Chante Linwood fills rooms across the city like Chance the Rapper's Open Mike, Louder than a Bomb, and nightlife hotspot East Room with good music, and perhaps equally importantly, a wonderful, hilarious spirit and smile. The DJ, filmmaker, and mother is one of the cofounders of We Are Cliché, a self-described collective by women for women."
Episode 31 - City Bureau
Many of the organizations and groups mentioned on AirGo have developed in response to ways that existing institutions have failed to successfully serve the purpose they claim to serve, from the classroom to the corner to the studio. News media has also largely failed its purpose of honestly, fairly, and accurately telling the stories of Chicago. This week's guests, Andrea Hart and Darryl Holliday, are editors of City Bureau, an organization "aiming to restore civic media coverage of the South and West Sides of Chicago by training a new generation of young reporters in the practice of urban journalism." In this meeting of the media minds between City Bureau and AirGo live some ideas for how to continue extending the Chicago Renaissance onto the newsprint and airwaves that are tasked with telling the truth.
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Episode 30 - Sam Trump
In the performance spaces and venues of Chicago's cultural renaissance, it becomes easy to tell who has the work ethic to keep growing, learning, performing, and moving forward. Couple that work ethic with undeniable talent and a warm soul, and you get Sam Trump. The soul singer and musician creates very rare vibes across the city, and tours the country with band Sidewalk Chalk.
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Episode 29 - Mariame Kaba
After 27 episodes, we've started to hear some consistent threads and ideologies emerge. In a city with a broken education system and a massive amount of misinformation, these Strong Young Voices have to have learned these shared ideologies from somewhere. Mariame Kaba is one of the city's great mentors and community builders–she's the founder and director of Project NIA and co-founder of We Charge Genocide, and has worked to combat violence against women and girls for decades. Just a few weeks before she moves from Chicago, she joins AirGo for a conversation.
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Episode 28 - Ricardo Gamboa
Ricardo Gamboa isn't here for hypocrisy. The Chicagoan artist, actor, director, and activist challenges the hypocrisies and half-truths of the city and nation's institutions through his work tirelessly, and his work has both exploraed and created space for others to explore diaspora in Mexican(-American) communities. His videos, productions, and performances have forcefully issued rallying calls and challenges with a fist behind his winking humor. He joins AirGo for a conversation.
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Episode 27 - Jamila Woods
When did you first hear a voice that cut through madness and helped the listener heal and grow? Perhaps more so than any other person in the city of Chicago, Jamila Woods brings meaningful empowerment to the spaces and people with whom and which she connects. She's the Associate Artistic Director of Young Chicago Authors, an award-winning poet who is member of the illustrious Dark Noise Collective, and a magnificent vocalist and songwriter, who listeners may know as the voice of the Social Experiment's hit song "Sunday Candy." The wonderfully talented and supportive Woods is a Chicago native.
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Episode 26 - Britteney Black Rose Kapri
Britteney Black Rose Kapri is a poet, educator, and the Pettiness Queen of Chicago. A recipient of the 2015 Rona Jaffe Foundation's Writer's Award, she pushes every space she's passes through across the city toward less bullshit and more honesty. She teaches in classrooms across the city, including Nancy B. Jefferson Alternative School in the Cook County Juvenile Detention Center, and is a teaching artist at Young Chicago Authors.
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Episode 25 - Veronica Morris Moore
In the world of organizing, it can feel like victories are few and far between. Strong Young Voices participating in the work can sometimes find it hard to face these immense challenges with no guarantee of success. This makes moments of success, where objectives are met, very complicated. Veronica Morris Moore has organized around various injustices in Chicago, but her voice became heard clearest in the fight for a Level 1 Adult Trauma Center on the Southside, which the University of Chicago recently agreed to build. We discuss this win, other challenges, joys, and more.
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Episode 24 - Stretch and Bobbito
There's a small door on 115th Street and Broadway in New York City. For nearly a decade, hip hop's royalty passed through the door and climbed a fluorescent-lit stairway to WKCR, Columbia University's community radio station, and dapped up kings of the underground Bobbito Garcia and Stretch Armstrong. The two New York natives introduced the world to an unsigned Nas, Jay Z, Biggie Smalls, Wu-Tang Clan, Fugees, and so many more, while creating a meaningful, radical platform for the largest youth culture in the history of the world. On this very special New Year's episode, Stretch and Bob chop it up with Damon and Daniel in promotion of their transcendant new film Stretch and Bobbito: Radio That Changed Lives.
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Episode 23 - Damon Williams
Families tend to come together around the holidays. Comedian Damon Williams chats with Junior and Daniel on Christmas, breaking down the twists and turns of his comedy career, which includes stops on BET's Comic View, the Kings of Comedy tour, and stages across the country. Most importantly, he has a cachè of embarrassing Damon stories.
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Episode 22 - Defcee
Defcee has been raised in the renaissance. He is a rapper, educator, and mentor who has been a stalwart of the creative community in the city for years. He just released a tremendous new album called Damn Near Grown, his first in seven years–the project reflects both his own growth and the growth of the community.
Episode 21 - The Mind
The Mind has lent his ear and voice to much of the best, most ambitious music to emerge from Chicago in the last few years. The vocalist is a core member of THEMpeople, the collective of creators that Via Rosa discussed a few weeks back. Fresh off a world tour with Mick Jenkins, The Mind hops on AirGo for a conversation.
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Episode 20 - Bryant Cross
Bryant Cross' thoughtful words dig in his personal intersection of "blackness & how it relates to being a man, an artist, a socialist, Christian, junkie, scholar, weed-smoker, American, chronic asthmatic, hip-hop, traumatized, army brat, writer, and bastard." Even Strong Young Voices contain multitudes. The Belgian-born, Southside-raised performance poet, writer, and activist seems to balance them well.
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Episode 19 - Page May
On Tuesday November 24th, the city of Chicago released dashcam footage of 17 year-old Laquan McDonald's murder with the same type of rollout that major Hollywood studios release blockbusters. Many of the city's organizers, who have been fighting for accountability and justice for Laquan and so many others' murders, have filled the streets and tweets with effective, peaceful actions over the last two days. One of the city's Strongest Young Voices, Page May of BYP100 and Assata's Daughters, joins AirGo to help facilitate a healing space and process recent events, including her arrest on Tuesday night.
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Episode 18 - Saba
Based on Saba's breakthrough project ComfortZone, one can't help but feel like the chords of his music underpin the drastic growth he's made professionally over the last 15 months. The mainstream rap publication system is starting to take notice, leading to some recent features, but Saba's power stems from the stage–his Comfortzone Live shows have gotten bigger and better, bringing young people across the city together for a joyous musical celebration. Not bad for a self-proclaimed shy kid.
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Episode 17 - Via Rosa
Via Rosa makes all kinds of things–some of which sound great, some of which smell delicious. The Chicago-based singer and vegan chef brings the recipe to her elegance to AirGo and discusses how she came to Chicago, how she linked with Thempeople, and talks about her amazing path to becoming one of Chicago's Strong Young Voices.
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Episode 16 - Kush Thompson
Kush Thompson writes resistance. Her "bathwater influenced" poems stand tall with love, and her soul shines on canvasses and pages. The semi-autobiographical pink-haired protagonist of her paintings appears thoughtful and carefree.
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Episode 15 - Bella Bahhs
On her Facebook page, Bella Bahhs does not call herself a rapper–rather, she uses the phrase "rapping public relations specialist." She communicates in the streets and on the stages of Chicago, bringing bars and hooks that intentionally counteract the dominant narrative and push back. Much of her recent work has honored her family members and connected the multigenerational dots.
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Episode 14 - Ravyn Lenae
Ravyn Lenae makes elegant music. The ChiArts High School student released Moon Shoes, an EP largely produced by 20 year-old Monte Booker, a couple months ago, and the eight-song project has been an AirGo favorite since it dropped. Her elegant writing fits Monte's production so well that Chicago heavyweight Saba said, "Ravyn and Monte together [are] damn near the best collab in music.” She swings by the WHPK studio to talk that collab, high school life, and more.
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Episode 13 - Kristiana Colon
This week's guest is the sister of one of AirGo's hosts–let's see if you can guess which one. She is also an accomplished and ferocious playwright, poet, and organizer whose newest play Octagon, a critical depiction of the slam poetry scene, recently premiered in London. Kristiana Colon has been using her Strong Young Voice for years in Chicago, reshaping the artistic and organizing communities for the fresher.
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