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HOST:
Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in VOA Special English.
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This is Bob Doughty.
On our show this week, we have music from Faith Hill. And weanswer a question about her. We also report about a new exhibit ofhand-made quilts.
But first, we tell about the opening of an important sportsseason.
Baseball Season Opens
HOST:
The Major League professionalbaseball season opened in the United States last Sunday when theBaltimore Orioles played the Boston Red Sox. But two baseball gameswere played even earlier - in Japan. Gwen Outen explains.
ANNCR:
Perhaps no other sport has become as deeply rooted in Americanlife as baseball. No other sport has created so many populartraditions, including poems, songs, books and films. Famous playersof the past and present are as well-known to Americans as thecountry's great scientists, writers and political leaders.
Major League Baseball officials continue to explore ways to addto these traditions. One of these is to play the season openinggames in another country. So far, such games have been played inMexico and Japan.
This year, the first two games of the major league baseballseason were played in Tokyo at the end of March. The New YorkYankees played the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. The Yankees are famous forwinning more championships than any other baseball team in America.This year, the Yankees are paying some of their best players hugeamounts of money. These famous athletes include Alex Rodriguez,Derek Jeter and the Japanese baseball hero, Hideki Matsui.
All three played in the twoopening games at the Tokyo Dome in Japan. Hideki Matsui won the mostvaluable player award. After the games, he said he got his powerfrom the Japanese fans at the game and their high expectations ofhim. He told the New York Times newspaper that he was the happiestman in the world.
Some American baseball writers and fans were less than happyabout the opening games this year. They began in Tokyo at seveno'clock in the evening. That was about five o'clock in the morningin New York! Newspaper reports said fans held opening day breakfastparties so friends could gather to eat and watch the game ontelevision. And many drinking places in the city opened early forthe same reason. The Devil Rays won the opening day game. TheYankees won the second game one day later.
Quilt Exhibit
HOST:
A new exhibit of colorful bed coverings called quilts opened lastmonth at the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.African-American women in a tiny farming town called Gee's Bend,Alabama, created the quilts. Shep O'Neal tells us more.
ANNCR:
There is only one road into and out of the town of Gee's Bend. Itis a very poor community. Yet it is rich in traditions. For manyyears, the women of Gee's Bend have created beautiful quilts fromeveryday cloth material. Now, seventy of these quilts made byforty-six women are being shown in an exhibit called "The Quilts ofGee's Bend." These large, colorful quilts hang on the walls of themuseum. They look like modern abstract paintings. In fact, the chiefart critic for the New York Times newspaper calls the quilts "someof the most miraculous works of modern art that America hasproduced."
The women of Gee's Bend made the quilts to cover their beds andkeep their families warm at night. The women sewed squares,triangles and long pieces of cloth together. They used everydaymaterials like old clothing and pieces of cloth left over frommaking other things. Experts say the bright colors and moderndesigns are different from traditional American quilts made in otherparts of the country.
Gee's Bend, Alabama, is named after Joseph Gee, a white man whoowned land in the area in the early eighteen-hundreds. Today, aboutseven-hundred-fifty people live in the town. All of them are black.Most of them have ancestors who were slaves on two large farms inthe area. Women in the town learned quilting from their mothers andgrandmothers. They made the quilts from the nineteen-thirties to thepresent time.
There are several different kinds of quilts in the exhibit. Someare made of bright colored pieces of cotton cloth called corduroy.Others are "work clothes" quilts made of old blue denim clothingworn by farm workers.
Experts say a Gee's Bend quilt represents many things. It isuseful as well as beautiful. It expresses the artistic ideas of thequilter and the cultural identity of the community. One of the womensaid this about her quilt: "It represents safekeeping, it representsbeauty, and you could say it represents family history."
Faith Hill
HOST:
Our VOA listener question this week comes from Wuhan, China. QiuTsuly asks about American singer Faith Hill.
That is her name to music fans all over the world. Her name atbirth was Audrey Faith Perry. She was born in the southern state ofMississippi in nineteen-sixty-seven. She grew up singing in church,and decided to become a singer when she was fourteen years old.
Faith Perry moved to Nashville,Tennessee at the age of nineteen. She married songwriter Dan Hillthe next year. Their marriage ended four years later.
Faith Hill had her first hit record in nineteen-ninety-four. Itis called "Wild One."
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Today, Faith Hill is married to another popular country singer,Tim McGraw. They have three daughters. Here is a hit song theyrecorded together a few years ago. It is called "Let's Make Love."
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Faith Hill has won or been nominated for just about every musicindustry honor. Last year, she won a Grammy Award for Best FemaleCountry Vocal Performance for the title song of her latest album. Weleave you now with that song, "Cry."
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HOST:
This is Bob Doughty.
Send us your questions about American life! Be sure to includeyour name and postal address. We will send you a gift if we use yourquestion.
Send e-mail to mosaic@voanews.com. Or write to American Mosaic,VOA Special English, Washington, D.C., two-zero-two-three-seven,USA.
Our program was written by Shelley Gollust and Nancy Steinbach.Paul Thompson was our producer. And our engineer was Tom Verba.
I hope you enjoyed AMERICAN MOSAIC. Join us again next week forVOA's radio magazine in Special English.