Listen back to some of our favorite interviews of 2023. Join us for words and music from Skypp, Aye Marcay, Zakir Hussain, 123 Andrés, La March Nueva, Dwani Phiri, and Kronos Quartet.

NPR has released their best of 2023 music lists. We'll explore the Indiana musicians featured among the year’s best, including Hanna Benn, Omar Apollo, Durand Jones, and The HawtPlates. 

We’ll also have another edition of Rebel Music with Karla López Owens. Karla's guest is the Indianapolis-based visual artist Alejandra Carrillo who creates work under the name El Rallonadero.

Rebel Music with Karla López Owens is an ongoing series on Cultural Manifesto exploring the relationship between music and activism. On this episode, Karla’s guest is Alejandra Carrillo, a chicana activist, artist and art educator. She creates art under the name “El Rallonadero,” which translates to “the scribbler.”

Her work has been featured in many prominent spaces - including the Eiteljorg and the Indianapolis Museum of Art at Newfields. In the Fall of 2023, Alejandra completed a mural for the Mexican Consulate in Indiana.

Listen to an interview with the Indianapolis-based jazz pianist Christopher Pitts.

Pitts will share tracks from “Be Free,” his debut album as a leader.

This week on Cultural Manifesto listen to an interview with the Chicago-based musician and storyteller Shanta Nurullah. During a college trip to India in 1969 she discovered the sitar. Nurullah has spent the last 50 years exploring the instrument in her jazz and blues compositions.

The Indiana jazz pianist and civil rights activist Rev. Dr. Marvin Chandler passed away earlier this year. Listen back to Kyle Long’s 2020 interview with Chandler, and hear Indianapolis Deputy Mayor Judith Thomas share her memories of Chandler.

Vibraphonist Mitchell Shiner discusses his album "Latkes con Salsa: A Latin Jazz Hanukkah." And the Indianapolis rapper and producer Jaye B shares music from his recent albums “X” and “The Bachelor.”

This week on Cultural Manifesto explore holiday-themed releases from Wife Patrol and Isaiah J. Thompson.

The Indianapolis-based rock band Wife Patrol gained national attention for their 2020 LP “Too Prickly For This World.” Afropunk praised Wife Patrol for their "indelible hooks and defiant verses,” and Bandcamp described the group’s sound as “catchy alt rock with streaks of punk, new wave, and metal.” Wife Patrol will discuss their latest single “Christmas ’96.”

2023 was a landmark year for pianist Isaiah J. Thompson. Earlier this year, Thompson won the American Pianists Association 2023 Award for Jazz and the Cole Porter Fellowship. Thomspon will join host Kyle Long to talk about his new album “Guaraldi Holiday,” a tribute to the music of Vince Guaraldi, who scored the classic Peanuts’ holiday specials of the 1960s.

This week on Cultural Manifesto listen to an interview with the Indianapolis R&B artist Brandon Lott. He’ll share music from his latest release, “Aquadream.”

We’ll also have a live session from La Marca Nueva, a young Indianapolis band that specializes in regional Mexican music styles, including sierreno and corridos tumbados.

This week on Cultural Manifesto we’ll celebrate Native American Heritage Month with Daryl Black Eagle Jamieson, co-founder of the experimental pow wow music group Medicine Singers. Their debut album was issued last year by Indianapolis’ Joyful Noise Recording.

We’ll also have another edition of Rebel Music with Karla Lopez-Owens, an ongoing series exploring the relationship between music and activism. Karla’s guest will be Carolina Castoreno. Carolina’s work is centered around the preservation of Native identity and decolonization efforts.

On this edition of Rebel Music, host Karla López Owens talks with activist, writer, and community organizer Carolina Castoreno. Carolina identifies as both American Indian and Mexican Indian, She’s a citizen of the Lipan Apache Tribe of Texas, and a descendant of the Mescalero Apache, and Yaqui tribes. Carolina has served as executive director of the American Indian Center of Indiana. Her work is centered around the preservation of Native identity, decolonization efforts, and education for Indigenous peoples of the Americas.