Tell Me More

Award-winning actress S. Epatha Merkerson is best known for her role on Law & Order as Lt. Anita Van Buren. She spoke to Tell Me More earlier this year about hosting Finding Our Own, a program spotlighting the cases of missing people of color. For the series, "In Your Ear," Merkerson shares the music that inspires her.

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MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:

I'm Michel Martin and this is TELL ME MORE from NPR News. Now, we head into the Barbershop, where the guys talk about what's in the news and what's on their minds.

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MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:

I'm Michel Martin, and this is TELL ME MORE from NPR News.

Coming up, this is the month when we acknowledge the contributions of Asian-Americans and Pacific Islanders to the history and ongoing life of this country. We decided to observe it by speaking with people who have changed the game in their respective fields. Today, we are talking with Hikaru Nakamura. At the ripe old age of 24, he has already won the U.S. Championships twice and he's working on his third, as we speak. We'll have that conversation in just a few minutes.

You might be getting your mom flowers, brunch, or a card this Mother's Day. But in Mexico, mariachi bands are snapped up to serenade moms well in advance of the holiday. Host Michel Martin speaks with Dan Sheehy of the Smithsonian's Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage. He's also a member of Mariachi Los Amigos, a Washington D.C. mariachi ensemble.

Award-winning actress and singer Vanessa Williams stars on ABC's Desperate Housewives. She's come a long way since a 1983 Miss America scandal forced her to give up her crown. Host Michel Martin talks with Williams about co-writing the memoir You Have No Idea with her mother, who she says inspired her. Please be warned this conversation may not be comfortable for some listeners.

Actress and singer Lisa Celeste is better known by her stage name, Simone. She's the daughter of the late legendary singer Nina Simone, and she's appeared on Broadway in musicals such as Rent and Aida. As part of the series, In Your Ear, she shares the songs on her personal playlist.

I was thinking about a conversation I had with a friend of mine who just got back from a wedding in Central America. He was telling me how impressed he was that just everybody at his hotel was, it seemed to him, effortlessly bilingual and even multilingual.

People switched back and forth from Spanish to English, and sometimes to French, in the span of minutes, depending on who was standing there and what was needed. I thought: Of course they are. They have to be. Their livelihood and advancement depend on it.

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MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:

I'm Michel Martin, and this is TELL ME MORE from NPR News. Coming up, I'll share some of my thoughts in my weekly essay. That's in just a few minutes.

But first, if you are a fan of folk music - or so-called world music - there is a new treasure to be found online. Alan Lomax spent decades traveling the world, braving all sorts of conditions and even risking his life and health, to collect recordings of music, spoken-word performances, and more.

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(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:

Finally today, we want to honor someone who's work fired the imaginations of many children and their parents. Award-winning author and illustrator Maurice Sendak died today at the age of 83.

Maurice Sendak is best known for that classic children's book "Where the Wild Things Are." He wrote and illustrated the story of the mischievous hero Max, who gets sent to bed without dinner and his imagination takes him to a land of colorful giant monsters.