State of the Re:Union
State of the Re:Union was a nationally aired public radio show created and hosted by playwright and performance artist Al Letson. State of the Re:Union was distributed by the Public Radio Exchange and National Public Radio, airing five seasons and 56 episodes on its networks from 2010 to 2015. The show won the Peabody Award in 2014.[1]
| Running time | 60 Minutes |
|---|---|
| Country of origin | United States |
| Language(s) | English |
| Home station | WJCT-FM |
| Hosted by | Al Letson |
| Created by | Al Letson |
| Written by | Various |
| Produced by | Tina Antolini, Laura Starecheski, Brie Burge, Jan Bennett, Creative Empire LLC. |
| Executive producer(s) | Al Letson and Ian DeSousa |
| Senior editor(s) | Taki Telonidis |
| No. of series | 5 |
| No. of episodes | 56 |
| Website | www |
Origins
State of the Re:Union was a concept created by Al Letson as an entry in the Public Radio Talent Quest, which started with more than 1,400 hopefuls. The contest aimed to identify a new generation of Public Radio on-air talent. After four rounds and voting from both a select panel of judges and the public at large, three winners were selected. For his pilot episode, Letson and team created "Welcome to D.C." Two of the three winning shows were awarded with a year's worth of funding to produce new episodes, including State of the Re:Union.
Format
The stated mission of State of the Re:Union is to "show listeners how we are more alike than we are different and the many ways our differences are celebrated. The additional underlying premise is to show "how a particular city, town or area creates a community." Each hour-long episode centers on a particular area and typically poses a question with which to explore the area. For example, the Jacksonville episode asks the question, "Is Jacksonville the Bold New City of the South?" as it is advertised. Typically, the show centers on three to four segments that feature stories that try to answer the proposed question. Letson narrates the program and conducts most of the interviews, but stories are also heard from first-person narratives. The main segments are accompanied by listener-written and read letters to the city, music, lighter fare and Letson's spoken word pieces.[2]
Chosen topics are typically selected from current events, cultural happenings and out-of-the-ordinary business ventures. Due to such a wide range of features, the tone ranges from serious, investigatory and at times somber to happy, hopeful and humorous.
Part of the show is the "Dear City Letters" section, where people who are making a difference are asked if they'd be willing and able to write a letter TO their city.[3]
Episodes
Pilot season
Four episodes were grouped as Pilot Season.[4]
| No. in series | No. in season | Title[4] | Featured location | Release date | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| P0 | P0 | "Welcome to D.C." | Washington, D.C. | TBA | |
| Unknown Aspects of the Nation's Capitol, Go-Go Music, Shaw District's Gentrification Challenges, Interview with Ian MacKaye | |||||
| P1 | P1 | "Motor City Rebound" | Detroit, Michigan | August 14, 2010[5] | |
| Detroit Artist Broken Window Glass Project, Activist Grace Lee Boggs, Avalon Bakery, Inner City Agricultural Revolution, Baker's Keyboard Lounge | |||||
| P2 | P2 | "Bold New City of the South?" | Jacksonville, Florida | TBA | |
| Church of Jacksonville Takes on Racial Issues, Operation New Hope Paves the Way for Recitivism Programs and the Controversy surrounding the Name of Local High School Nathan B. Forrest High School | |||||
| P3 | P3 | "Heart of the Heartland" | Des Moines, Iowa | TBA | |
| Al Obeidi on His Story and New Home, The Des Moines Social Club, The Envy Corps and their music, a personal voyage on Gay Marriage in Iowa and innovative, yet simple Pig Farming methods used by one creative farmer to prevent being squeezed out by bigger factory farms | |||||
Season 1
Season 1 is composed of 12 total episodes including a Black History Month special "Who is this man?", five Spring 2010 season episodes, and six Fall 2010 season episodes and specials.[4]
| No. in series | No. in season | Title | Featured subject/location | Release date[6] |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | "Who is this man?" | Bayard Rustin | April 5, 2010 |
| 2 | 2 | "Change Happens" | Brooklyn, New York | May 1, 2010 |
| 3 | 3 | "To the Stars through Difficulties" | Greensburg, Kansas | May 3, 2010 |
| 4 | 4 | "City of Vision" | Milwaukee, Wisconsin | May 3, 2010 |
| 5 | 5 | "A Work in Progress" | Oakridge, Oregon | May 3, 2010 |
| 6 | 6 | "The Big Easy" | New Orleans, Louisiana | May 4, 2010 |
| 7 | 7 | "Growing Pains" | Austin, Texas | August 20, 2010 |
| 8 | 8 | "Appalachia Rising" | Appalachia (West Virginia and Eastern Kentucky) | August 21, 2010 |
| 9 | 9 | "World Within Twin Cities" | Minneapolis and Saint Paul, Minnesota | September 16, 2010 |
| 10 | 10 | "Home, Sweet Home" | Los Angeles, California | September 17, 2010 |
| 11 | 11 | "Veterans Day Special" | N/A | November 11, 2010 |
| 12 | 12 | "The Land Remembers" | Española, New Mexico | August 16, 2011 |
Season 2
Season 2 is composed of 10 episodes including the Spring 2011 season and Fall 2011 season.[4]
| No. in series | No. in season | Title | Featured subject/location | Release date[7] |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 13 | 1 | "The Long Story Short" | Birmingham, Alabama | May 1, 2011 |
| 14 | 2 | "Bright Lights, Big City, Small Town" | Las Vegas, Nevada | May 1, 2011 |
| 15 | 3 | "Bridging the Divide" | Miami, Florida | May 1, 2011 |
| 16 | 4 | "The Self-Made City" | Oakland, California | May 1, 2011 |
| 17 | 5 | "City with a Warm Heart" | Utica, New York | May 1, 2011 |
| 18 | 6 | "Defending the Gulf" | Mississippi Gulf Coast | August 17, 2011 |
| 19 | 7 | "Still Rising from the Ashes" | The Bronx, New York | August 18, 2011 |
| 20 | 8 | "The New Old West" | Wyoming | August 19, 2011 |
| 21 | 9 | "Entrepreneurs at Work" | Cleveland, Ohio | August 20, 2011 |
| 22 | 10 | "All Hands on Deck" | Sacramento, California | September 10, 2011 |
Season 3
Season 3 is composed of 13 episodes including the Fall 2012 season and the Spring 2013 season.[4]
| No. in series | No. in season | Title | Featured subject/location | Release date[8] |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 23 | 1 | "The Unlikely Perfect Place" | Southern Washington | June 1, 2012 |
| 24 | 2 | "The Small Town State" | Vermont | June 1, 2012 |
| 25 | 3 | "Outsiders In" | Baltimore, Maryland | June 3, 2012 |
| 26 | 4 | "Full Circle" | Ozarks | June 4, 2012 |
| 27 | 5 | "With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility" | Comics | June 5, 2012 |
| 28 | 6 | "Summer in Sanctuary: A Graduation Special" | Dropouts | October 29, 2012 |
| 29 | 7 | "Borderlands" | Tucson, Arizona[9] | October 29, 2012 |
| 30 | 8 | "Grinding the Gears" | Jacksonville, Florida | November 1, 2012 |
| 31 | 9 | "Virtual Reality" | Internet communities | November 24, 2012 |
| 32 | 10 | "As Black as We Wish to Be[10]" | Pike County, Ohio | November 28, 2012 |
| 33 | 11 | "Coming Home: Stories of Veterans Returning from War" | War veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan | June 7, 2013 |
| 34 | 12 | "Dropouts to Graduates: The Story of the Care Center" | The Care Center, Holyoke, Massachusetts | June 17, 2013 |
| 35 | 13 | "Back to Basics: An American Graduate Special" | Dropouts | September 17, 2013 |
Season 4
Season 4 includes the Fall 2013 season and the Spring 2014 season. It also includes some Black History Month specials.[4]
| No. in series | No. in season | Title | Featured subject/location | Release date[11] | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 36 | 1 | "The Hospital Always Wins[12]" | Creedmoor Psychiatric Center | October 1, 2013 | |
| 37 | 2 | "A Tale of Two Cities" | Portland, Oregon | October 7, 2013 | |
| 38 | 3 | "Reconciliation Way" | Tulsa, Oklahoma | October 15, 2013 | |
| 39 | 4 | "The Southwestern Range" | TBA | October 22, 2013 | |
| 40 | 5 | "Re:Defining Black History" | Black History Month | February 4, 2014 | |
| 41 | 6 | "Leadership from the Bottom Up" | African-American leaders | February 29, 2014 | |
| 42 | 7 | "When Words Matter: A National Poetry Month Special" | National Poetry Month | April 9, 2014 | |
| 43 | 8 | "The Legacy of Sugar" | Sugar plantations in Hawaii | May 13, 2014 | |
| 44 | 9 | "Contested" | Durham, North Carolina | May 20, 2014 | |
| Shorts from the Center for Documentary Studies, Duke University, in Durham. | |||||
| 45 | 10 | "Updating Tradition" | Salt Lake City, Utah | May 27, 2014 | |
| 46 | 11 | "The Sorting of America" | TBA | June 3, 2014 | |
| 47 | 12 | "Frontier Community" | Interior Alaska | June 10, 2014 | |
Season 4 shorts
| No. in series | No. in season | Title | Featured subject/location | Release date[11] |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| S1 | 1 | "Soteria[13]" | TBA | October 18, 2013 |
| S2 | 2 | "Dear Voices" | TBA | October 18, 2013 |
| S3 | 3 | "Move by Bike" | TBA | November 19, 2013 |
| S4 | 4 | "Dear Tulsa" | Tulsa, Oklahoma | December 3, 2013 |
| S5 | 5 | "The Possibilities of the Stars" | TBA | January 8, 2014 |
| S6 | 6 | "In East Portland, Soccer Helps Make a City Home" | TBA | January 22, 2014 |
| S7 | 7 | "The Life of a Big Idea" | TBA | March 18, 2014 |
| S8 | 8 | "Thrashing in the Woods" | TBA | April 1, 2014 |
| S9 | 9 | "The Friendship of Ross and Stardust" | TBA | April 29, 2014 |
Season 5
Season 5 includes the Fall 2014 season and the 2015 season.[4]
| No. in series | No. in season | Title | Featured subject/location | Release date[14] | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 48 | 1 | "Trans Families" | Transgender families | September 30, 2014 | |
| 49 | 2 | "American Justice" | American prison system | October 6, 2014 | |
| 50 | 3 | "Truckers of the High Seas" | Cargo ship | October 13, 2014 | |
| 51 | 4 | "Travelogue: Volume 1" | SOTRU team | October 13, 2014 | |
| Al Letson and the SOTRU team share their favorite stories and interviews | |||||
| 52 | 5 | "The Power of African-American Art" | African-American art | February 13, 2015 | |
| SOTRU covers African-American art in the Black History Month special | |||||
| 53 | 6 | "Power to the People" | Ithaca, New York | April 21, 2015 | |
| Producer Jonathan Miller goes to his hometown of Ithaca to see how the city's citizens are activists in climate change | |||||
| 54 | 7 | "The Poems, The Poets, the Power" | National Poetry Month | April 24, 2015 | |
| 55 | 8 | "Small Town, Global City" | San Gabriel Valley, California | May 4, 2015 | |
| 56 | 9 | "Travelogue: Volume Two" | SOTRU team | May 19, 2015 | |
| Al Letson and the SOTRU team share more stories and interviews. | |||||
Season 5 shorts
| No. in series | No. in season | Title | Featured subject/location | Release date[14] |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| S10 | 1 | "The Whistler" | TBA | December 3, 2014 |
| S11 | 2 | "A New Orleans Church Memorializes Murder Victims" | TBA | January 14, 2015 |
| S12 | 3 | "Dear Salt Lake City" | Salt Lake City, Utah | January 28, 2015 |
| S13 | 4 | "A Couple Twice Born" | TBA | March 3, 2015 |
Accolades
- Friedheim Travel Award: for the public radio broadcast of “Brooklyn - Change Happens”[15]
- National Lesbian & Gay Journalists Association Award for Excellence in Radio for the episode “Bayard Rustin: Who is This Man?”, 2011[16]
- Peabody Award for State of the Re:Union, 2014[1][17]
- Edward R. Murrow Award for the "As Black As We Wish to Be" episode, 2013[18]
- Edward R. Murrow Award for "The Hospital Always Wins" episode, 2014[18]
- Edward R. Murrow Award for the "Trans Families" episode, 2015[18]
- Radio Television Digital News Association (RTDNA) Kaleidoscope Award for the “Trans Families” episode, 2015[19]
References
- "State of the Re:Union (NPR and PRX)". Peabody Awards. Retrieved 4 January 2020.
- "State of the (Re)Union: In Search of the Red, Blue and Every Other Color". nextcity.org.
- "State of the Re:Union's requests "Dear City" Letters from West Virginia | West Virginia Writers, Inc".
- https://exchange.prx.org/SOTRU
- http://archives.wfpl.org/2010/08/09/state-of-the-reunion-motor-city-rebound/
- "Season 1". State of the Re:Union.
- "Season 2". State of the Re:Union.
- "Season 3". State of the Re:Union.
- Roth, R. (October 29, 2012). "State of the Re:Union examines TUSD's Mexican American Studies". Arizona Daily Independent.
- "State of the Re:Union with Al Letson: East Jackson, Ohio: As Black as We Wish to Be". WXXI. 20 January 2013. Retrieved 6 January 2019.
- "Season 4". State of the Re:Union.
- Rosenthal, Rob. "The Hospital Always Wins". Transom. Retrieved 5 January 2020.
- Cole, Kermit (October 18, 2013). ""State of the Re:Union Short: Soteria"".
- "Season 5". State of the Re:Union.
- "'WSJ,' 'Miami Herald' and 'Seattle Times' Score at National Press Club Journalism Awards". Editor & Publisher. 15 July 2010. Retrieved 4 January 2020.
- "Bayard Rustin Service Award 2013". Bayard Rustin LGBT Coalition. 5 June 2013. Retrieved 4 January 2020.
- "Post and Courier, 'State of Re:Union' win notable awards".
- "WJCT's State Of The Re:Union Wins Third National Edward R. Murrow Award In a Row". 24 June 2015. Retrieved 4 January 2020.
- "RTDNA has announced the winners of the 2015 Kaleidoscope Awards". Retrieved 4 January 2020.