Airgo

AirGo is excited to present The Notebook Suite, a series of conversations with writers about liberation, craft, and radical imagination co-curated by poet Nate Marshall. On this episode, we have the pleasure of talking with Chicago legend, WBEZ journalist, and writer Natalie Y. Moore. The author of popular and necessary books The South Side, Almighty Black P Stone Nation, and Deconstructing Tyrone, Natalie talks about how she maneuvers complex responses to her work, how telling the story of segregation helped her report on the pandemic, and much more. Shoutout to our friends over at Scene On Radio, aPeabody-nominated podcast from the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University. Subscribe now: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/scene-on-radio/id1036276968 SHOW NOTES The South Side: A Portrait of Chicago and American Segregation - https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250118332 The Almighty Black P Stone Nation: The Rise, Fall, and Resurgence of an American Gang - https://www.chicagoreviewpress.com/al

AirGo is excited to present The Notebook Suite, a series of conversations with writers about liberation, craft, and radical imagination. We kick the series off by chopping it up with brilliant poet and suite co-curator Nate Marshall. Author of poetry collections Finna and Wild Hundreds, Nate is a longtime friend of the show and professor at Colorado College. He shares what he's wrestling with in his writing right now, as well as some questions for us to ask the folks we're going to be talking with throughout the suite. SHOW NOTES Coffee and Books with Marc Lamont Hill - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/coffee-and-books/id1522592619 The Difficult Miracle of Black Poetry in America by June Jordan - https://www.poetryfoundation.org/articles/68628/the-difficult-miracle-of-black-poetry-in-america Phyllis Wheatley - https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/phillis-wheatley The American Scholar by Ralph Waldo Emerson - http://digitalemerson.wsulibs.wsu.edu/exhibits/show/text/the-american-scholar Jamila Woods

You're invited to an AirGo Listening Party with old friend, vocalist, and stellar human theMIND! A Philly native and longtime Chicagoan, he just dropped a gorgeous and soul-enriching new project entitled Don't Let It Go To Your Head. In the first edition of our new Listening Party series, we go through a few tracks on the album together and talk about his creative process, what he's wrestled with in his artistry and personal growth, and much more. Listen to the album: https://cinqreleas.es/yourhead SHOW NOTES Busy/Sirens by Saba x theMIND - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zhE-fQU6P9U Revolution and Evolution in the 20th Century by James and Grace Lee Boggs - https://www.google.com/books/edition/Revolution_and_Evolution/M6WSDwAAQBAJ Rate and review AirGo on Apple Podcasts - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/airgo/id1016530091 Support AirGo with a monthly or one-time donation - https://airgoradio.com/donate

Climate Changemakers is a podcast series showcasing and celebrating leaders in equity work and climate action across Illinois, presented in celebration of the 20th anniversary of nonprofit organization Elevate Energy. On this eighth and final episode of Climate Changemakers, Dame and Daniel are joined by Olga Bautista of the Chicago Southeast Side Coalition to Ban Petcoke. In response to decades of pollution and environmental destruction by industry in her home neighborhood on the Southeast side of the city, Olga banded together with other community members to fight for environmental protections from and cleanup of Petcoke, a toxic byproduct of oil refinement that was poisoning the air she and her family were breathing. The coalition successfully fought the Koch brothers, who were forced to dispose of the petcoke in a less destructive manner. She talks about the devastation of industrial pollution, learning to collect the necessary data herself, the unique challenges of having a set at the redevelopment tabl

In the midst of a pandemic, Mayor Lightfoot is threatening to punish aldermen and the communities they represent if they do not vote for her racist and regressive budget. There is a lot to unpack, from Lori increasing the share of funding for the police department to her telling the Black Caucus that voting against her budget means they shouldn’t expect investment from the city for their wards, and so much more… and that ain't right! Listen to the audio from a Facebook Live conversation on Saturday, November 21st at 12pm between Kennedy from @uwfillinois, Damon from @letusbreathe773, Ald. Rossana Rodriguez, CTU's Stacy Davis Gates, Amika "Big Tree" Tendaji, and organizers from Good Kids Mad City spill the tea on Lori’s fake progressive, anti-Black budget. Stay tuned this week as we share more info on the folks who will be joining the conversation and ways to demand alderpeople vote no and #BootTheBudget! Sign up to phonebank or textbank to help #DefundCPD at bit.ly/2020Chibudget. #SpillTheTea #BootTheBu

On this bonus episode, we're partnering with our good friends over at the Chicago Community Bond Fund to share a collage of audio from a series of virtual townhalls hosted by the Coalition to End Money Bond. Recorded this fall, the conversations explored the different imperatives for ending money bail, and connected elected representatives with lawyers, organizers, and advocates who are leading the fight. SHOW NOTES Plug into the fight at http://endmoneybond.org Send a letter to you legislator in support of the Pretrial Fairness Act: bit.ly/pretrialfairnessletter Watch all three townhalls at the Coalition's Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/endmoneybond/videos/ Chicago Community Bond Fund: https://chicagobond.org/

Each month this year, we're going to revisit an episode from the 260+ episodes in the AirGo Archives and bring that conversation back to the forefront. This month, we're revisiting one of the most impactful moments in modern social movement history–the encampment at Standing Rock in 2016. Kiss and a cohort of other Chicago folks brought supplies from Freedom Square in November, and had the privilege to spend a few days there. Upon their return, Kiss sat down with Kristiana Colon, who had been with him on the trip, to talk about the experience. The episode also features selections from the podcast Voices of Standing Rock, reproduced with the creator's permission. SHOW NOTES: Listen to all of Voices of Standing Rock: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/voices-of-standing-rock/id1173368814 Get connected to Oceti Sakowin, a group that formed during the encampment and has led the fight for indigenous sovereignty and environmental justice: https://www.facebook.com/OcetiSakowinCamp

Unelectable is an live podcast event series that engages electoral politics through the filter of radical imagination. Come chop it up with us, imagine new worlds, and help us build our Unelectable platform! AirGo and Black Youth Project are using the 2020 election cycle to have tangible conversations about impactful issues dismissed as being too big or unrealistic by mainstream political media. We want to expose the tensions that come from engaging electoral work as a liberatory pathway, reconciling complex contradictions within our movements and communities. The third and final event in the series, taking place just a few days before the 2020 election, focuses on the liberatory potential of Abolition Democracy, and how the seeds of this future are being sowed today. The conversation is cohosted by brilliant organizer Asha Ransby-Sporn, and features State Senator Robert Peters, community builder Jay Travis (formerly of KOCO), and EAT Chicago founder Rich Wallace. SHOW NOTES DefundCPD campaign - https://www

On October 21st, Lori Lightfoot addressed Chicago and let us know where her priorities lie. She ignored 87% of Chicagoans that took the budget survey and instead advocated for increased police spending and ensured she allocated plenty of $ for her 13 press aides. After the CPD Budget Hearing on 10/29, join #DefundCPD organizers Kennedy (@uwfillinois) and Damon Williams (@damon_af) to break down all of Lori's budget tricks, learn about budget processes, and talk through how we collectively move forward during this budget cycle. NOTE: This is audio of an IG Live from 10/30/20 between Damon and Kennedy Bartley, the Legislative Director of United Working Families. Learn more about Kennedy here: https://www.unitedworkingfamilies.org/news/2019/8/25/meet-kennedy Join the #DefundCPD campaign: https://actionnetwork.org/forms/sign-on-to-demand-defunding-of-the-chicago-police-department?source=direct_link&

Each month this year, we're going to revisit an episode from the 260+ episodes in the AirGo Archives and bring that conversation back to the forefront. This week, we're heading back to 2015 to talk with one of the best singers of we've ever heard. When 16 year-old Ravyn Lenae came up to the WHPK studio, she had recently released her first EP Moon Shoes, and it was becoming clear that she had an absurdly bright future that was becoming closer and closer. Since then, she's released multiple acclaimed projects, relocated to LA, signed to Atlantic Records, and toured the world. And she's still really nice to us, which we appreciate. SHOW NOTES Listen to her EP Crush here: https://www.ravynlenae.com/ Make a tax-deductible donation today and become an AirGo Amplifier: airgoradio.com/donate

Climate Changemakers is a podcast series showcasing and celebrating leaders in equity work and climate action across Illinois, presented in celebration of the 20th anniversary of nonprofit organization Elevate Energy. On this penultimate episode of Climate Changemakers, Damon and Daniel talk with artist, community builder, and Chicago gem Tonika Lewis Johnson. A lifelong Englewood resident, she helped co-found the Resident Association of Greater Englewood (R.A.G.E), whose mission is to “mobilize people and resources to force positive change in Englewood through solution-based approaches." She is also a lead co-founder of the Englewood Arts Collective, established in 2017 to help artistically “reframe the narrative” of Englewood. Her Folded Map Project, which brings together "map twins" from opposite sides of the city, has been widely acclaimed as both an artistic project and a flashpoint in the fight against structural racism. She talks about the ways that the project has evolved, what she's learned from it

AirGo is excited to present The Education Suite, a collection of episodes focusing on the liberatory histories and futures of education. This suite is co-curated by AirGo fam and general genius Eve Ewing, a professor and poet whose work is at the forefront of public conversation around the ways our education system has harmed Black and Brown young people, and the ways that our school buildings connect to larger systems of inequity across the country. For the final episode of this suite, we check back in with Eve to discuss what we've learned. She brings some questions for the guys to make sure they were listening, shares some useful tips for your apocalypse knapsack, and fills us all with the warmth and introspection she is always sharing. SHOW NOTES Audre Lorde - https://alp.org/about/audre Parable of the Sower-inspired Go Bag - https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Hhrd4PO6Dr_N64AIe5BFzgz7jC782PnpF2r0QnV_CCk/edit?usp=sharing Pierre Bourdieu - https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=d_lp40IAAAAJ&hl=e

Recently, the guys very carefully and joyously headed to an isolated house in Wisconsin for a planning and decompression weekend with movement stalwarts and wonderful spirits Trina Reynolds-Tyler and Maira Khwaja. We turned the mics on toward the end of the weekend to talk about the last time the four of us hung out, what we learned, and some of what we're wrestling with. Find out more about Trina and Maira's work at http://www.tmproductions.org/

AirGo is excited to present The Education Suite, a collection of episodes focusing on the liberatory histories and futures of education. This suite is co-curated by AirGo fam and general genius Eve Ewing, a professor and poet whose work is at the forefront of public conversation around the ways our education system has harmed Black and Brown young people, and the ways that our school buildings connect to larger systems of inequity across the country. This episode features Janie Pochel, the cofounder and guiding force behind Chi-Nations Youth Council. The Council is a community organization that create a supportive open environment for Native youth to raise awareness of cultural identity and promote a healthy lifestyle through arts, activism, and education. She breaks down the lessons learned through land and place-based education, the necessity of Black and Indigenous solidarity, how modern schooling has been a genocidal tool, and how she cares for the youth she serves. SHOW NOTES Support the work of Chi-N

On the eve of Lori Lightfoot’s budget speech, Bella BAHHS (@bellabahhs) and Damon Williams (@damon_af) address the inherent violence within our political systems and discuss how defunding the police is a step toward getting our people and communities what they need. #DefundCPD #DefendBlackLives This audio is from an IG Live between Damon and Bella Bahhs. Follow her at http://instagram.com/bellabahhs. Plug into the campaign today! https://linktr.ee/defundcpd

AirGo is excited to present The Education Suite, a collection of episodes focusing on the liberatory histories and futures of education. This suite is co-curated by AirGo fam and general genius Eve Ewing, a professor and poet whose work is at the forefront of public conversation around the ways our education system has harmed Black and Brown young people, and the ways that our school buildings connect to larger systems of inequity across the country. This episode's guest is poet, translator, and transdisciplinary scholar SA Smythe. SA is a professor at UCLA, and is one of the organizers of the Cops Off Campus Campaign, which aims to remove police and policing from all University of California campuses by September 2021. They join the show to talk about the campaign, the challenges and unique potential of forging a truly public university, how the campaign connects to their study of Blackness in the Mediterranean, reaching toward diasporic power rather than national citizenship, and MUCH, MUCH more. Recorded

AirGo is excited to present The Education Suite, a collection of episodes focusing on the liberatory histories and futures of education. This suite is co-curated by AirGo fam and general genius Eve Ewing, a professor and poet whose work is at the forefront of public conversation around the ways our education system has harmed Black and Brown young people, and the ways that our school buildings connect to larger systems of inequity across the country. On this episode, we get to know Prof. L'Heureux Dumi Lewis-McCoy. He's a professor at NYU, where his work focuses on the racial entanglements, contradictions, and challenges for students of color in suburban schools. He breaks down the myths we hold about the suburbs, the unique violences of catholic schools, where the potential for fugitivity in the cul-de-sacs might be, and who we should be listening to about what young people need. SHOW NOTES Catholic Schools and the Common Good: https://books.google.com/books/about/Catholic_Schools_and_the_Common_Good.html

Each month this year, we're going to revisit an episode from the 260+ episodes in the AirGo Archives and bring that conversation back to the forefront. This month, we're revisiting our convo with Stretch Armstrong and Bobbito Garcia, the legendary duo behind the underground radio show that first brought many of hip hop's biggest stars onto the airwave. Dame and Kiss had the chance to sit down with Stretch and Bob back in 2015, when AirGo was still a baby and the brilliant documentary Stretch and Bobbito: Radio that Changed Lives first came to Chicago. It was a bit of a funhouse mirror as the four of them talked hip hop, independent radio-making, classic 90s rap tales, and finding one's place in the culture. Since 2015, the duo has hosted several podcasts (including What's Good for NPR), released a wonderful album together, and continued to rock with each other tough through thick and thin. SHOW NOTES: Stretch and Bobbito: Radio that Changed Lives - https://stretchandbobbito.com/ Rock Rubber 45s - https://r

Climate Changemakers is back, baby! Dame and Kiss return for another three conversations with some of Illinois' most impactful environmental justice and sustainability movement workers, showcasing their work and sharing what lessons they've learned. This episode is with Ramon Etc. aka Radius, the founder of the Love Fridge Chicago, a mutual aid network that sets up community-run, free-food fridges across the city of Chicago. He talks about how the network emerged, his relationship with food, and how we can build a more embodied and sustainable relationship to our food system. SHOW NOTES: Check out Ramon's music - SEEN (Etc Records/ARR sound) https://radiusetc.bandcamp.com/album/seen Sense x Radius (Etc Records) https://senseradius.bandcamp.com/album/the-live-archive-2-era-of-the-tec Partner Organizations - eric aka manny is on the team and runs flatlands press https://www.instagram.com/flatlands_press/ lisa armstrong is a head/og designer https://www.instagram.com/lisastrongarms/ charlotte cohen is ma

AirGo is excited to present The Education Suite, a collection of episodes focusing on the liberatory histories and futures of education. This suite is co-curated by AirGo fam and general genius Eve Ewing, a professor and poet whose work is at the forefront of public conversation around the ways our education system has harmed Black and Brown young people, and the ways that our school buildings connect to larger systems of inequity across the country. On this episode, we chop it up with AirGo fam Dr. Dave Stovall, a professor at UIC who works with community organizations and schools to address issues of equity, justice and abolishing the school/prison nexus. He breaks down the distinction between education and schooling, histories of education spaces and their destruction, fugitivity, and much more. SHOW NOTES: The People’s Grab n Go - https://www.chicagoreader.com/chicago/the-peoples-grab-n-go-oral-history Bettina Love of the Abolitionist Teaching Network - https://abolitionistteachingnetwork.org/ The Lost