Tiff Beatty invites you into the circle. Tiff is the founder of Art is Bonfire, a seasonal open mic and cypher around a fire pit at Promontory Point in Hyde Park, and is the Programming Director of Chicago Humanities Festival, an event series bringing authors, thinkers, artists, and celebrities together in conversation around a central theme. The convo bounces between Tiff’s childhood in Washington State, her path to Chicago, building sacred space around the fire, transforming the humanities, and more.
Episode 213 - Third Coast International Audio Festival
Third Coast International Audio Festival is a nonprofit arts organization that celebrates the art and craft of narrative audio storytelling. Every year, radio-makers from around the world converge in Chicago for a conference that explores the medium, the radio industry, and the creative bounds yet to be explored. AirGo talked with a crew of Chicago producers about their experiences making radio in the city, relationship to the medium, and the stories they're trying to figure out how to tell. Also–check out the individual interviews with each radio-maker below.
Episode 212 - Frank Bergh
Frank Bergh is as embodied as it gets. He's the founder of Beyond the Grid, a company that builds renewable energy microgrids in countries across the global south. He's also one of the founders of Emmaus House, a Catholic Worker community in North Lawndale, that has been instrumental in the work of the #LetUsBreathe Collective, and is the founder of Chicago's chapter of Showing Up for Racial Justice, a national network of groups and individuals working to undermine white supremacy and to work toward racial justice. We talk about how his relationship to God and religion show up, how he found himself living in Lawndale, some lessons from working in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and much more.
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Episode 211 - Monica Cosby
Monica Cosby is an organizer, activist, and mother who was incarcerated for 20 years in the state of Illinois. She now works for the Westside Justice Center, is the lead organizer of Moms United Against Violence and Incarceration, and is a wonderful and valuable spirit in the Chicago movement community. She talks about growing up in Uptown, the lessons about liberation and abolition she learned while inside, the transition after coming home, and a very special moment that makes Damon cry.
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Episode 210 - #BYPSpotlight with Janae Bonsu
Black Youth Project has joined forces with AirGo for a year-long #BYPSpotlight series, featuring our favorite Black academics and activists. This month’s #BYPSpotlight episode is with Janae Bonsu, an organizer and scholar whose work centers the intersection of structural and gender-based violence. She recently stepped away from her position as National Co-Director, National Public Policy Chair, and Chicago Chapter Co-Chair of BYP 100, a member-based organization of 18 to 35 year old Black activists whose mission is to achieve economic, social, political, and educational freedom and justice for all Black people through nonviolent direct action organizing, education, and advocacy. She talks about learning stillness and finding peace, imagining new interventions when gender violence needs to be addressed, her cheese game, and much more.
Check out the whole #BYPSpotlight here: blackyouthproject.com/byp-x-airgo/
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Episode 209 - Chicago Black Social Culture Map
The studio gets a lil' crowded this week, as a squad of collaborators behind the Chicago Black Social Culture Map, an interactive digital map documenting Chicago's Black social culture from the Great Migration through the end of the 20th century from blues to house. This project has evolved from the dance floor, to the internet, and now to event spaces across the city for conversations about how Black people in Chicago have created vibrancy, innovation, and joy in rooms across the city.
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Episode 208 - AirGo Live! with Akenya and Page May
On the third AirGo Live episode, Damon and Daniel get everyone talking about how we can communicate in conflict with love. Plus a performance and conversation with musician and composer Akenya, and organizer and Assata’s Daughters founder Page May. And a special small furry guest joins us as well!
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Episode 207 - Elijah McKinnon
When Elijah McKinnon says the word manifest, they mean what they say. The multi-hyphenate creator is the new Executive Director of OpenTV, a web-based production and distribution channel for Queer TV, and is the cofounder of Reunion Chicago, an incubator and events space for Queer people of color. They run People Who Care, a consultancy that works exclusively with nonprofits and grassroots initiatives, including: AIDS Foundation of Chicago, Northwestern University, The Andy Warhol Foundation, Grindr for Equality, Raúl Anguiano Art Museum, Center for Disease Control and many more. They’re also a hoot.
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Episode 206 - #BYPSpotlight with Danielle Roper
Black Youth Project has joined forces with AirGo for a year-long #BYPSpotlight series, featuring our favorite Black academics and activists. This month’s #BYPSpotlight episode is featuring Danielle Roper, a professor and scholar at the University of Chicago. She talks about performances of Blackness across Latin America, navigating academia as a Black woman, the grassroots LGBTQ+ work she has been involved with in Jamaica, and much more. Plus, the introduction of a brand new game!
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Episode 205 - Bill Ayers
Bill Ayers has had a ton of different chapters in the tome of his life, and they’ve all led him to be a damn good person. He is a life-long movement worker, education theorist, author, and former leader of radical group The Weather Underground. He talks about his understanding of our contemporary political moment, how we processed becoming an international symbol of terrorism during the 2008 presidential race, how he makes peace with the dialectics and contradictions we’re all swimming in, and much more. This is definitely one for the archive, and one to dig into.
Episode 204 - Johari Noelle
Johari Noelle is wise beyond all of our years. The singer and songwriter was such a gracious and thoughtful guest on the show, talking through her music-making process, upbringing, how she stays present, the complex beauty of being a TWIN(!), and much more. You can listen to her newest project Things You Can’t Say Out Loud now, and catch her on September 25th at Virgin Hotel Chicago.
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Episode 203 - Lawrence "Binkey" Tolefree
Binkey’s back! The Chicago host, MC, beatboxer, comic, and community stalwart spent the last four years living abroad in Thailand, before returning home a couple weeks ago. He tells some incredible stories about his travels, connecting with his birth parents, being a “good” person in airquotes, and much more. Plus, Daniel says the word Kemet, which is well worth the price of admission.
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Episode 202 - Vivien Sansour
Vivien Sansour is in love. The open-hearted, brilliant artist, documentarian, and founder of the Palestine Heirloom Seed Library brings an open heart and critical mind to the studio for a wonderful conversation about trust, making space to feel alive, climbing the terraces of Palestine, snowy owls, and why she's jealous of trees. Plus, a very nice compliment to end the show that made Damon and Daniel cry. This one is a must listen!
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Episode 201 - #BYPSpotlight with Barbara Ransby
Black Youth Project has joined forces with AirGo for a year-long #BYPSpotlight series, featuring our favorite Black academics and activists. First up is Barbara Ransby, whose footprint on the Chicago and global social movement landscape is inimitable. A Professor of History, Gender and Women's Studies, and African American Studies at UIC, Barbara has grounded both organizing and scholarship for liberation in the lineages and lessons of Black women. She wrote the highly acclaimed biography Ella Baker and the Black Freedom Movement: A Radical Democratic Vision, as well as two other books, and is the driving force behind the R3 Coalition, which has pushed forward some of the most meaningful coalition-building Chicago has seen in recent years.
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Episode 200 - Securing the Mailbag
For our 200th episode(!), Damon and Daniel reflect on the show, and their growth as mediamakers, organizers, and humans. Plus, past guests share their questions for the guys. It's a celebration! Here's to many more episodes moving forward.
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Episode 199 - AirGo x BYP Live! with Tribble and Tasha
AirGo is back for our second episode in front of a live audience! This time, we're excited to launch our #BYPSpotlight, a collaboration with Black Youth Project, a website and resource hub examining the attitudes, resources, and culture of the young, urban black millennial. Over the next year, AirGo and BYP will be co-curating a set of episodes featuring young Black Chicagoans bettering their communities through research and direct engagement. On this live show, the audience talks about their dreams coming true with Damon and Kiss, and then we’re joined by guest cohost Tribble and the wonderful musician Tasha, who pops by in the midst of preparing for a stellar set at Pitchfork the following weekend. Thanks to Citlalin Gallery, BYP, Windmill Ginger Brew, and our great crew of Associate Producers for making the show possible!
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Episode 198 - Tiffany Walden
Tiffany Walden is the cofounder of The Triibe, a digital media platform showcasing innovative content to reshape the narrative of Black Chicago. Born out of a bedroom sublet in 2017, The Triibe mixes journalism, documentary film, and curation to showcase, celebrate, and explore the stories and strands of Black Chicago. A seasoned reporter, she "strives to humanize Black people, Black places and Black things in a way that would make Lorraine Hansberry smile." In a very frank and honest conversation, Tiffany discusses the challenges of building a business while creating, the importance of her partnership with cofounder Morgan Elise Johnson, the history of media literacy and distrust in Black communities, and much more.
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Episode 197 - Sam Bailey
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.
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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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