Report from Santa Fe; Jack Loeffler

KENW-TV, Eastern New Mexico University, Portales, New Mexico · May 6, 2017

This week's guest on "Report from Santa Fe" is Jack Loeffler, author, oral historian, and editor (with Meredith Davidson) of "Voices of Counterculture in the Southwest," a book of essays, poems, and photographs from the men and women who lived during the New Mexican counterculture movement. The book’s release coincides with the upcoming exhibit of the same name which opens at the New Mexico History Museum on May 14, 2017. Although the counterculture movement of the sixties may be over, Loeffler believes that it has lasting implications within our society today, one of the most significant being the environmental movement. Studying the New Mexican counterculture also offers guidance for our current political climate: “This volume of essays provides the perspectives we need to repair our relationships with each other and with the planet,” says Loeffler. “But, more importantly, these voices from our not-so-distant past impart the inspiration we need to take action - now.” Jack Loeffler was awarded the Governor's Award for Excellence in the Arts and was declared a Santa Fe Living Treasure. "Loeffler is a National Treasure who is revered in his field from the Folklore Center at the Library of Congress to small villages in rural New Mexico,” said Sue Sturtevant, Governor’s Award nominator. “While very few people deserve the Governor's Award for Excellence in the Arts, Jack Loeffler is one who does!" Loeffler is a true renaissance man, as he’s also a producer, writer, sound collage artist, and musician. Founder of the Peregrine Arts Sound Archive, Loeffler has recorded thousands of hours of interviews, music, and natural habitat/ environmental sounds, as well as over 3,500 traditional Native songs. His work has resulted in 300 documentary radio programs, including Lore of the Land, La Musica de los Viejitos, Thinking Like a Watershed, and the Southwest Sound Collage (KUNM). “…To me, one of the most important things that has come out of the counterculture movement, as we know it, is the modern environmental movement, which has absolutely vital in today’s world.” – Jack Loeffler. Guests: Lorene Mills (Host), Jack Loeffler.