Tag: Studio 360

Us & Them: Amazing Grace

Everyone knows the song “Amazing Grace.” People who don’t even consider themselves spiritual or religious find it meaningful. And while John Newton penned the hymn to connect with Christians, it has transcended that and become a folk song and an anthem for civil rights. But the origins of the song are just a bit more complicated…

On this week’s episode of the “Us & Them” podcast: the hymn from a slave trader that eventually became the anthem for civil rights.

From West Virginia Public Broadcasting and PRX, this is “Us & Them,” the podcast where we tell the stories about America’s cultural divides.

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Listen to an interview with artist Maya Lin about the Vietnam Veterans Memorial

Listen today at 2 p.m. on West Virginia Public Radio

The Vietnam Veterans Memorial from Studio 360, part of the American Icons series

How do you build a monument to a war that was more tragic than triumphant? Maya Lin was practically a kid when she got the commission to design the Vietnam Veterans Memorial on the National Mall. “The veterans were asking me, ‘What do you think people are going to do when they first come here?’” she remembers. “And I wanted to say, ‘They’re going to cry.’” Her minimalistic granite wall was derided by one vet as a “black gash of shame.” But inscribed with the name of every fallen soldier, it became a sacred place for veterans and their families, and it influenced later designs like the National September 11 Memorial. We’ll visit a replica of the wall that travels to veterans’ parades around the country, and hear from Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel how this singular work of architecture has influenced how we think about war.

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