On the 96th edition of Free City Radio you can listen to a conversation with community organizer Sasha Wijeyeratne speaking on organizing against Amazon pushing gentrification in Queens. Sasha speaks about the broad community coalition in Queens that successfully fought off the push by Amazon corporation to open the H2Q headquarters in Queens.

Specifically in this exchange Sasha speaks about why the community organization, CAAAV: Organizing Asian Communities, which is very rooted in Asian residents within the Queensbridge Houses social housing complex, was specifically campaigning against Amazon H2Q due to the ways that the construction of an Amazon corporate logistics operational headquarters in Queens, that was going to be build right beside the Queensbridge Houses social housing project, would have driven a major wave of gentrification.

This interview series was recorded with support from the McGill Corporate Accountability Project, for broadcast on @radiockut at 90.3fm

For more information on CAAAV: Organizing Asian Communities visit :

https://caaav.org

Free City Radio broadcasts on Wednesdays at 11am on @radiockut and two new episodes are shared each week through the Free City Radio podcast.

Music on this edition is an excerpt of "Birds in Trio" a duet between Lori Goldston and Stefan @spirodon Christoff recently released on Dasa Tapes, full info :

https://dasatapes.bandcamp.com/album/punk-equinox

On this edition of Free City Radio we continue forward with our interview series collaboration that is taking place with The Breach. On this edition we hear perspectives from Rebecca Sinclair, research and policy analyst at Indigenous Climate Action.

In this interview Rebecca speaks about the ways that Indigenous voices have been pushing forward a critique of the Canadian state's colonial investment in oil and gas corporations that are building pipelines on Indigenous lands without the collective support of the communities impacted. As clearly witnessed today within the context of the Wet'suwet'en Nation which is facing the Coastal GasLink Pipeline and the Secwépemc Nation which is facing the Trans Mountain Pipeline, both projects are being supported politically by the Federal Liberal government in different ways, despite both oil and gas projects being a violation of Indigenous land rights and sovereignty.

For information on Indigenous Climate Action visit :

https://www.indigenousclimateaction.com

View a publication around this interview series in The Breach in March 2022 here : https://breachmedia.ca

Music on this edition is by Indigenous singer songwriter Samantha Crain.

Free City Radio is hosted and produced by Stefan @spirodon Christoff and now is shared twice a week on Tuesdays and Fridays ! Also Free City Radio broadcasts at 11h on Wednesdays on @radiockut in Montreal at 90.3fm

Free City Radio 94.

A conversation with the directors of the documentary film "No Visible Trauma," filmmakers Marc Serpa Francoeur and Robinder Uppal.

This important documentary about systemic police violence and brutality in the Canadian city of Calgary points to broader issues of systemic racism within police forces across Canada and in North America.

This is the write-up on the film: "In the midst of a global uprising against police violence and systemic racism, No Visible Trauma / Above the Law examines a deeply troubled police department and reveals the devastating consequences of unchecked police brutality. Despite its relatively low crime rates, recent years have seen the Calgary Police Service shoot and kill more people than officers in any other Canadian city, and more than either the New York or Chicago police departments in 2018. Five years in the making, the film unravels the intertwined stories of three individuals who were the victims of extreme violence at the hands of police officers. From the kidnapping and beating of a young immigrant from Ghana, to the fatal shooting of an unarmed man during a 'wellness check,' the film exposes a criminal justice system that fails to hold police officers accountable for their actions."

Info : https://losttimemedia.com/portfolio/nvt-atl

The directors will participate in a Cinema Politica hosted conversation on the documentary taking place on Monday, Feb. 28th at 8pm, you can register for the conversation and also watch the film online surrounding the screening here :

https://www.cinemapolitica.org

Image is a still from the documentary.

Music on this edition is the track "Passarinho," by Gal Costa.

Free City Radio is produced twice a week by Stefan @spirodon Christoff and broadcasts on @radiockut 90.3fm in Montreal, Wednesdays at 11h.

On the 93rd edition of Free City Radio we hear from John Beard of the Port Arthur Community Action Network (PACAN https://www.pa-can.com), which is a member organization of the national #BuildBackFossilFree coalition.

In this interview John speaks about the ways that oil and gas production has played a negative role in Port Arthur communities struggling with the health impacts of being located close to some of the largest oil and gas refinery locations in North America, including a major plant of TOTAL corporation. Important John speaks about the ways that environmental racism comes into play, given the ways that Black communities in Port Arthur have been impacted by the negative health impacts of living in this oil production region of Texas along the Gulf coast. This is an important interview that highlights a specific reality of environmental racism and the voice of an important local activist in Port Arthur campaigning for climate and environmental justice locally and nationally within the U.S.

Thank you to Nyshie Perkinson at the Climate Law Institute / Center for Biological Diversity for helping to arrange this interview.

Music on this edition of Free City Radio is by GAIKA @gaikasays out of London.

Free City Radio is hosted and produced by Stefan @spirodon Christoff

Listen to a soundscape recorded in both Mexico City and Oaxaca in December 2021.

This sonic work includes street sounds, from highways, roads, walkways, markets and the two beautiful cities in Mexico as the world was turning toward 2022. Also within this soundscape you hear podcaster Alfredo Bojorques speaking on Indigenous and Anarchist struggles against state today in Mexico. Listen to Alfredo's podcast "mundo abierto," that examines the work of Sara Ahmed within a Mexican context, info here :

https://podcasts.apple.com/gt/podcast/mundo-abierto/id1568078857

Additionally I ended the soundscape with an excerpt from a recording session that I recorded with double-bass player Adriana Camacho @adriana-camacho-torres in CDMX.

This soundscape was created by Stefan @spirodon Christoff for broadcast on both Radio Béguin @radiobeguin in Lyon for which we hear an introduction, @radiockut in Montréal and @radioalhara in Palestine, and for online distribution through Free City Radio.

Thank you to Tanha Gomes, @cerrucha, Joseph Sannicandro @thenewobjective for their direct and also spiritual support on this soundscape project.

Radio Alhara راديو الحارة - Artist interview, Josh MacPhee of Justseeds Artists' Coop

Listen to an interview with Josh MacPhee, a founding member of Justseeds Artists' Cooperative. In this exchange Josh speaks about the Celebrate People's History Poster Series project, a grassroots activist poster design project that speaks to social movement history in the Americas and globally.

Full info :

https://justseeds.org/project/cph

Josh also reflects on experiences doing street level silk-screen printing during the Occupy Wall Street protests and the Climate Strike actions in NYC.

This interview was recorded in collaboration with Suoni TV

Info on Josh's work : https://justseeds.org/artist/joshmacphee

This interview was recorded for broadcast on @radioalhara by Stefan @spirodon Christoff

Listen to the 91st edition of Free City Radio.

On this program we hear from Amélie Nguyen of the Centre international de solidarité ouvrière (CISO) and Mostafa Henaway of the Immigrant Workers Centre, who were speaking at the Cinema Politica screening of the film "Made in Bangladesh" that took place in Dec. 2021 at Concordia University in Tiohti:áke / Montréal.

The film is a drama that details the efforts of women in Dhaka, Bangladesh, who are organizing within the context of systemic injustice in the workplace, a textile factory, struggling to have a worker union recognized. Info on the film by Rubaiyat Hossain here :

https://www.khonatalkies.com/mib.php

In this presentation, Amélie and Mostafa speak about the international nature of the systemic exploitation that textile workers face and the global systems of injustice that many textile corporations sustain, including the Montréal based Lamour and Gilden, who have direct links to exploitation of textile workers in Bangladesh and Haiti.

Info on CISO : https://www.ciso.qc.ca

Info on the Immigrant Workers Centre : https://iwc-cti.ca

Information on Cinema Politica which hosted this conversation here :

https://www.cinemapolitica.org

This edition includes music by Asian Dub Foundation.

Audio recorded by Shengmei Rui.

Free City Radio is hosted and produced by Stefan @spirodon Christoff

Graphic is from the flag of Bangladesh.

Mohamad Cheblak + Spirodon

mix for Radio alHara January 2022

Track listing: (Artist, Track Title)

01. Amal Murkus - یومیات جرح فلسطیني

02. Soukaina Fahsi - جودیة

03. Ali Hassan Kuban - Mabruk 04. Ali Hassan Kuban - Habibi

05. Oumou Sangaré - Mali Nialé

06. Youssou Ndour - Pitche Mi

07. Booba - DKR

08. Seidosimba ft. Mazmars - Kandaka

09. Amen Aravot - Gevorg Dabaghyan

10. Vorskan Akhper - Gevorg Dabaghyan

11. Francisco Tárrega - Variaciones sobre "El Carnaval de Venecia" de Paganini

12. The Jimi Hendrix Experience - All Along The Watchtower

Photo taken by Mohamad in Beirut.

On the 90th edition of Free City Radio we again are visiting the archives of interviews that I have conducted at CKUT 90.3fm over the years.

I am just getting better from COVID-19 so this visit with the archives is coming to a close, but it is a pleasure to share these voices of activist scholars on the program this week.

Today I am sharing a conversation that I had with Steven Salaita, an activist, scholar and author, recorded in 2009. This conversation was suggested and encouraged by my late friend, author Aziz Choudry.

Steven published an important book more recently in 2016 called "Inter/Nationalism: Decolonizing Native America and Palestine," and this conversation reflects some of the focus points found in this work. Steven speaks about the connections between struggles for the land from Turtle Island and Palestine, getting into the specifics on the ways that historical discourses about nationalism, land and territory have been shared by colonial politicians in the U.S., Canada and Israel. Beyond slogans, this interview insightfully speaks to the integral connections between nationalisms that work to create false narratives about empty land and horizons of opportunity, instead focusing on bringing attention to those people and communities that have been displaced and dispossessed by the discourse of the frontier that is shaped by colonialism.

The music on this edition is a track that I worked on with my brother Jordan Christoff for the Anarchist Mountains project, from the latest album A Balkan Spacewalk out on Alien Garage records.

Listen to an interview with Sherene Razack recorded in 2009 live @radiockut who speaks on systemic racism in Canada, the normalization of torture and Abousfian Abdelrazik.

Until today the case of Abdelrazik is not resolved as the current Liberal Canadian government continues to fight against calls for justice by Abdelrazik as expressed through a lawsuit currently still going through the Canadian courts system. According to the Globe and Mail, in a report published last year, the Canadian government has now spent at least 9.3 million to fight this case and to win legally against Abdelrazik.

In this interview Razack, who is now a Distinguished Professor and the Penny Kanner Endowed Chair in Women’s Studies in the Department of Gender Studies, University of California at Los Angeles, speaks on the ways that systemic racism toward Arab and Muslim communities is expressed through social and political frameworks that work to eject Muslims from the western legal process, resulting in cases that normalize torture, as seen in the case of Abdelrazik.

Razack is a feminist critical race scholar, her research and teaching focus on racial violence.

The music on this edition are two tracks that I recorded as part of the Duets for Abdelrazik album that I recorded to celebrate Abdelrazik's resilience and return. The album was released in 2012 after I worked deeply to support Abdelrazik's struggle for justice through the Project Fly Home campaign. You will hear two tracks from the album, one with Radwan Moumneh and another with Norman Nawrocki. The accompanying art work is the original drawing from the 19th century that was reproduced for the album art work for Duets for Abdelrazik.

https://spirodon.bandcamp.com/album/duets-for-abdelrazik

The interview for this edition was co-conducted with community activist and radio host Samaa Elibyari.