Visit the This I Believe website
Listen to each installment, see pictures of essayists, explore the archive of essays from the original series and submit your own essay for consideration.
With this essay we conclude WHYY's This I Believe audio series which began in 2009. Together we embarked in this voyage through the thoughts and personal beliefs of people from our region. Their voices, texts and photos will continue to live right here in our web site.
Music is Tom Moon's native language. He lives it , writes about it and has been playing a mean saxophone since 1983. As a writer, Moon is a celebrated music critic and the author of One Thousand Recording to Hear Before You Die. He often describes himself as a cultural explorer always looking for musical expressions that define a moment, a culture and the intersections between legacy and new sounds. For him one human quality brings all those world together. Photo by Birdie Busch
Thaddeus Squire is an urban explorer. His passion for the history behind forgotten buildings and his commitment to contemporary performance art has led him to combine both and re-invent places. Squire is a planner and organizer, and in many ways a pragmatic intellectual. Two years ago he founbed the Hidden City festival which brought together new audiences to historic places and to the discivery of site-specific performances. Here's his story. Thaddeus Squire is the founder of the Hidden City festival and director of Philadelphia's Culture Works. Photo by Peter Woodall
When asked about the principles that rule her life, Anne Pittinger responds without any hesitation that it's family , gratitude and faith. The Pennsylvania native is proud of the German and Irish heritage, but it's her deep connection to Irish culture, food, music and religious traditions that she's passionate about. By day, so to speak, she works as an executive at Mercy Health System, the rest of her time is all about being a wife, mother and a concerned citizen.
Her ability as a writer has led her to closely observe her surroundings.
Chances are that you've been hearing and telling stories since you were a child. "Tell me a story", let's talk, let's get together, water cooler conversations, public gatherings around a tree or a square or a kitchen table are all expressions of daily storytelling. Vicky Solot has made the sharing of experiences, anecdotes, personal observations and fun - impromptu talking moments, into a commitment to create a festival of first person narratives. Here's how it all started for her. Vicky Solot is a teacher, writer and artist. She is the founder and director of the yearly citywide festival First Person Arts.
This I Believe is a national media project that invites people from all walks of life to write and speak aloud brief essays describing the core values that guide their lives. It's programming that resonates with the core values of public radio, presenting civil discourse that's honest and respectful, authentic and intimate. It shares with listeners the uniquely human voices of American citizens exploring our hopes and ideals. These short statements of belief, have been airing regularly on WHYY and other NPR stations for more than 4 years. The project is based on the popular 1950s radio series of the same name hosted by Edward R. Murrow.
Jay Allison This I Believe project founder and producer
Today we start a weekly series of This I Believe essays by some of the city's most influential leaders in politics, the arts, business, social involvement and even public gardening. Elisabeth Perez Luna, editor and producer of WHYY's This I Believe spoke with independent producer Jay Alison who recaptured the spirit of the original series, but with stories that speak of our times.
