing for a while but made a comeback during the 70s in New York's cabaret world. Nat Hentoff, in "The Nation," wrote, "her phrasing is easily personal...

Veteran crime novelist Lawrence Block. He's written nine novels starring Manhattan private eye Matt Scudder. His latest is called "A Ticket To The Boneyard." (Rebroadcast. Originally broadcast March 17, 1992.)