Ep 355 - Lester Spence, Hustle-Knocker And Scholar Of Black Neoliberalism

The guys lock in with Prof. Lester Spence, whose decades of scholarship about Black politic-building, hip-hop, and the sociopolitical turn toward neoliberalism help all of us make sense of the contradictions our culture, political system, and economy pretend don't exist. He's the author of Stare In the Darkness: The Limits of Hip-hop and Black Politics (2011), and Knocking the Hustle: Against the Neoliberal Turn in Black Politics (2015). A longtime professor at Johns Hopkins in Baltimore, Lester breaks down how the turn toward neoliberalism affects all of us, the ways hip hop is still a battlefield for transformation of our culture, and much more.

SHOW NOTES

Get in tune with Lester - https://www.lesterspence.com/

Follow AirGo - instagram.com/airgoradio

Find One Million Experiments on tour! - www.respairmedia.com/events

Bring us to your community by hitting us up - contact@respairmedia.com

CREDITS

Hosts & Exec. Producers - Damon Williams and Daniel Kisslinger

Associate Producer - Rocío Santos

Engagement Producer - Rivka Yeker

Digital Media Producer - Troi Valles

Ep 354 - John Perkins, Economic Hitman And Forging Force For A Life Economy

On this episode, the guys welcome writer John Perkins. Best known for his politically and socially significant text Confessions of an Economic Hit Man, in which he describes playing a role in a process of economic colonization of Third World countries on behalf of what he portrays as a cabal of corporations, banks, and the United States government, John discusses how we can forge new systems of being and creating that prioritize long-term benefits for all life on the planet. He also breaks down the five questions that can help each of us as we figure out how to take action to transform our world.

SHOW NOTES

Get Confessions of an Economic Hitman - https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/726382/confessions-of-an-economic-hit-man-3rd-edition-by-john-perkins/

Follow AirGo - instagram.com/airgoradio

Find One Million Experiments on tour! - www.respairmedia.com/events

Bring us to your community by hitting us up - contact@respairmedia.com

CREDITS

Hosts & Exec. Producers - Damon Williams and Daniel Kisslinger

Associate Producer - Rocío Santos

Engagement Producer - Rivka Yeker

Digital Media Producer - Troi Valles

Ep 353 - Eric Williams, Silver Room Owner And Community Jewel

Sometimes a simple title doesn't even come close to encapsulating who someone is or why they are important to the fabric of our city. This episode's guest Eric Williams is definitely one of those people. He is the owner of The Silver Room, a Chicago institution and brand whose mission is to create a global community through art and culture, as well as the owner of delicious South Side restaurant Bronzeville Winery. He talks with the guys about creating the iconic Silver Room Block Party (one of the most remarkable cultural gatherings in Chicago history), his long path from sidewalk salesman to space-builder and curator, and the tenuous relationship between building for his people and participating in capitalism.

SHOW NOTES

Swing by the Silver Room - https://thesilverroom.com/pages/about-us

Feast at the Bronzeville Winery - https://www.bronzevillewinery.com/

Follow AirGo - instagram.com/airgoradio

Find One Million Experiments on tour! - www.respairmedia.com/events

Bring us to your community by hitting us up - contact@respairmedia.com

CREDITS

Hosts & Exec. Producers - Damon Williams and Daniel Kisslinger

Associate Producer - Rocío Santos

Engagement Producer - Rivka Yeker

Digital Media Producer - Troi Valles

Ep 352 - Rev. Tanya Lozano Washington, Holder Of Health For The Hood

This episode's guest is Rev. Tanya Lozano Washington, the co-founder of community health and care organization Healthy Hood Chicago. Tanya talks about how she came to understand the links between personal and communal health, the lineages she stewards as a member of one of Chicago's most impactful movement families, and the complicated relationships that generations of sacrifice to liberation create.

SHOW NOTES

Get in tune with Healthy Hood - https://www.healthyhoodchi.com/

Come to a Sunday Session - https://www.healthyhoodchi.com/sunday-sessionz

Follow AirGo - instagram.com/airgoradio

Find One Million Experiments on tour! - www.respairmedia.com/events

Bring us to your community by hitting us up - contact@respairmedia.com

CREDITS

Hosts & Exec. Producers - Damon Williams and Daniel Kisslinger

Associate Producer - Rocío Santos

Engagement Producer - Rivka Yeker

Digital Media Producer - Troi Valles

Ep 351 - Sheila Bedi, Lawyer For Liberation

As Chicago gears up for the 2024 Democratic National Convention, we get in tune with movement lawyer and professor Sheila Bedi, who breaks down some of the changes in CPD policy that Chicagoans engaging in direct action should know about. We also talk about the beautiful, challenging, and important ways Sheila has provided care and protection for both organizers facing state repression and the family members of those who have been murdered by the police. Plus, some laughs through it all!

SHOW NOTES

NLG HOTLINE for DNC protest legal support - (872) 465 4244

Thread of support materials from NLG - https://x.com/NLGChicago/status/1823723532783886702

Get in tune with Sheila -https://www.law.northwestern.edu/faculty/profiles/sheilabedi/

Follow AirGo - instagram.com/airgoradio

Find One Million Experiments on tour! - www.respairmedia.com/events

Bring us to your community by hitting us up - contact@respairmedia.com

CREDITS

Hosts & Exec. Producers - Damon Williams and Daniel Kisslinger

Associate Producer - Rocío Santos

Engagement Producer - Rivka Yeker

Digital Media Producer - Troi Valles

Ep 350 - State Senator Robert Peters, Champion of Transformative Incrementalism

In this episode of AirGo, we sit down with State Senator Robert Peters for a deep dive into the current political landscape and the transformative initiatives he's championing. Senator Peters explores how he contributed to the abolition of cash bond in IL, his commitment to getting tangible policy passed in contribution to movement, and the approach of transformative incrementalism that can make participating in legislative process fruitful and worthwhile for those fighting for liberation.

SHOW NOTES

Get in tune with Robert - https://www.instagram.com/robertjamespeters

Follow AirGo - instagram.com/airgoradio

Find One Million Experiments on tour! - www.respairmedia.com/events

Bring us to your community by hitting us up - contact@respairmedia.com

CREDITS

Hosts & Exec. Producers - Damon Williams and Daniel Kisslinger

Associate Producer - Rocío Santos

Engagement Producer - Rivka Yeker

Digital Media Producer - Troi Valles

Ep 349 - Manasseh, Singer Of Circles And Smiles

Singer, songwriter, and dreamweaver Manasseh joins Dame and Kiss for this freewheeling kickback of an interview. A heartfelt vocalist with pipes that pierce through, Manasseh shares some vulnerable experiences that deromanticize the artist's life and show the day-to-day challenges of pursuing a life built around your craft.

SHOW NOTES

Get in tune with Manasseh - https://linktr.ee/yomanasseh

Follow AirGo - instagram.com/airgoradio

Find One Million Experiments on tour! - www.respairmedia.com/events

Bring us to your community by hitting us up -contact@respairmedia.com

CREDITS

Hosts & Exec. Producers - Damon Williams and Daniel Kisslinger

Associate Producer - Rocío Santos

Engagement Producer - Rivka Yeker

Digital Media Producer - Troi Valles

Ep 348 - Live with Akenya and Page May from 2019 (Dig in the Crates)

This episode we dig in the AirGo crates back to fall of 2019, when we had the joy of hosting a live episode of AirGo with the brilliant organizer Page May and multihyphenate musical superstar Akenya, who will be performing this weekend at the always chill and fun Pitchfork Festival right here in Chicago. Enjoy this goofy and wonderful live episode (featuring a cameo from a newborn kitten) and come through both Pitchfork and Akenya's official aftershow 7/18 at Constellation.

SHOW NOTES

Akenya's Pitchfork After-Show - https://www.instagram.com/p/C8uIwakg-No/?img_index=1

Lock in with Akenya - https://www.instagram.com/akenyamusic

Follow AirGo - instagram.com/airgoradio

Find One Million Experiments on tour! - www.respairmedia.com/events

Bring us to your community by hitting us up - contact@respairmedia.com

CREDITS

Hosts & Exec. Producers - Damon Williams and Daniel Kisslinger

Associate Producer - Rocío Santos

Engagement Producer - Rivka Yeker

Digital Media Producer - Troi Valles

Ep 347 - Ashley O'Shay, Unapologetic Director

Grounded visionary and dope filmmaker Ashley O'Shay joins Dame and Kiss on this episode of AirGo. Ashley is the director of Unapologetic, an impactful and loving feature documentary capturing two fierce abolitionists whose upbringing and experiences shape their activism and views on Black liberation. The film premiered at the BlackStar Film Festival, broadcast on PBS POV, and was shortlisted for the International Documentary Association Awards. She's currently working on Southmont Drive, a film reflecting on the legacy of her family from Tuskegee, Alabama that's centered on her late grandfather and the 17 children he raised. She talks about the process of building trust with the folks she films, the learning curve of making a film in the midst of movement, and the fight to save her family home in Tuskegee.

SHOW NOTES

Watch Unapologetic - https://www.amazon.com/gp/video/detail/B09P5R5JQD/ref=atv_dp_share_cu_r

Support Southmont Drive - https://www.instagram.com/southmontdrivefilm/

Get in tune w/ Ashley - https://www.instagram.com/ashley.oshay/

Follow AirGo - instagram.com/airgoradio

Find One Million Experiments on tour! - www.respairmedia.com/events

Bring us to your community by hitting us up - contact@respairmedia.com

CREDITS

Hosts & Exec. Producers - Damon Williams and Daniel Kisslinger

Associate Producer - Ari Mejia

Engagement Producer - Rivka Yeker

Digital Media Producer - Troi Valles

Ep 346 - Senite, The.BlkRoom Co-Founder and Emergent Star

The guys head over to The.BlkRoom, a Chicago-based organization and co-creation studio facilitating opportunities for BIPOC artists and creatives across the city, to chat with the effervescent and protagonistic Senite! The vocalist, songwriter, and co-founder of this transformative community space talks about the grief rituals she's been moving through, the ways that exploitation in the music scene pushed her to step away for a while, and how she's finding her way back to the joy of creating.

SHOW NOTES

Tap in with The.BlkRoom - https://www.theblkroom.org/

Follow Senite - https://instagram.com/_senite

Follow AirGo - instagram.com/airgoradio

Find One Million Experiments on tour! - www.respairmedia.com/events

Bring us to your community by hitting us up - contact@respairmedia.com

CREDITS

Hosts & Exec. Producers - Damon Williams and Daniel Kisslinger

Associate Producer - Rocío Santos

Engagement Producer - Rivka Yeker

Digital Media Producer - Troi Valles

Ep 345 - Live @ Stokely: The Unfinished Revolution

The guys hop on stage at the Court Theatre in Hyde Park for a live conversation with writer Nambi E. Kelley and director Tasia A. Jones about their new play Stokely: The Unfinished Revolution. The production covers the life of visionary movement thinker and organizer Stokely Carmichael/Kwame Ture, whose work spans from the early work of SNCC across the southern US to decades of Pan-Africanist socialist organizing on the African continent. The creators behind the play talk about the frames they built for the story, the ways that Stokely's drive has impacted their lives, and the healing potential of the archive.

SHOW NOTES

Learn more about the play - https://tickets.courttheatre.org/Online/default.asp

Follow AirGo - instagram.com/airgoradio

Find One Million Experiments on tour! - http://www.respairmedia.com/events

Bring us to your community by hitting us up - contact@respairmedia.com

CREDITS

Hosts & Exec. Producers - Damon Williams and Daniel Kisslinger

Associate Producer - Rocío Santos

Engagement Producer - Rivka Yeker

Digital Media Producer - Troi Valles

Ep 344 - Morgan Elise Johnson, Movement Journalism Leader & Co-Founder of The Triibe

We're joined by bonafide genius and bonafide friend Morgan Elise Johnson! Morgan's the publisher and cofounder of The Triibe, a digital media platform that is reshaping the narrative of Black Chicago and giving ownership back to the people. Their original works in journalism and documentary, alongside creative writing and video, capture the multifaceted essence of the Black experience in pursuit of truth and liberation. Morgan talks about the lessons she's learned pursuing acts of journalism in a media landscape that doesn't center integrity, the ways she's pushed herself and her colleagues to stay grounded in their values, and how she became one of the most influential figures in our city's political scene without striving for inclusion.

SHOW NOTES

Link with the Triibe - https://thetriibe.com/about/

Follow AirGo - instagram.com/airgoradio

Find One Million Experiments on tour! - www.respairmedia.com/events

Bring us to your community by hitting us up - contact@respairmedia.com

CREDITS

Hosts & Exec. Producers - Damon Williams and Daniel Kisslinger

Associate Producer - Rocío Santos

Engagement Producer - Rivka Yeker

Digital Media Producer - Troi Valles

Eps 341 & 342 - Dylan Rodriguez, Counterinsurgent Scholar-Activist

The AirGo crew is joined by a longtime thought leader in the global movement for abolition, Dylan Rodriguez. Dylan is a teacher, scholar, organizer and collaborator who has maintained a day job as a Professor at the University of California-Riverside since 2001. His lifework focuses on liberationist, anticolonial, and abolitionist confrontations with the antiblack, colonial, and white supremacist violences that permeate the ongoing Civilization project. A founding committee member of transformative organization Critical Resistance, Dylan dives deep into the necessary work of insurgency, points to the ways that higher education feeds the colonial project, and provides some wisdom that we find really helpful in the midst of the Palestinian solidarity encampments that student organizers have been stewarding on college campuses across the country.

SHOW NOTES

Follow Dylan - https://www.instagram.com/dylanrodriguez73/

Read his book White Reconstruction: Domestic Warfare and the Logics of Genocide - https://www.fordhampress.com/9780823289394/white-reconstruction/

Follow AirGo - instagram.com/airgoradio

Find One Million Experiments on tour! - www.respairmedia.com/events

Bring us to your community by hitting us up - contact@respairmedia.com

CREDITS

Hosts & Exec. Producers - Damon Williams and Daniel Kisslinger

Associate Producer - Rocío Santos

Engagement Producer - Rivka Yeker

Digital Media Producer - Troi Valles

Ep 341 - Nicole Humphrey of NAHCreate

This episode's guest is Nicole Humphrey, a thoughtful and consistent figure in the city's creative arts scene for the past decade. Nicole is an advocate and ambassador to the Chicago arts scene, and a talented artist in her own right too. She's the founder of NAHCreate, a marketing and strategy firm that offers innovative solutions for creative marketing and measuring impact through collaboration. She chops it up about the value of showing up as a volunteer, what she's learned moving in and out of different spaces with the same ethic of care, her new podcast Positioning Your Passion, and much more.

SHOW NOTES

Follow Nicole - https://www.instagram.com/childofgenius/

Follow NAHCreate - https://www.instagram.com/nahcreate/

Lock into Positioning Your Passion - https://www.instagram.com/positioningyourpassion/

Follow AirGo - instagram.com/airgoradio

Find One Million Experiments on tour! - www.respairmedia.com/events

Bring us to your community by hitting us up - contact@respairmedia.com

Ep 340 - Frsh Waters

The guys head to LA to talk with rapper, community presence, and Pivot Gang champion Frsh Waters. Frsh brings his whole self to the conversation, shares some remarkable Pivot stories from the early days of one of hip hop's best groups, and reflects on how incarceration shifted his relationship to community, artistry, and himself.

SHOW NOTES

Follow Frsh - https://www.instagram.com/frshwaters/

Listen to his music -https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k_1aeMCrxc0

Come through his 5/22 concert! - https://lh-st.com/shows/05-22-2024-kingtrey-frsh-waters/

Follow AirGo - instagram.com/airgoradio

Find One Million Experiments on tour! - www.respairmedia.com/events

Bring us to your community by hitting us up - contact@respairmedia.com

Ep 339 - Kahari Rastafari

The AirGo crew is joined by pal and community stalwart Kahari Rastafari, a dope visual artist and wonderful soul who has been a participant in Chicago's creative and social movement communities for years. He is a part of the Mural Moves Paint crew which has designed and installed many large scale murals over the city of Chicago, and is a founder of Natty Bwoy Bikes & Boards, a free weekly youth program that leads and teaches skateboarding and basic bicycle mechanics to kids on the South Side. His art practice mainly comes from growing up in a creative household where visual art has always been a part of our shared passion and favorite form of personal expression many thanks to his mother Dorian Sylvain. He talks with the guys about the different forms he's enjoying, familial connection in his craft, and the Black arts lineages he stewards.

SHOW NOTES

Cop Kahari's work - https://kaharirastafari.format.com/

Follow him on IG - https://www.instagram.com/kaharirastafari/

Follow AirGo - instagram.com/airgoradio

Find One Million Experiments on tour! - www.respairmedia.com/events

Bring us to your community by hitting us up - contact@respairmedia.com

Ep 338 - Angel Bat Dawid

AirGo gets interdimensional this episode with the multispacial multihyphenate Angel Bat Dawid, a Black American Composer, Improviser, Clarinetist, Pianist, Vocalist, Educator and DJ. An unabashed and unapologetic creative force in Chicago and beyond, Angel is a bandleader and performer in the tradition of experimental Black American music. She chats with the guys about ownership of lineages, dissonance on and off the mic, and how to move through the limitations of this-here three-dimensional realm.

SHOW NOTES

Connect with Angel - https://www.instagram.com/angeltheoracle/?hl=en

Follow AirGo - http://instagram.com/airgoradio

Find One Million Experiments on tour! - www.respairmedia.com/events

Bring us to your community by hitting us up - contact@respairmedia.com

Ep 337 - Reginald Dwayne Betts Live!

This week's episode features a convo with poet and writer Reginald Dwayne Betts, recorded live at the Logan Center in Chicago. For more than twenty-years, he has used his poetry and essays to explore the world of prison and the effects of violence and incarceration on American society. The author of a memoir and three collections of poetry, he has transformed his latest collection of poetry, the American Book Award winning Felon, into a solo theater show that explores the post incarceration experience and lingering consequences of a criminal record through poetry, stories, and engaging with the timeless and transcendental art of paper-making. Dame and Kiss joined Betts on stage right after his performance of Felon to talk about liberation through recitation, how humor arms and disarms, and some excellent socks.

This conversation was a part of Inside&Out, a convening about the humanities and mass incarceration hosted by Illinois Humanities. Thanks to them for inviting AirGo to participate!

SHOW NOTES

Read Felon by Reginald Dwayne Betts - https://wwnorton.com/books/9780393652147

Learn more about IL Humanities - https://ilhumanities.org/insideandout

Bring One Million Experiments to your space by hitting us up at contact@respairmedia.com! - https://www.respairmedia.com/one-million-experiments

Subscribe to AirGo - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/airgo/id1016530091

CREDITS

Hosts & Exec. Producers - Damon Williams and Daniel Kisslinger

Associate Producer - Rocío Santos

Engagement Producer - Rivka Yeker

Digital Media Producer - Troi Valles

Ep 336 - Rabbi Brant Rosen

This week's guest, Rabbi Brant Rosen, is the founding rabbi of Tzedek Chicago, a "Jewish congregation based on core values of justice, equity and solidarity." In the almost-decade of the reconstructionist congregation's existence, Tzedek has worked to build a Judaism beyond nationalism that centers solidarity, nonviolence, and spiritual freedom. Brant is also co-founder of Jewish Voice for Peace's Rabbinical Council, and a long-time spiritual and political leader in the struggle against the structural violence made possible by flattening Jewish life in service of white supremacy at home and in Israel/Palestine. He talks about his path to his politic, the heartbreak and resolve he's held since October, and the vision of Judaism that guides Tzedek forward.

SHOW NOTES

Learn more about Tzedek - https://www.tzedekchicago.org/

Check out Brant's writings - https://rabbibrant.com/

Bring One Million Experiments to your space by hitting us up at contact@respairmedia.com! - https://www.respairmedia.com/one-million-experiments

Subscribe to AirGo - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/airgo/id1016530091

CREDITS

Hosts & Exec. Producers - Damon Williams and Daniel Kisslinger

Associate Producer - Rocío Santos

Engagement Producer - Rivka Yeker

Digital Media Producer - Troi Valles

Ep 335 - Robin DG Kelley Returns

The guys welcome back movement mentor and brilliant scholar-organizer Robin DG Kelley back to the show. Robin is a Professor of American History at UCLA and the author of seminal texts Hammer & Hoe, Freedom Dreams, and other offerings to the radical canon. He joins the show to talk about his personal path to his politic, the ebbs and flows of movement, and the reality of Palestinian solidarity in the belly of empire.

SHOW NOTES

Bring One Million Experiments to your space by hitting us up at contact@respairmedia.com! - https://www.respairmedia.com/one-million-experiments

Subscribe to AirGo - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/airgo/id1016530091

CREDITS

Hosts & Exec. Producers - Damon Williams and Daniel Kisslinger

Associate Producer - Rocío Santos

Engagement Producer - Rivka Yeker

Digital Media Producer - Troi Valles