Karen Silkwood Cantata

The Karen Silkwood Cantata was a segment from "The Night Owl Show" on Woodstock's Cable Access, Channel 6, (WATV). "The Night Owl Show", was a weekly magazine program of local and international events. The Cantata was composed and played on the wind harp by Julia Haines, with visuals of Dr. Helen Caldicott, poet, Louise Bernikow, and actor, Jackson Regan. In 1981, when this program was made we had recently suffered the consequences of a nuclear disaster at 3 Mile Island nuclear terminal in Pennsylvania. At the same time Columbia University was trying to activate it's Triga reactor on it's campus in Manhattan (Oh yes, people, it's true). The group, Artist's to End Cancer had invited Caldicott and Bernikow to speak at a demonstration there. Molly Rush, who hammered on the nose cone of a nuclear missle as part of the activist group, The Plowshares Eight, was interviewed at the Woodstock Peace Festival. Nancy Cain a member of the Videofreex, produced and edited the program for Media Bus, Inc., the not-for-profit arm of Videofreex ( it just so happens).