Keep the Channel Open

Matika Wilbur, of the Swinomish and Tulalip tribes, is a photographer based in the Pacific Northwest. For her current endeavor, Project 562, Matika has visited hundreds of tribes across the United States, making portraits and sharing contemporary Native stories to counteract the stereotypes and misinformation so prevalent in mainstream media and history textbooks. In our conversation, Matika and I talked about the origins of Project 562, her collaborative portrait-making process, and the difference between activism and storytelling. Then for the second segment, Matika talked about ways to indigenize our spaces, acknowledge our indigenous communities, and form a relationship with the land.

(Conversation recorded January 29, 2019.)

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• Matika Wilbur
• Project 562
• All My Relations
• David W. May American Indian Gallery - "Natural Wanderment: Stewardship. Sovereignty. Sacredness."
• yəhaw̓ at King Street Station!
• David W. May Distinguished Lecture Series - Artist Lecture: Matika Wilbur
• Lawrence University Convocation Series
• #ChannelOpenPhoto
• Matika Wilbur - We Are One People
• Matika Wilbur - We Emerge
• American Indian Movement
• Billy Frank, Jr.
• About Billy Mills
• National Congress of American Indians
• Whitelash
• The Horror of Trump's Wounded Knee Tweet
• Stand With Standing Rock
• Reclaiming Native Truth
• Roma
• Yalitza Aparicio
• @project_562 on Instagram

Shivanee Ramlochan is a Trinidadian poet, arts reporter, and book blogger. I had the opportunity to read Shivanee's book of poems Everyone Knows I Am a Haunting a few months ago and I found it a powerful experience. In our conversation, Shivanee and I talked about her book, making art out of our traumas, and navigating audience responses to our work. Then in the second segment, we talked about how few opportunities there can be for marginalized writers, and how this often creates an unnecessarily competitive environment.

(Conversation recorded January 24, 2019.)

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• Shivanee Ramlochan
• Shivanee Ramlochan - Everyone Knows I Am a Haunting: Peepal Tree Press | IndieBound | B&N
• Sonia Farmer
• Sonia Farmer - The Red Thread Cycle in NE9
• National Art Gallery of the Bahamas - National Exhibition 9: "The Fruit and the Seed"
• Alice Hiller - "Everything I write, I give access to devastate me first": Shivanee Ramlochan, on 'saying the difficult thing' with "weapons of conjure"
• NGC Bocas Lit Fest
• Forward Prizes for Poetry 2018
• Colin Kaepernick
• Novel Niche
• Danielle Boodoo-Fortuné
• Danielle Boodoo-Fortuné - Doe Songs: Peepal Tree Press | IndieBound | B&N

Victoria Mara Heilweil is a photographic artist, curator, and educator based in San Francisco, CA. I met Victoria at an opening here in San Diego a couple of years ago and immediately hit it off with her, as our work is very much on the same wavelength. In our conversation we talked about the importance of imperfection and the everyday in her work, placing her work in a feminist context, and her experience as an independent curator in San Francisco. Then for the second segment, we talked about the state of education in the United States, and the lack of respect given to teachers.

(Converation recorded January 15, 2019.)

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• Victoria Mara Heilweil
• San Diego Art Institute - Trinh Mai: That We Should Be Heirs
• Trinh Mai - That We Should Be Heirs
• LikeWise Fiction Kickstarter
• Victoria Mara Heilweil - Sisyphus
• Victoria Mara Heilweil - Remnant
• Victoria Mara Heilweil - Drop
• Instagram - @victoriamaraheilweil
• Art Works Downtown - Ordinary
• Man Ray
• Marcel Duchamp
• MicroClimate Collective
• Common Core State Standards Initiative
• SFMOMA - Vija Celamins: To Fix the Image in Memory
• de Young Museum

To celebrate the third anniversary of Keep the Channel Open, photographer Daniel Gonçalves turned the tables on me and took on the role of podcast host in order to spend some time talking about my own work. In our conversation, Daniel and I discussed my photographs and creative process, making an emotional connection through art, and why quiet masculinity is important to me.

(Conversation recorded January 17, 2019.)

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• Mike Sakasegawa
• Keep the Channel Open - Episode 1: Trinh Mai
• Keep the Channel Open - Episode 55: Daniel Gonçalves
• Medium Festival of Photography
• Kickstarter - LikeWise Fiction
• Ken Rosenthal
• Keep the Channel Open - Episode 19: Ken Rosenthal
• Mike Sakasegawa - It Forgets You
• Mike Sakasegawa - All Good Things
• Aline Smithson
• Mike Sakasegawa - Sheets: A Love Letter
• Kurt Simonson
• Mike Sakasegawa - Caesura
• Mike Sakasegawa - Auguries
• The Best of Intentions (TinyLetter) - Word for 2019
• Fatimah Asghar - If They Come For Us

Transcript

Jerry Takigawa is a photographer, designer, and writer based in Carmel Valley, CA. In his photo series Balancing Cultures, Jerry explores his family's history during the Japanese American Internment, creating striking and beautiful compositions that tell the story of a dark chapter in our nation's past. In our conversation, I talked with Jerry about this body of work, about our shared identity as Japanese Americans, and about how he developed a visual vocabulary that has evolved throughout his artistic career.

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• Jerry Takigawa
• Jerry Takigawa - Balancing Cultures
• Jerry Takigawa - False Food
• Jerry Takigawa - Kimono Series
• Alvarado Gallery
• Turchin Center for the Visual Arts - "Full Circle: 2018 CENTER Award Winners"
• Atlanta Photography Group
• #ChannelOpenPhoto
• Poston War Relocation Center
• 442nd Regimental Combat Team
• Center for Photographic Art - Jerry Takigawa interview
• People's Park
• Robin DiAngelo - White Fragility
• Works & Conversations - Jerry Takigawa Interview: Grace In Uncertainty
• Center for Photographic Art - PIE Labs
• Brené Brown - Dare to Lead

Rachel Lyon is a writer based in Brooklyn, NY. Rachel's debut novel Self-Portrait With Boy caught my attention for its complex depiction of a young artist in 1990's Brooklyn, and the story has stuck with me in the months since I first read it. In our conversation, Rachel and I talked about the similarities between her novel and one of her earlier short stories, about the necessity of art in the contemporary world, and about the way her novel and its characters engage with questions of class. Then in the second segment, we talked about alcoholism and the role drinking plays in our culture.

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• Rachel Lyon
• Rachel Lyon - Self-Portrait With Boy: Simon & Schuster | B&N | IndieBound
• Rachel Lyon - Tripping Sunny Chaudhry
• Rachel Lyon - Writing/Thinking Prompts
• Catapult - 1-Day Novel Structuring Intensive with Rachel Lyon
• Martha's Vineyard Institute of Creative Writing
• Sackett Street Writers Workshop
• #ChannelOpenFiction
• Bomb - You Have to Get Their Attention: An Interview with Rachel Lyon by Ryan Spencer
• John Irving - The Hotel New Hampshire
• Claire Dederer - What Do We Do with the Art of Monstrous Men?
• Kristi Coulter - Giving up alcohol opened my eyes to the infuriating truth about why women drink
• Kristi Coulter - Nothing Good Can Come From This
• Leaving Las Vegas
• New York Times Book Review Podcast - Immaturity in American Politics
• Alan Wolfe - The Politics of Petulance
• The Favourite

David Naimon is a writer and the host of the literature podcast Between the Covers, one of my absolute favorite podcasts. On his show, David brings a deep curiosity and impressive intellect to every conversation, making for some of the most engaging and in-depth interviews I've ever heard. In our conversation, David and I talked about the similarities and differences between our two shows, about the craft of interviewing, as well as about his own writing. Then in the second segment, David asked the question, is there a way for us as a society to change the way we tell stories that might enact change in our relationship to the natural world?

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• David Naimon - Between the Covers
• Ursula K. Le Guin and David Naimon - Conversations on Writing
• 2018 Black Warrior Review Fall/Winter Edition - Volume 45.1
• Between the Covers - Celeste Ng: Little Fires Everywhere
• Keep the Channel Open - Episode 48: Celeste Ng
• Between the Covers - R.O. Kwon: The Incendiaries
• Keep the Channel Open - Episode 71: R. O. Kwon
• Commonplace Podcast
• Bookworm
• Otherppl with Brad Listi
• Between the Covers - Diane Williams: The Collected Stories of Diane Williams
• David Naimon - Acceptance Speech
• Black Warrior Review - A Conversation with David Naimon
• Imaginary Advice
• Lunar Poetry Podcasts - Ep. 116 - Ross Sutherland & C.I. Marshall
• Layli Long Soldier - Whereas
• Between the Covers - Layli Long Soldier: Whereas
• Kurt Vonnegut on art during the Vietnam War
• In These Times - Kurt Vonnegut vs. the !&#*!@
• Jeffrey Yang - Hey, Marfa

Brandon Thibodeaux is a photographer based in Dallas, TX. At the Medium Festival of Photography this year, Brandon presented his series In That Land of Perfect Day, in which he looks at faith, identity, and perseverance in a group of five African-American communities in the Mississippi Delta. In our conversation we talked about the project, the importance of empathy, and the responsibility of documentary photography. Then in the second segment, Brandon and I talked about the interaction between our personal work and our careers.

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• KTCO Holiday Shop
• Brandon Thibodeaux
• Brandon Thibodeaux - In That Land of Perfect Day
• Medium Festival of Photography
• PDN - "Brandon Thibodeaux's New Book Explores Family, Faith and Perseverance in the Mississippi Delta"
• Port Magazine - "A Town Called Alligator: Brandon Thibodeaux"
• Brandon Thibodeaux Workshop - Turning Work into Work — Bringing Personal Vision to the Marketplace
• #ChannelOpenPhoto
• Mound Bayou, Mississippi
• Farm Security Administration Photographs
• Dorothea Lange"
• Aperture Magazine - Vision & Justice
• Mamiya C330
• Brandon Thibodeaux - Coon Hunting
• Rothko Chapel
• Menil Museum
• Houston Center for Photography
• Museum of Fine Arts, Houston

The images from Claire A. Warden's series Mimesis are visually striking and delightfully inscrutable. Like most viewers, I was immediately grabbed by them when I first saw them, but it wasn't until I talked with Claire and read her artist's statement that I really understood what she was trying to say with these pictures. Having that experience, though, really deepened my appreciation for the work. This week, Claire and I talked about her unique process and the reason why it's so important that this series exist in the context of photography. In the second segment, we discussed race and being and immigrant, and how that affects the way one's identity forms.

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• Claire A. Warden
• 2018 KTCO Holiday Shop
• Philadelphia Photo Arts Center - 2019 Contemporary Photography Competition and Exhibition
• #ChannelOpenPhoto
• Salt: Studies in Preservation and Manipulation
• Mimesis
• Lenscratch
• Art of Photography Show 2012
• Fresh Air: Trevor Noah
• NPR Code Switch: A Graphic Shows How Much the 'Race' Question On the American Census Has Changed

Brandon Taylor is a writer and graduate student at the Iowa Writers' Workshop. One of my favorite contemporary writers, Brandon's short stories are marvelously crafted, understated and emotionally charged, while his personal essays and cultural critique are insightful and often lyrical—all of it is just a joy to read. In today's conversation, Brandon and I talked about his work and his process, how he often finds himself inventing around the margins of the stories he takes in, and how and why he always resists the reductive take. For the second segment, Brandon chose expectation as his topic, both the excitement and terror of one's own anticipation of the future, but also the expectations others can put on us.

(Episode originally aired on April 26, 2017. Conversation recorded April 4, 2017.)

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• Brandon Taylor
• Brandon Taylor - Grace
• Brandon Taylor - French Absolutism
• Brandon Taylor - All About My Mother
• Brandon Taylor - We're Just People
• Brandon Taylor - Frites
• Brandon Taylor - Run
• Mavis Gallant
• Brandon Taylor - There Is No Secret to Writing People Who Do Not Look Like You
• Gregory Heisler
• Iowa Writers' Workshop
• Catapult Community - TinyLetter of the Month: Brandon Taylor, "Hours"
• Brandon Taylor - Virgin Wool (TinyLetter)
• Helena Fitzgerald
• Alexander Chee
• Roxane Gay
• Alexander Chee - The Queen of the Night
• Ted Chiang
• Certain Women
• Kelly Reichardt
• Maile Meloy