97.3 WRIR - Richmond Independent Radio

DefendersLIVE is a production of the Defenders for Freedom, Justice and Equality presenting news, issues and events relevant to the greater Richmond community, from the perspective of the Black Community and with a particular focus on the people in our community who live and struggle in poverty, the working class and those with a progressive political perspective.

The program seeks to draw the connections between local, national and international contexts for both historical and contemporary understanding. Using an informal, conversational style, DefendersLIVE also seeks to stimulate critical thinking in its audience and its guests by guiding them through an organic dialogue that demonstrates the persona as well as the perspectives and accomplishments of the guest. DefendersLIVE airs Mondays at noon.

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Recent Blog Entries

11/5/12 DefendersLIVE

Today at Noon, Phil Wilayto is Ana's guest on DefendersLIVE. They'll discuss the new issue of the Virginia Defender, this week's key stories and, of course, the local and national elections...

10/1/12 Today We’re Locally Focused

The FOLKS at WRIR only do the great work they do because they're made up of (and pushed forward by) PEOPLE like YOU! Keep it up! Keep it up some MORE!

DefendersLIVE! lives to bring you an interpretation of social justice in our neighborhoods in Richmond and across the diaspora - and I have a great team to help me do it.

Keep up the Struggle.

And Remember: Kindness DOES Matter.

Ana Edwards, Host/Producer

Jay Westerman, Engineer

Gabi Schazi, Engineer

Emma Thackeray, Engineer and Social Media

Harvey Hall, DJ/Board Op

Looking forward.

9/17/12 Come August Come Freedom - The Bellows, The Gallows & The Black General Gabriel

Richmond author Gigi Amateau discusses her latest book, Come August Come Freedom. This young adult historical novel provides the backdrop for discussing the origins, implications and process of telling the story of Gabriel's Rebellion though the perspectives of the women in Gabriel's life. Gabriel, an enslaved blacksmith, was the last of 26 freedom-fighter conspirators executed, and the last of many hung on the city gallows on the site of Richmond's African Burial Ground. Raising the story of Gabriel's rebellion and the visibility of Black history in Richmond for their intrinsic roles in the history of Richmond, of Virginia's role in the earliest decades of the US as a nation is an important dynamic for people who claim an American identity. The intimacy with which this story is told allows the reader to imagine this place in those times, and the struggles of those people in these times. Personal and political.

6/18/12 The Secrets of Mary Bowser

Today on DefendersLIVE: part 1 of 2 part interview with Lois Leveen, author of "The Secrets of Mary Bowser"- A conversation about this historical novel based on the limited historical record available about her work with Elizabeth Van Lew as a Civil War Union spy in the White House of the Confederacy providing information to the Union Army from the desk of Jefferson Davis... Why would an educated free Black woman in Philadelphia risk all to return to the city of her birth, and her enslavement, to do this work?

Tune in at 12 noon - live streamed at WRIR.org or on your radio at 97.3 FM (LP).