date of broadcast: August 5, 2009
Raised in Idaho and the mother of two children, Raptosh teaches composition, creative writing, and literature at The College of Idaho, where she holds the Eyck-Berringer Endowed Chair in English. She earned her M.F.A. in creative writing at the University of Michigan. The author of three collections of poetry, Raptosh lives in Boise.
Listen to Diane Raptosh's story.
Parents From a Different Alphabet
The Body Politic
Male ostriches, for example, pirouette-dance only when courting other males. Gray-headed flying foxes drape wing-membranes round same-sex partners; stumptail and bonnet macaques sleep-huddle; laud all male walruses who link into extended chains, clasping one to the next front-to-back as they doze along sea-skin — a drowsy water-flame play zoologists tag wuzzle. This resembles the ways whales and dolphins drub on each other, flippers and tail flukes. Kangaroos growl, male Anna’s hummingbirds pop, male blackbuck antelopes bark, male ocellated antbirds carol, and male lions hum for the love of someone the same. The snap-hiss calls of black- crowned night herons, the croaking of male moose, the chirp-squeaks of male West Indian manatees, yip- purr calls of hammerheads, the yelp-and babblesinging of the pukeko, stutters and chirps of male cheetahs, the vacuum-slurp of male caribou and pulsive scream-calls in bowhead whales: some of what’s to be heard. Female koalas bellow, female squirrel monkeys purr, female red foxes gecker and snirk — all for the gaze of a certain girl, while musk ducks paddle-honk, plonk-sink, and whistle-kick. And what about those pulsed sound waves male Atlantic spotted dolphins have been known to use to woo male friends? A couple of male Bonobos out of the black- blue kiss each other so marvelously one of their tongues gets ripped. Just now, somewhere, two female hoary marmots are rubbing each others’ chops; a pair of male mountain sheep are grazing each others’ horns and cheeks; female galahs and orange-fronted parakeets in same-sex pairs too numerous to count are in the midst of blood-hot faux fencing bouts with their bills even as we speak. Say it with me.
2009 Featured Artists
and date of broadcast
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Margaret Aho
Poet, Pocatello November 25, 2009 Jill Aldape Oinkari Dancer, Boise August 26, 2009 Mary Clearman Blew Writer, Moscow November 11, 2009 Jim Cockey Composer, McCall October 14, 2009 Vince Crofts Musician, Firth December 2, 2009 Steve Derricott Rawhide braider, Boise September 9, 2009 Molly Hill Painter, Boise August 19, 2009 Jim Loney and Colleen McNutt Artists, Moscow September 24, 2009 Ron McFarland Poet, Moscow September 16, 2009 Aage Nielsen Musician, Boise October 21, 2009 Philomena Nomee Beadworker, Coeur d'Alene October 28, 2009 Amy O'Brien Dancer, Boise November 18, 2009 Troy Passey Artist, Boise September 2, 2009 Randy Priest Hat Maker, Donnelly December 16, 2009 Denis and Margo Proksa Artists, Pocatello December 9, 2009 Diane Raptosh Poet, Boise August 5, 2009 Nita Sale Quilter September 30, 2009 Stephen Schultz Painter, Sandpoint November 4, 2009 Cary Schwarz Saddlemaker, Salmon August 12, 2009 Evelyn Sooter Assemblager, Clark Fork December 23, 2009 Robert Wrigley Poet, Moscow October 7, 2009 |
Art & Soul 2009
Art & Soul 2008
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