We speak with two people involved with "Youth Portraits," a radio skills training program for ex-offenders released from Riker's Island prison in New York City. Riker's Island is the biggest jail in North America. "Youth Portraits" is a joint project of Friends of the Island Academy and Sound Portraits Productions. First, we hear from Andre Vaughn, a 21-year-old ex-offender who was released from Riker's and became involved with the "Youth Portraits" program. He was caught stealing at the age of 17 and subsequently served three sentences.
We speak with Clinton Lacy, a longtime program director of Friends of the Island Academy. FOIA was founded in 1989 by the first principal of the high school on Riker's Island. The program is designed to break the cycle of return to Riker's by providing education and counseling. Each year, FOIA works with 350 young people.
Activist Greg Mortenson is the founder and Executive Director of the Central Asia Institute. Since 1993, the organization has opened schools and provided an education for over 4000 girls in Pakistan and Afghanistan. The schools promote literacy, women vocational skills, public health and environmental awareness. Mortenson splits his time between Central Asia and Montana.
Journalist Andrew Meldrum is the Guardian Zimbabwe correspondent. Currently, he covers the upcoming presidential election in Zimbabwe and the crackdown that the media faces as election time nears. In the past few weeks, he written a series of articles focusing on the bill President Mugabe signed, requiring all journalists working in Zimbabwe to have a license from the Minister of Information.
Yossi Klein Halevi is the Israeli correspondent for the New Republic magazine. He was born and raised in New York City. He's lived in Jerusalem since 1982. His book Memoirs of Jewish Extremist: An American Story is about his years first as a follower and then as an opponent of Rabbi Meir Kahane. His latest book is At the Entrance to the Garden of Eden: A Jews Search for God With Christians and Muslims in the Holy Land (William Morrow).
Raja Shehadeh is a Palestinian lawyer and writer whose latest book is Strangers in the House: Coming of Age in Occupied Palestine. (Steer Forth Press) He is a founder of the nonpartisan human rights organization Al-Haq, an affiliate of the International Commission of Jurists, and author of several books about international law, human rights and the Middle East. Shehadeh lives in Ramallah.
Film director and writer Todd Solondz. His new film is Storytelling and it has already inflamed some critics more than his previous two features, Welcome to the Dollhouse and Happiness. Those films won prizes at Sundance and Cannes. Storytelling is two separate stories set in high school and college. In one, we meet three college students and their writing professor. The other is about a filmmaker who wants to make a documentary about a high school senior and his family.
Actor Paul Giamatti stars in the Todd Solondz film Storytelling. He plays an aspiring filmmaker who sets out to document the empty life of a New Jersey high school senior and his well-to-do parents. Giamatti's film credits include Planet of the Apes, Big Momma's House, Saving Private Ryan, and The Truman Show, among many others. He has also appeared in numerous TV shows.
Writer William Langewiesche is a national correspondent for The Atlantic Monthly. He writes about recovery and cleanup efforts at the World Trade Center in his new book, American Ground: Unbuilding the World Trade Center (North Point Press). Langewiesche arrived at the scene days after the collapse and had unrestricted, round-the-clock access to events there.
Actor Mark Webber, 21, is currently starring in the new Todd Solondz movie, Storytelling. He got rave reviews for his performance in the London and New York stage productions of David Mamet's American Buffalo opposite William H. Macy and Phillip Baker Hall. He also appeared in Snow Day with Chevy Chase and The Animal Factory directed by Steve Buscemi. Weber grew up in Philadelphia where he was sometimes homeless with his mother Cheri Honkala. She is a homeless rights activist and founder of the Kensington Welfare Rights Union. In March Webber can be seen in HBO's Laramie Project.
Leader and bassist of the band KISS, GENE SIMMONS. The band rose to prominence and popularity in the mid 1970s. They were known for their Halloweenish face paint, black-leather outfits, eight-inch platform heels and grandiose stage shows where SIMMONS spit out blood, belched fire, and stuck out his seven-inch tongue. SIMMONS has written a new autobiography, “Kiss and Make-up” (Crown Publishers) which details his early years growing up in Israel and later in Brooklyn.
Book critic Maureen Corrigan looks back at Astrid Lindgren, the creator of the Pippi Longstocking books. The Swedish author died this week at the age of 94.
Pakistani journalist Ahmed Rashid's new book is Jihad: The Rise of Militant Islam in Central Asia (Yale University Press). He's also the author of the bestseller, Taliban: Militant Islam, Oil, and Fundamentalism in Central Asia (Yale University Press-2000). It's been called the most in-depth study of the Taliban. Rashid is a correspondent for the Far Eastern Economic Review and the Daily Telegraph, reporting on Pakistan, Afghanistan and Central Asia.
Navy Commander Ernest Duplessis of United States Central Command, administrative headquarters for U.S. military affairs in countries of the Middle East, Southwest Asia and Northeast Africa, including the Arabian Gulf. He gives the military response to McSallys suit.
