Society & Culture

Martin Espada, a poet, tenant's right attorney, and now Assistant Professor of English at University of Massachusetts at Amherst. Brooklyn born -in 1957- of Puerto Rican heritage, he calls his work, "poems of advocacy, based on the lives ...consigned to silence." Espada was lauded by PEN/Revson Award for Poetry for giving "dignity to the insulted and injured of the earth." Poet Carolyn Forche describes Espada as "that subversive someone we know." His new book of poems is "City of Coughing and Dead Radiators" (Norton).

Linguist Geoffrey Nunberg on the oral culture of Somalia.

Israeli peace activist and novelist Amos Oz. He lived on a kibbutz for many years and is a veteran of the Six-Day War in 1967 and the Yom Kippur War in 1973. Oz is a leading acivist for peace between the Arabs and the Israelis. His new book is called "Fima" (Harcourt Brace), he has written eleven novels in all. Amos Oz received the German Publishers Peace Prize in 1992.

From 1953 until 1989 Helen Suzman served as an Opposition Member of the South African Parliament. Suzman was a pioneering political leader in the fight against apartheid and anti-semitism. For thirteen years she was the sole representative in the Parliament to reject race discrimination.

Writer Edmund White. He has been called "unquestionably the foremost American gay novelist." White's novels draw significantly from his own experiences in a style he calls "auto-fiction." In his newest book, "Genet: A Biography" (Knopf), White documents the life of controversial French writer, Jean Genet.

Novelist David Leavitt discusses his new book "While England Sleeps." Themes are the betrayals, loyalties, and dilemmas of gay men in the 1930s.

Wilma Mankiller, the first female chief of the Cherokee discusses her memoir.

Linguist Geoffrey Nunberg, who is currently living outside of Paris, describes his experience taking his daughter to EuroDisney.

South African journalist Rich Mkhondo joins the show to discuss the first multi-racial election in South Africa and the increasing violence in the country.

Ed Ward discusses a blues revival.

Dr. Susan Wicklund. She provides abortions services to women in Montana and South Dakota, traveling 4 hours each way. Without Wicklund's services, abortions would not be available to women in North Dakota. In the past she has worked in up to five clinics in three states while living in Montana with her teenage daughter. Wicklund has been featured on "60 Minutes." She will receive the Elizabeth Blackwell Award for her outstanding dedication to women's health care on October 29th.

Anne Lamott on her son's first asthma attack.

Writer Dagobero Gilb. His new book of short stories, "Magic of Blood" (University of New Mexico Press), offers fiction from the Chicano and Anglo working-class worlds of America's southwest. GILB's prosaic realism has been called by one critic, "the most lethal kind of fiction a Chicano can write".

Journalist and former anchor of the CBS News, Walter Cronkite. Thirty years after Martin Luther King delivered his "I Have A Dream" speech, Cronkite questions whether African-Americans choose to integrate into society or socialize primarily with each other. Cronkite's newest project "The Faltering Dream," questions whether integration is still a goal or if a "equal but separate" is a more appropriate approach to race relations. In "The Faltering Dream," Cronkite interviews notable black leaders including Reverend Jesse Jackson and Spike Lee.

Novelist Mary Gordon. Her most recent book, "The Rest of Life" (Viking), is a compilation of three novellas. She explores the delicate love affairs that shape the lives of three women. Gordon's a feminist and a Catholic and often explores those themes in her writing. She has written four other novels as well as a collection of short stories. Gordon teaches at Barnard College.

TV critic David Bianculli previews the premiere of "I'll Fly Away," the drama series set in the south at the time of the civil rights movement. It used to air on NBC; PBS has just picked it up and added tonights episode to it.

Commentator Maureen Corrigan reviews "The Morning After," by Katie Roiphe. (Little, Brown).

Lawyer, professor, and former nominee to head the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division, Lani Guinier. Guinier's nomination was withdrawn by President Clinton, after Republicans and Democrats started to question her views, as expressed in her academic writings, labeling her a "racial separatist," and the "quota queen." Guinier talks with Terry about her views, her work with the NAACP's Legal Defense and Educational fund to amend the the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and how she was misunderstood and misrepresented during the nomination process.

Professor Patricia Turner, of the African American Studies department at University of California, Davis. Her new book "I Heard It Through the Grapevine" (U. of California Press) examines the historical and social ramifications of rumor in African American culture. From Ku Klux Klan-owned clothing and cigarette companies to a military conspiracy to infect Africans with AIDS, she looks at the role of legend and rumor, finding it has long been a feature of the community.

Commentator Gayle Pemberton on the importance of African-American magazines.