Americana - 02/05/2010

The BBC's North America Editor Mark Mardell presents Americana. Princeton professor and award-winning author Melissa Harris-Lacewell discusses the top stories buzzing across the United States this week. Arizona has gone "maverick" and passed new immigration legislation meant to tackle the influx of illegal immigrants into the south western state. Arizona Governor Jan Brewer signed the legislation into law and now leaders and activists around the nation are voicing their opinions on this controversial measure. Some states have said they may follow in Arizona's footsteps while other states are calling for boycotts of Arizona, opposed to what they say is a bill that may encourage racial profiling. Also this week - the best selling author Mary Higgins Clarke. She's been a successful novelist for years but it's her real life experiences that have taught her the most about survival and the human spirit. She shares some of her lessons learned with Americana. And one of America's most celebrated opera singers, Denyce Graves, remembers civil rights pioneer Dorothy Height. This week she led the musical tributes to Ms Height in front of the President inside Washington's National Cathedral. Denyce Graves graduated from the Duke Ellington School of the Arts in 1981 and studied voice at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music and the New England Conservatory. Email: [email protected] Twitter: @bbcamericana.