Stories - AZPM

1,100 backpacks represent the number of college students who died by suicide in 2018. This event was designed to raise awareness about mental health and encourage suicide prevention.

Can 1,000 Empty Backpacks Save Lives?

Also: How Pima County could pay for newly opened migrant shelters; Bridging cultural divides with the Persian language; Tucson author Janni Lee Simner reads from her new book.

The UA Poetry Center likely is home to around 4 million poems, according to Tyler Meier.

UA Students Bridging Art and Medicine at Poetry Center

The course for medical students was designed around artwork and written experiences from patients, doctors and caregivers.

Guatemalan father with his 5 year old daughter. It took father and daughter almost two weeks to get to the Arizona border. They are asylum seekers staying at a temporary shelter opened by the City of Tucson to relieve the overflow of migrants at Tucson shelters. (April 18, 2019)

The City of Tucson Offers Hope to Migrants in Need

Also on Arizona Spotlight: Go backstage at Tucson High Magnet School to preview "Our Border Town"; Tucson poet laureate TC Tolbert receives grant from the Academy of American Poets; And, what would you do with the blessing of extra time to be alive?

A scene from Alex Zhao's "Artificial Incompetence."

UA Student Filmmakers to Screen Their Work in Annual Showcase

Comedies, dramas and mysteries are on the schedule at the "I Dream in Widescreen" short-film event.

AZPM is partnering with StoryCorps for One Small Step to record conversations between strangers who hold different political beliefs.

Finding Common Ground with "One Small Step"

Also on Arizona Spotlight: Free speech debate on campus; "I Dream in Widescreen Returns"; and thoughts on kindness from the Mission Garden.

Courtesy image adapted from part of an award-winning CAPLA project by UA graduate Kate Stuteville modeling sea-level rise.

UA Architecture Grads Forecast Future Effects of Climate Change

The projects were honored for designing innovative solutions for San Francisco Bay area.

Amanda Gremel sings and performs as Patsy Cline in Live Theatre Workshop's production of "Always... Patsy Cline".

How Sisterhood Helped Make a Superstar in "Always... Patsy Cline"

Also on Arizona Spotlight: A mental health clinic that is gaining popularity through results; and chanteuse Jessica Fichot on finding ways to thrive as an independent musician.

Heather Hardy's violin, which was crafted in 1799.

Spotlight Session: Heather Hardy & Alvin Blaine

Also on Arizona Spotlight: Community healthcare in action in Pima County; and animator Ron Campbell on more than 50 years of making people smile with cartoons.

Happy kids receive cheers at the finish line of the annual autism walk, hosted by The Autism Society of Southern Arizona.

Untold Stories of Autism

Also on Arizona Spotlight: Adiba Nelson points out a conversation more parents should have with their kids; and Vanessa Bell Calloway brings "Letters from Zora" to The Invisible Theatre.

Ilse Salas, star of director Alejandra Márquez Abella's film "Las Niñas Bien", part of the 2019 Tucson Cine Mexico Film Festival.

Preview Tucson Cine Mexico 2019!

Also: March is National Kidney Month, hear the story of a Tucson woman whose family is coping with a serious hereditary kidney disease; and how Edie Jarolim found family history next door to Sigmund Freud.

A closeup of Willem de Kooning's "Woman-Ochre."

'Woman-Ochre' Going on First Public Display Since it Was Stolen in 1985

The painting, found in a house in New Mexico in 2017, is later headed for restoration at the Getty Museum in LA.

The main cast of "American Mariachi" at the start of the play, still learning the ropes.

Music from the Heart in "American Mariachi"

Also on Arizona Spotlight: How NAMI and the Mission Garden are growing wellness in Tucson; and author Alice Hatcher reads her "Love Letter to My Library"