Dr Ramon Amaro is the Senior Researcher in Digital Culture at Nieuwe Instituut, the national institute for architecture, design and digital culture in The Netherlands. An engineer and sociologist by training, Ramon's writings, research and artistic practice emerge at the intersections of Black Study, digital culture, psychosocial study, and the critique of computational reason.  

In this conversation we explore embodiment as a decolonial exercise. Ramon guides us through a historical and theoretical journey that moves gracefully through the power of psychologist Frantz Fanon. Ramon says “the beginning of healing [from trauma] is always the recognition of the lies–revealing the truth of what you’ve been telling yourself; then reconnecting with the body because the body has always been learning.” He so aptly reminds us that this is an individual task, as well as a societal task where the work becomes a means of sourcing justice in the body and in the world. He guides us into a discussion on freedom, the role of the fugitive, and language’s limitation. 

It becomes clear that on a podcast about architecture, Dr. Ramon Amaro invited us into the architecture of the body. 

I hope you enjoy!

Kitchen Flex Podcast Team:

Host: Victoria McKenzie

Producer: Thomas Tawanda Orbon

Graphics and Visual Language: Martin Escalante

Original Music by Giorgos Karamanlis and Dimitris Kyriakou

Shumi Bose is an educator, curator and editor in the field of architecture and architectural history. She’s the chief editor of Koozarch and a Senior Lecturer in architectural history at Central Saint Martins, the Royal College of Art, the Architectural Association and the School of Architecture at Syracuse University in London. 

In this conversation we explore being the historians of our childhoods and what it means to read and observe space. Shumi guides us into living purpose over productivity; radical pedagogies through Audre Lorde and bell hooks; the need for spaces that allow us to flow as opposed to spaces guided by financialization; navigating unknowns and how leaning into uncertainty can move us into empathy. 

It was such a joy to speak with Shumi. She lives what she speaks and in fact leads with so much generosity. We speak about the purpose of generosity (in the world, in her classrooms) and how that becomes a material practice of “sharing stories and building context”. 

I hope you enjoy!

Kitchen Flex Podcast Team:

Host: Victoria McKenzie

Producer: Thomas Tawanda Orbon

Graphics and Visual Language: Martin Escalante

Original Music by Giorgos Karamanlis and Dimitris Kyriakou

Each month Victoria is in conversation with thinkers, movers and creators who are exploring some of the most relevant questions of the moment: How do we live on this planet together and what types of architectures will hold us? Can we re-define the practice of architecture–grounded in pre-colonial African and Indigenous understandings–that see building structures connected to building systems? How do we create spaces that are not only bursting with life, but flowing with our spiritualities, our stories and honourings of decay? 

Stay tuned as we lean in!

Kitchen Flex Podcast Team:

Host: Victoria McKenzie

Producer: Thomas Tawanda Orbon

Graphics and Visual Language: Martin Escalante

Original Music by Giorgos Karamanlis and Dimitris Kyriakou

Mayis Rukel is an artist, writer and filmmaker empowered by and working with the foundations of radical Black queer feminism, embodied social justice, emergent strategy and so much more. 

In this conversation we explore the power and need for embodying our collective ‘No’ and recognizing what we stand for. Mayis recounts his childhood, taking us through the architectures which left an impression upon him; the radicality of being a child and meeting your inner child; a sense of purpose as an artist that developed in him at a very young age and what it means to follow your purpose no matter what. 

Mayis recalls the making of his film ‘Movement Song’ which is a documentary-fiction narrative following the legacies and archives of James Baldwin. From this project, Mayis takes us into the world of an artist who chooses to uphold stories.

Enjoy!

Kitchen Flex Podcast Team:

Host: Victoria McKenzie

Producer: Thomas Tawanda Orbon

Graphics and Visual Language: Martin Escalante

Original Music by Giorgos Karamanlis and Dimitris Kyriakou