From the Vault 412: Federico

On this episode of From the Vault we present an August 7, 1968 radio drama from WBAI-FM in New York City made possible thanks to a preservation and access project funded in part by a grant from the Grammy Foundation. Produced by Mind's Eye Theatre as a radio drama, Federico is a radio performance based on the life of the Spanish poet Federico Garcia Lorca, one of the great poets and dramatists of the 20th century, a collaborator with contemporaries Salvador Dali and Luis Bunuel early in his career. Many of Lorca's poems, while undoubtedly beautiful, were also very biting in their criticism of the emerging fascists who would eventually capture and execute Lorca during the Spanish Civil War in 1936. Mind's Eye Theatre used their vision, talent and resources to introduce Lorca's work to a late-Sixties American radio audience not yet familiar with his poetry - and so it is fitting that their production of Federico be featured this week on From the Vault to inaugurate National Poetry Month.

Mind's Eye Theatre, which ran from 1966 to 1969, was the brainchild of Pacifica producer Baird Searle, and showcased a collective of talented writers, directors, and actors who would participate in the weekly dramatizations on WBAI radio. The Theatre would alternate between classic tales and original plays that would come to life for listeners on Pacifica Radio in New York City.

From the Vault is presented as part of the Pacifica Radio Archives Preservation and Access Project, funded in part by an award from the GRAMMY Foundation and the National Historical Publications and Records Commission at the National Archives and Records Administration, and past grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Ford Foundation, and the American Archive funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, along with the generous support of Pacifica Radio Listeners. We also thank our partners and collaborators at the Pop-Up Archive, Amara, Other Minds Archives, George Blood Audio, and the California Audio Visual Preservation Project.