May 26, 2021 / Modified may 27, 2021 1:35 a.m.

Duo Chinoiserie and the best of many musical worlds.

Also on Arizona Spotlight: The largely forgotten history of Tucson's first city zoo; and a reading from "Grow: A Novel in Verse" about friendship between a woman and a girl.

duo chinoiserie hero 2 Bin Hu and Jing Xia perform together as Duo Chinoiserie.

Arizona Spotlight

May 27. 2021

NPR
(Download MP3)

Featured on the May 27th, 2021 edition of ARIZONA SPOTLIGHT with host Mark McLemore:

  • Meet Jing Xia and Bin Hu, married musicians who perform together as Duo Chinoiserie. They will share their global take on blending classical compositions with folk music from their native China on June 2nd, as part of the virtual Global Arts Showcase. Mark asks the duo about the meaning behind the music, what it has to convey to the listeners of today, and their musical dreams.

AAPI Heritage Concert

  • Did you know that before the Reid Park Zoo was founded, Tucson was home to another zoo, one that actually began by accident? David Leighton, the Street Smarts columnist from the Arizona Daily Star tells the strange story about how some animals including sheep, a baby alligator, a monkey named Maurice, and Cleopatra the Egyptian goose became local celebrities.

dye zoo hero 2 E. O'neal Dye (right), founder of the Dye Zoo, checks operating procedures in 1960.
courtesy Arizona Daily Star

dye zoo hero 1 Water fowl, near one of the plant's ponds in 1960.
courtesy Arizona Daily Star

  • And Juanita Havill, a writer and poet who lives in Sonoita, shares an excerpt from her 2008 book for young readers called Grow, a Novel in Verse. Meet Berneetha, a real force of nature, who teams up with Kate, a deep-thinking twelve-year-old neighbor, to embark on a friendship, and a plan to beautify their street.
grow a novel in verse cover unsized The cover of "Grow, A Novel in Verse", for young readers. Written by Juanita Havill, with illustrations by Stanislawa Kodman, published in 2008 by Peachtree.
courtesy Peachtree Publishing Company
grow a novel in verse view larger VIEW LARGER Interior pages from "Grow, A Novel in Verse", for young readers. Written by Juanita Havill, with illustrations by Stanislawa Kodman, published in 2008 by Peachtree.
courtesy Peachtree Publishing Company
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