celebration for freedom. now, a national holiday, juneteenth is the direct result of centuries of resistance and revolution by black people leading a fight for their liberation. in 1861, tension between the north and the south reached its breaking point over slavery and statehood, and the civil war began. on january 1, 1863, as the nation approached its third year of the civil war, president abraham lincoln issued the emancipation proclamation, declaring that all people held as slaves within the confederate controlled states were now free. the proclamation also granted black men access into a struggling union army. by the end of the war, more than 200,000 black soldiers, known as the united states colored troops, had enlisted, becoming instrumental to the union s victory. the civil war officially ended in april of 1865, but it wasn t until june 19th of that year, two years after the emancipation proclamation, that thousands of colored troops arrived in galveston texas, to rea
cheering and applause. her stories often centre on oppression and brutality. most famously, her 1985 novel, the handmaid s tale, a dystopian vision of america, in which women are enslaved, now an emmy award winning television series. there s an eye in your house. in this episode of this cultural life, the radio a programme, she reveals her formative influences and experiences, and how, even in high school, her creativity was clear. i put on a home economics opera. it was about fabrics. can you remember how it goes? # fabrics need a swim in the suds. # it makes them feel just like new. # plink plink, plink plink. laughter. i want to make sure the mics are recording us. margaret atwood, welcome to this cultural life. thank you very much. happy to be here. on this programme, i ask my guests to choose the most significant influences and experiences that have shaped their own creativity, and your first choice is your parents. yes. tell me about your parents. well, first of all, th
cultural life, the radio 4 programme, she reveals her formative influences and experiences, and how, even in high school, her creativity was clear. i put on a home economics opera. it was about fabrics. can you remember how it goes? # fabrics need a swim in the suds. # it makes them feel just like new. # plink plink, plink plink. laughter. i want to make sure the mics are recording us. margaret atwood, welcome to this cultural life. thank you very much. happy to be here. on this programme, i ask my guests to choose the most significant influences and experiences that have shaped their own creativity, and your first choice is your parents. yes. tell me about your parents. well, first of all, they, um, were very innovative and able to improvise, because, of course, if you live in the woods and there aren t any shops, you have to be, and they were both very outdoorsy. but they also allowed us to make messes in our rooms and didn t make us clean them up. by messes, i mean project
happy to be here. on this programme, i ask my guests to choose the most significant influences and experiences that have shaped their own creativity, and your first choice is your parents. yes. tell me about your parents. well, first of all, they, um, were very innovative and able to improvise, because, of course, if you live in the woods and there aren t any shops, you have to be, and they were both very outdoorsy. but they also allowed us to make messes in our rooms and didn t make us clean them up. by messes, i mean projects, which always begin as messes. just to set the scene, this is rural quebec, because your father was an entomologist. he was studying. oh, yes. he was a forest entomologist, and his research station spring, summer and fall, was up in the woods north, north, north, north, north of ottawa, up the ottawa river, and this would be in a house that he built himself, because he was of a rural background and knew how to do all of that, and, um, therefore, he had
[sirens] [applause] good evening to all of you. [applause] [applause] i am beginning to recognize the fact that nothing is true. nothing. it is all down to perception. my immediate family is gone, but that is life. it s the same thing with every family, that somebody will be left in the end. and this time in life i have fantastic memories, but everybody s memory is different so they re just my memories, you know? i know that morris and robin would ve had a different kind of memory. i remember barry saying that when they were going to be really famous. and we said oh yeah, he s a big brother, you know? we kind of saw ourselves as triplets, rather than me and maurice being twins. where the same polls growing up, then it became impossible to see each other as normal brothers. my night christmas there was an acoustic guitar at the end of my bed, and robin and morris started to collaborate and producing with me. we started doing gigs as a teenage act. we we