Three Miami Valley civic leaders and one of the city’s top arts organizations have been inducted into the Dayton Regional Walk of Fame. The 2019 inductees were honored at the annual ceremony Thursday at Sinclair College. This year’s honorees include civil-rights leader Jesse Gooding Jr., entrepreneur John Gower, philanthropists Betsy and Lee Whitney, and the Dayton Contemporary Dance Company.
This week on Dayton Youth Radio, we feature 18-year-old Devin Gum - a high school senior from Centerville, who will be voting for the first time in next year’s Presidential Election. It’s with that in mind that we invite you to listen to an interview Devin did with his dad, Kevin.
In 1990, a woman named Kate Munger was losing her friend Larry, who was dying of HIV/AIDS. Larry was in a coma and Munger says she was “terrified” as she sat with him before his passing. So, she says she did what she always did when she was afraid; she sang to him - for 2 ½ hours. Munger says the singing gave her courage and seemed to sooth Larry. That incident helped Munger form the Threshold Choir - Small groups of women who sing to the dying. Now, the choir that began with one group of 15 women, now has chapter in states across the U.S. and more than 200 chapters around the world. Volunteers “singing to folks who are facing death, grief, or suffering.” More than a hundred Threshold Singers, from dozens of chapters throughout the Midwest, gathered in Yellow Springs this weekend. Joan Ackerman lives in Yellow Springs and has been singing with the Threshold chapter there for about eight years. We spoke to her about how she got into singing for people who were dying.
Figuring out America’s healthcare system can be hard for anyone. It can be especially challenging for refugees, who often face significant language and cultural barriers. Side Effects Public Media’s Natalie Krebs followed one group that’s trying to bridge that gap -- by training refugees as health navigators in their own communities.
On November 9th, 2019 the Air Force Museum Theatre at Wright-Patt will hold the world film premiere of The Lafayette Escadrille. The feature length documentary, filmed on both sides of the Atlantic, tells the story of a U.S. unit of volunteers, under French command, who came forward to fight for France during World War I. The film draws a dotted line from Dayton, and the Wright Brothers to one of the founders of the fighting unit, Norman Prince. That line continues on to France and to early flying and the advent of American military aviation. For the scoop we talked to one of the producers of the film WYSO’s Aviation Commentator - Dan Patterson.
