AirGo

To kick off the new year, we're digging into the archives to launch our #GoBack series. Each month this year, we're going to revisit an episode from the 200+ episodes of the show and bringing that conversation back to the forefront. First up is our conversation with Jamila Woods from 2016, when she was just on the brink of the glow up that has been the last few years for the brilliant poet and musician.

Come to our Art and Activism series at the Apple Store Michigan Ave! https://www.apple.com/today/collection/art-activism-airgo/michiganavenue/

Music from this week's show:

Very BLK - @jamilawoods

Black Girl Soldier - Jamila Woods

The Joy - Milo and Otis

With the year and decade coming to a close, Dame and Kiss check in one last time in 2019–on Kiss's birthday, no less! They start beef with the 2010's, talk about the new exciting projects and partnerships launching in the New Year (a month of programs at the Apple Store, a talk show from the future, an Environmental Justice limited podcast series, a live event series about electoral politics and radical imagination called Unelectable), share some thank yous, and envision the 2030 of their imaginations. Plus, a call from a very special grandma guest...

Rate and review us on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/airgo/id1016530091

Buy an AirGo tee: http://airgoradio.com/store

Recorded 10/17/19 in Chicago

Music from this week's show:

Sexy and I Know It - LMFAO

Lewis Raven Wallace is a trans journalist, movement worker, and the author of The View From Somewhere, a new book and podcast dispelling myths in journalism and issuing a call to action for journalists to account for their own biases, challenge power, and reshape journalism into a tool for liberation. While on book tour, Lewis stops by to talk about the book, their Chicago organizing days, how the field can be held more accountable, and how to commit acts of journalism with a new lens.

Buy the book and listen to the podcast here: https://www.lewispants.com/the-view-from-somewhere

Recorded 11/15/19 in Chicago

Music from this week's show:

Something Elated - Broke for Free

Jenna Anast will change up your whole energy. Jenna is an actor, filmmaker, comedian, singer, and community builder. She's the Head of Community for Open TV, and is a member of the #LetUsBreathe Collective. We talk about growing up as an adopted Black kid, reconnecting with her birth mom, being a part of the amazing film Sorry to Bother You, and much more.

Learn more: https://www.journeyswithjenna.com/

Recorded 11/12/19 in Chicago

Music from this week's show:

Space Bump Alpha - MagicMusic

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 features Asha Ransby-Sporn, an organizer, movement worker, and National Organizing Co-Chair for Black Youth Project-100. She also was one of the central organizers who pushed Columbia University to divest from private prisons over the past few years. We talk community organizing basics, what are some ways to bring people into the work, how we can begin to rethink our relationship to land, designing her hypothetical commune, and her relationship with her mom Barbara Ransby (who was the first #BYPSpotlight guest).

Show Notes:

BYP-100 - https://byp100.org/

Columbia Prison Divestment -https://www.columbiaspectator.com/the-eye/2018/04/24/asha-rosa-ransby-sporn-on-how-to-make-columbia-divest-from-private-prisons/

She Safe, We Safe: https://www.shesafewesafe.org/

NOTE: Please subscribe, rate, and review AirGo on your podcast app! Help Amplify this conversation with a tax-deductible donation to AirGo: http://airgoradio.com/donate

Recorded 11/22/19 in Chicago

Music from this week's show:

The Ludovico Technique - Tab Anitek

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.

Recorded 11/13/19 in Chicago

Music from this week's show:

ArtiChoke - Tab Anitek

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.

Recorded 9/26-9/28/2019 in Chicago

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.

Recorded 10/29/19 in Chicago

Music from this week's show:

Summer Dreams - Ryan Little

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.

Recorded 10/23/19 in Chicago

Music from this week's show:

Well and Good - Podington Bear

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: http://blackyouthproject.com/byp-x-airgo/

Music from this week's episode:

Mirror, Mirror - Diamond Ortiz