Scope and Contents Interviewer: Debbie HarwellProject: University Of HoustonRadio personality Paul Berlin discusses his broadcasting career from his high school days in Memphis to his sixty-three-year (and counting) career in Houston. He discusses the changes in musical trends from the big bands and vocalists of the 1940s through rap and popular music today. The particularly emphasizes the 1950s and early 1960s as an era that produced the best popular music of all time with the greatest...

Scope and Contents Interviewer: Hadley HollingsworthProject: University of HoustonIn this interview Brown discusses what it was like growing up in the Third Ward, going to Jack Yates High School, and becoming a successful singer. She began singing at the age of 9 and was told that she was no longer an amateur at the age of 14. Jewel sang in Houston at the local venues until she moved to California to work for her brother-in-law and sing at the club where he worked. She knew all of the...

Scope and Contents Interviewer: Josh LevineProject: University Of HoustonStephen Fox is an architectural historian at Rice University; he discusses prominent Jewish architect Joseph Finger and his legacy to Houston architecture in the early twentieth century. Stephen Fox says Joseph Finger was an Austro-Hungarian Empire émigré. Fox suspects Finger came to Houston due to the city’s commercial prosperity, where Fox says Finger established himself as a trustworthy architect. Finger brought...

Scope and Contents Interviewer: Narmi MenaProject: University Of HoustonAnthony Obi is a Houston native Nigerian-American rap artist that goes by the name “Fat Tony.” Having an interest in music since a very young age, Fat Tony began making music with a group of friends during his high school years. After the group‟s disbandment Fat Tony released his first song called “Love Life” while collaborating with local artist Hollywood Floss. Fat Tony cites his earliest influences to an early...

Scope and Contents Interviewer: Nimra HaroonPrroject: University of HoustonIn part 1 of the recordings, contemporary artist Kelyne Reis discusses her artistic career in Houston from 2009 onward. While Reis touches on her days in Germany, she primarily discusses her career in Houston and how graffiti has affected her life. She first explains that her initial impressions of graffiti and graffiti artists were incorrect after she met Gonzo. Reis explains how she learned the transience of...

Scope and Contents Interviewer: Natalie GarzaProject: University Of HoustonAt the age of eight, Ricky Diaz learned from his musician father how to play the piano. He recalls practicing twice a day and performing live with a fifteen-piece band by the age of ten in Piedras Negras, Mexico. In 1950 Ricky moved to the United States and soon found a job touring with Tejano musician Beto Villa and was briefly in the US Army band after being drafted during the Korean War. Upon returning to...

Scope and Contents Interviewer: Zachary SmithProject: University Of HoustonSince 1993, Marlon Mitchell has been with Houston Business Development Incorporated (formerly known as Houston Small Business Development Corporation,) a small business incubator that focuses on combating community deterioration, and he has personally witnessed the transformation of the OST/South Union neighborhood. As the CEO of HBDi, Mitchell is the most important figure in the reinvigoration of the Palm Center...

Scope and Contents

Interviewer(s): Debbie Harwell

Project: University of Houston

Scope and Contents Interviewer(s): Aimee L'HeureuxProject: University of HoustonWesal Kesbeh was born in Kuwait to Palestinian parents from the West Bank. The family moved to Jordan when she was twelve years old and she lived there until age eighteen when she got married through an arranged marriage, or as she calls it “a living room wedding,” and immigrated to the United States. Wesal discusses her foray into cooking when her mother had to work upon her father’s death. She talks about...

Scope and Contents

Interviewer(s): Aimee L'Heureux

Project: University of Houston

Scope and Contents Interviewer(s): Aimee L'HeureuxProject: University of HoustonBrigitte Zabak is a native Houstonian whose parents came to the United States from Ramallah, Palestine. She discusses her family restaurants in Tennessee and in Houston. The Houston Press recognized Zabak’s, Brigitte’s cousins’ restaurant on Westheimer and Hillcroft, for having the best falafel in the city. Their falafel recipe was handed down from her Aunt and Uncle, or as Houstonians know them, Kay and...

Scope and Contents Interviewer: Ismelda R. CorreaProject: University Of HoustonDr. Temple Northup is co-director of the Gulf Coast Food Project, which is based at the University of Houston Center for Public History. The Gulf Coast Food project is focused on food research in the Gulf Coast region. Northup elaborates on one of the branches within the project, Houston Eats. Elements of the local food movement were discussed in depth. They include farmers markets, sustainability, and key...

Scope and Contents Interviewer: Lulin WangProject: University Of HoustonFor Tony Vallone, fine dinning is not defined by the price of the meal or how fancy the dining room's décor is, but rather by the attention to detail, from the selection of ingredients to the way the food is presented to the customers—just the way they like it. One of the most influential restaurateurs in Houston, he opened Tony‟s in 1965, originally where the Galleria stands today. It introduced authentic Italian...

Scope and Contents Interviewer: Ernesto ValdésProject: University Of HoustonJudge Ed Emmett discusses his memories of visiting Westbury Square in the 1960s. At the time, Emmett was a student at Rice University and enjoyed going to the shopping center for entertainment. He discusses the various shops and restaurants that were there along with the architecture and possible revitalization of the center. Emmett also talks about other popular areas for college students and young adults in...

Scope and Contents Interviewer: Ernesto ValdésProject: University Of HoustonGwen Emmett recounts Westbury Square in its infancy during the 1960s. Westbury Square provided a recreational destination for teenaged youths, and Gwen compares the close-knit, formal social lives of young adults in the sixties to the more independent and accessible ones of millennials. Gwen remembers how the concept of a specialty store seemed foreign to her and how she transitioned from home-sewn clothing to...