"In The Mix: Conversations with Artists...Between Races" by Dmae Roberts is a radio exploration of Mixed Race. Through the voices of artists who have dedicated their lives to building bridges and bringing to light interracial issues and themes, Roberts takes us on a journey to understanding what means to be of Mixed Race.

A new mural is rising above the wetlands of Oaks Bottom. The largest public art project in Portland is beginning to adorn the walls of Portland Memorial that face the Bottoms. By next spring this former eyesore of weirdness will become an artistic reflection of the diversity of nature that abounds in Portland's singular city-owned wildlife refuge.

Mike Houck, the original visionary for this project; Peggy Kendellen, public art manager for the Regional Arts and Culture Council; and Dan Cohen with ArtFX (here, too) join Locus Focus host Barbara Bernstein to talk about the impact and signficance of this project. Happy New Year!

Host Marianne Barisonek speaks with Code Pink activist Diane Wilson about her memoir Holy Roller: Growing Up In the Church of Knock Down, Drag Out: or How I Quit Loving a Blue-Eyed Jesus. For Diane Wilson, childhood was populated by devils and ghosts, holy and otherwise. Holy Roller: Growing Up in the Church of the Knock Down, Drag Out; Or, How I Quit Loving a Blue-Eyed Jesus describes Wilson’s Pentecostal upbringing in the tiny fishing town of Seadrift, Texas, where residents were ruled by poverty, labor, elaborate religious mores, and corrupt authorities. Despite that potentially oppressive litany, the book is a delight.

Kaye Gibbons writes about growing up with (and without)  a mother who is mentally ill in her novel Sights Unseen, reviewed here by Larry Bowlden.