Ep 334 - Shawnee Dez Returns

The AirGo stu is blessed by the presence of community luminary and vibrant musical artist Shawnee Dez. Shawnee, who recently released her full-length project Moody Umbra, talks about finding the trust to show all of her creative impulses, the joy of playing for her people, the unexpected power of her project the Black JoyRide, and much more!

SHOW NOTES

Listen to Moody Umbra now - https://unitedmasters.com/m/63d1c88150866754bd51dcf6

Link with the Black JoyRide - https://www.instagram.com/blackjoyride/

Follow Shawnee - https://www.instagram.com/shawnee_dez/

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

Subscribe to AirGo - 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 333 - Prentis Hemphill

We're fangirling pretty damn hard over here because we have the one and only Prentis Hemphill on this week's episode! Prentis is a therapist, somatics teacher and facilitator, political organizer, writer and the founder of The Embodiment Institute who has been a centering and leading voice in the work to create new pathways to healing conflict and harm. Their work is to disrupt the complacency and comfort of mainstream healing and therapeutic models and infuse what we know of justice, repair, and accountability into our deepest work of transformation. So, you know, kinda the type of thing we stay talking about on AirGo! They talk about the language we've gained around collective healing, the challenges it contains, the rituals we've lost and must reclaim, and so much more.

SHOW NOTES

Make sure to preorder Prentis' new book What It Takes to Heal now! - https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/726173/what-it-takes-to-heal-by-prentis-hemphill/

Link with the Embodiment Institute - https://www.theembodimentinstitute.org/

Subscribe to Finding Our Way - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/finding-our-way/id1519965068

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 332 - Kennedy Bartley

The Don Dada is on the air! We're thrilled to be rocking with Kennedy Bartley, who has been a steadfast leader through Chicago's progressive political victories as the Executive Director of United Working Families. Kennedy breaks down her Waukegan backstory, how she imagines electoral work as part of the fight for a public good, and a whole lot more.

SHOW NOTES

Find your Chicago election voting site - https://chicagoelections.gov/voting/your-voter-information

Kennedy on Through the Portal - https://soundcloud.com/airgoradio/through-the-portal-episode-4-grassroots-organizing-with-kennedy-bartley

United Working Families - https://www.unitedworkingfamilies.org/

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 331 - Bring Chicago Home with Brian Rodgers and Tynetta Hill-Muhammad

AirGo's so excited to be back in full effect and regular flow of conversations reshaping culture for the more liberatory and creative! With the Chicago municipal election coming up on 3/19 (early voting is open now!), we're starting off with a call to Bring Chicago Home, a referendum aiming to restructure the Real Estate Transfer Tax (RETT), a one-time tax on properties when they are sold to create a substantial and legally dedicated revenue stream to provide permanent affordable housing for people experiencing homelessness. Campaign organizers Brian Rodgers and Tynetta Hill-Muhammad break down how their personal experiences brought them to the campaign, how housing justice is at the nexus of all issues, and how to combat the misinformation around BCH created by the real estate lobby.

SHOW NOTES

Find your voting site - https://chicagoelections.gov/voting/your-voter-information

Support Bring Chicago Home - https://www.bringchicagohome.org/

Check out Respair Production & Media, our new movement media organization - https://www.respairmedia.com/

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

Ep 330 - One Million Experiments Part 20: The Conclusion with Mariame Kaba

This is it! We've reached the end of Season 2, and the last episode of 1ME (for now). And who better to close us out than our OG partner in decriminalization and 1ME creator Mariame Kaba. Mariame returns to the show to discuss what she's learned across twenty episodes of the show, the importance of movement-led archival work, how she understands the shifts in our political landscape since 2020, and the importance of the choir. Let's go out in style!

SHOW NOTES

Book a screening of the 1ME film! Hit us up at contact@respairmedia.com.

Peep 1ME - http://millionexperiments.com

Ep 329 - One Million Experiments Part 19: Practicing New Worlds with Andrea Ritchie

On the penultimate episode of One Million Experiments, our hosts turn to collaborator and movement mentor Andrea J. RItchie. Andrea, who is the cofounder of Interrupting Criminalization, talks about how the emergent power of movement can sustain us as people and communities in the face of state violence. She also explores what she learned in the creation of her new book Practicing New Worlds: Abolition and Emergent Strategies.

SHOW NOTES

Practicing New Worlds by Andrea J. Ritchie - https://www.akpress.org/practicing-new-worlds.html

Octavia Butler - https://www.octaviabutler.com/

Check out One Million Experiments - http://millionexperiments.com

Ep 328 - One Million Experiments Part 18: Palestine Heirloom Seed Library with Vivien Sansour

The 1ME squad has the honor of talking with Vivien Sansour, the founder of the Palestine Heirloom Seed Library (PHSL), which seeks to preserve and promote heritage and threatened seed varieties, traditional Palestinian farming practices, and the cultural stories and identities associated with them. Recorded five weeks into the 2023 flashpoint of genocidal violence enacted upon Gazans and Palestinians across Israel/Palestine, Vivien reflects on how she is surviving from across the ocean, how she loves seeds more than ever before, and what is at stake for all of us in this test of our humanity.

SHOW NOTES

Support Vivien and the Seed Library - https://viviensansour.com/

Ep 327 - One Million Experiments Part 17: Just Practice Collaborative w/ Shira Hassan & Deana Lewis

The 1ME crew welcomes the homies from Just Practice Collaborative, a training and mentoring group focused on sustaining a community of practitioners that provide community-based accountability and support structures for all parties involved with incidents and patterns of sexual, domestic, relationship, and intimate community violence. Collaborative members Shira Hassan and Deana Lewis talk through the intentionality of their design, what Transformative Justice should and shouldn’t be used for, and the importance of relationship to political experimentation.

SHOW NOTES

Critical Resistance - https://criticalresistance.org/

INCITE - https://incite-national.org/

Fumbling Towards Repair - https://www.akpress.org/fumbling-towards-repair.html

Creative Interventions Toolkit - https://www.creative-interventions.org/toolkit/

Rachel Caidor - https://just-practice.org/rachel-caidor

Saving Our Own Lives by Shira Hassan - https://www.haymarketbooks.org/books/1938-saving-our-own-lives

Combahee River Collective - https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/combahee-river-collective-statement-1977/

Are the Cops in our Heads and Hearts By Paula X. Rojas - https://sfonline.barnard.edu/paula-rojas-are-the-cops-in-our-heads-and-hearts/

Pods and Pod Mapping Worksheet by BAY AREA TRANSFORMATIVE JUSTICE COLLECTIVE - https://batjc.wordpress.com/resources/pods-and-pod-mapping-worksheet/

NAVIGATING CONFLICT IN MOVEMENT ORGANIZATIONS by AORTA - https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5e9ddc272ee6fa03a5f1ccbe/t/606249bda86e8a2d9f9902bc/1617054141617/CONFLICT+IN+MOVEMENT+ORGANIZATIONS_handout.pdf

Healing Justice Lineages by Cara Page & Erica Woodland - https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/710523/healing-justice-lineages-by-cara-page/

Let This Radicalize You by Kelly Hayes and Mariame Kaba - https://www.haymarketbooks.org/books/1922-let-this-radicalize-you

Practicing New Worlds by Andrea Ritchie - https://www.akpress.org/practicing-new-worlds.html

Ep 326 - One Million Experiments Part 16: API Chaya Natural Helpers

On this episode, the 1ME crew talks with some of the folks behind the Natural Helpers program at API Chaya, a Seattle-based org that empowers survivors of gender-based violence to gain safety, connection, and wellness. They build power by educating and mobilizing South Asian, Asian, Pacific Islander, and all immigrant communities to end exploitation, creating a world where all people can heal and thrive. Their Natural Helpers program supports community members in learning about human trafficking, domestic and sexual violence, the societal forces that create conditions for violence, as well as in skill building around how to respond to harm, injustice, and support survivors. We learn about the familial roots of the organization's work, how the sustained work of Natural Helpers has made healing possible, and the ways that grief work is integral to revolution.

SHOW NOTES

Support API Chaya - https://www.apichaya.org/

Connect with 1ME - millionexperiments.com

Ep 325 - One Million Experiments Part 15: Philadelphia Community Bail Fund with Candace McKinley

On part five of our second season, the 1ME crew celebrates the work of bail and bond funds across the country by talking with Candace McKinley of the Philly Community Bail Fund. We learn about the growing pains of building a bail fund, the shifts in theory of change that have been necessary, and what the recent retaliatory raid of the Atlanta Solidarity Fund means for bond funds across the country.

SHOW NOTES

Philadelphia Community Bail Fund - https://www.phillybailout.org/

Black Mama's Bail Out - nationalbailout.org

Critical Resistance's "Reformist reforms vs. abolitionist steps to end IMPRISONMENT" - https://criticalresistance.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/CR_abolitioniststeps_antiexpansion_2021_eng.pdf

Bail Fund Network directory - https://www.communityjusticeexchange.org/en/nbfn-directory

Beyond Criminal Courts - https://beyondcourts.org/en

IC's "So is this Actually an Abolitionist Proposal or Strategy?" - https://www.interruptingcriminalization.com/binder

Amistad Law Project - https://amistadlaw.org/

Connect with 1ME - millionexperiments.com

Help This Garden Grow - the life and legacy of Hazel Johnson

Help This Garden Grow is a new podcast docuseries telling the story of Hazel Johnson, a visionary of the Environmental Justice movement and a resident of the Altgeld Gardens community on the far South Side of Chicago. Hazel is the founder of People for Community Recovery, a 40 year-old organization that fights to address the toxic industrial pollution that has been killing the members of her community. Over the course of the multigenerational multipart documentary, hosts Damon Williams and Daniel Kisslinger talk with organizers, policy- makers, historians, and community members about how PCR emerged and led, the legacy of Ms. Johnson's work, and how this marginalized Chicago pocket built the lineage of today's vibrant, impactful, and necessary modern environmental justice movement. Help This Garden Grow is presented by Respair Production & Media, Elevate, and People for Community Recovery.

GUARANTEED w/ Eve L. Ewing, Available Now!

GUARANTEED is a podcast about what happens when regular people receive direct cash assistance, known as guaranteed income. it’s a show about the choices people make, the dreams they pursue, and the impossible things that become a little more possible when their money is guaranteed. GUARANTEED is created by Respair Production & Media and Eve L. Ewing, with support from the Economic Security Project.

Ep 324 - One Million Experiments Part 14: Queenie's Crew with Zara Raven

On this episode the 1ME crew talks tots and transformation with Zara Raven of Queenie's Crew! Queenie’s Crew engages children in learning about building communities of care without prisons or policing. Every month, members receive an email with an activity that kids can complete to learn more about abolition: they share activities like coloring pages, word searches, word scrambles, mazes, and reflection exercises. Using readings and art projects, the collective supports children in imagining a collective future where we are all free. Coordinator Zara Raven talks about how young people understand abolition, the catharsis and growth the collective has created for parents and caregivers, and much more. Plus, a squad of youth participants read See You Soon, the picture book on which the experiment is based.

SHOW NOTES

Learn more about Queenie's Crew - https://queeniescrew.com/

Buy See You Soon by Mariame Kaba, illustrated by Bianca Diaz - https://www.haymarketbooks.org/books/1891-see-you-soon

The Revolution Starts at Home ed. by Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha, Ching-In Chen, & Jai Dulani - https://www.akpress.org/revolutionstartsathome.html

Queenie's Crew Reading List - https://queeniescrew.com/resources

Micah Bazant - https://www.micahbazant.com/

It's All in the Family: Intersections of Gender, Race, and Nation by Patricia Hill Collins - https://www.jstor.org/stable/3810699

IN OUR OWN HANDS: ​tools for talking abolition & transformative justice with little ones by Rania El Mugammar - https://www.raniawrites.com/inourhands.html

Building Your Abolitionist Toolbox - https://abolitionist.tools/

Keeley Schenwar Memorial Essay Prize - https://truthout.org/articles/keeley-schenwar-memorial-essay-prize/

Erin Miles Cloud - https://www.movementforfamilypower.org/indexa

Ep 323 - Announcing Respair Production & Media!

We've got some news! Dame and Kiss are announcing the launch of Respair Production & Media, a new movement media ecosystem hub that supports the media needed to reshape Chicago and beyond toward liberation. Respair builds new media projects in partnership with social movement participants and visionaries, enabling their work to reach new audiences, and creates space for the ideological frameworks and material needs of those reimagining our world to be heard, shared, and supported. In this first season of Respair, we have three new projects, announced for the first time in this episode, that we are hyped to roll out throughout the summer. Get in tune and divest from despair with us!

Follow Respair on IG - instagram.com/respairmedia

Check out the website - respairmedia.com

Ep 322 - Bernardine Dohrn

The guys have the great honor and joy of talking with the legendary Bernardine Dohrn on this episode of AirGo. Recorded on the land that she, her husband Bill Ayers, and five other families have communally stewarded for the last 40-plus years, Bernardine reflects on what she's learned about time, grief, transformation, liberation struggles, and love over a lifetime of battling imperialist white supremacy at an intensity few have ever experienced. We're so grateful for her time and love.

SHOW NOTES

If you're curious about Bernardine's story, we recommend the amazing podcast Mother Country Radicals, which tells the story of her involvement in radical movement and decades living underground through the eyes of her son Zayd. Listen here - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/mother-country-radicals/id1625882016

Ep 321 - One Million Experiments Part 13: Ujimaa Medics with Martine Caverl

The 1ME squad talks with Martine Caverl of Ujimaa Medics, a Chicago-based crew of organizers, community members, and health professionals who offer training in Urban Emergency First Response, primarily to people who live in or love people who live in communities where shootings often occur. Martine breaks down how historical flashpoints like 9/11, Hurricane Katrina, and the murder of Mike Brown built the framework for the organization, the importance of invitation as a tool for building meaningful work, and much more.

SHOW NOTES

Support UMedics - https://www.umedics.org/donate/

Zapatista movement - https://nacla.org/news/2022/12/21/spark-hope-ongoing-lessons-zapatista-revolution-25-years

Dr Luther Castillo Harry - https://latinarepublic.com/2022/02/15/a-look-into-honduras-new-secretary-of-science-and-technology-dr-luther-castillo-harry/

Damien Turner - https://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/03/us/03cnchospitals.html

We Charge Genocide - http://wechargegenocide.org/

Beyond Do No Harm - https://www.interruptingcriminalization.com/beyond-do-no-harm

Subscribe to One Million Experiments - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/one-million-experiments/id1589966282

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

Ep 320 - One Million Experiments Part 12: Feed Black Futures with Ali Anderson

The 1ME crew gets their hands dirty this month with Ali Anderson of Cali-based experiment Feed Black Futures. Created in 2020 as a crowdfunding campaign to feed 20 families for two weeks at the start of the pandemic soon became an organization that feeds Black mamas/caregivers impacted by the carceral system in counties across California by partnering with Black and Brown-owned farms and food suppliers across California. FBF is committed to creating a world where Black people have access to high-quality fresh produce and the means and skills to produce it. Founder Ali breaks down what happened when she ended up with way more money than she expected, the bonds her work has forged, and the regenerative joy people get from keeping their hands in the soil.

SHOW NOTES

Support Feed Black Futures - https://feedblackfutures.org

Soul Fire Farm Immersions - https://www.soulfirefarm.org/programs/bipoc-trainings/immersions/

Reparations Map for Black-Indigenous Farmers - https://www.soulfirefarm.org/get-involved/reparations/

Arissa Hall - https://www.arissahall.com/

Delaine Powerful - https://homecomingcollective.com/who-we-are

Mutual Aid: Building Solidarity During This Crisis by Dean Spade - https://www.versobooks.com/products/2722-mutual-aid

Barnard Center for Women Intro to Mutual Aid - https://bcrw.barnard.edu/videos/introduction-to-mutual-aid/

Generative Somatics - https://generativesomatics.org/

Liberated Life with Rev. Angel Kyodo Williams - https://www.liblife.net/

Subscribe to One Million Experiments - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/one-million-experiments/id1589966282

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

Ep 319 - One Million Experiments Part 11: Harriet's Wildest Dreams with Makia Green

AirGo, Interrupting Criminalization, and Project NIA kick off season two of One Million Experiments, our collaborative podcast showcasing and exploring how we define and create safety in a world without police and prisons. We start off in the DMV with Makia Green of Harriet's Wildest Dreams, a black-led abolitionist community defense hub centering all Black lives most at risk for state-sanctioned violence in the Greater Washington DC area. Makia breaks down the different pillars of their work, the ways their work is shaped by historical Black revolutionaries, and the unique challenges of organizing for liberation in the center of the U.S. empire.

SHOW NOTES

Learn more about Harriet's Wildest Dreams - https://www.harrietsdreams.org/

Harriet Tubman - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harriet_Tubman

Ida B Wells - https://www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/ida-b-wells-barnett

Ella Baker - https://ellabakercenter.org/who-was-ella-baker/

DC Safety squad - https://docs.google.com/document/d/1WpC8yxRXU4RAWM5S2WHEjniIOjhuE0b07aKRf9bDqGA/edit

Erika Totten - https://erikatotten.com/

Mary Hooks - https://www.netrootsnation.org/profile/mary-hooks/

The Body is Not an Apology by Sonya Renee Taylor - https://www.sonyareneetaylor.com/the-body-is-not-an-apology

BOLD - https://boldorganizing.org/

Emotional Emancipation circles - https://communityhealingnet.org/emotional-emancipation-circle/

Generative Somatics - https://generativesomatics.org/

Subscribe to One Million Experiments - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/one-million-experiments/id1589966282

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

Ep 318 - Rossana Rodriguez Returns

As AirGo continues its election coverage on our own terms, the guys are honored to welcome Rossana Rodriguez back to the show. As the Alderwoman of the 33rd Ward, Rossana has been a tireless advocate for policies that bring resources of care to her community and beyond. She is the lead figure behind the Treatment Not Trauma ordinance, and has stood shoulder to shoulder with organizers at many key moments over the past years. She talks about the progress of her campaign, the absurdities of Chicago's municipal structure, her entrypoints into liberation work on her home island of Puerto Rico, and much more.

Ep 317 - Brandon Johnson Returns

As Chicago's municipal election approaches at the end of February, Dame and Kiss chop it up with mayoral candidate and liberation movement member Brandon Johnson. A longtime organizer and public servant, Brandon has been running a campaign championing many of the policies and campaigns that our movements have been pushing for, and has coalesced the support of grassroots organizations and progressive organized labor behind him as he elbows through the crowd of mayoral candidates. We talk with him about his understanding of what Chicago needs, his relationship to the movements that have elevated him, and much more.

SHOW NOTES

Find your voting locations and info - https://chicagoelections.gov/en/your-voter-information.html

Learn about the candidates with the Girl, I Guess voter guide - https://www.stephanieskora.com/voter-guide

Plan your ballot with BallotReady - https://www.ballotready.org/

Listen to our first conversation with Brandon from back in 2018 - https://airgoradio.com/airgo/2018/4/11/episode-132-brandon-johnson

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