Illinois Public Media News

Last year, Poetry magazine got its first Black editor, Adrian Matejka. He joined The 21st to talk about his plans for the publication and his own relationship with poetry.

It's a  musical feast as we listen back to some of our favorite Illinois musicians we've talked to in the past few months. We'll hear the indie pop sounds of emily the band, rapper Zuh-Cari the Artist, and the darker folk music of the band Hollow Down.

We're taking a look back at the news of 2023 with the big political/government stories from Illinois and Washington, DC.

instead of our usual reporter roundtable, we take a sonic journey through the biggest stories of 2023, as covered by The 21st Show.

The buffalo sustained Native Americans for hundreds of generations — until they were hunted to near extinction in the 1800s. Those stories — and how the buffalo have recovered — are the subject of the latest documentary from Ken Burns, called “The American Buffalo.” University of Illinois Professor Rosalyn LaPier was featured prominently in the film. In October, before a live studio audience in Urbana, she talked with Brian Mackey about the film and her background as a member of the Blackfeet of Montana.