Nebraska culture, live and close to home.
Friday LIVE keeps a brisk watch on Nebraska's arts and humanities calendar. Its conversations move from practical event details into the stories behind plays, concerts, exhibitions, books, poetry workshops, and local history projects.
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Friday LIVE is Nebraska Public Media's arts-and-humanities conversation, shaped less like a polished showcase than a lively public-radio gathering. It is built around short introductions, grounded event details, and relaxed interviews with artists, writers, performers, and community figures. The show often begins in Lincoln, but its reach moves through Wayne, Hastings, Wakefield, Nebraska City, Beatrice, Valentine, Thetford, Ord, and the Sandhills. Place matters here. So do dates, venues, and the small practical facts that turn culture from an abstraction into something a listener can go see. Theater gets steady attention, from Yorkshire Playhouse's The Invitation to Wayne State College's The Romancers and a Little Red Hen Theater production of Marjorie Prime. Music arrives in many forms. Friday LIVE features live performances, conversations about touring, classical concerts, flute choir pieces, steel drum music, blues, folk, and songwriters who can talk as easily about a stage as a living room. Poetry is treated as public speech rather than a private puzzle. Jewel Rogers reads work aloud, Tim Moran talks about attention and directness, and a Larksong Writers' Place workshop turns renga into a shared community practice. Visual art and craft receive the same curiosity. The show can move from student exhibitions and photography to quilt history, paper art, and the surprise of a familiar form seen differently. Its history segments lean intimate and regional. Diane Bartles' book on Evelyn Sharp connects aviation, Nebraska identity, and the story of a teenage aviatrix who became a war hero. Alan Bartels' Sandhills writing frames the region through wildlife, families, back roads, book events, and the urge to keep looking closely. Friday LIVE is at its best when a simple preview opens into a larger reflection on memory, community, and why local culture deserves attention. It is brisk. It is generous. It gives Nebraska artists and storytellers a regular room to speak.
Made for: For listeners who want Nebraska arts coverage with real local texture: theatergoers, music fans, writers, museum visitors, humanities supporters, and people who like hearing how creative work gets made close by.
What sets it apart: Friday LIVE pairs calendar usefulness with guest-led storytelling, so previews of events often become wider conversations about place, memory, craft, and community. Its mix of live music, poetry, theater, books, history, and venue-specific detail gives it a distinctly Nebraska shape.
The latest news about arts and humanities happenings around Nebraska, as well as talk and performances from those involved.
Based on 6 episodes we listened to · September 2026
Friday LIVE connects Nebraska's artists, venues and audiences through thoughtful interviews, live performance and close attention to creative practice.
Friday LIVE turns Nebraska's cultural life into a lively radio magazine, with Genevieve Randall moving among studio conversations, live performances, poetry, exhibitions, books and theater.
A Nebraska flute choir and collaborative Japanese verse give your arts radar a proper workout.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A local arts roundup that moves from student work to poetry and Nebraska's weekend calendar.
Friday Live uses its Lincoln broadcast to widen from the Clements Noyes Art Gallery segment on the Union Adventist University Student Art Exhibition into broader arts coverage across Nebraska.
A Nebraska arts hour where live music and Tim Moran's plainspoken poetics meet around the meaning of place.
Friday Live takes Nebraska Public Media's arts coverage into St. Paul United Methodist Church in downtown Lincoln, where a live audience gives the hour a warm public setting.
A lively Lincoln arts sampler where renga, flute music, poetry, and a human story about AI sit comfortably together.
Friday Live uses its stop at The Mill Coffee and Tea in downtown Lincoln as a brisk tour through Nebraska arts, moving from a pared-down Coro di Flauti performance to the Brick House duo, Jewel Rogers' poetry, renga, and a Wakefield staging of Marjorie Prime.
A Nebraska arts roundup where orchestral plans, poetry, local history, and community life share the same hour.
Friday Live gathers a lively Nebraska arts roundup, with Daryl Scott's songwriting and session background sitting alongside the Philadelphia Orchestra's Lincoln visit and music by Beethoven, Brahms, and Schumann under Maren Alsop.
A warm Nebraska holiday collage where carols, poetry, local food, and brass-band lift share the same hour.
Friday Live Holiday Special works as a Nebraska holiday collage, moving from 1517's opening "The King Shall Come" to a soldier's Christmas memory at Fort Robinson and poems that find seasonal wonder in introversion, restaurant closures, and winter decay.
A lively Nebraska arts roundup built around downtown Lincoln, Bob Hall, and a festival that spans roots to bluegrass.
Friday Live anchors its Nebraska arts coverage at the Mill Coffee and Tea in downtown Lincoln, and that setting gives the piece a sturdy sense of place.
Miller Beach chaos, served breakfast-style.
Pennsylvania by county, landmark, and stone.
Israeli public life, argued from Tel Aviv.
Friday Live starts in Lincoln.
Friday Live on Nebraska Public Media profiles artist Thomas Nagley’s childhood in Germany, 1940 arrival in the United States, and World War II service as a German-speaking interpreter near McCook, Nebraska.
This episode of Friday Live on Nebraska Public Media features segments on a song for Nebraska's Missing Persons Day, tech poetry by David Moscovich, a Lincoln Community Playhouse production, and an interview with actor Zahn McClarnon about his journey in acting.
This episode features interviews with musician Haddon Sayers about his upcoming LAFTA performance and a preview of conversations with actor Zahn McClarnon and a playwright for a Lincoln show.
This episode features an interview with River Selby, author of 'Hot Shot, A Life on Fire,' discussing their experiences as a wildland firefighter and research on fire suppression in the U.S.
This episode of Friday Live on Nebraska Public Media features interviews and segments on local journalism, art archives, film reviews, poetry, and theater productions in Nebraska.
This episode features a live broadcast from Nebraska Public Media's Ron Hull Studio, introducing performances including the Robert Russell Quartet playing jazz in Omaha.
This episode features a discussion about the production of the play 'The Romancers' at Wayne State College, including insights from the director and student designer on the comedic plot and theatrical elements.
This episode features interviews with Diane Bartels about Nebraska aviatrix Evelyn Sharp, the Nebraska Jazz Orchestra with Ed Love, and the International Quilt Museum, exploring local history and arts.
This episode features an interview with photographer and writer Alan Bartels about his new book 'Secret Nebraska Sandhills', exploring the unique and obscure aspects of the Sandhills region, including its wildlife, people, and upcoming book release events.
This episode discusses Nebraska's second annual Missing Persons Day event, featuring an interview with organizer Janelle Rapp about her personal experience with her sister's missing persons case and its connection to arts and community.
Genevieve Randall hosts a Nebraska holiday special with music, poems, and seasonal stories.
Friday Live broadcasts from The Mill.
Friday Live goes remote.
Friday Live settles in at The Mill Coffee and Tea.
Friday Live starts in Lincoln.