Labor Day Weekend Gardening, Full Bio: Paul Laurence Dunbar, 'Funny Pages' Actor and Director, News Wrap with WNYC/ WQXR's Sean Carlson

As we head into Labor Day weekend, It's time for a whole hour dedicated to gardening, both in your apartment or your yard. Jessica Walliser, horticulturalist and author of the book Container Gardening Complete, and Joel Flagler, Professor at the Rutgers University School of Environmental & Biological Sciences and Rutgers Agricultural Extension Agent for Bergen County, join us again to give us some ripe gardening tips, and to take listener calls.

For Friday's installment of our August Full Bio series, we speak with Gene Jarrett, dean of the faculty and English professor at Princeton, and author of a new biography about the poet Paul Laurence Dunbar, called, Paul Laurence Dunbar: The Life and Times of a Caged Bird. On fourth and final day, we learn about Dunbar's relationship with Booker T. Washington, as well as his struggles with illness and his early death at the age of thirty-three. Plus, we hear WNYC's Michael Hill read a selection of Dunbar's poetry.

"Funny Pages” is an off-beat new movie, currently in theaters and on demand, about an aspiring illustrator who drops out of high school to pursue a career in comics in Trenton, New Jersey. Indiewire calls it “the year’s wildest comedy.” Its director Owen Kline and star Daniel Zolghadri join us.

WNYC/ WQXR news host Sean Carlson breaks down some of the most recent news headlines this week including back-to-school COVID protocols, monkeypox and New York gun law enforcement.