Joining us for this week’s popular re-airing is singer/songwriter extraordinaire Citizen Cope, known for his unique and exquisite fusion of blues, soul, and hip-hop. We also welcome Portland-based singer/songwriter Anna Tivel, who is widely recognized for her lyrics-driven folk and Americana style. Plus, Nick talks with Mark Dibner, co-founder of Kramden Institute, an organization that saves discarded computers from going into landfills and refurbishes them to give to low-income students for academic use.
Citizen Cope

Citizen Cope is the alias of American songwriter, producer, and performer Clarence Greenwood. In a career that has now spanned 30 years, his songs have been recorded by a host of major artists, including Sheryl Crow, Pharoah Monch, Dido, Carlos Santana, and Richie Havens. He has released nine solo albums to date, with the most recent being 2021’s The Pull of Niagara Falls. Among his most successful records are The Rainwater LP, Every Waking Moment, and One Lovely Day, all of which made the US Billboard Top 200.
Anna Tivel

Anna Tivel is an Oregon-based songwriter. Her recent abum, Living Thing, follows the widely acclaimed 2022 full-length, Outsiders, which received multiple Best of the Year nods from NPR Music, as well as Brooklyn Vegan, Aquarium Drunkard, Folk Alley, Post-Trash, The Boot, OPB, Folk Radio UK, and more. Album standout “Black Umbrella” was named one of NPR Music’s Best Songs of 2022, and Tivel performed the track during her Tiny Desk Concert last year, alongside an unreleased new song called “Fluorescence In the Future” and Outsiders’ “Heroes” and “Royal Blue.”
Of the “quiet and riveting performance,” NPR‘s Ann Powers praises, “As always, Tivel’s remarkable empathy elevates her folk-based, jazz-touched compositions from mere stories to secular prayers…Inside [the trio’s] swirling arrangements, Tivel’s portraits of pain and resilience become hypnotic, like dreams, like reality as we cope with it, always unfolding.”
Mark Dibner

Mark Dibner is instrumental in founding the Kramden Institute.
Kramden was born out of a father/son project initiated in June 2003 by Mark and Ned Dibner (“Kramden” is ‘Mark’ and ‘Ned’ spelt backwards). The idea came from Ned, then 13, who suggested to his father that they refurbish and fix older computers to donate to middle school honor-roll students in Durham, NC who could not afford home computers. From July 2003 through March 2004, over 90 personal computers and 50 monitors were donated by individuals and businesses allowing Mark and Ned to create and complete 50 computer systems to donate. These PCs were given to sixth, seventh and eighth-grade students on the school honor rolls but who could not afford home computers. By May 2004, each honor-roll student in the school had a computer in their home.