Finding Out with Peter and Poet Gold

29/04/2024

Date: Sunday, April 28, 2024
Guest: Elizabeth O’Raffity
Title: “Growing Stemz, Growing Community”
Elizabeth O’Raffity, the founder and CEO of Growing Stemz Foundation, talks frankly about the obstacles and achievements of her life as a Black woman in the NYC Department of Education teaching and developing science programs. She also talks of her current work doing youth development initiatives based on science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) in Poughkeepsie, with a special emphasis on young people of color.

https://www.iheart.com/podcast/481-peter-and-the-poet-gold-30383287/episode/growing-stemzgrowing-community-4-28-24guestelizabeth-oraffityceofnderstemz-foundation-obstaclesachievements-171497608/

29/04/2024

Date: Sunday, April 21, 2024
Guests: Sydney Kovel, Leah Dourmashkin, VC interns
Title: “Community Learning in Poughkeepsie” gives a glimpse into student life at Vassar and Poughkeepsie’s role in it. Sydney Kovel, a double major in sociology and media studies, and Leah Dourmashkin, a pre-med and religion double major at Vassar College, are interns with The Poet Gold and Peter Leonard. They speak about student life, with special insight into their lives as student-athletes. They are also fascinating in their comments on the relationship of Vassar to the Poughkeepsie community in general and their experiences in particular.

https://www.iheart.com/podcast/481-peter-and-the-poet-gold-30383287/episode/community-learning-in-poughkeepsie-04-21-2024-guests-169293886/

29/04/2024

Date: Sunday, April 14, 2024
Guests: Satara Brown and Queen Pittman,
Title: “Joining Non-Profit and Entrepreneurial Spirits” updates the community action of Satara Brown. With her freshly earned MA in criminal justice from St. John’s University, Satara Brown, the founder of the Poughkeepsie non-profit Rebuilding Our Community and Children (ROCC), describes her recent action as the founder of a for-profit women’s empowerment initiative, . Brown and her friend and mutual inspiration partner, self-made pastry chef, Queen Pittman, discuss their upcoming Brunch on Sunday, April 28.

https://www.iheart.com/podcast/481-peter-and-the-poet-gold-30383287/episode/joining-non-profit-entreprenurial-spirits-04-14-2024-167122773/

29/04/2024

Date: Sunday, April 7, 2024
Guest: Sandra Mamis, Miriam Cohen of the Vassar Temple
Title: “Celebrating 175 Years of the Vassar Temple” describes the upcoming community event. With Sandra Mamis poetically describing the planting of a tree as bearing fruit for “those yet to come,” and historian Miriam Cohen referring to the past as “keeping our forebears alive,” these Vassar Temple members give an insight into the community they represent and reasons to celebrate their 175 years of thriving in Poughkeepsie. The up-coming gala on Sunday, April 14 at the Grandview on the Poughkeepsie waterfront, will feature the lively, eminent historian of American Jews, Deborah Moore.

https://www.iheart.com/podcast/481-peter-and-the-poet-gold-30383287/episode/celebrating-175-years-of-the-vassar-164897390/

29/04/2024

Date: Sunday, March 31, 2024
Guest: Poet Gold. Peter Leonard
Title: “Women Lead Dutchess Continued – With Tape!” a discussion of the recent event, with a select tape of the lunch. We continue with our Women’s History Month special “Poet Gold Knows: Women Lead Dutchess,” with tape from the event that includes Poet Gold’s leading discussions on women who influenced the participating leaders – with a surprising number of them speaking in very personal terms about their mothers or grandmothers. There are also discussions on “glass ceiling” events the participants encountered in their professional lives, as well as what social issues they would address if they had magic powers to solve problems at will.

https://www.iheart.com/podcast/481-peter-and-the-poet-gold-30383287/episode/women-lead-dutchess-continued-163388251/

28/03/2024

Date: Sunday, March 24, 2024
Guest: Poet Gold. Peter Leonard
Title: “Women Lead Dutchess Continued – With Tape!” discussion of the recent event, with select tape from it.

We continue with our Women’s History month special “Poet Gold Knows: Women Lead Dutchess,” with tape from the event, that includes Poet Gold’s introducing the event and all participants sharing individual perspectives on themselves and their work.

https://www.iheart.com/podcast/481-peter-and-the-poet-gold-30383287/episode/women-lead-dutchess-continued-with-tape-03-24-2024-poet-gold-peter-discuss-the-recent-event-with-select-tape-from-it-161594553?cmp=ios_share&sc=ios_social_share&pr=false

28/03/2024

Date: Sunday, March 17, 2024
Guest: Lila Meade, Ex.Dir. Vassar-Haiti Project
Title: “Women Lead Dutchess Continued” gives a personal account from a participant and current news from her agency.

Description:
“Women Lead Dutchess” participant, Lila Mead, executive director of the Vassar-Haiti Project, gives her perspective on the conference, including the story of her grandmother, a single mother of nine children under six-teen who came to America from Haiti. All nine children, including Lila’s mother, became contributing members of their community, with the seven boys serving in the military in World War II.

Ms. Meade also gave a preview of the annual Vassar-Haiti Projects annual celebration and art sale, coming up on March 28th at Vassar College’s Alumni House, which will honor Dr. Daniel Aronzon, a legendary local pediatrician, former President of Vassar Brothers’ Medical Center and first medical director of the Vassar-Haiti Project.

https://www.iheart.com/podcast/481-peter-and-the-poet-gold-30383287/episode/poet-gold-knowswomen-lead-dutchess-continued-03-17-2024-guest-lila-meade-execdir-vassar-haiti-project-program-reaction-agency-update-159578938?cmp=ios_share&sc=ios_social_share&pr=false

28/03/2024

Date: Sunday, March 10, 2024
Guest: Poet Gold and Peter Leonard with Uncle Mike Hansen
Title: “Poet Gold Knows: Women Lead Dutchess' ' reviews the recent women’s event at iHeartMedia.

Description:

Poet Gold and Peter Leonard along with Uncle Mike Hansen talk about the happenings and meaning of the recent conference at iHeartMedia of local women leaders in Dutchess County, which included political, human service and art leaders. The contrast between the general leadership styles of men and women is examined, with Uncle Mike expressing his amazement at the “humility and honesty” of the women leaders, and Poet Gold – who is not surprised – talking of the collaboration of the participants.

https://www.iheart.com/podcast/481-peter-and-the-poet-gold-30383287/episode/poet-gold-knows-women-lead-dutchess-03-10-2024-poet-gold-peter-uncle-mike-review-recent-womens-conference-at-iheart-poughkeepsie-ny-157406928?cmp=ios_share&sc=ios_social_share&pr=false

26/03/2024

DATE: Sunday, March 3,2024
Guest: NYS Senator Rob Rolison, NHR ex.dir. Sam Laganaro
Title: “Prioritizing People: An Inspiring Alliance” demonstrates governmental and community agency cooperation.

Description:

New York State Senator Rob Rolison and New Horizons Resources executive director Sam Laganaro speak of the human and legal commitment of both NYS and the disability agencies to support people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Rolison, a former police officer and Mayor of Poughkeepsie, and Laganaro, a former human rights attorney, both insist that unjust pay for the Direct Support Professionals (DSPs) is the central obstacle to fulfilling this commitment. Laganaro documents the large percentage (almost half) of NYS DSPs who face personal food insecurity or housing insecurity, while working in a position that they overwhelmingly find meaningful. Rolison and Laganaro’s palpable mutual respect, decency and resolve create an inspiring alliance in the face of menacing financial and political challenges.

https://www.iheart.com/podcast/481-peter-and-the-poet-gold-30383287/episode/prioritizing-people-an-inspiring-alliance-03-03-2024-guests-ny-state-sen-rob-rolison-sam-laganaronhr-ex-dir---agency-cooperation-155579337?cmp=ios_share&sc=ios_social_share&pr=false

26/03/2024

DATE: Sunday, February 25,2024
Guest: Poet Gold and Peter Leonard with Uncle Mike Hansen
Title: “Arts and Education - Old and New” examines how arts education influences a person’s relation to art throughout life.

Description:

Joined by country music DJ Uncle Mike Hansen, co-hosts Poet Gold and Peter Leonard discuss the role of arts education in determining a person’s relation to art throughout life. Each person revealed how their experience with art – especially music – as children affected their lifelong relation to art. In past times art, if taught at all, was a minor part of the school curriculum. Although it is often generally more prominent in schools today, it remains a small and separate part of learning. Current, enlightened thinking about art and education is to have art “integrated” into other subjects, like science or history.

https://www.iheart.com/podcast/481-peter-and-the-poet-gold-30383287/episode/arts-education-old-new-02-25-2024-poet-gold-peter-uncle-mike-discuss-arts-education-influence-on-art-in-ones-lifetime-153566283?cmp=ios_share&sc=ios_social_share&pr=false

26/03/2024

Date: Sunday, February 18, 2024
Guest: Shawn Strong, Safe Harbors - The Grooved Pavement Podcast
Title: “Thinking About Black Film” assesses the benefits and detriments of a certain kind of Black film.

Description:

Shawn Strong focuses on his “The Grooved Pavement” Podcast, which examines the mixed record of “Blaxploitation” films. These movies, like “Superfly,” created work for Black artists, even though the characters played in the films were often negative stereotypes of Black people. Strong, a musician himself, is particularly supportive of the music in these films. Poet Gold presented the perspective of how inspiring it was to her as a young person to see any Black people represented on film which predominantly told the stories of White people.

https://www.iheart.com/podcast/481-peter-and-the-poet-gold-30383287/episode/thinking-about-black-film-02-18-2024guestshawn-strongsafe-harbors-grove-pavement-podcast-benefits-detriments-some-types-of-black-films-151148997?cmp=ios_share&sc=ios_social_share&pr=false

26/03/2024

Date: Sunday, February 11, 2024
Guest: Jean-Marc Superville
Title: “Unforgetting in Newburgh - Part II” tells of the reclaiming of a 19th century ‘Colored’ cemetery.

Description:

While revealing the complexity of his own multicultural background and varied interests, including history and filmmaking, Jean-Marc Superville continues (cf. Finding Out 2-4-24) his advocacy for reclaiming a cemetery of long-forgotten Black people who died during the 18th and 19th centuries in Newburgh. Besides striving to re-bury the 115 bodies that were discovered during renovations to the city, Superville wants to unearth, uncover, un-forget the stories of these people who were shunned in life and dishonored in death. This resurrection of the spirit requires reverence, political will, historical records, and the tender imaginations of artists – all of which Newburgh has in abundance.

https://www.iheart.com/podcast/481-peter-and-the-poet-gold-30383287/episode/unforgetting-in-newburgh---pt2-02-11-2024-guest-jean-marc-superville---tells-of-the-reclaiming-of-a-19th-century-colored-cemetery-149054807?cmp=ios_share&sc=ios_social_share&pr=false

26/03/2024

Date: Sunday, February 4, 2024
Guest: Jean-Marc Superville
Title: “Unforgetting in Newburgh” tells of the reclaiming of a 19th century ‘Colored’ cemetery.

Description:

“The living owe the dead something: remembering them,” claims Jean-Marc Superville, who is leading an initiative to reclaim a cemetery of long-forgotten Black people who died during the 18th and 19th centuries in Newburgh. Besides striving to re-bury the 115 bodies that were discovered during renovations to the city, Superville wants to unearth, uncover, un-forget the stories of these people who were shunned in life and dishonored in death. This resurrection of the spirit requires reverence, political will, historical records, and the tender imaginations of artists – all of which Newburgh has in abundance.

https://www.iheart.com/podcast/481-peter-and-the-poet-gold-30383287/episode/unforgetting-in-newburgh-02-04-2024-guest-jean-marc-superville---tells-of-the-reclaiming-of-a-19th-century-colored-cemetery-147172904?cmp=ios_share&sc=ios_social_share&pr=false

26/03/2024

Date: Sunday, January 29, 2024
Guest: Roger Simon, Simon Studio
Title: “Roger Simon Talking” gives insight into the art of a long-time theatre person in NYC and Poughkeepsie.

Description:

Roger Simon, founder of the Simon Studio in NYC and an 81-year-old outfielder in Poughkeepsie’s senior softball league, talks about his decades-long career, ranging from being an acting coach to film stars, including John Travolta and Samuel Jackson, to his upcoming acting scenes with Kevin Bacon. Simon is particularly fascinating when talking about the creative relationship between directors and actors.

https://www.iheart.com/podcast/481-peter-and-the-poet-gold-30383287/episode/roger-simon-talking-01-28-2024-guest-roger-simon-simon-studio---insight-into-the-art-of-a-long-time-theatre-person-in-nyc-poughkeepsie-145821291?cmp=ios_share&sc=ios_social_share&pr=false

05/02/2024

This album commemorates the guests who were featured on the show in 2023. We thank you for your time and appreciate you sharing your thoughts with us. Each photo has a link attached that takes you to each show. We look forward to our guests of 2024!

24/01/2024

Yesterday, we had a great conversation on Feels good to be back on the airwaves.

We air Sunday mornings on Q92.1 FM at 6 AM, and on WKIP 1450 AM, 1370 AM, 98.5 AM at 7:30 AM, and anytime with the podcast on IHeart. Both Pete and I thank you in advance for listening. 🙏💐💐🙏

18/05/2023

Date: May 14, 2023
Guest: Drew Andrew’s, executive director of the Center for Creative Education - Arts with a purpose in Kingston, NY

Description:

“I am hip-hop,” says Drew Andrews, the longtime executive director of the Center for Creative Education in Kingston. He proceeds to document his life in Brooklyn and Staten Island where hip-hop was emerging as he embraced dance to express and magnify the revolutionary life-forces -political and spiritual – that he felt all around him. He continues to imbue these values of joy, discipline and community into youth through the arts, especially dance. All of this will be on display at the May 20th, “Life Is A Circus” performance and fundraiser for the Center for Creative Education, where it’s always “arts with a purpose.”

https://www.iheart.com/podcast/481-peter-and-the-poet-gold-30383287/episode/arts-with-a-purpose-05-14-2023-guest-drew-andrews-exec-dir-cce4me---focus-on-dance-life-is-a-circus-fundraiser-may-30th-2023-115027664?cmp=ios_share&sc=ios_social_share&pr=false

11/05/2023

If you missed this past Sunday’s show, check it out right here (See link below description).

Date: May 6, 2023
Guest: Ondie Thomas James and Yvonne Flowers, Poughkeepsie candidates
Title “Poughkeepsie Visions” gives the personal and political visions of two candidates for local political office.

Description:

Eight-year political veteran and current candidate for the City Of Poughkeepsie Mayor, Yvonne Flowers, and first -time candidate for City Council 5th Ward, Ondie James, present their political issues, including youth development, crime reduction and job creation. MS. Flowers, leaning on her vast community experience – as an elected official and grass-roots community volunteers – promises to “fight and plead” for her constituents. Ms. James with her community experience in the arts and community organizations promises to use her ability to collaborate to accomplish things in the political sphere.

https://www.iheart.com/podcast/481-peter-and-the-poet-gold-30383287/episode/poughkeepsie-visions-05-07-2023-guests-ondie-james-yvonne-flowers---pok-canidates---visions-of-2-canidates-running-for-local-office-114550547?cmp=ios_share&sc=ios_social_share&pr=false

05/05/2023

Date: April 30, 2023
Guest: Chris Grant, City of Poughkeepsie Councilman
Title: “Youth Development: Personal and Political,” manifests the dual nature of caring for young people.

Description: Chris Grant is the born and raised councilman for the 6th ward in the City of Poughkeepsie. Grant, a parent of a 5-year-old boy, is particularly concerned with youth development issues, which includes enriched programming for all young people, especially young Black people who face extra challenges. One non-policy manifestation of Grant’s concern for all youth is his leadership role in the City of Poughkeepsie youth baseball league.

Check out the interview:
https://www.iheart.com/podcast/481-peter-and-the-poet-gold-30383287/episode/youh-development-personal-political-04-30-2023-114076671/

05/05/2023

Date: April 9, 2023
Guest: Poet Gold
Title: “PoughETRY Fest, Again” introduces Poughkeepsie’s 6th annual celebration of poetry.

Description: For the 6th year in a row, The Poet Gold, a Dutchess County Poet Laureate, presents PoughETRY Fest, an international civic celebration of poetry, which, like its host city, Poughkeepsie, is spelled P-o-u-g-hETRY. The action, from noon to 8:00PM, takes place at the Cunneen-Hackett Arts Center, 12 Vassar Street and Reason and Ruckus, at 305 Main Street, both in downtown Poughkeepsie. There will be an array of all-day, on-line events including open mics for youth and adults.

Check out the interview:
https://www.iheart.com/podcast/481-peter-and-the-poet-gold-30383287/episode/pougherty-fest-again-04-09-2023-poet-gold-112513907/

05/05/2023

Date: April 2, 2023
Guest: Andrew Burgreen, Cunneen-Hackett Arts Center
Title: “Poughkeepsie Blooming: Magnolia Party” gives a glimpse at the community role of the Cunneen-Hackett Arts Center.

Description:
The Executive Director of the Cunneen-Hackett Arts Center, Andrew Burgreen, talks about the upcoming “Magnolia Party,” the agency’s main annual fundraiser on April 15. Along the way Burgreen tells a lot of Poughkeepsie’s history with its enduring and intricate relation to the Art Center. This includes the actual magnolia tree the event was named after, which contributed a blossom that Matthew Vassar placed on Abraham Lincoln’s coffin when it passed through Poughkeepsie in 1865.Plenty of art, history, and community!

Check out the interview:
https://www.iheart.com/podcast/481-peter-and-the-poet-gold-30383287/episode/poughkeepsie-blooming-magnolia-party-04-02-2023-guest-112047668/

18/03/2023

Date: March 19, 2023
Guest: Ovid, owner of Reason and Ruckus
Title: “New-fashioned Community Building” outlines an expansive notion of what a restaurant can be.

Description:
Reason and Ruckus, a restaurant with a beguiling name, simultaneously serves as an art gallery and especial events venue, which builds community with the gusto and self-awareness of a non-profit community center. This restaurant, which organically emerged from an art gallery, serves food and drinks that the owner, Ovid (with his own beguiling name and character), says are created with all the care and attention of an “artist creating a painting.” With its jazz-soaked improvisational sensibility Reason and Ruckus is more verb (action) than noun (thing).
https://www.iheart.com/podcast/481-peter-and-the-poet-gold-30383287/episode/new-fashioned-community-buildig-03-19-2023-guest-110789607/

06/03/2023

Date: March 5, 2023
Guest: Drake Creative, Hudson Valley, New York
Title: “Creativity for Good” is an introduction to Alex Tuller and Dean Temple and their story-telling PR work.

Description:

Alex Tuller and Dean Temple, partners in Drake Creative, talk about their public relations work with local non-profit organizations. Essential to their work is a fundamental exploration and clarification of the identity of client organization and what story it wants to convey. Talking about their written and visual work for Poughkeepsie-based Family Services, Tuller and Temple demonstrate the vital moral and financial need for non-profits to tell their story in an uplifting and public way.

Check out the interview:
https://www.iheart.com/podcast/481-peter-and-the-poet-gold-30383287/episode/creativity-for-good-03-05-2023-guests-alex-109848962/

06/03/2023

Date: February 26, 2023
Guest: Yvonne Flowers, Poughkeepsie Mayoral Candidate
Title: “Running for Poughkeepsie” gives an insight into Yvonne Flowers, a Democratic candidate for Mayor.

Description:

Poughkeepsie's Fifth Ward Councilwoman, Yvonne Flowers, is a candidate for Mayor. Recently retired after 30 years as a Duchess Community College administrator overseeing the budgets and implementation of grants to the College, this born, breed and educated Poughkeepsie native has been enmeshed in community and civic action since she was a teenager. Flowers, a grandmother – and daughter of the late community icon John Flowers - is a longtime leader with a record of bringing people together in a focused way to address issues from public safety to youth development.

Check out the interview:
https://www.iheart.com/podcast/481-peter-and-the-poet-gold-30383287/episode/running-for-poughkeepsie-02-26-2023-guest-yvonne-109332534/

06/03/2023

Date: February 19, 2023
Guest: Sam Laganaro and Jeff Fox – disability advocates
Title: “Joint Advocacy for Justice” outlines NYS’s budgetary harm toward Direct Support Professionals and the people they serve.

Description:

Two CEOs of major Hudson Valley disability agencies – former human rights lawyer Sam Laganaro of New Horizons Resources and Jeff Fox of Abilities First, who worked in the field since high school and earned a Ph.D. in order to “help as many people as possible,” – join together in advocating for fair pay for Direct Support Professionals (DSPs), the workers who directly support the lives of people with developmental and intellectual disabilities.

The issue, Laganaro insists, is “neglect.” Then Fox and Laganaro document in detail the systemic harm done to the careers of DSPs in the last decade, as they advocate for an 8.5% raise (last year’s rate of inflation) along with a $4,000 payment to address prior injustices.

Check out the interview:
https://www.iheart.com/podcast/481-peter-and-the-poet-gold-30383287/episode/joint-advocacy-for-justice02-19-2023-guests-sam-109130662/

06/03/2023

Date: Sunday, February 12, 2023
Guest: Jody Miller, DC Commission on Human Rights
Title: “Human Rights: Everywhere” talks of universal rights in Dutchess County and the world.

Description:

Jody Miller, Executive Director of the Dutchess County Commission on Humans Rights, clarifies the fundamental nature of human rights - “rights you have just by being born.” This is different from civil rights which are granted by a political jurisdiction (a county). Miller particularly focuses the issue for Hudson Valley residents by mentioning Eleanor Roosevelt, a Dutchess County resident, and her leadership in the “Universal Declaration of Human Rights” almost eighty years ago.

Check out the interview:
https://www.iheart.com/podcast/481-peter-and-the-poet-gold-30383287/episode/human-rights-everywhere-02-12-2023-guest-jody-108614434/

06/03/2023

Date: January 22, 2023
Guest: Eileen Sackman, President of Bau Gallery
Title: “Bau Gallery: Artists Cooperating; Artists Emerging” gives insight into a local artist cooperative

Description:

Eileen Sackman is the President of BAU Gallery, in Beacon NY, which is operated by and for artists. Sackman’s own work, mostly ceramics, formerly had explicitly confrontational social justice themes, although now her messages – mostly about animal rights - are more gentle and subtle. Her fondness and advocacy for endangered animals generally show-up as wonder-inducing images of rhinos, apes or whales designed into her pottery.

Check out the interview:
https://www.iheart.com/podcast/481-peter-and-the-poet-gold-30383287/episode/bau-gallery-artists-cooperating-artists-emerging01-22-2023-107575328/

06/03/2023

Date: January 15, 2023
Guest: Tim McQueen, community activist and artist
Title: “A Guy From Poughkeepsie” gives insight into Tim McQueen’s personal and community life

Description:

Tim McQueen’s grandmother was a pastor in whose Poughkeepsie church he played the drums – which included the pounding on a secret trap door for its percussion effect - from an early age. This experience was vital in forming his commitment to art, community and creativity, which he casually documents in this interview – highlighting his spirituality-soaked work as a music producer, with a special emphasis on Poughkeepsie’s youth.

Check out the interview:
https://www.iheart.com/podcast/481-peter-and-the-poet-gold-30383287/episode/a-guy-from-poughkeepsie-01-15-2023-guest-107222878/

14/02/2023

14/02/2023

In this album, we remember a few of the guests who have joined us in 2022. We are what makes us a community in the Hudson Valley. Thank you for sharing your voices with us in this year and in the year to come. Click on the photos to find the links to each episode.