Airgo

On days like these, we need the proper vibes dealt more than ever. Drea Smith is a singer, songwriter, and member of the Medicine Woman collective with AirGo alumnae Via Rosa, Ravyn Lenae, and Jean Deaux. The elder statesperson of the crew, Drea has traveled the country as the singer for indie pop band He Say She Say and duo Pyyramids. She drops by AirGo to help figure out what the hell we do now. Recorded live 11/10/16 at WHPK 88.5FM in Chicago Music from this week's show: Fuck Donald Trump - @YG and @Nipseyhussle Fake Like - @supportyourlocalvibedealer Division - @supportyourlocalvibedealer

Singer, poet, and activist TASHA shines. A Chicago native, she has recently released her fiercely warm Divine Love EP. She's also on the staff of Black Youth Project-100, serving as assistant to BYP National Director Charlene Carruthers. TASHA's brother is old-school AirGo alum Ethos, who was featured on the sixth episode of the show. Recorded live 11/3/16 Music from this week's show: Ocean Floor Kisses - @Galimatias We Got Power - @WowTashaWow

Help save WHPK here: https://www.facebook.com/SaveWHPK The University of Chicago administration has recently announced that personnel of WHPK 88.5FM will no longer have access to the station premises outside of the regular hours of the Reynolds Club, the on-campus building in which the station is housed. This change has cut out a third of our programming and ends a tradition of 24/7 broadcasting that the station has maintained since the 1980s. The decision to restrict access was made behind doors, with little consideration of DJ input. WHPK DJ, Sick Muse zine editor, and curator of The Promontory's The Corner series Sasha Teko hops in the studio, with WHPK stalwart Mario Smith on the phone, to talk about the campaign to save community involvement in the radio station. Recorded live 10/27/16 at WHPK 88.5FM in Chicago Music from this week's show: Church Eye - @Sivey World in My Hands (feat. @Sminobrown and Legit) - @SabaPIVOT Icy - @SolPatches Freestyle Battle - @KanyeWest and @Common

Hanif Willis-Abdurraqib loves his city like Chicagoans love Chicago. He writes Columbus, Ohio with care and love, as a poet, essayist, and journalist with MTV. His new book of poems, "The Crown Ain't Worth Much," is raw as hell, and available now. Recorded 10/15/16 in Chicago, IL Music from this week's show: Piece of What - @RJD2

José Olivarez talks about Chicago the way Kanye talks about Kanye. Originally from Calumet City, a southern burb of Chicago, he's a product of the Young Chicago Authors community and former staff member of the organization. He has since moved to New York, where he is the Program Director of youth poetry organization Urban Word NYC. He's the cohost of interview podcast The Poetry Gods, and isn't a huge Nas fan. Recorded live 10/13/16 at WHPK 88.5FM in Chicago Music from this week's show: Let Nas Down - @JColeMusic Hate Me Now - Nas

Daniel Kyri is an actor and space-builder who is the cofounder of The Dojo, a radically inclusive performance, art, and community space in Pilsen. Built in principles of communal accountability and free expression, the Dojo has carved a beautiful, slapdash space for the city's turnup. In addition to his work at the Dojo, Daniel has acted on stages across the city, including The Second City and Chicago Shakespeare Theater. Recorded live 10/6/16 at WHPK 88.5FM in Chicago Music from this week's show: A Little Soul - Pete Rock

Monica Trinidad's work as a visual artist and organizer has been pivotal in shaping the ways art and activism cocreate in this moment, movement, and city. The co-founder of For The People Artists Collective, she has illustrated how communal art-making is necessary for our fights and for our spirits. Recorded 9/16/16 Music from this week's show: Casanova- @lostclubmusic Complejo de Salvador Blanco - Cochina

Page May is one of the city's strongest voices in the fight for Black liberation. She is a cofounder of Assata's Daughters, and has been leading in different ways across the city, from the podium to the classroom to the streets. The day after the actions responding to Laquan McDonald's murder last November, she and Damon sat down on AirGo to process and heal together. She joins us again for a conversation about damn near everything. Recorded 9/14/16 in Chicago Music from this week's show: Sing About Me, I'm Dying of Thirst - @kendricklamar World in My Hands (feat. @sminobrown & Legit) - @SabaPIVOT

Once upon a time, way back on Episode 4, Nate Marshall came to the WHPK studio and everything went wrong. Damon was out of town, Daniel forgot an Aux cable, and the room was sweltering. An hour later, Daniel screamed obscenities when he discovered that the episode hadn't even recorded, and their conversation was lost to the AirGo ages. A year later, the BreakBeat Poet, rapper, and educator swings by for the episode he has always deserved. Recorded 9/7/16 in Chicago Music from this week's show: Harold's (Instrumental) - @Madlib

Melissa DuPrey is dope. You could say that about a lot of the people we've had on the show, but it's indubitably true with Melissa. She's an actress, comedian, and activist who is a native of the city's Humboldt Park neighborhood. She's also the General Manager of Free Street Theater, the amazing youth theater organization that has been a home for AirGo alumni Ricardo Gamboa and Sol Patches. Recorded 9/1/16 in Chicago Music from this week's show: Papers - @Sangobeats I Love Soul (feat. Avery R. Young) - @ricwilson

Why are your house, block, and city the way that they are? Daniel Kay Hertz has some ideas, and he's excited to share them with you. Hertz is an urban planner and Chicagoan who breaks down and reshapes housing and transportation policy in ways that illuminate how this city works, and often doesn't work. Get your crash course with the sexiest AirGo episode of all time. Recorded 8/25/16 in Chicago, IL Music from this week's show: #1 - @Lefty_Loosey

On this week's episode, we celebrate our Associate Producer Chris Cannon, who has been holding it down as a member of the AirGo staff all summer. As he prepares to go back to college, we share his thoughts on working with the show, as well as an audio piece that he co-produced this past semester about street harassment. Get @neonpajama's new book "Paper Wind": http://dustyintl.com/paper-wind-by-ben-niespodziany/ Music from this week's show: So Gone (feat. Missy Elliott) - Monica Midnight City - M83 End of the World - @lupefiasco

Diamond Sharp is a poet and essayist from Oak Park, whose words and presence celebrate the melancholy and the shadows we all carry in a way rarely seen in artist communities, organizing rooms, and simply in the world overall. A member of BYP-1oo and an editor for Rookie Mag, Diamond swings by AirGo Studio B (Daniel's house) for this week's episode while the station is getting fixed up. Recorded Wednesday 8/3/16 in Chicago Music from this week's show: mr. fox mr. fox - @squeakPIVOT Shadow Man (feat. @sabapivot, @sminoworld, 1992phoelix) - @noname

When the world acts, AirGo creates and transforms, so this week's episode is a little different. Rather than lifting up one particular Strong Young Voices, Episode 53 brings together shorter conversations with several folks around Freedom Square, the now week-long occupation led by the Let Us Breathe Collective across from the infamous CPD torture site Homan Square. Listen, stop by the ongoing 24/7 occupation at 1100 S Homan, and support by bringing one of the needs listed on the Let Us Breathe Facebook page every morning. Recorded 7/26-7/28 at Freedom Square in Chicago Music from this week's show: Family Business - @kanyewest Lonely Lonely - @jamilawoods Recess - @Ravynlenae Twenty Three - Lowkey

Sonia Denis is a standup comic who has been tearing up stages across the city. A member of the cast for The Second City's Afrofuturism show, Sonia gracefully and gleefully dances the fine line between confessional and silliness. She hops on the show to talk standup, the city's comedy scene, and more. Recorded live 7/21/16 at WHPK 88.5FM

Jasmine Sanders is a writer from the South Side of the city. Her work explores generations of family, and is remarkably and thoroughly grounded in the streets, stories, and histories of place in a way that the "internet writing" world often is unable to accomplish. She's been published in Rookie Mag and Buzzfeed, and has a twitter name more stellar than most. Recorded live 7/14/16 at WHPK 88.5FM Music from this week's show: Off Beat - @chuckinglish Holy - @jamilawoods

Pidgeon Pagonis is an intersex activist and artist whose work, art, and joy, centers "their community’s human right to bodily autonomy and justice." From Chicago, Pidgeon facilitates workshops, discussions, and presentations around the world about the medical violence and stigmatization for intersex folks. They are a shining, unrelentingly positive face and voice in the city, encouraging and empowering artists and organizers alike to imagine new worlds. They also design and sell some of the coolest merch in the world, which you can cop at their online store. Recorded live 6/7/16 at WHPK 88.5FM in Chicago Music from this week's show: LV - YEVRS I Think It's Going to Rain Today - Nina Simone We Love Us - @RicWilsonisme

A couple weeks ago, when we put on We 'Go Vol 2: A Chicago Showcase and Celebration, we were fortunate enough to have the good folks over at Postloudness come through and record the show in its entirety. On this week's episode we share the audio from the exciting, soul-restoring evening, including performances by AirGo alumni E'mon Lauren, Fati Asghar, Kevin Coval, @defcee, @LAVanGogh, @deathViaLove, and @jamilawoods. Recorded live 6/30/16 at WHPK 88.5FM in Chicago Thanks to Postloudness for recording the live event and providing the audio.

When Avery R. Young gets going, joy starts shining, and it's next to impossible to stop it–not that you would want to. A Cave Canem fellow, he is a fixture of Chicago's creative community, and has been reshaping language and community in new, remarkable ways on stages and in classrooms for years. Combining song, poetry, and interviews about race and politics, his most recent project "booker t. soltreyne" is an album and archival project that reflects on how old pedagogies and processes of racism still exist in the Obama Era. Recorded live 6/23/16 at WHPK88.5FM in Chicago Music from this week's show: Waiting - tnight/tmrw Cauleen's Joint - @averyryoung Icarus - April Fools feat. @averyryoung Ham Sammich(Is) - @Averyryoung

Dorothy Holmes has found her way into the movement through the most terrible of circumstances–her son, Ronald "Ronnieman" Johnson was murdered by CPD officer George Hernandez on October 12th, 2014. Dorothy has emerged as an organizer and activist, coupling the fight for justice with a loving campaign to provide resources, support, and love to others who have had to face violence as she has. She joins AirGo to talk about her own path, Ronnieman, and more. Recorded live 6/16/16 at WHPK 88.5FM in Chicago Music from this week's show: Fall From Grace - nicodxmvs Take It - Sirens