WBEZ TO BROADCAST MAXWELL ST. RADIO DOCUMENTARY
A 58 minute radio documentary: The Struggle for Maxwell Street recorded by English radio producer Paul Baldwin, of Now Media, will be broadcast by Chicago radio station WBEZ 91.5 FM this Sunday, Novemeber 28, 1999 at 8PM.
Recording for this documentary was done live on Maxwell Street in June of 1999. This radio program is the first product of the audio and video work by Paul Baldwin and filmmaker Yussef Nimmer. A full length documentary video is to follow next year.
Producer Baldwin says, "Blues musicians from the deep South came to Chicago's Maxwell Street and created a new sound that has influenced popular music and culture everywhere. There is a lot of life, people, and rehabbable historic buildings still on Maxwell Street. It is like walking back into time, a living museum. There's a legacy here, not just for the people of Chicago or the US, but for blues enthusiasts and modern day historians around the world. We hope this radio documentary will encourage people to take action."
This program is being made available free to radio stations across the world for broadcast. Says Steve Balkin, Vice President of the Maxwell Street Historic Preservation Coalition, "It has been aired in Australia, California, and England. It is also on the Internet is Real Audio format at <www.openair.org/maxwell/maxrad1.html> and will soon be available in Shoutcast format thanks to Pilsen's NRN Consulting. We want this played everywhere, particularly focusing on penetration in Chicago, New York, and Washington D.C. radio markets. Hillary Clinton declared herself a blues fan interested in the preserving the legacy of Chicago Blues. We want her to know what's going on in her hometown. Also maybe HUD or the National Endowment for the Humanities will intervene. There's not much time left. Poor people are being displaced by a land grant university that receives federal funds. Demolition could start at any time."
Craig Meyers of the Washington D.C. Blues Society remarks about Maxwell Street, "I firmly believe it would be a horrible way to start the millennium by destroying what got us all here together."
For more information visit the Coalition website <www.openair.org/maxwell/preserve.html>.
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return to Preserve Maxwell Street