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Jesse Jean grew up without parents in inner-city Washington, D.C., and seemed destined to slip through the cracks. But then Jean met two mentors who put him on a very different path -- an elite boarding school in Connecticut. Independent radio producer Katie Davis first profiled Jean in May 2002, and has a follow-up.

The Brooklyn-based ensemble So Percussion improvises instruments from materials found at Home Depot and other sources associated more with plumbing supplies than with the performing arts. A distinctive sound emerges.

In 1928, violinist Louis Kaufman became the first person to buy a painting by Milton Avery. A year later, The Phillips Collection in Washington, D.C., became the first museum to acquire a work by Avery. NPR's Susan Stamberg reports on a new exhibit at the Phillips that celebrates the long friendship between the two artists. See paintings and photos from the show.

Before Peter Jackson emerged as the successful director of the Lord of the Rings movies, most of his early films were low-budget efforts that offered a mixed bag of characters and scenarios. Hear NPR's Neda Ulaby and Washington, D.C., video-store clerks Scott Mueller and Adam Robinson.

Radio station owner Ralph Epperson kept the twangy sound of live bluegrass, old-time gospel and mountain music cruising over the airwaves from his North Carolina radio station WPAQ long after other broadcasters had stopped. Epperson died Wednesday at age 85.

The White House is sending a complicated message about its intentions toward Iran. Daniel Schorr, senior news analyst for NPR, says the administration is attempting to convince Iran that military action is possible, while trying to convince Americans that military action is highly improbable.

The Smithsonian's newest museum is dedicated to one of the hemisphere's oldest subjects, the history and culture of Native Americans. NPR's Juan Williams tours the National Museum of the American Indian, which opens in Washington, D.C., in September.

A new musical, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, opens this week on Broadway. Actual audience members are prescreened in order to take part in the show's spelling contest.

For most of the 1980s, Naomi Judd and her daughter Wynonna were the top country music duo. In the late 1990s, Judd was diagnosed with hepatitis C and told she had just a few years to live. Judd documents her miraculous recovery, and offers advice to others with the disease, in her new book, Naomi's Breakthrough Guide: 20 Choices to Transform Your Life. NPR's Bob Edwards speaks with Judd.

Protests are held in Washington, D.C., and in San Francisco, to oppose the continued U.S. occupation of Iraq. Demonstrators in the nation's capital also focused on the U.S.A. Patriot Act. Hear NPR's Steve Inskeep and NPR's Andrea Seabrook.