ELEMENTAL

We're wrapping up Season 1 the same way we came in: with an extended interview from Subway Therapy's Matthew "Levee" Chavez. He gives us an update on where he's been since he became a viral success putting stickie notes on subway walls after the election. Sofiya and I discuss the series with him and attempt to answer our own question: is art now more important than ever? We still have lots of questions.

It's our season one finale! We're joined by Matthew "Levee" Chavez of Subway Therapy, who was also our first guest, and Sofiya Cheyenne is back! We discuss Keith's trip to the People's Climate March in DC and the necessity for free art and freedom of expression. The conversation was good so y'all are getting a finale to the finale, that we're calling the Epilogue, tomorrow. Stay tuned.

Vangeline, Artistic Director of Vangeline Theater and founder of the New York Butoh Institute discusses the importance of balance, impact, and effort. Her recent piece Wake Up and Smell the Coffee used upwards of 1000 used coffee cups collected around New York City to address the waste we generate and our loss of effort in the need to address the issue.

The sunflower grows rapidly, spreads quickly. They purify contaminated soil, replenishing a communities ability to provide healthy food. And they are beautiful beacons of hope: an apt metaphor for the coming People's Climate March. We're joined this week by Lani Fu of Superhero Clubhouse and arts organizers from 350.org including David Solnit, Rachel Schragis, and Jayeesha Dutta to discuss the role of the arts in the climate justice conversation.

James Leonard's The Tent of Casually Observed Phenologies is a place to ask the toughest questions about climate change. He'll answer with tarot cards.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau invites an audience of Canadian diplomats to Come from Away on Broadway. Flanked by Ivanka Trump and Nikki Haley. We play his full speech and discuss in this extra episode: FRIENDSHIP

Artist Delano Dunn explores with vivid, contradicting color, moments in African American history filled with optimism. Jubilation abounds but are the expectations met? We're joined by guest host Sarah Ellen Stephens and Dunn after we visit the Long Gallery in Harlem showing his work No One Can Be This Tomorrow. We ask, "are we allowed to be optimistic?"

Where were you the morning of November 9, 2016? As artists, that moment was a moment of profound change. Primary Stages, an off-Broadway theater company, became one of the many to begin processing this moment through art, examining our need to mourn before we can move on. In this episode we talk with Artistic Associate Erin Daley and we hear from some of the cast of Morning in America: November 9, 9:00AM. They record their monologues for us, read live on February 18th and 19th, 2017 at Cherry Lane Theatre, in our studio.

Week 2 in Flint, Michigan. We're back at the home of the Flint Public Art Project for their Holiday Party. And, for a little something different, we're offering this entire episode featuring one interview with life long Flint resident Marijoyce Campbell. We ask her, "Is Flint beautiful?"

Recorded at Circle Round Dignity, Courage, & Survival featuring the music and voices of Morley and Tiokasin Ghosthorse, activist and member of the Cheyenne River Lakota Nation of South Dakota, shortly after the Muslim ban. There's now new, haunting resonance after the eviction of the water protectors from Standing Rock. Mni Wiconi.