December Festivals

Fiction, Nonfiction

Interviewed by: Angela Elam

Catalog Number(s): 20191220, 19971226

Interview Year(s): 1997

In this special radio anthology, we feature stories and commentary about the December holiday season from our rich archives. The late Rabbi Gerald Kane discusses the origins of Hanukkah, which inspired our recording of the now late Grace Paley, reading her widely anthologized short story, “The Loudest Voice.”

Novelist Priscilla Cogan provides a different perspective on Christmas with her Native American character from her Small Press Book Award-winning, Winona’s Web, the first novel in her trilogy about the character. Then Dr. Maulana Karenga talks about why he founded Kwanzaa in 1966 and the importance of the seven principles that are observed during the week-long celebration. Kansas City storyteller Milton Gray, who created a Kwanzaa Principles program for the Kansas City Museum in the 1990s, shares a personal story inspired by the holiday.