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Maya Angelou radio special celebrates black history with Oprah, Alicia Keys, Jennifer Hudson
• WASHINGTON (AP) -- In the midst of talking black history with Grammy-winning singer Alicia Keys, Maya Angelou breaks out singing a hymn a cappella.
• The acclaimed poet and author wants to show Keys, a New Yorker, what "lining out," call-and-response singing that is popular in black churches down South, sounds like.
• That teaching moment is one of many during Angelou's third annual Black History Month program, "Telling Our Stories," airing on more than 175 public radio stations nationwide throughout February.
• Angelou says she is obligated to share her knowledge and experience with younger people like Keys, in a way that is not "preaching" but gives context to the "human truth."
• "We owe the truth, not just the facts," she said recently in a phone interview from her home in Winston-Salem, N.C. "I'm celebrating my 84th year on this planet. I've seen many things, I've learned many things. I've certainly been exposed to many things and I've learned something: I owe it to you, to tell you."
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With death of legendary New York City mayor, Koch tributes pour in; funeral set for Monday
• NEW YORK (AP) -- In 1977, New York City was deep into its worst fiscal crisis ever. Riots erupted that summer during a blackout. And a fire in one of the most blighted, bombed-out parts of town that fall led Howard Cosell to announce during a World Series game at Yankee Stadium: "Ladies and gentlemen, the Bronx is burning."
• Into that mess stepped Ed Koch as the city's newly elected mayor. Within a few years, New York was back on firmer financial footing and the fears that the city was sliding into anarchy had given way to a new sense of energy and optimism.
• Koch didn't do it all by himself, but is credited with hectoring, cajoling and noodging the city to make the hard decisions on its road back.
• "The whole city was crumbling, and then we elected Ed Koch," Mayor Michael Bloomberg said Friday during a ceremony marking the centennial of Grand Central Terminal, a once-crumbling edifice Koch helped save from the wrecking ball.
• "When we were down, Ed Koch picked us up. When we were worried, he gave (Continued on page 32)
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