AirGo had the honor of cohosting the Our Liberation Summit, a convening at Sarah Lawrence College. We conducted 10 interviews with presenters, producers, and participants, seizing this shared moment to bring their voices and ideas beyond the confines of the campus. The episode above contains a few of their stories–you can hear all of the episodes below. Thanks to Natalie Gross and Cody Ross Romero for their wonderful hospitality and vision!
Episode 124 - Bria Royal
Bria Royal is a mythmaker. The artist, media journalist, organizer, and spacemaker creates worlds through comics, animation, and paintings that reimagine the relationships between liberation, the natural world, gender, mental health, technology, and more. She works for the youth media and journalism nonprofit Free Spirit Media, and is a member of Chicago-based organizations The People's Response Team and For the People Artists Collective.
HELP SPREAD THE WORDS OF THESE STRONG YOUNG VOICES BY BECOMING AN AMPLIFIER WITH A MONTHLY DONATION THROUGH PATREON, THE ARTS PATRONAGE SITE.
Episode 123 - Ashley Ray
Ashley Ray is open. The comedian, writer, and cultural critic shares the stories, questions, insecurities, and challenges many of us struggle to ask about relationships, monogamy, and sexuality, and spins them hilariously toward a liberatory perspective. In addition to doing standup all over Chicago, she writes about television for the Onion, and has a day job where she spins your public data into profit.
HELP SPREAD THE WORDS OF THESE STRONG YOUNG VOICES BY BECOMING AN AMPLIFIER WITH A MONTHLY DONATION THROUGH PATREON, THE ARTS PATRONAGE SITE.
Episode 122 - Tanji Harper
Tanji Harper's light shines real bright. An OG of Chicago's creative community, she is one of the most genuine, kind, and creative mentors and communal creators in the city. She is the Artistic Director of the Happiness Club, an all-ages youth dance crew that operates as a family and lights up stages all over the Chi. She's also the Founder of Blu Rhythm Collective, a squad remixing the theatrical space for the more equitable.
HELP SPREAD THE WORDS OF THESE STRONG YOUNG VOICES BY BECOMING AN AMPLIFIER WITH A MONTHLY DONATION THROUGH PATREON, THE ARTS PATRONAGE SITE.
Episode 121 - Dewayne Perkins
Dewayne Perkins is bubbly as hell. The actor, comic, and writer is Chicago born and bred, and has come up through the city's comedy farm system–he's an alum of the iO and of Second City, where he featured as part of their touring company. He recently was a cast member on MTV's Wildin' Out, and has a hilarious web series through OpenTV called Starving Artists.
HELP SPREAD THE WORDS OF THESE STRONG YOUNG VOICES BY BECOMING AN AMPLIFIER WITH A MONTHLY DONATION THROUGH PATREON, THE ARTS PATRONAGE SITE.
Episode 120 - Korporate
This week's guest probably gotten you to stop scrolling before, which is no small feat. Korporate is the mastermind behind Chicago Be Like, a hilarious video series showcasing the absurdity of the city's lingo and culture, from juking in parking lots to hitting a stain at the bus stop. He's also a very dope rapper, and speaks in CPS classrooms across the city.
HELP SPREAD THE WORDS OF THESE STRONG YOUNG VOICES BY BECOMING AN AMPLIFIER WITH A MONTHLY DONATION THROUGH PATREON, THE ARTS PATRONAGE SITE.
Episode 119 - Femdot
Quite simply, Femdot raps his ass off. The up-and-coming rapper has gathered a whole bunch of buzz over the last couple years, performing on stages across the city, and has been featured on Fake Shore Drive and Pigeons & Planes. He's also rocking his way from one lab to another as a student at DePaul, where he studies Biological Sciences.
HELP SPREAD THE WORDS OF THESE STRONG YOUNG VOICES BY BECOMING AN AMPLIFIER WITH A MONTHLY DONATION THROUGH PATREON, THE ARTS PATRONAGE SITE.
Episode 118 - Glenance Green
Glenance Green shades in the nuances and contours through her work as a poet, playwright, filmmaker, scholar, and activist. She directs A G Thing, a creative performance agency, and is also the creator of Melanin Voices, a performance collective series of poetry and live literature purposed to showcase the local, unsung voices in literature and highlight the narratives illuminated from their writings. These largely scripted shows, inclusive of poetry, short stories, vignettes, fiction, and non-fiction work of various Chicago artists, are weaved together to create a beautiful narrative. She is producing Melanin Voices for Puerto Rico, a live show and benefit at the Breathing Room space on 51st and Bishop, this Friday evening.
HELP SPREAD THE WORDS OF THESE STRONG YOUNG VOICES BY BECOMING AN AMPLIFIER WITH A MONTHLY DONATION THROUGH PATREON, THE ARTS PATRONAGE SITE.
Episode 117 - Mother Nature
Mother Nature is up and running. The Chicago rap duo, consisting of emcees Klevah and T.R.U.T.H., has brought forth some banging recent releases, just rocked the Reggies stage, and just got back from a New York-area run of shows. The pair pops up to AirGo to talk movement, creating as artist-educators, and more.
HELP SPREAD THE WORDS OF THESE STRONG YOUNG VOICES BY BECOMING AN AMPLIFIER WITH A MONTHLY DONATION THROUGH PATREON, THE ARTS PATRONAGE SITE.
Episode 116 - Cqqchifruit
You might be able to spot Cqqchifruit from a mile away. The DJ, visual creator, and space-creator wears an aesthetic that sparkles, shines, innovates, and reimagines concepts of gender, Caribbean diaspora, and nightlife. The cofounder of Pilsen party standout Trqpiteca, she DJs across the world. She is also a certified Reiki Master.
HELP SPREAD THE WORDS OF THESE STRONG YOUNG VOICES BY BECOMING AN AMPLIFIER WITH A MONTHLY DONATION THROUGH PATREON, THE ARTS PATRONAGE SITE.
Episode 115 - Brandon Breaux
Brandon Breaux is a visual artist whose dynamic work across media has become immensely recognizable across the city and beyond. He is the visionary behind Chance the Rapper's album artwork, and has recently created painting, sculpture, web, video, print, and interactive media projects. He also appeared as a gallery contributor at AirGo's very first We 'Go Chicago Showcase and Celebration, way back in 2015. Is this appearance the basis of all of his success? Perhaps...
HELP SPREAD THE WORDS OF THESE STRONG YOUNG VOICES BY BECOMING AN AMPLIFIER WITH A MONTHLY DONATION THROUGH PATREON, THE ARTS PATRONAGE SITE.
Episode 114 - Coriama Couture
Coriama Couture goes there, without any fuckery. She is a writer, style envisioner, activist, and host/creator of Sex KiKi, a regular gathering and podcast in different areas of the city at which open, moderated, and meaningful conversation around sex and sexuality flourishes. She's also getting ready to launch a new talk show, which she discusses with Damon and Daniel, who may be out of their depth on this one.
HELP SPREAD THE WORDS OF THESE STRONG YOUNG VOICES BY BECOMING AN AMPLIFIER WITH A MONTHLY DONATION THROUGH PATREON, THE ARTS PATRONAGE SITE.
Episode 113 - Jacinda and Jaquanda of Kuumba Lynx
Jacinda Bullie and Jaquanda Villegas are the co-founders of Kuumba Lynx, a hip hop arts collective and community based in Chicago's Uptown neighborhood. The squad leads all kinds of to-the-root liberation-based collective creation, including: the annual Hip Hop Theater Festival, Half-Pint Poetics, a perennial contending team at Louder than a Bomb, and much more. From the classroom, to the stage, to the streets, Kuumba Lynx is a family of fire fighting for liberation through creation.
HELP SPREAD THE WORDS OF THESE STRONG YOUNG VOICES BY BECOMING AN AMPLIFIER WITH A MONTHLY DONATION THROUGH PATREON, THE ARTS PATRONAGE SITE.
Episode 112 - Rich Jones
Rich Jones knows everyone, and they smile when you mention his name. He's a Chicago music scene veteran, rapper, and curator of the ongoing concert series All Smiles at the Tonic Room. Straddling the line with indie pop, he brings bounce to his music and the spaces he builds. He is performing Thursday evening as part of a Puerto Rico benefit show at Chop Shop, alongside AirGo alum Ravyn Lenae, the O'My's, and Boathouse.
HELP SPREAD THE WORDS OF THESE STRONG YOUNG VOICES BY BECOMING AN AMPLIFIER WITH A MONTHLY DONATION THROUGH PATREON, THE ARTS PATRONAGE SITE.
Episode 111 - Ashley Tribble
It's a Chicago radical podcast meeting of the minds as Ashley Tribble comes on AirGo. Tribbz is the host and producer of P Power Radio, a podcast that shares stories of millennial women and the history that has shaped the world they are working to change. Ashley currently holds a residency at AMFM, the Pilsen studio and gallery founded by AirGo alum Ciera McKissick, and does standup across the city.
HELP SPREAD THE WORDS OF THESE STRONG YOUNG VOICES BY BECOMING AN AMPLIFIER WITH A MONTHLY DONATION THROUGH PATREON, THE ARTS PATRONAGE SITE.
Episode 110 - Juliana Pino
Juliana Pino sees how it all connects. She's the Policy Director at the Little Village Environmental Justice Organization (LVEJO), bringing the organization's activism, organizing, and advocacy in the La Villita community and beyond to policy struggles at the city, state, and federal level. She brings the connections between the outside and inside, the macro and micro, the personal and the global to the AirGo airwaves.
HELP SPREAD THE WORDS OF THESE STRONG YOUNG VOICES BY BECOMING AN AMPLIFIER WITH A MONTHLY DONATION THROUGH PATREON, THE ARTS PATRONAGE SITE.
Episode 109 - Maya Schenwar
Maya Schenwar is a journalist and Editor-in-Chief of Truthout, an independent social justice news website that takes on the pretense of objectivity and reimagines the ways we can tell the stories of our struggle. She's the author of Locked Down, Locked Out: Why Prison Doesn’t Work and How We Can Do Better, and co-editor of Who Do You Serve, Who Do you Protect? Police Violence and Resistance in the United States. Maya has written for publications across the country, mostly focusing on the violences perpetrated by our carceral system. This is a fun one–we promise.
HELP SPREAD THE WORDS OF THESE STRONG YOUNG VOICES BY BECOMING AN AMPLIFIER WITH A MONTHLY DONATION THROUGH PATREON, THE ARTS PATRONAGE SITE.
Episode 108 - Joseph Chilliams
This week, we talk with the perfect rapper. Joseph Chilliams' debut project, Henry Church, just dropped, and the rapper/icon gets DEEP into it with Damon and Daniel about the project and much more. Plus a special birthday shoutout to Dame!
HELP SPREAD THE WORDS OF THESE STRONG YOUNG VOICES BY BECOMING AN AMPLIFIER WITH A MONTHLY DONATION THROUGH PATREON, THE ARTS PATRONAGE SITE.
Episode 107 - Matt McLoughlin
Matt McLoughlin has done it before. The Philly native is an activist and accomplice in the best sense of the word–from the streets of Occupy, to the transformative lot of Freedom Square, to the courtrooms and offices of his current work with the Chicago Community Bond Fund, Matt's open-eyed commitment and love shines through. He comes on the show to talk about the campaign to end cash bond in Illinois, and more.
HELP SPREAD THE WORDS OF THESE STRONG YOUNG VOICES BY BECOMING AN AMPLIFIER WITH A MONTHLY DONATION THROUGH PATREON, THE ARTS PATRONAGE SITE.
Episode 106 - Check-in #2
For the second time in AirGo history, a scheduling snafu leaves Damon and Daniel on the air with no guest. Good thing they like to talk to each other. They check in on how they're reimagining the show, wrestling with depression, laughing at the cosmic joke, and much more, plus some great music from Jamila Woods, Saba, Noname, Joseph Chilliams, Qari, Phoelix, and Elton Aura.