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Sue Supriano

Raised in rural northern Illinois, Sue Supriano went to a one-room school through third grade, rode the bus to Dundee schools until age 16, then graduated from Dana Hall prep school in Massachusetts. She started college at Michigan, spent three years away in Paris, returned for a poly sci degree fom the U of Chicago, and moved to Berkeley. "I became active in the civil rights movement," she says. "I jumped into SNCC and CORE." By the mid-60s, Supriano was a community organizer in the free-speech, anti-Viet-Nam-war, and women's movements. "I worked all the time," she says. "It was great! I didn't give speeches. I went to meetings, made flyers, and handed them out." In the early 80s, Supriano began recording interviews for KPFA, Pacifica Radio. "I became hooked on radio activism," she says, "bringing the voices of ordinary people, and the activists, onto the airwaves to be heard by folks all over." Since she moved to Eugene in 2005, Supriano's radio interview series Steppin' out of Babylon has featured such topics as peak oil, climate change, environmental pollution and militarism. Subscribe to podcasts or check out the archive of more than 250 shows at suesupriano.com.

happening people

photograph and story by Paul Neevel

Eugene Weekly / 15 October 2009

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