LA PASTORELA 2025
LA PASTORELA DEL VALIENTE ON STAGE — ON RADIO HEARD ONLY ON KNSJ
W 12/17 2pm, Sat 12/20 6pm M 12/22 3pm, Th 12/25 7pm, Sun 12/28 noon
THE ELECTRIC PICNIC with Susan Taylor Mon 8am Wed 3pm, Sat 7pm
CARL HALLBERG
Poet, Essayist, Musician, Puppeteer
Carl Hallberg was born in the watershed of the St Croix River of eastern Minnesota surrounded by lakes, eagles, and redwing blackbirds in the summer. Growing up around catholic workers and organic farmers exposed Carl to practices of mutual aid and reciprocal love for the land that formed the basis of his political and social understandings, which fomented in the 2020 uprising after the murder of George Floyd, and the indigenous led movement to oppose Line 3 of the following year. After graduating high school in 2020, Carl moved to New York City and got a degree in acting from the Juilliard School while also falling in with Reverend Billy and the Church of Stop Shopping and the Bread and Puppet Theater. Since graduating in 2024, Carl has toured internationally and nationally with both groups, and premiered a solo show of stories, songs, and puppet shows called A Performed Lecture on Gardening, Neighborliness, and John Brown in April 2025
_______A Statement on Influences and Hopes:
I write songs and make theater, often including original poems and prose. Recently I’ve been making simple, narrative based theater works in the vein of Spalding Grey, with inspiration from the Bread and Puppet Theater and the Rude Mechs of Austin Texas. Across disciplines, I’m inspired by Michael Hurley, gesturing toward decolonial futures, and the why cheap art manifesto by the bread and puppet theater, which says ‘Art has to be cheap and available to everybody because it is the inside of the world. Art is like good bread, art is like green trees, art is like blue sky.’ I’m drawn especially to the work of Michael Hurly, who sings very direct, catchy songs that capture the mystery of ordinary life, and the thrilling beauty of the natural world. By connecting to this beauty we can touch the fierce joy of life that, when united with our friends and neighbors, can beat fascists and topple governments. As the Gesturing Toward Decolonial Futures collective reminds us, there is profound physio-psychological work to be done to hospice the colonial psyche. I aim, through my work, to inspire this fierce joy in the spirit of this greater work, in all of its ordinary daily applications.
I want those who interact with my work to feel their hearts soften and stretch out toward the world, so that they can feel the pain and intensity of the current moment and remain open, connected to their neighbors and to the land around them.
STOP & TALK with Grant Oliphant and co-host Crystal Page Fri 8am, and Wed
Thoughtful conversations and a good way to start the day! STOP & TALK dives deep into the themes of purpose and opportunity, guided by the insights of leaders in the arts and culture, health, philanthropy, finance, and innovation fields. Together, we celebrated local achievements and envisioned what’s possible in San Diego County.
THE CHRIS HEDGES REPORT Sat 1pm
The Encampments with Mahmoud Khalil and Michael Workman
The ongoing genocide in Gaza has become a litmus test of institutional integrity. When a university denies the reality of Israel’s brutality, it reveals complicity with the genocidal regime’s actions. To then misrepresent campus dissent over institutional investment in the Zionist entity as illegitimate — or even “antisemitic” — makes it clear that that these institutions are invested in the existence of Israeli apartheid and genocide.
These contradictions were brought to a head during the Gaza solidarity encampment movement in 2024, where hundreds of college campuses around the world protested against their universities’ affiliations and investments in anything related to Israel. The media and Zionists inside these universities cried wolf about widespread bigotry and hatred, and many believed them.
Michael T. Workman and Kei Pritsker documented through their film, “The Encampments,” that these protests were not only peaceful and nonviolent but that the violence described in the media almost always came from the Zionist counter protestors.
Workman and Mahmoud Khalil, a Columbia graduate student who was a negotiator for the encampment movement and was made famous after being kidnapped by ICE agents, join host Chris Hedges on this episode of The Chris Hedges Report. They share their experiences seen in the film as well as updates to Khalil’s case as he faces potential deportation by the Trump administration. The film — as well as their accounts — document a clear narrative that demonstrates the failure of our institutions to abide by any moral standards, and their active role in descending Western society into fascist authoritarianism.
TALK OF THE TOWN with Mike and Arthur Aguirre LIVE Sat 11am
Call the studio with your questions and comments at 619-790-KNSJ (5675)
Guest SETH HALL
RESPONSIBLE AND TRANSPARENT SURVEILLANCE AND OVERSIGHT–FLOCK TECHNOLOGY AND SYSTEM AND SAN DIEGO CITY COUNCIL VOTE HIS WEEK
Seth Hall is a career technologist and lives in the neighborhood of Allied Gardens, helping operate the TRUST SD Coalition which has advocated for the Transparent and Responsible Use of Surveillance Technology in San Diego since 2019. He is co-founder of the community group San Diego Privacy, which focuses on how San Diegans can use and protect privacy in their daily lives. You can contact Seth at seth@sandiegoprivacy.org.
EAST COUNTY MAGAZINE with Miriam Raftery Mon 5pm, Tues 8am, Fri 5pm, Sat 8am
Award-winning editor and investigative journalist Miriam Raftery hosts the EAST COUNTY MAGAZINE RADIO SHOW. She and her team of reporters bring the community up-to-date news, emergency alerts and events in and around East County as well as state, national and international news.
East County Magazine has won 146 major journalism awards. San Diego Press Club named their site the best general interest website and second best news site in San Diego County for 2009. East County Magazine has racked up awards each year since then, including many special awards from the Society of Professional Journalists. Their team of writers has won major prizes for investigative reporting, news, features, multi-cultural coverage, environmental reporting and more.
SAN DIEGO SCREENWRITER’S STUDIO with Screenwriters Gail Stewart and Ted Holmes Fri 4pm
Today’s conversation is on two films:
– “ETHAN BLOOM” – a lovely coming of age story about a young Florida boy still grieving the death of his mother and deals with his grief by converting to Catholicism — the catch – his family is Jewish. It’s a hearting warming tale by Florida filmmaker Maylen Dominguez which will soon have its theatrical release.
– The second interview is with Fitch Jean a Haitian filmmaker from Canada whose film “IT COMES IN WAVES” takes on the dramatic theme of the generational trauma suffered by Rwanda immigrants in the wake of that country’s 100-day genocidal war.
JIM MORENO — ACTIVIST, POET
KNSJ sends condolences to the family of Jim Moreno
Jim Moreno’s Biography posted on http://jimpoet.com
Jim Moreno is an Artist-in-Residence…teaching poetry with Arts Education Connection San Diego since 2005. Jim was an original member and coordinator of San Diego’s Langston Hughes Poetry Circle and a board member of the African American Writers & Artists. Moreno was also the director of the Encanto Boys and Girls Club Children’s Poetry Choir and the Language Arts teacher at the All Tribes American Indian Charter School on Rincon Reservation.
Since August of 2005 he has served as the Poet-In-Residence for the Juvenile Court & Community Schools where he teaches poetry workshops for at-risk youth in lockups and community schools and is currently starting a new contract at the Kearny Mesa site with Mid City Community Music.
. 63 of his students have been published in the “Inbetween Places” newsletter, a publication for the homeless. Each of those students were awarded $10.00 for their poetry. 44 of Moreno’s students were published in the San Diego Poetry Annual’s 2015 edition. 6 of his students have won first place awards in a county-wide “Poetry for Peace” contest sponsored by the San Diego Peace Resource Center. Each student was awarded $100.00. Publishing and award monies for his students have added up to over $1500.00 since 2007. One student won first place in a state-wide playwright contest. She wrote the play in her cell in Juvenile Hall. The award winning one-act play was performed in a local theater. She had never seen a play before in her young life.
The 2016-2017 edition of the San Diego Poetry Annual saw 42 of Jim’s incarcerated students have 49 poems published. As the Regional Editor for Native American poetry, Moreno was able to help 14 Indian poets publish 20 poems. Some of those students were enrolled at the All Tribes American Indian Charter School where Moreno first taught Language Arts in 2002. Moreno revisited the school and facilitated a poetry workshop for the students. Jim Moreno was voted the Arts 4 Learning Residency Teacher of the Year for the 2016-2017 school year.
Mr. Moreno has been a guest poetry teacher at St. Elmo’s Village in Los Angeles, the Heman B. Stark Branch of the California Youth Authority, Los Coyotes Reservation, Chula Vista High School, Crawford High School, The Grauer School in Encinitas, The Vista Buddhist Temple, Southwestern College, the Magee Park Poets in Carlsbad, California, the Point Loma Arts Academy, Explorer Charter School, and the CalSAC Statewide Conference. Jim Moreno has been published in City Works, The Langston Hughes Poetry Anthology, The Magee Park Poets Anthology, the poetry conspiracy, Tidepools, The San Diego Poetry Annual, and others.
Jim has performed with The Three Deuces, a three art ensemble with jazz trumpeter Mitch Manker and dancer Michael Tompkins. He authored Dancing in Dissent: Poetry For Activism (Dolphin Calling Press, 2007). As Jim Hornsby he serves on the advisory board of the Poetic Medicine Institute. He recently featured with Institute president John Fox at the Encinitas Library. He co-hosted with painter/poet Jihmye Collins (R.I.P.) of 2nd Sunday Jihmye Poetry, an open mic poetry gathering at the Space Bar Cafe and Wine Bistro at 7454 University Ave., La Mesa, CA 91942 He has read his original verse at poetry venues from Seattle to Orlando. Moreno is a Regional Editor for the 2022-2023 San Diego Poetry Annual. Jim won first place at “The People’s Choice” poetry competition at the San Diego Art Institute in Balboa Park reciting his original poem “Strange Fruit & Other Public Executions” He was competing with 9 other poets.
Moreno states firmly that he is proud to be an adopted member of the Smuwich Chumash tribe. He was adopted by his brother John Moreno, a Chumash elder, painter, storyteller, and singer in a ceremony in the spring of 1995 in Lomita, California. His mother, Rosie (Nani) Moreno was a Tohono O’dham, Pima, Mexican, Irish elder who inspired those around her to sing with life.
Jim’s birth mother, Miriam Hess, was a talented story teller, world traveler, and musician who played the piano and organ. Moreno attributes his writing talent to the storytelling talents of his mother and his two sisters, Barbara and Sheila. “I grew up listening to my mom and my sisters tell great stories during the day, at meals, and at night. I left home at 18 to begin a life of collecting my own stories. That’s what you will find in my poetry.”
Jim Moreno’s 2nd Sunday Jihmye Poetry Open Mic
2nd Sunday is in solidarity with Activist San Diego, The World Beat Center, 100,000 Poets for Change, The San Diego/Tijuana ReEvolutionary Poets Brigade, Black Lives Matter, The New Georgia Project, Seed the Vote, The Border Angels, The Binational Friendship Garden, The Brown Berets, the San Diego Chapter of the Los Angeles Community Literature Initiative publishing numerous people of color, and defenders of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights
WOMEN’S HOUR with Patricia Law Wed 5pm
ANIMAL ABUSE FOR PLEASURE AND ENTERTAINMENT
Patricia and her guest Ellen Ericksen are in conversation about the reality of using animals for entertainment, the abuse and deaths that are hidden from the public.
Ericksen is a dedicated animal rights activist. She has dedicated many years to organizing hundreds of protests at Sea World San Diego, the San Diego Zoo, Cruel Circuses and Horse racing protests at the Del Mar racetrack every summer for many years. She has helped organize the largest protests at Farmer John Slaughterhouse in Los Angeles, some of the largest marches in Los Angeles about the ivory trade and animal extinction and any other animal abuse that needs attention with other dedicated activists. When Ellen is not organizing protests or working full time in healthcare, she commits her time doing Vegan Outreach and has spoken as a humane educator at many universities, colleges, high schools and middle schools. Ellen is the recipient of the 2015 award from The Pollination Project as The Unsung Vegan Hero and FARMS 2018 Grassroots Animal Rights Activist of the year award.
She continues to spread awareness daily to educate many about the horror of factory farming, the environment and living a vegan lifestyle.