NATURE, ART & PEOPLE:  The Divine Union and the role they play in shaping our experience and world.

This episode features Elizabeth Sobol, President and CEO of Saratoga Performing Arts Center (SPAC) and Maureen Sager, Executive Director of the Upstate Alliance for the Creative Economy (ACE).

Maureen Sager is Executive Director of the Alliance for the Creative Economy (ACE), a not-for-profit organization dedicated to promoting and growing the Creative Industries in the 8-county Capital Region.  She is also Executive Director of the Nordlys Foundation in Saratoga Springs.

Before moving upstate in 2004, Maureen was Executive Producer / Site Director of NickJr.com, the world’s largest internet site for parents and preschoolers, and had marketing roles at several MTV Networks internet brands. Other entertainment industry experience includes positions at Scholastic Inc., PolyGram Filmed Entertainment, and National Film Board of Canada.

She has an MFA in Screenwriting from the American Film Institute in Los Angeles, studied Marketing at Fordham University Graduate School of Business, and has a BA in English and Economics from Rutgers University.

Elizabeth Sobol is the President and CEO of the Saratoga Performing Arts Center, formerly President and CEO of Universal Music Classics and Managing Director of IMG Artists in North/South America. During Ms. Sobol’s nearly three-decade tenure at IMG Artists, she nurtured the careers of some of the music world’s most respected artists, including Joshua Bell, Itzhak Perlman, James Galway, Emerson String Quartet, Steve Reich, Evgeny Kissin, Hilary Hahn, Renee Fleming and Kiri Te Kanawa, among many others. As President and CEO of Universal Music Classics (UMC), Sobol successfully ran the American home for the prestigious Decca, Deutsche Grammophon, Mercury Classics, and ECM imprints, along with the revitalized UMC label, overseeing successful releases by artists as diverse as Andrea Bocelli, Sting, Tori Amos, Gustavo Dudamel, Anna Netrebko, Keith Jarrett and Snarky Puppy. Soon after joining UMC, Sobol led the company to the #1 spot on Billboard’s Classical Traditional Label chart in 2014 and 2015. Ms. Sobol studied at Sarah Lawrence College and the Rotterdam Conservatory. She received her bachelor of music in piano performance from the North Carolina School of the Arts. She lives with her husband, Jorge Gomez, Founder & Director of the band, Tiempo Libre, and their dog, Lana.

About Basilica Hudson
Founded in 2010 by Melissa Auf der Maur and Tony Stone, Basilica Hudson is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit arts center located in Hudson N.Y. that aims to foster a more sustainable community, ecology and economy through advocacy and innovative multidisciplinary programming. Housed in a reclaimed solar-powered 1880s industrial factory on the riverfront in Hudson, NY,  Basilica Hudson supports the creation, production and presentation of independent arts and culture, and strives to forge experiences that aspire to the scale, grit and beauty of its surroundings. Follow Basilica Hudson on all platforms @basilicahudson

ECO POETICS: From Somatic Rituals to Everyday Trash and Everything In-between.

This episode features poetry readings and conversation with CA Conrad, Kate Durbin and Cat Tyc, director of The Home School. Their upcoming season of virtual workshops offered us an opportunity to discuss the way they teach, but more specifically the rituals in which they create. The topics explored range from electronic poetry arts, to hoarders and the tricky relationship between people and things, traumas, healing and the sacred EARTH. 

About The Home School
Since 2014, The Home School has brought together the most diverse poets and artists of our time to explore poetry’s relationship to dance, film, music, painting, theater and other theories of thinking. More here.

About Cat Tyc
Cat Tyc is a writer/artist who has three chapbooks, An Architectural Seance {dancing girl press & studio}, CONSUMES ME (Belladonna* Collaborative) and I AM BECAUSE MY LITTLE DOG KNOWS ME (Blush Lit).  Most recently, she has published work in Maggot Brain and the St Mark Poetry Project literary journal, The Recluse and more forthcoming, in Touch the Donkey and Fence. She is the Director of The Home School in Hudson, NY. More here.

About CAConrad
CAConrad  has been working with the ancient technologies of poetry and ritual since 1975. They are the author of AMANDA PARADISE: Resurrect Extinct Vibration (Wave Books, 2021). Other titles include While Standing in Line for Death and Ecodeviance. The Book of Frank is now available in 9 different languages. They received a Creative Capital grant, a Pew Fellowship, a Lambda Literary Award, and a Believer Magazine Book Award. They teach at Columbia University in New York City and Sandberg Art Institute in Amsterdam. Please visit their website.

About Kate Durbin
Kate Durbin is a visual artist, filmmaker, and writer from Los Angeles, California (USA), whose artworks are nervous, unnerving, and playful explorations of the human condition in a time of constant screens, globalism, and late capitalism. Her work draws on a wide-range of popular culture references: Disneyland, reality TV shows, fast food, horror movie characters, and Hello Kitty are just some of the recurring figures and references that populate her work.

Her books include Hoarders (Wave Books), E! Entertainment, The Ravenous Audience,  and ABRA. More here.

About Basilica Hudson
Founded in 2010 by Melissa Auf der Maur and Tony Stone, Basilica Hudson is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit arts center located in Hudson N.Y. that aims to foster a more sustainable community, ecology and economy through advocacy and innovative multidisciplinary programming. Housed in a reclaimed solar-powered 1880s industrial factory on the riverfront in Hudson, NY,  Basilica Hudson supports the creation, production and presentation of independent arts and culture, and strives to forge experiences that aspire to the scale, grit and beauty of its surroundings. Follow Basilica Hudson on all platforms @basilicahudson

“The Future of Opera: Sasquatch, Rip Van Winkle and Chosen Families”

Conversation about the intersections of the underground world of art and the old world of opera between Opera Director / Artist R.B. Schlather and Musician Roddy Bottum. Opera was created 100s of years ago as an artistic experiment of the European elite, but after speaking to RB and Roddy we find ourselves wondering if it could stand to benefit from being reclaimed by local communities and the underworld. From DIY dioramas and pen pal projects, to mutual understanding about queer solitude, we may wonder what world would not benefit from such creativity?

In honor of Pride Month and our commitment to artistic subcultures, we celebrate these two independent and innovative artists on this Basilica Conversation Podcast.

The song played at the end of the episode is "Stohner" from Roddy Bottum & Joey Holman's project MAN ON MAN.

About Basilica Hudson
Founded in 2010 by Melissa Auf der Maur and Tony Stone, Basilica Hudson is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit arts center located in Hudson N.Y. that aims to foster a more sustainable community, ecology and economy through advocacy and innovative multidisciplinary programming. Housed in a reclaimed solar-powered 1880s industrial factory on the riverfront in Hudson, NY,  Basilica Hudson supports the creation, production and presentation of independent arts and culture, and strives to forge experiences that aspire to the scale, grit and beauty of its surroundings. Follow Basilica Hudson on all platforms @basilicahudson

Basilica Hudson Co-Founder and Directors speaks with Elise McMahon of LikeMindedObjects, a longtime friend and program partner, about her journey to sustainable design, advocacy for reducing landfill waste and more.

Follow Basilica Hudson on all platforms @basilicahudson

Follow Elise McMahon @likemindedobjects

About LikeMindedObjects
LMO creates furniture, accessories and custom interiors in a contemporary joyful aesthetic with a resourceful design eye looking to local materials and technologies that respect communities and environments.  This results in products that focus on healthier materials, reducing landfill waste and respectful labor practices. We believe in sustainable, circular systems, we just don’t want to engage in greenwashing or perfection claiming so keep our language direct to materials and methods :) If you have any questions about our manufacturing practices, we believe in transparency , so please reach out.

LMO is the design studio of artist Elise McMahon, who sees each object as holding a story of social and material culture from extraction to disposal. McMahon’s depth of knowledge around craft and history came from training in the Bauhaus method of design @ Rhode Island School of Design for her BFA & Industrial Design w a focus on Sustainability @ Parsons School of Design for her MFA. Through LikeMindedObjects and other art and education projects, she experiments fluidly towards the seamless combination of art and industry. Her work in Art, Design, Research and Education has resulted in international projects and diverse press coverage. 

About Basilica Hudson
Founded in 2010 by Melissa Auf der Maur and Tony Stone, Basilica Hudson is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit arts center located in Hudson N.Y. that aims to foster a more sustainable community, ecology and economy through advocacy and innovative multidisciplinary programming. Housed in a reclaimed solar-powered 1880s industrial factory on the riverfront in Hudson, NY,  Basilica Hudson supports the creation, production and presentation of independent arts and culture, and strives to forge experiences that aspire to the scale, grit and beauty of its surroundings. 

This episode is special co-broadcast of Jon Bowermaster's Green Radio Hour show, originally published on Radio Kingston. This conversation features a trio of green-thinkers and doers in Hudson, NY : SunCommon's Regional Director of Marketing Susannah Bradley; writer, publisher and City of Hudson Alderperson Rebecca Wolff; and oceans expert, journalist, author, and filmmaker Jon Bowermaster.

www.basilicahudson.org

Follow Basilica Hudson on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter @basilicahudson

Follow Jon Bowermaster @jonbowermaster and SunCommon @suncommon

About Basilica Hudson
Founded in 2010 by Melissa Auf der Maur and Tony Stone, Basilica Hudson is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit arts center located in Hudson N.Y. that aims to foster a more sustainable community, ecology and economy through advocacy and innovative multidisciplinary programming. Housed in a reclaimed solar-powered 1880s industrial factory on the riverfront in Hudson, NY,  Basilica Hudson supports the creation, production and presentation of independent arts and culture, and strives to forge experiences that aspire to the scale, grit and beauty of its surroundings.

Basilica Hudson Co-Founder and Director Melissa Auf der Maur interviews one of our newest board members, musician and activist Rebecca Foon, along with her Pathway To Paris co-founder Jesse Paris Smith, about their commitment to making the Paris Agreement a reality.

www.basilicahudson.org

Follow Basilica Hudson on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter @basilicahudson
Follow Pathway on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter @pathway2Paris

About Basilica Hudson
Founded in 2010 by Melissa Auf der Maur and Tony Stone, Basilica Hudson is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit arts center located in Hudson N.Y. that aims to foster a more sustainable community, ecology and economy through advocacy and innovative multidisciplinary programming. Housed in a reclaimed solar-powered 1880s industrial factory on the riverfront in Hudson, NY,  Basilica Hudson supports the creation, production and presentation of independent arts and culture, and strives to forge experiences that aspire to the scale, grit and beauty of its surroundings.