Vocalo.org Playlist for Week of September 21

During September, Vocalo is “Getting Schooled”. The whole month we’ll be talking about education, back-to-school, life lessons and how-tos.

Vocalo invites guests from the Lake Michigan Region to discuss topics of the day. Guests throughout the week will include:

Special Event: Teach-A-Thon

• Friday, September 25, 3 to 8 p.m. To culminate this month’s look at Education, Vocalo.org host producer Dan Weissman will emcee a Teach-A-Thon from the Vocalo.org Studios on Chicago’s Navy Pier. Free and open to the public. Participants will learn how-to’s on sex, rock-n’-roll, DJ’ing, fire-eating and more. Participants are also encouraged to share their own how-to’s with the crowd on the Pier.

September Editorial: “Getting Schooled”

• Monday, September 21, 8 to 8:30 a.m. Nance Klehm teaches workshops in Urban Foraging-- basically, wandering around and identifying what's edible (or medicinal).  As it turns out, there's a lot.  On her way in, she'll take a look around the flowerboxes on the Pier, and maybe in the park just north of us, and she may bring some stuff to taste.  She also teaches Living Kitchen workshops, where participants use local, sometimes found, materials to make cider, mead, beer, soap, bread, pickles, tofu...

• Monday, September 21, 1:20 to 1:40 p.m. Alexander Russo is a journalist who runs a blog about the Chicago Public Schools -- District 299.com -- considered a must-read by people in town who follow education news/policy. He provides a roundup of local education news, and puts out topics for discussion, often based on tips from readers.

• Wednesday, September 23, 9 to 9:30 a.m. Al Wehrmann with the Institute of Natural Resource Sustainability at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign tells us how to conserve water. A division of his group, the Illinois State Water Survey, recently found that the State of Illinois may need up to 50 percent more water within 40 years.

• Wednesday, September 23, 1:20 to 2 p.m. The ABCs of CPS (Chicago Public Schools): Sarah Karp is deputy editor at Catalyst Chicago:  Independent Reporting on Urban Schools, an award-winning news-magazine about Chicago's public schools.  She's a veteran investigative reporter.  And she's got two kids in Chicago Public Schools.  (She also went to CPS herself.) She'll be telling us the stories that she's learned the most from, as a parent and a reporter.  

• Friday, September 25, 9 to 9:20 a.m. Lucy Gray is a former teacher who now works for an education center at the University of Chicago, and she is a non-stop geek about tech tools for teachers.  She keeps a blog called "High Techpectations:  Ideas and Resources For Teachers" and every week she publishes a list of 20-some links to new stuff.  We'll call her each Friday in September and ask her to describe one or two items on that week's list:  What are they, what's cool about them, what could teachers do with them?

• Friday, September 25, at 11 a.m. to 12 p.m. Deborah Caldwell Stone of the American Library Association will talk about Banned Books Week Readout in Chicago. Find out why this year's most banned books include children's book, And Tango Makes Three, and young adult title, Gossip Girls. She’ll be promoting a reading from the authors of six of the ten most banned books on Saturday, September 26. The event is co-sponsored by The American Library Association’s Office for Intellectual Freedom, the McCormick Freedom Museum and the Newberry Library.

Comedy

• Friday, September 25, 3 to 4 p.m. Corey Bailey is a comedian, an actor and a motivational speaker.
• Wednesday, September 23, 11 a.m. to 12 p.m. Latino improv group ESL promote their new sketch revue show "We Don't Need Know Stinkin' Edumucation" at the Chicago Center for the Performing Arts at the Green Street Theatre.

Culture and Politics

• Tuesday, September 22, 2:20 to 2:30 p.m. Writer Adrian of Chi-Town Daily News calls in to discuss the latest they are covering in labor news.

• Thursday, September 24, 2:20 to 2:30 p.m.  Latoya, editor of Racialicious blog, about the intersection of race and pop culture.

• Friday, September 25, 7:30 to 8 a.m. Joe Arnold brings news of the Lake Michigan Region.

• Friday, September 25, 3:20 to 3:40 p.m. Alejandro Riera, editor of Café Magazine, highlights several events going on this weekend in the Latino arts community, including The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity, the new production from Teatro Vista and a preview of a performance of South American band, Bajofondo, at the Park West in Chicago on Sunday, September 27.

• Friday, September 25, 5 to 6 p.m. Kenneth Hite is the author of The Idiot's Guide to US History, an author of role playing games (including an award-winning Star Trek title), a University of Chicago graduate and an editorial cartoonist.  His most recent project, The Idiot's Guide to US History, is a graphic novel-style presentation of the quintessential moments in US History from the lives of Native Americans before by the landing of the colonists to the wars, scandals and advancements of the modern era.

GLBTQ Interest

• Tuesday, September 22, 9 to 10 a.m. William Greaves is with the City of Chicago’s Commission on Human Relations' Advisory Council on Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Issues. They are hosting a celebrity auction on September 22 at 8 p.m. Items for auction include breakfast or lunch with Ron Huberman, CEO of Chicago Public Schools;  a fun TV package from ABC 7 Chicago's 190 North hostess, Janet Davies; and much, much more. The auction benefits their November event, The Chicago Gay & Lesbian Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony.

Human Interest

• Tuesday, September 22, and Thursday, September 24, from 7:15 to 7:30 a.m. Vocalo.org user AnalyticalDiva cruises the Twitterverse for weird news.

Kids and Teens

• Thursday, September 24, 9 to 10 a.m. Respect Ours teen roundtable.

Movies

• Friday, September 25, 12 to 1 p.m. Reggie Ponder, aka The Reel Critic, discusses the latest movies.

Music

• Monday, September 21, 9:30 to 9:40 a.m. Owen O’Mally of The Rikters and of Gearwire.com talks about the hottest drums, guitars, and recording equipment on the market.

• Wednesday, September 23, 2:20 to 2:30 p.m.  Robert Loerzel, from local music blog Underground Bee.

• Wednesday, September 23, 3 to 4 p.m. Chicago-based band, Black Roses, joins us live in the studio to give us their special brand of funk, rock, blues and punk.

Sports

• Thursday, September 24, 6 to 7 p.m. The winners of our Next Top Sportscaster contest – comedy troupe Blackout – get us caught up on the latest and not necessarily greatest news from the world of sports.

Vocalo.org can be heard on 89.5 FM throughout Northwest Indiana, Chicago and Southwest Michigan and streams online live to the world at www.vocalo.org/stream. Vocalo.org is the place to find diverse local voices engaged in conversations about topics close to the Lake Michigan region.

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