AirGo

AirGo is excited to present The Mentorship Suite, a series of episodes exploring the joys, contradictions, and radical possibilities of this often fraught term. On this episode, we have the honor and privilege to talk with the person who most directly shaped our commitment to movement, humanity, and liberation: the inimitable Kesho Scott. A former Black Panther and longtime professor of Sociology and American Studies at Grinnell College, Kesho breaks down the stages of mentorship, the foundations of a humanizing mentorship relationship, her own experience being mentored by Grace Lee Boggs and Jimmy Boggs, and so much more. The conversation was too good to cut, so we're dropping the first half this week and will have the second half next week. Levitate with us!

SHOW NOTES

Grace Lee Boggs - https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520272590/the-next-american-revolution

Jimmy Boggs - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/748147.Revolution_And_Evolution_In_The_Twentieth_Century

Angela Davis - https://airgoradio.com/airgo/2021/1/14/episode-270-angela-davis

Stokely Carmichael - https://snccdigital.org/people/stokely-carmichael/

Walter Rodney - https://www.versobooks.com/books/2785-how-europe-underdeveloped-africa

Audre Lorde - https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/audre-lorde

Exterminate All the Brutes - https://www.hbo.com/exterminate-all-the-brutes

Republic of New Afrika - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republic_of_New_Afrika

League of Revolutionary Black Workers - https://www.revolutionaryblackworkers.org/

Gloria Anzaldúa - https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/gloria-e-anzaldua

Huey Newton - https://www.zinnedproject.org/news/tdih/huey-p-newton-born/

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AirGo is partnering with UIC's Social Justice Initiative to present The Sawyer Seminar, a series of conversations hosted by UIC scholars entitled Radical Care, Real Alternatives. On this second episode, we hear from Nik Theodore, a professor at UIC and Director of the UIC Center for Urban Economic Development, and AirGo fam Rich Wallace, who is the Director of EAT (Equity and Transformation) Chicago. In conversation with Prof. Stacey Sutton, they break down the concept and implications of the informal economy, and dive deep into the stories they cultivated as part of their new report entitled Survival Economies(https://www.eatchicago.org/survival-economy-report).

SHOW NOTES

Survival Economies Report - https://www.eatchicago.org/survival-economy-report

EAT Chicago - https://www.eatchicago.org

National Domestic Workers Alliance - https://www.domesticworkers.org/

National Day Laborer Organizing Network - https://ndlon.org/

UIC’s Great Cities Institute - https://greatcities.uic.edu/

UIC Scholars for Social Justice - sji.uic.edu/

Transcription by Ayinde Jean-Baptiste

We're very excited to announce that Climate Changemakers is returning for Season 2! A partnership between AirGo and Elevate, an organization that seeks to create a just and equitable world in which everyone has clean and affordable heat, power, and water in their homes and communities, Climate Changemakers features conversations with Environmental Justice workers from across the U.S. who are leading the fight against climate change and environmental racism.

To get the podcast juices flowing, we've compiled our Season 1 guests' responses to the question "What should Elevate and its peers be doing differently to move the work forward?," and are sharing their reflections with you today. Stay tuned for a new episode every month and make sure to subscribe to, rate, and review Climate Changemakers!

AirGo is excited to present The Mentorship Suite, a series of episodes exploring the joys, contradictions, and radical possibilities of this often fraught term. On this episode, we travel into the AirGo origin story to talk with the professor who brought us together–the brilliant Shanna Benjamin. An incredibly significant mentor for both Dame and Kiss, Shanna is the author of the recently published Half in Shadow: The Life and Legacy of Nellie Y. McKay. She talks about being mentored by Nellie McKay, how she approaches her work in and out of the classroom, and her memories of young Damon and young Daniel.

SHOW NOTES

Norton Anthology of African American Literature - https://wwnorton.com/books/9780393911558

Half In Shadow: The Life and Legacy of Nellie Y McKay - https://uncpress.org/book/9781469662534/half-in-shadow/

Henry Louis Gates - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Louis_Gates_Jr.

Barbara Ransby - https://hist.uic.edu/profiles/ransby-barbara/

Wanda Coleman - https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/wanda-coleman

Ken Warren - https://english.uchicago.edu/people/kenneth-warren

The Black Interior by Elizabeth Alexander - https://www.graywolfpress.org/books/black-interior

The Sovereignty of Quiet by Kevin Everod Quashie - https://www.rutgersuniversitypress.org/the-sovereignty-of-quiet/9780813553108

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

Become an AirGo Amplifier - airgoradio.com/donate

Rate and review AirGo - podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/airgo/id1016530091

📸 by James Brown

AirGo is excited to present The Mentorship Suite, a series of episodes exploring the joys, contradictions, and radical possibilities of this often fraught term. On this episode, we talk with Tanji Harper, the Artistic Director of youth dance ensemble and organization The Happiness Club. Tanji breaks down how ego disrupts care for young folks, the ways that she's learned to support the people she's trying to serve, the exhaustion of this work and world, and the temporality of mentorship.

SHOW NOTES

Support the Happiness Club: http://www.thehappinessclub.com/donate.html

Book Blu Rhythm Collective: https://www.facebook.com/Blurhythmchicago/

Become an AirGo Amplifier - airgoradio.com/donate

Rate and review AirGo - podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/airgo/id1016530091

📷 by Tom Gavin for Vocalo

AirGo is excited to present The Mentorship Suite, a series of episodes exploring the joys, contradictions, and radical possibilities of this often fraught term. We kick it off with the suite's co-curator Jacinda Bullie, who is the co-founder of youth arts and healing organization Kuumba Lynx. Jacinda breaks down why she bristles at the term "mentor," what she's learned from the folks who have helped her grow, how she approaches her contribution to the youth at KL, and much more.

SHOW NOTES

Kuumba Lynx - https://www.kuumbalynx.com/

Healthy Hood Chi - http://www.healthyhoodchi.com/

Inipi Sweat Ceremony - http://aktalakota.stjo.org/site/News2?page=NewsArticle&id=8671

Assata: An Autobiography - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/100322.Assata

A Taste of Power by Elaine Brown - https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/913316.A_Taste_of_Power

Become an AirGo Amplifier - airgoradio.com/donate

Rate and review AirGo - podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/airgo/id1016530091

Read the transcript of this episode here: https://drive.google.com/file/u/2/d/1afPC0oxn3Q98vqnGMECaD8Mj8feZ7-Jl/view?usp=sharing

AirGo is partnering with UIC's Social Justice Initiative to present The Sawyer Seminar, a series of conversations hosted by UIC scholars entitled Radical Care, Real Alternatives. On the first episode, we're sharing a talk between Prof. Stacey Sutton and Prof. Barbara Ransby about the Social Justice Portal Project, a collaborative think tank that crosses disciplinary boundaries to address the urgent questions of social justice faced by our communities.

SHOW NOTES

Social Justice Portal Project - https://sji.uic.edu/

Arundhati Roy - https://www.ft.com/content/10d8f5e8-74eb-11ea-95fe-fcd274e920ca

Naomi Klein - https://naomiklein.org/

Ruthie Wilson Gilmore - https://www.gc.cuny.edu/Faculty/Core-Bios/Ruth-Wilson-Gilmore

Cooperation Jackson - https://cooperationjackson.org/

Chi Fresh Kitchen - https://www.chifreshkitchen.com/

Rich Wallace - https://www.eatchicago.org/

Thomas Piketty - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Piketty

Pauli Murray - https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/04/17/the-many-lives-of-pauli-murray

Angela Davis - https://airgoradio.com/airgo/2021/1/14/episode-270-angela-davis

Robin DG Kelley - https://airgoradio.com/airgo/2020/7/19/episode-255-the-abolition-suite-vol-4-robin-dg-kelley

Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor - https://airgoradio.com/airgo/2020/4/29/episode-238-bypspotlight-on-the-line-with-keeanga-yamahtta-taylor

UIC Scholars for Social Justice - https://sji.uic.edu/

Transcription by Ayinde Jean-Baptiste

This bonus episode features audio from a virtual event on 2/24/21, hosted by Chicago DSA and the DSA AfroSOC caucus in conversation with members of the #StopGeneralIron hunger strike.

For the past 27 days, Southeast Side residents have been on a hunger strike to demand the City of Chicago deny the final permit for an environmentally destructive recycling plant owned by General Iron.

The hunger strikers are denouncing environmentally racist policies that continue to allow polluting industry to accumulate in Chicago's communities of color. The city has lacked transparency, participation and fairness in its permitting process for the proposed relocation of General Iron. The hunger strikers say they are willing to risk their well-being during a global pandemic to put an end to racist zoning policies that have continued for decades.

The proposed site for the massive industrial metal shredder would be next to residential areas, schools, parks, and the Calumet River. Existing pollution threats continue to burden the Southeast Side and residents have continued to express serious concerns about the rushed permitting process that has shut out community feedback.

Thanks to the hosts and panelists for letting us share their stories and perspectives on AirGo!

SHOW NOTES

Come to a socially distant rally at Mayor Lightfoot's house (3325 w Wrightwood Ave) on 3/4/2021 at 5pm!

Support the hunger strike by donating to their GoFundMe: https://www.gofundme.com/f/support-hunger-strikers-for-environmental-justice

Follow the campaign on Twitter: https://twitter.com/CHIhungerstrike

On this bonus episode, we're sharing the audio from the launch event of the Chicago Police Torture Archive. The Archive is the first human rights archive documenting the violence and terror levied against more than 100 Black men under notorious Commander Jon Burge and his “Midnight Crew” from the 1970s-1990s.

Over the course of the event, which was hosted by AirGo's own Damon Williams, we hear from many torture survivors about their experience and the significance of the Archive. The event was presented in partnership between The Chicago Torture Justice Center, the Invisible Institute, Chicago Torture Justice Memorials, and the Human Rights Lab.

Explore the Archive here: https://chicagopolicetorturearchive.com/

Follow the work of The Chicago Torture Justice Center: https://www.chicagotorturejustice.org/

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AirGo is excited to present The Notebook Suite, a series of conversations with writers about liberation, craft, and radical imagination co-curated by poet Nate Marshall. In this final episode of the suite, Nate comes back on the show to debrief the six amazing conversations we had with Natalie Y. Moore, Elizabeth Mendez Berry, Jamilah Lemieux, Hanif Abdurraqib, and adrienne maree brown. We break down some themes that emerged across the suite, including: the power and danger of curiosity, the unique violence of male response to critique from women and femmes, the celebration of nuance, and much more.

SHOW NOTES

Buy Finna by Nate Marshall - https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/610570/finna-by-nate-marshall/

Become an AirGo Amplifier - airgoradio.com/donate

Rate and review AirGo - podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/airgo/id1016530091