Keep the Channel Open

David Adjmi is a writer and playwright based in Los Angeles, CA. In his new memoir Lot Six, David tells the story of how he found himself through art and the theater, growing up feeling like an outsider as a gay, atheist, artistic youth in a small and insular Syrian Sephardic Jewish community in Brooklyn. In our conversation, David and I discussed the craft of memoir, the process of constructing one's own identity, and why his book isn't structured like the typical gay narrative. Then in the second segment, we discussed how the pandemic is affecting our ability to make narratives, and how art can function as a community.

(Conversation recorded August 31, 2019.)

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• David Adjmi
• Purchase Lot Six (bookshop.org)
• Review Lot Six on Goodreads
• Elizabeth Hardwick - Sleepless Nights
• Richard Wright - Black Boy
• Melissa Febos
• San Diego Union-Tribune - "Commentary: In the COVID-19 era, I have to tell my patients they are experiencing authentic fear"
• L'Avventura
• Keep the Channel Open - Episode 33: José Olivarez
• Neutral Milk Hotel - "In the Aeroplane Over the Sea"
• I May Destroy You

• Editing/Mixing: Mike Sakasegawa
• Music: Podington Bear
• Transcription: Shea Aguinaldo

Jessica Eaton is a photographer based in Montreal, Quebec. At first glance, the minimalist compositions in Jessica's images might seem simple, but the process behind their creation is anything but. Using a series of color filters and a painstaking multiple exposure technique, she is able to use light to construct color. In our conversation, we discussed her photographic technique, her impulse toward iteration, and why her work is not abstract. Then in the second segment we talked about coming to big life changes during a pandemic.

(Conversation recorded August 3, 2020.)

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• Jessica Eaton
• Jessica Eaton - That is Picture (short doc)
• M+B Gallery - Jessica Eaton
• Higher Pictures Gallery - Jessica Eaton
• Luminous Landscape - "Profile: The Relentless Jessica Eaton"
• Keep the Channel Open - Episode 56: Chris Engman
• Bruce Gilden
• TransformerStation - Jessica Eaton interview
• Dolly zoom
• Akinetopsia
• Sally Mann - Hold Still: A Memoir with Photographs
• Georgiana Houghton, Hilam AF Kint, Emma Kunz - World Receivers

• Editing/Mixing: Mike Sakasegawa
• Music: Podington Bear
• Transcription: Shea Aguinaldo

Matthew Salesses is a writer based in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Matthew's new novel, Disappear Doppelgänger Disappear, is darkly funny, unsettling in the best way, and wholly original, the story of a Korean American man struggling simply to exist as he feels himself literally disappearing. In our conversation, Matthew and I discussed his book, the trap of the first-person perspective, and what it means to take responsibility. Then in the second segment, we talked about the meaning of love.

(Conversation recorded July 8, 2020.)

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• Matthew Salesses
• Matthew Salesses - Disappear Doppelgänger Disappear
• Thank You Books - Author Event: Laura Van Den Berg in conversation with Matthew Salesses (August 20, 2020)
• Prairie Lights - Reading: Matthew Salesses and Lyz Lenz (August 27, 2020)
• Belmont Books - Virtual Event: Margot Lives and Matthew Salesses (September 16, 2020)
• Review Disappear Doppelgänger Disappear: Amazon | Goodreads
• Julio Cortázar
• Matthew Salesses - Love and Silence (Catapult column)
• Matthew Salesses - "What Does It Mean to Write Asian American Literature?"
• David Eng & Shinhee Han - "A Dialogue on Racial Melancholia"
• Han Kang - The Vegetarian
• Margot Livesey - The House on Fortune Street
• Olga Tokarczuk - Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead
• Byung-Chul Han - The Agony of Eros
• Kahlil Gibran - "On Marriage"
• Jacques Lacan
• Lyz Lenz - Belabored: A Vindication of the Rights of Pregnant Women
• Elisa Gabbert - The Unreality of Memory
• Margot Livesey - The Boy in the Field

• Editing/Mixing: Mike Sakasegawa
• Music: Podington Bear
• Transcription: Shea Aguinaldo

Ross Sutherland is a writer and podcaster based in Peterborough, UK. Ross's podcast Imaginary Advice is one of my favorites in any genre. Blending poetry, essay, and audio fiction with a wonderfully experimental approach to sound design, Imaginary Advice sounds like nothing else. In our conversation, Ross and I talked about what it's like to make a podcast without a format, why starting with form can lead to unexpected discovery, and what collaboration can open up for a project. Then in the second segment, Ross and I talked about his recent difficulties trying to learn yoga via YouTube.

(Conversation recorded July 17, 2020.)

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• Imaginary Advice
• Support Imaginary Advice on Patreon
• The Allusionist
• The Allusionist - Imaginary Advice: S.E.I.N.F.E.L.D.
• BBC - Radio 1 - John Peel
• Lunar Poetry Podcasts - Ep. 116 — Ross Sutherland & C.I Marshall
• OuLiPo
• Univocalic
• Imaginary Advice - 66 Exquisite Corpse (with Clive Desmond)
• Imaginary Advice - 50 Four or Five Weddings and One or Two Funerals
• Stand By For Tape Back-Up
• Tim Clare
• Florian Cramer - "Words Made Flesh"
• Alexander Technique
• David Berman
• David Berman & The Impossible Shapes - Bloomington, IN, 2005
• David Berman - Actual Air
• David Berman Transcription Project

• Editing/Mixing: Mike Sakasegawa
• Music: Podington Bear
• Transcription: Shea Aguinaldo

Richard Georges is a writer, editor, and lecturer in the British Virgin Islands. In his second collection of poems, Giant, Richard gives us a portrait of the BVI through landscape, through its history and its present. In our conversation, Richard and I talked about his book, the aftermath of empire in the BVI, and the relationship between poetry and myth. For the second segment, Richard talked about the particular moment that the BVI faced in the wake of Hurricane Irma.

(Conversation recorded June 12, 2018.)

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• Richard Georges
• Richard Georges - Giant
• Richard Georges - Epiphaneia
• Richard Georges - Make Us All Islands
• Moko
• Percy Bysshe Shelley - "Ozymandias"
• Ramayana
• Saint Ursula
• Soucouyant
• Douen
• Derek Walcott
• Kamau Brathwaite
• Craig Santos Perez
• Craig Santos Perez - From Unincorporated Territory
• Shansi Miller
• Moko Magazine - Paintings by Shansi Miller
• Kei Miller - Augustown
• Shivanee Ramlochan
• Shivanee Ramlochan - Everyone Knows I Am a Haunting

• Editing/Mixing: Mike Sakasegawa
• Music: Podington Bear
• Transcription: Mike Sakasegawa

Alanna Airitam is a portrait photographer based in San Diego, CA. In her series "The Golden Age," Alanna makes portraits of African Americans in the style of the Dutch Realism Golden Age of painting, images full of grace and beauty representing black people in a fine art context, a context from which they are all too often excluded. In our conversation we talked about that series, as well as her "Being Heard" project, which began as a response to seeing how different marginalized women were being excluded from the mainstream activist narrative. Then for the second segment, Alanna and I had a wide-ranging conversation about the roots of social injustice in our society.

(Conversation recorded April 10, 2018.)

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• Alanna Airitam
• Salt and Sugar Productions - Alanna Airitam: From Haarlem to Harlem
• Alanna Airitam - The Golden Age
• Alanna Airitam - Being Heard
• San Diego Art Institute - ABOUT-FACE
• Hamilton
• @medievalpoc on Twitter
• Bioneers
• Kirsten Imani Kasai
• Skyler McCurine

• Editing/Mixing: Mike Sakasegawa
• Music: Podington Bear
• Transcription: Shea Aguinaldo

Leah Huizar is a poet originally from Southern California. Leah's collection Inland Empire juxtaposes personal history with California history, excavating different layers of colonialism and centering Mexican-American women. In our conversation, we talked about what it means to own or be of a place, the stories behind California history, and what parts of history we carry forward to the next generation. Then in the second segment, we discussed the value of creative endurance.

(Conversation recorded May 14, 2020.)

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• Leah Huizar
• Leah Huizar - Inland Empire
• LitHub - You can order today from these black-owned independent bookstores
• Las sergas de Esplandián
• Calafia
• Keep the Channel Open - Episode 87: David Bowles
• David Bowles - Feathered Serpent, Dark Heart of Sky
• Luis Alberto Urrea - The House of Broken Angels
• Ross Gay - Catalog of Unabashed Gratitude

• Editing/Mixing: Mike Sakasegawa
• Music: Podington Bear
• Transcription: Shea Aguinaldo

In solidarity with the ongoing protests against police violence, Keep the Channel Open is postponing our regular episode this week and participating in the #PodcastBlackout.

Resources:

• National Bail Fund Network
• Campaign Zero
• Showing Up for Racial Justice
• Scene on Radio - Seeing White
• Robin DiAngelo - White Fragility
• Ijeoma Oluo - So You Want to Talk About Race
• Erika Lee - The Making of Asian America

Transcript

Maggie Tokuda-Hall is a writer and podcaster based in San Francisco, CA. Maggie's debut YA novel, The Mermaid, the Witch, and the Sea, is a swashbuckling pirate fantasy, and it's also a nuanced and subversive story about colonialism, the power of storytelling, and the cost of violence. In our conversation, Maggie and I talked about her love of working in multiple forms and genres, the presentation of race in her novel, and writing the horrificness of violence. Then in the second segment, we discussed how to talk to our kids about problematic books and authors.

(Conversation recorded April 29, 2020.)

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• Maggie Tokuda-Hall
• Maggie Tokuda-Hall - The Mermaid, the Witch, and the Sea
• Maggie Tokuda-Hall - Also an Octopus
• Drunk Safari
• Maggie Tokuda-Hall - Fear and Loathing in Utero (Catapult)
• Maggie Tokuda-Hall - "On Violations, Macarons, and the Pursuit of Beauty I Can Control"
• Patrick Ness - The Knife of Never Letting Go
• Barbara Park - Junie B. Jones
• Lynne Reid Banks - The Indian in the Cupboard
• Nicole Chung - "E. B. White's Lesson for Debut Writers: It's Okay to Start Small"
• F Troop
• James S. A. Corey
• Never Have I Ever

• Editing/Mixing: Mike Sakasegawa
• Music: Podington Bear
• Transcription: Shea Aguinaldo

Sarah Gailey is a writer based in Los Angeles, CA. Sarah's latest novel, the YA fantasy When We Were Magic, is a wonderful story about teen friendship, magic, and queer love. In our conversation, we talked about the importance of representation and sensitivity edits, writing YA that respects teens, and how it's okay to take up space in one's relationships. Then for the second segment, we talked about something that's been on all of our minds lately: food.

(Conversation recorded April 21, 2020.)

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• Sarah Gailey
• Sarah Gailey - When We Were Magic
• Sarah Gailey - Upright Women Wanted
• Sarah Gailey - Magic for Liars
• Sarah Gailey - Here's the Thing (newsletter)
• DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince - "Parents Just Don't Understand"
• Schitt's Creek
• Sarah Gailey - "Impostor/Abuser: Power Dynamics in Publishing"
• Birds of Prey: And the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn
• Maggie Tokuda-Hall - The Mermaid, the Witch, and the Sea

• Editing/Mixing: Mike Sakasegawa
• Music: Podington Bear
• Transcription: Shea Aguinaldo