episode 25: Vero Majano

In this episode I talk with filmmaker, storyteller, and community archivist, Vero Majano. Vero’s work explores the cultural history of San Francisco’s Mission District, creating spaces to assert and remember the queer and Latinx communities that shape one of the city’s most iconic but highly contested neighborhoods. In our conversation, Vero breaks down why nostalgia is such a critical tool for her community in this time of change, her work as love letters to those who will hear them, and Queer longing and imaginary as a lifelong creative project. Follow Vero on Instagram at @gordofacesf.

It’s Black History Month and what could be blacker than black holes? Jay and Elena go in deep, exploring in their version of Rock & Roll: Flesh, Sex, and Death.

Follow:

Angela Hennessy: www.angelahennessy.com/

This episode is funded in part by

the California Arts Council, a state agency.

episode 24: Trisha Lagaso Goldberg

In this episode I talk with Hawaiʻi-based curator, arts organizer, artist, and public art producer Trisha Lagaso Goldberg. Trisha creates platforms to support artists in Hawaiʻi through exhibitions, programming, and her work as the Public Art Project Manager for the Hawaiʻi State Foundation on Culture & the Arts. Folks in the San Francisco Bay Area may also know her from her early career here where among many other things, she served as Executive Director of Southern Exposure.

Our conversation focuses on Tropical Disturbance: A Guide to Place Making and Contemporary Art in Hawaiʻi, an exhibition and series of programs of Hawaiʻi artists that she’s curated at the Luggage Store in San Francisco. In the course of our discussion, we talk about what it means to have a “Hawaiʻi sense of place,” dispelling misperceptions of the islands, the need to decode insider culture to build connections in this time of polarization, and the cultural ecosystem in Hawaiʻi. I also highly recommend checking out the exhibition’s page at luggagestoregallery.org where Trisha and her husband, writer and cultural critic David Goldberg have also commissioned a series of essays that compliment and complicate the concepts of place explored in the exhibition through the lens of art history, humor, personal narratives, surf etiquette, and ʻōlelo Hawaiʻi—Native Hawaiian language.

Our podcast series Public Sense, produced in conjunction with Issue 9.1, will feature conversations with artists and cultural producers about public and place-based practices. We'll consider the social and political implications of site, as well as the logistical and conceptual underpinnings of socially-engaged artistic production. In this episode I had the opportunity to sit down with artist and unmaking podcast host Weston Teruya about how community informs his artistic and professional practice (this episode was recorded in December 2017).

Follow Weston on Instagram at @westonteruya and his podcast at @un_making. Check out the projects we talk about on his website: http://www.westonteruya.com.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

It’s the classic Bay-Area-transplant story or how Jay and Elena found themselves living and hustling in California. Is the West Coast the Best Coast? Our two hosts consider collectives, competition, and compassion within the Bay Area art scene. Shouting out some of their favorite things, like avocados, queer dance parties, and an abundance of plants, and their favorite people, like Erica Deeman, Lava Thomas, and Sadie Barnette, Elena and Jay both critique and celebrate the Golden State.

Need millennial advice? Click the link to submit a question to Air Shrug

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1Ga2m1MPKiZAtIpDwiUW4CMQ0g-yBFfoRtNXXGx_qSXE/edit?usp=sharing

Follow:

**everyone we mention in the episode**

Erica Deeman - @erica_deeman

Lava Thomas - @lavathomas

Sadie Barnett - @sadiebarnette

Lauren Halsey - @summaeverythang

Angela Hennessy - http://www.angelahennessy.com/

Arisa White - @arisaawhite

Music:

Artist: wldflwr. & Nappy Nina Song: "run remix"

what are you looking at? | Ep. 2 Let it Scroll, Let it Scroll, Let it Scroll

It’s the holiday episode of what are you looking at? and instead of focusing on peace on earth and good will toward all, our hosts grapple with the constant stream of images and information clogging their overly-congested newsfeeds. Elena and Jay explore how narratives of truth and/or fake-news get constructed through magazines, journalistic news, social media, artist interventions, and the always entertaining, crowd-sourced goodness of #BlackTwitter. It’s that political-cultural conversation you want to have before that political-cultural conversation you have to have with that one problematic aunt/uncle who comes to every holiday meal.

Follow on Instagram:

Alexandra Bell @yesitsalex

Sable Elyse Smith @sable_elyse

Music: Rodrigo Vicente Song: "Happy Christmas"

https://broadly.vice.com/en_us/article/bj7je8/meet-the-new-york-strippers-organizing-against-racism-in-the-industry

**when mentioning Sable Elyse Smith in the What are you looking at segment I don’t say her full name. It’s Sable Elyse Smith not Sable Elyse

episode 23: Taraneh Hemami

In this episode, we talk with artist, educator, curator, and cultural organizer Taraneh Hemami about building an archive as a collective creative practice, the complex history of the Iranian Student Association, and linking generations in the Iranian diaspora. You can follow her work at taranehhemami.com and on Instagram @taranehhemami.

episode 22: Wei Leng Tay & Michelle Wong

In this episode, we talk with Singapore-based artist Wei Leng Tay and Hong Kong-based researcher Michelle Wong about creating art historical narratives in Hong Kong, the question of archiving Umbrella Movement protest ephemera, and a 360 camera as artmaking tool and conceptual framework in organizing a project, #SightlinesHK, with Hong Kong-based artists South Ho, Kinchoi Lam, Lam Wing Sze, and C&G Artpartment (Clara Cheung & Gum Cheng Yee Man). Follow Wei Leng on Instagram @weilengt and weilengtay.com and Michelle Wong's work at Asia Art Archive at aaa.org.hk

episode 21: Edra Soto

In this episode, we talk with Chicago-based artist & curator Edra Soto. We talk about the lines between art and activism, aesthetic gesture and post-colonial intervention; adjusting the velocity at which people receive your work; and pushing out of her comfort zones in curating her backyard, artist-run space: The Franklin. Follow Edra's work at edrasoto.com and @edrasoto on Instagram. More information on The Franklin can be found at thefranklinoutdoor.tumblr.com

Welcome to the what are you looking at? official podcast re-launch! Elena Gross, is now permanently joined by artist and selfie-queen Jay Katelansky as co-host. In this first episode, we’re rooting for everybody black: that includes breaking down the impact of seeing Solange perform A Seat at the Table live in a crowd full of black people (and some unfortunate interlopers), to defending the intellectual and emotional labor of Reina Gossett and all the most vulnerable in our communities, and shouting out our favorite black artists, creators, collectives, and collaborators in the Bay Area!

For more information about how you can support Reina Gossett’s work, follow her on Instagram at @reinaxgosset, and consider donating to her PayPal or Venmo accounts found here: http://www.reinagossett.com/contribute/.

Follow on Instagram:

@the_blkaesthetic

@theblackmailshow

@blackprintedmatter

@threepointnineart

@theibejilounge

@hellablackbrunch

And of course, subscribe to us on iTunes and Soundcloud, follow us on Instagram at @wayla_pod, and share with all your friends!