Eric Kaiser started wood carving for a simple reason: he wanted a creative challenge. He decided to focus on one subject only, over and over. Birds. This fascination gave Eric a career and a passion that has lasted him over thirty seven years.

Creative Life on WCAI

In Pursuit of Perfection: A Bird Carver Has To Take His Time

New Bedford is well-known for its vibrant Portuguese cultural scene; more than half of its residents claim Portuguese ancestry. What’s less well-known is New Bedford’s place in the world of fado , the music known as the “Soul of Portugal.” The city is home to two of America’s most established Fado performers, Ana and Jose Vinagre.

Fado is Life

The Youth Ambassador Program ( YAP ) is a project between the National Park Service, and Third Eye Youth Empowerment in New Bedford, Massachusetts. Founded by Ben Gilbarg and Frankie Barrows. YAP members communicate national park themes and local history through hip hop.

Hip Hop and History Team Up in New Bedford

Kaycee Snowden and her mom Laurel have a lot in common. They are both natives of the Cape, they both love making things, and they both battled alcoholism for years. Now they’re both sober - Kaycee for 7 years and Laurel for 37. While Kaycee may never surpass her mom in sober time, she has jumped ahead in one key way: she’s really good at making stuff out of yarn. The student has become the teacher. She knits. She makes hats, scarves, even the occasional tank top. It’s a kind of therapy, creative outlet, and side hustle all wrapped up in one activity.

When Knitting Can Help Untangle Addiction

Growing up on the Cape, Jane Fay Baker developed an eye for objects and creatures that might otherwise go unnoticed. Later in life, her artwork became a reflection of her own life on the Cape. A recent woodcut series features navigational buoys.

Avoiding the Picturesque: Woodcuts Reveal the Rough, the Rust, the Low Tide of Cape Cod Life

Phil Mello has been photographing New Bedford’s working waterfront for over 40 years. He started as an amateur, documenting the inner world of the fishing industry in which he worked. His photography has become part of a major Library of Congress project to capture and preserve the faces of New Bedford’s fishing industry.

An Insider's Portraits of New Bedford's Working Waterfront are Heading to the Library of Congress

Cape Cod is a popular place to retire. But for 75-year-old actress and playwright Lynda Sturner, moving to Truro was a chance to start anew. In 2010, she packed up her apartment in Manhattan and moved full-time to her summer home in Truro. She's recently written - with playwright Jim Dalglish - one of the most personal plays of her career. It’s called “A Talented Woman.”

Theatre Creates a Role and The Actor Takes On A New Life

Brooks Angelini is a Fall River based photographer and artist. The asylums he photographs were shuttered in the 1970s after public outcry regarding practices like lobotomies, electroshock therapy, and forced confinement. Many of the buildings were left completely intact, like time capsules showcasing a mental health ideology gone by. Through his pictures, Angelini bears witness to the lives and struggles of the patients who were confined to these institutions.

Stories Linger in the Detritus of Abandoned Psychiatric Asylums

In more ways than one, Mwalim sees himself reflected in blues music. Mwalim is a musician in Mashpee who has a mixed Black and Native heritage. He’s part of a growing number of people who share a curious theory of the origins of the blues—that the genre has both Black and Native musical roots. Through his music, Mwalim is on a mission to share this idea.

A Mixed Interpretation on the Roots of the Blues

Bob Henry and Selina Trieff came to the Cape to paint in the 1950s. For six decades, they thrived in love and art. Bob’s work has always evoked a world that’s constantly shifting. Now, he’s navigating the shift of a lifetime

Together, Then Alone: A Wellfleet Artist Grieving and Reinventing a Life

Chip Koser of Mashpee is a professionally trained chef who has worked in a number of famous restaurants. But Chip spends less time in kitchens and more time in freezers. Schuyler Swenson brings the story of a man who found a new life in ice sculpting . This piece comes from production partners Atlantic Public Media, through their media training program, the Transom Story Workshop in Woods Hole.

A New Life in Ice

Arlo Guthrie’s song " Alice’s Restaurant" shone a light on Alice Brock and she became an icon for many during the 60’s. Alice returned to Provincetown and her friend Viki Merrick, also her former employee, spoke with her about one of her unusual projects.

American Icon Alice Brock Might Surprise You

Kevin King is an artist, and he’s been painting for a long time in his North Falmouth studio. He paints all kinds of things with different styles and techniques, but he uses an unlikely medium.

From the Ashes

Monika Woods is a classical clarinetist from Transylvania. After studying clarinet in conservatory for over a decade, she fell in love, started a family, and moved to the Cape in 2006. But the move posed a challenge to her plans for a career as a professional musician.

Transylvanian Clarinetist Makes a New Home for Her Music

Brianna LePage always wanted to study two things: music and medicine. It may seem that these two fields oppose each other and yet she has combined them for nearly twenty years.

Music Memory is Longlasting for Many with Alzheimer's

Creative Life offers an audio tour of arts, culture, and inspiration on Cape Cod, the Islands, and the South Coast. Our region is rich with creative diversity, and so are the stories we tell. Creative Life airs every second Monday on WCAI, the local NPR station for Cape Cod, Martha's Vineyard, Nantucket, and the South Coast.. Creative Life is edited by Jay Allison.

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Creative Life on WCAI

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