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Performances are multi-sensory. Today we talk with Paul Johnson, the muralist whose backdrop sets the stage for the Concordia Christmas Concert.

Tuesday, November 23, 2021 - Claus Lembke of Bismarck has written a memoir titled “Koming to Amerika: An Immigrant's Story.” It covers his life growing up during World War II in Nazi Europe and his emigration to America. He farmed with an uncle in western Minnesota, then moved to Fargo and began a career in real estate before relocating to Bismarck to become the CEO of the North Dakota Association of Realtors. He was also a longtime Burleigh County Commissioner. ~~~ We replay a story from All Things Considered about Minnesota poet Robert Bly, who has passed away at age 94. ~~~ Chuck Lura has a Natural North Dakota essay about the Slade National Wildlife Refuge. ~~~ A hedge fund is making a bid to buy the company that owns the Bismarck Tribune and many other papers. Joining us with some analysis is the former executive director of the North Dakota Newspaper Association, Steve Andrist.

About this time in 1832, Dr. Meredith Martin mailed a letter to Secretary of War Lewis Cass, imploring him to permit vaccination of Upper Missouri River Indians in what is now North Dakota.

Over the past couple of years I’ve been engaged in a revival of balladry on the Great Plains. Returning to my roots as a folkie from way back in the twentieth century, I have been revisiting the histories of folksongs once considered of unknown origins, documenting them, and singing them as a contribution to our regional literature. It is amazing how, with the advantage of digitization of documents, especially newspapers, it is possible to track traditional ballads to their very origins.

The activity of the mind of George Will was matched by the activity of his legs. Son and heir of the seedsman Oscar Will of Bismarck, he put his Harvard education to work on everything around him, from horticulture to folksong to archaeology. And he was a boots-on-the-ground sort of guy.

Friday, November 19, 2021 - Ashley stops by at the Christkindlmarkt in Fargo and visits with hobby blacksmith Ralf Mehnert-Meland and paper artist Christina Lang who practices quilling. The event runs through the weekend. ~~~ An oak tree tells us about the past in this week’s Plains Folk essay from Tom Isern. ~~~ News director Dave Thompson is here for his weekly news chat. ~~~ Mattt Olien reviews “Spencer,” a drama about Princess Diana’s decision to end her marriage to Prince Charles.

On this date in 1926, the second annual corn show began in the Bismarck auditorium. The show had been the cause of much excitement for the past few months. Numerous advertisements in the papers had touted the event’s entertainment, speakers, and vendors. There was hope that most, if not all, of the 53 ND counties would be represented at the show, fully displaying their support for the event.

In the waning days of November in 1909, the Fargo Forum newspaper, as always, had the pulse of the community reflected in its reporting and advertising. Many print ads in that early century were bolder than seen today. Here are some of the interesting enticements from those days.

Our midwestern living conditions in this part of the country are often the subject of some derision by others in these United States. In November of this week in 1909, The Medina Citizen newspaper was cited by the Fargo Forum and Daily Republican for reacting to one such slight.

It is time to look skyward at night again. Some of you may have been noticing some meteors recently. The Leonids Meteor Shower began on November 6th and will run through the 30th. The shower will peak on the night of November 17th and early morning hours of the 18th with perhaps 15 meteors or so per hour. A nearly full moon, however, will make only the brightest of meteors clearly visible.