The “Green Tortoise” Bus: Making the Miracle
A direct descendent of the Ken Kesey’s and the Merry Pranksters’ bus “Further,” and the Grey Rabbit buses that criss-crossed America during the late 1960s and 70s, “The Green Tortoise” is now a full fledged tour company that totes mostly young people to America’s greatest well-known and offbeat locales. They live on the bus, which […]
Black “Born Again” Christian Hair Salons
The Bible says that a woman’s hair is a glory to her, and they take that quite literally at several African American beauty salons that are springing up in the Washington DC and other urban areas. Come with me on my visit to a salon where being “born again,” amazing hair-dos and “prayerful” and joyous […]
Masonry as a Spiritual Path for Men
The Masons have long been the subject of curiosity, derision, persecution and admiration for their tight brotherhood, which claims millions of members worldwide, and which has been a mainstay for most American presidents and untold numbers of movers and shakers. The purported “secrecy” of their rites and symbols, which are sometimes riffs on the belief […]
The Status of Women in Israel (NPR 1990)
Between Zionism, Socialism, Feminism, Judaism, the Holocaust, and all the American, Eastern European, Middle Eastern and Asian cultural influences that compete for primacy as models for women in Israel, their status and self-image is deeply multi-layered and complex. This half hour documentary, which I completed for National Public Radio back in the early 1990s, offers […]
“Grandma” Cora’s Sweet Potato Pies
Down a couple of old Maryland country roads that barely show up on state maps you’ll find Grandma Cora, an elderly African American lady who is known throughout those parts for her delicious sweet potato pies, which she lovingly backs on her old stove and sells to make ends meet nicely. I spent an afternoon […]
Ken Steele and the Experience of Schizophrenia
Many of us are familiar with people who walk down the street conversing with people and other entities that we cannot say, but which exist in a hyper-real and undeniable way to them. What is it like inside their minds, what do those voices sound like and what do they say? And what happens when […]