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Fresh Air Weekend: 'Abbot Elementary' creator Quinta Brunson; Novelist Julie Otsuka

<em>Abbott Elementary</em> creator and showrunner Quinta Brunson plays second grade teacher Janine Teagues on the mockumentary.
Gilles Mingasson
/
ABC
Abbott Elementary creator and showrunner Quinta Brunson plays second grade teacher Janine Teagues on the mockumentary.

Fresh Air Weekend highlights some of the best interviews and reviews from past weeks, and new program elements specially paced for weekends. Our weekend show emphasizes interviews with writers, filmmakers, actors and musicians, and often includes excerpts from live in-studio concerts. This week:

'Abbott Elementary' creator Quinta Brunson finds humor and heart in the classroom: Brunson stars as a rookie second grade teacher in an under-resourced public elementary school in the new mockumentary. Brunson says she conceived of the show with her mother — a teacher — in mind.

Lennie Tristano's private stash of recordings reveal a trove of free improvisations: Despite the poor sound quality, Tristano's newly unearthed Personal Recordings from 1946-1970 are fascinating. Free jazz can be rambunctious, but these musicians step and listen carefully.

Novelist Julie Otsuka draws on her own family history in 'The Swimmers': Though the main character in Otsuka's new novel has lost much of her memory to dementia, she still remembers being sent to an incarceration camp for Japanese Americans during World War II.

You can listen to the original interviews and review here:

'Abbott Elementary' creator Quinta Brunson finds humor and heart in the classroom

Lennie Tristano's private stash of recordings reveal a trove of free improvisations

Novelist Julie Otsuka draws on her own family history in 'The Swimmers'

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