Willa Comes Alive and More

Nebraska Stories

Air Date: 04/28/2022

Willa Comes Alive In 2019, Omaha sculptor Littleton Alston won the commission to create a bronze of writer Willa Cather for National Statuary Hall at the United States Capitol. During a single day at a Colorado foundry, we witness the 7-foot metal sculpture come alive through the patina process—with flashbacks to its evolution over the past three years. Benny Hochman, Holocaust Survivor When German troops crossed into Poland in September 1939, Benny Hochman was a young teen living in Lodz with his parents and two siblings. Within a short time of the invasion, Benny and his older brother, a Polish officer, were imprisoned at Auschwitz. There Benny lost his brother, younger sister, and parents - all murdered by the Nazis. Young, weak, and angry, Benny was determined to survive. Time and the River The four seasons of the Platte River Basin explored in a beautiful montage of timelapse photography. Produced by the Platte River Basin team and edited to newly commissioned chamber music by Kurt Knecht, a composer from Kansas City, Missouri. Stansbury Stone Faces In 1899, an elderly William Stansbury built a brick building in the small town of Nelson and adorned it with 12 life-sized, peculiar looking faces carved by a local stonemason. Some are notable, but most are locals.