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Actress Angela Bassett talks about her career with Ed Gordon. Her new film is Akeelah and the Bee, a story about an inner-city school girl trying to make it to a national spelling competition.

A year ago, the U.N. Security Council authorized targeted sanctions against Sudanese officials, and others responsible for atrocities in Sudan's Darfur region. But some U.N. diplomats accuse the U.S. of holding up talks on a list of people to be targeted by the sanctions.

Ed Gordon talks with Rep. Ted Strickland (D-OH) about his campaign to be the next governor of Ohio. Strickland, an ordained minister from southeastern Ohio's rural Appalachian region, faces a tough race against Republican candidate Kenneth Blackwell, a conservative African-American, who is currently serving as Ohio's secretary of state.

Many Louisiana business owners say they're not getting a fair share of disaster relief contracts from the federal government, despite the vast rebuilding needed in the region after Hurricane Katrina. Only a tiny proportion of Federal Emergency Management Agency recovery contracts has gone to Louisiana firms.

The word "voodoo" might summon dark notions of pin-stuck dolls and sacrifical chickens; but in New Orleans, voodoo is a real spiritual tradition blending elements of African religions, Catholicism and the Pentecostal Church. Neda Ulaby wondered how some of the city’s voodoo faithful have fared away from their spiritual center.

Forty years ago, Congress decided that existing anti-discrimination laws were not enough to overcome racism in the voting process. In 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act. The law helped to tumble the segregationist status quo that kept black voters from the polls.

Venice Beach, Calif. turns 100 years old Monday. Farai Chideya takes a behind-the-scenes tour of Venice with the granddaughter of Arthur Reese, an African American designer who helped shape Venice's character.

The trio of musicians behind the CD Toto Bona Lokua did something almost unheard of in today's world of over-produced recordings: they improvised.

Michele Norris speaks with BBC disc jockey Charlie Gillett, who hosts a world music program in London. He's put together a two-CD set offering a sample of the most exciting music he's found during the past year

Alan Curtis Green, well known in the advertising world for creating catchy jingles, has created one tune for a higher purpose -- he wrote "One In A Million," the official theme song for the Millions More Movement March happening this coming weekend in Washington, D.C.