Sam Bailey is directing into the right direction. The Brown Girls co-creator, director, and actor is getting pretty damn close to finding her footing after the whirlwind that was the release of the hit web series and a subsequent move to LA, and has been guiding the ship for TV shows, music videos, and two features that are currently in development. She talks about the three acts since the whirlwind, bringing her people with her, and learning how to get what she needs. Plus, some excellent Alec Baldwin and Michael B. Jordan slander/love to start the show.
Episode 196 - Resita Cox
Resita Cox has spirit, and she wants to share it. In her two and a half years in Chicago, the poet and story-shaper has built relationships and collaborations that have resulted in some of the most compassionate and engaging new spaces in the city, from the People Say open mic at Trap House Chicago to the documentary about development and revitalization in East Garfield Park that she's currently directing as an IVOH fellow. She holds on as Damon and Daniel bounce around between media and the civil rights movement, damage-based versus desire-based journalism, the majesty of an Anton, and some of AirGo's best jokes ever. Plus, an extraordinary story at the end that's well worth sticking around for.
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Episode 195 - Stacey Sutton
Stacey Sutton spends her time figuring out why our systems of capital work the way they do, their effects, and what some better, more human ways of creating industry and cities could be. She is a professor of Urban Planning at the University of Illinois-Chicago, a long-time organizer, and, according to Damon, the best-dressed person in Chicago’s social movement community–what a claim to fame, huh? She helps us understand what we mean when we talk about co-ops, what worker co-operatives around the country and world look like, and how we can cooperatively reshape our economic systems today and in our future.
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Episode 193 - Tonika Lewis Johnson
Tonika Lewis Johnson is a photographer, organizer, space-maker, and city thinker. She’s the creator of the Folded Map Project, a brilliant, humanizing arts project and advocacy tool that connects neighbors at mirror-image addresses of Chicago’s grid system. She’s also the cofounder of the Resident Association of Greater Englewood (R.A.G.E.), and a fierce advocate for her block, neighborhood, and city. She comes through to talk about how photography can change eyes and opinions, the ways that housing segregation defines Chicago, the ways in which Chicagoans challenge that segregation, and much more.
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Episode 192 - Schenay Mosley
Schenay Mosley is singer, songwriter, and pianist whose most recent, excellent project Lotus is available now. The Dayton, Ohio native has been in Chicago for years now, and just got off a wildly successful tour with Smino. She talks disaster plans, Myspaces, finding herself through adversity, and more!
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Episode 191 - Davon Clark
Davon Clark is a photographer, poet, graphic designer, and cutie pie. A Philly native, he is approaching a year in Chicago, and has spent the time setting the foundation for a vibrant creative career and life. He performs at poetry readings across the city, hosts a monthly open mic at Build Coffee, is a graphic designer for the Chicago Reader, and holds AIrGo down as the Associate Producer handling our social media. Did we mention he's a cutie pie?
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Episode 190 - AirGo Live! with J. Bambii & greenSLLIME
Enjoy AirGo's first live show in the city of Chicago, featuring J. Bambii & greenSLLIME! Recorded 5/16/19 at the Cards Against Humanity Theater.
Thanks to Cards Against Humanity, WHPK, Windmill Ginger Brew, Rosie Fitz, Ellen Mayer, and Jennifer Pagan for making the show possible!
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Episode 189 - Ashley Battle
Ashley Battle knows her craft, and is figuring out what do with it. She's a filmmaker, director, DP, and music producer who has worked extensively on both the commercial and indie sides of the Chicago film and TV industry, and has directed or DPed a few projects alongside Damon and Daniel including the web series Signal Flow (www.youtube.com/watch?v=pFHLM5g0rxs). She talks about figuring out where to direct her craft, working toward both inner peace and a '67 Chevelle, the different roles on a film set, and much more. If you're interested in working in the film industry, this is a must-listen!
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Episode 188 - Andy Clarno
Andy Clarno is an Associate Professor of Sociology and African American Studies at the University of Illinois Chicago, who has developed a research collective model in collaborations with local radical organizers. He has recently been heavily involved in the Erase The Gang Database campaign (http://erasethedatabase.com), and is the author of Neoliberal Apartheid, a book focusing on the overlaps of oppression and resistance in South Africa and Palestine. In short, he's about the work. Get learned on this one!
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Episode 187 - adrienne maree brown
adrienne marie brown is brilliant. She is a Detroit-based organizer, doula, facilitator, community builder, and writer of seminal books Emergent Strategy and Pleasure Activism. While in town for a talk at the Chicago Humanities Festival, adrienne swings by AirGo to talk with the guys about her birth work, learning from Grace Lee Boggs, fluidity, and much more. Plus, Damon and Daniel geek out about how dope she is.
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Episode 186 - SqueakPIVOT
Squeak is on the boards! The DJ, producer, and West Side native swings by with a very special guest (his daughter Xuri) to talk about the rise of Pivot, getting comfortable with himself, learning through experience, and much more. Plus stay tuned at the end for a special cameo in the commercial!
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Episode 185 - Trina Reynolds-Tyler
Trina Reynolds-Tyler is an organizer, community builder, restorative justice facilitator, and graduate student at UChicago’s Harris School of Public Policy. She also works at the Invisible Institute, a journalism production studio founded by Jamie Kalven (who was on the show a couple weeks back). She talks about the University’s relationship to her childhood and neighborhood, learning from experience, wrestling with defining success, and much 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 184 - Richard Wallace
Richard Wallace is breaking down our economy. And not just explaining it–like trying to break it down into pieces and rebuild it more equitably. He’s the founder of Equity and Transformation (EAT), an organization that works with individuals operating in the informal economy to uplift the faces, voices, and power of the vast disenfranchised and excluded Back workforce in Chicago. He’s also a member of the now-defunct but incredibly influential Chicago rap group BBU, and a contributing member to the Hoodoisie.
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Episode 183 - Cathy Cohen
Cathy Cohen brings the pieces together beautifully. She is a professor at UChicago, a long-time organizer, a founding board member and former co-chair of the board of the Audre Lorde Project in NY, on the board of Kitchen Table: Women of Color Press as well as the Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies (CLAGS) at CUNY, and the founder of Black Youth Project, a website devoted to Black youth from which BYP-100 emerged. She is also truly the big homie. We learned so much in this one–come learn with us.
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Episode 182 - Jamie Kalven
Jamie Kalven fights for his neighbors. He’s a journalist, human rights worker, and founder of the Invisible Institute, a journalism production studio based on 62nd and Dorchester. He comes into the studio ready to swing through the years with Damon and Daniel, and shares his thoughts on guerilla journalism, his years working out of an apartment at Parkway Gardens, transparency and data, and much more. Definitely a deep dive!
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Episode 181 - Southpaw Swade
Southpaw Swade is a mensch, to get Yiddish about it. The Florida-born, Chicago-based rapper and producer shares podcast space with a grace not often seen, and is truly a joy to talk to. He recently put out his Three Piece EP, which is available everywhere. Get tuned in, and make sure to stay tuned at the end for some bonus Hebrew Israelite conversation!
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Episode 180 - Essence McDowell
Essence McDowell is a communications strategist, organizer and co-author of Lifting As They Climbed: Mapping a History of Black Women on Chicago’s South Side. Working in collaboration with AirGo alum Mariame Kaba, Lifting As They Climbed maps dozens of locations across Chicago's South Side and connects them to the Black women who have shaped the histories of Chicago. She talks about the project, understanding her role in relation to the archive, and much more!
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Episode 179 - Odinaka Ezeokoli
Odinaka Ezeokoli is a comic, actor, and writer who came into the AirGo studio ready to talk, dig deep, and laugh. He starred in an episode of Easy, the Netflix series by Joe Swanberg that takes place in Chicago; was a central cast member of Brown Girls, the hit web series by Sam Bailey and AirGo alum Fatimah Asghar; and performed in Nothing to Lose But Our Chains, the hit Second City show written by and starring AirGo alum Felonious Munk. Damon and Daniel’s faces hurt from laughing by the end of the episode–true story.
Episode 178 - Charlene Carruthers
Charlene Carruthers is with the shits. She has served as the founding National Director of BYP-100, an activist member-led organization of Black 18-35 year olds dedicated to creating justice and freedom for all Black people, for the last five years, and is the author of Unapologetic: A Black, Queer and Feminist Mandate for Radical Movements. She talks about stepping out of her role at BYP-100, stepping into the next chapter, and much more.
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Episode 177 - Krista Franklin
Krista Franklin just might be a whole-ass genius. She's definitely brilliant. The Ohio-born spirit is a poet, visual artist, curator, educator, mentor, and semi-professional hermit who has supported and shaped so many of the people we've interviewed on the show. Her humility and commitment to herself and the people she loves shines through in her poetry, collage, and mentorship. Her transgenre book Under the Knife was released Fall 2018.