WFHB FireHouse Broadcasting

Dr. Marc Lamont Hill is considered one of the country's leading intellectuals of the hip-hop generation. Hill joins us by phone to discuss hip-hop culture and its impact on the African-American community and mainstream America. Dr. Hill presents a lecture in Bloomington Wednesday February 10 at 7 p.m. in Alumni Hall at the Indiana Memorial Union. Also in this program: the second in a special four-part series of our black history segment "Dark Past Bright Future" brings you oral histories from elder African-Americans recalling the days of segregation in Bloomington. This week's segment features an interview with Betty Newman on social life in local black culture during the years of segregation. Our featured musical selection is the underground hip-hop track "Sphere of Hip-Hop" by Mars ILL, an emcee/DJ hip-hop duo from Atlanta, Georgia. As always, Bring It On!

Hosts Ramon Tristani and Anna Witte bring you a bright and amazing show despite the winter weather. Guest speaker Gonzalo comes on to talk about the Oscars and what the possibilities look like of the awards along with the technical support of Cesar Escovar. Hola Bloomington also highlights this week's community events and volunteer opportunities in a segment prepared by Jenny Gibson and Daniel Soto. As always we feature cultural and health segments produced by Nuevos Horizontes, a program of the University of Illinois Extension, and news from Democracy Now! Enjoy another segment of Efemerides, celebrating significant moments in Latin American history.

Bloomington author Donovan Walling highlights the upcoming lecture by internationally recognized theologian Bishop John Shelby Spong who will discuss his philosophy of “Progressive Christianity” at the Bloomington First United Church on Sunday February 14. Walling also shares some personal history as author of the groundbreaking anthology “Open Lives, Safe Schools”, his role as co-founder of the Quarryland Men’s Chorus and other aspects of his extensive career in education. Northern Indiana activist Linda Bentz provides updates about the united organizing efforts by various community, student and queer groups in response to an offensive cartoon published recently in the University of Notre Dame student newspaper.

The Wild and Scenic Environmental Film Festival is the largest festival of its kind, showcasing films that tell a story about our planet. The festival is on tour to inspire activism in communities like Bloomington, where the featured films will focus on the theme of food. The Indiana Forest Alliance is coordinating the Wild and Scenic Environmental Film Festival in Bloomington on February 25, and IFA director Rhonda Baird joins us in the studio as our guest this week on EcoReport, a weekly program providing independent media coverage of environmental and ecological issues with a focus on local, state and regional people, issues, and events in order to foster open discussion of human relationships with nature and the Earth and to encourage you to take personal responsibility for the world in which we live.

The John Waldron Arts Center is run by the Bloomington Area Arts Council. Council board members say they must close the Waldron if they cannot raise $120,000 by March 1. On January 27 the arts council laid off its entire paid staff, the latest development in an ongoing financial crisis that has galvanized the local arts community. Public outcry rose to a fevered pitch when rate hikes for performance groups using the Waldron threatened to make the space too expensive for many of its users. The crisis prompted mayor Mark Kruzan to appoint an eight-member study group to help figure out how to protect the Waldron and its galleries, theaters, and classroom spaces. The study group has organized itself into three teams evaluating the building’s functionality, the cost of operations and a fair fee structure, and the legal aspects of its disposition.