Let's Have a Renaissance: The DateKeepers Podcast with Itto and Mekiya Outini

In this special episode, visual artist and filmmaker Matt Marello shares the origins of his creative practice, an inexplicable encounter with an archetypal object from another dimension. The recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, two New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowships, and the Best Experimental Video Award from the Digital Film Festival in Narrowsburg, Virginia, Matt earned his BFA from the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, has taught or served as a visiting lecturer at over half a dozen universities, and has shown work in venues around Europe and the United States.  

In this episode, we speak with composer Joe Cantrell about anthropomorphism, hoarding, planned obsolescence, the invention of the teenager, and smelly drums. Joe works with objects that are outmoded, cast-off, or broken to compose and perform music that investigates these questions. His work has been supported by the Bemis Center for Contemporary Art, The San Diego Art Institute, The Soundfjord Sequence Series Residency, and others. He holds an MFA in digital arts and new media from the University of California, Santa Cruz and a PhD in integrative studies from the University of California, San Diego. 

In this episode, we speak with poet and philosopher Troy Jollimore about problematic concept creep in philosophy and translation, why so much contemporary philosophy is stilted, and why it’s so hard to write a love poem. Troy holds a PhD in philosophy from Princeton, has published four collections of poetry, and has authored or edited four books of philosophy. His first collection, Tom Thomson in Purgatory, won the National Book Critics Circle Award in 2006, and his third, Syllabus of Errors, appeared on The New York Times list of the best books of poetry published in 2015. His work has also been supported by the Guggenheim Foundation, the Stanford Humanities Center in Palo Alto, and others. He currently teaches in the Department of Philosophy at the California State University in Chico, with Peter Fosl and Robert Jones, co-hosts a podcast devoted to the exploration of philosophical issues in the films of Joel and Ethan Coen. 

In this episode, we speak with Tampa Bay-area painter Keith Crowley about defamiliarizing the mundane, the creative power of sustained attention, and how his background as a not-completely-gruntled homeschooler has shaped his artistic vision. Keith holds an MFA from Savannah College of Art and Design and has shown paintings in Florida, Georgia, Pennsylvania, and elsewhere. He’s currently exploring the possibilities of sculpture and 3D design. 

In this episode, we speak with composer Marti Epstein about classical music: what it is, why so many people think they hate it, and how to solve a marketing problem that’s now over a century old. Marti began her career as a fellow in composition at the Tanglewood Music Center in 1986. Her work has since been supported by MacDowell, Guggenheim, the Fromm Foundation, the Massachusetts Cultural Council, and an Ettelson Composer’s Award, and others. She plays prepared piano with guitarist and David Tronzo in the Epstein/Tronzo Duo, teaches at Berklee College of Music, and serves on the faculty at the Boston Conservatory.  

In this episode, we speak with poet and journalist Christopher Merrill about being stranded at the US embassy in Kabul, why creativity depends on mortality, a memorable run-in with Gabriel García Márquez, and why you should never hire a menopausal Ukrainian to drive your van. For twenty-five years, Christopher conducted cultural diplomacy missions on behalf of the US State Department, traveling the world and liaising with writers and artists on every inhabited continent. His work, including six collections of poetry and six books of nonfiction, have been translated into over forty languages, and he’s received support from entities including the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, the Ingram Merrill Foundation, and the government of France.

In this episode, we speak with multimedia artist Lesley Dill about the nature and function of language, the enduring power of Emily Dickinson, life in India, the difference between loneliness and isolation, and what it’s like to grow up with a paranoid schizophrenic father. For decades, Lesley has worked at the intersection of language, sculpture, printmaking, performance, and installation. She’s had over 100 solo exhibitions and been supported by the Joan Mitchell Foundation, the Guggenheim, and the Emily Dickinson Museum, and her work is now in the collections of many major museums, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Whitney Museum of Art, and MoMA. 

In this episode, we speak with composer Bobby Ge about linguistic and cultural hybridity, how to pass off anything as “American,” and what to do when you see a businessman carrying a Hello Kitty parasol. Bobby’s compositions, described by The Financial Times as “expressive and gripping” and by CityNews CBR as “exciting, frenzied, and unpredictable,” explore themes of communication, hybridity, and home. A winner of the Barlow Prize, he’s also received fellowships from the MATA Festival, the Bang on a Can summer festival, the Minnesota Orchestra Composer Institute, and Copeland House. 

In this episode, we speak with visual artist Shiri Mordechay about surviving neglect on three continents and fashioning a rich creative practice out of the raw materials of trauma. Shiri is a painter and occasional sculptor whose work translates visceral and disturbing realities into the visual language of childhood dreams. Born in Israel to Iraqi parents and raised in Nigeria, she now lives and makes art in upstate New York. 

In this episode, we speak with author Connie Squires about how to balance thematic unity with differentiation in a story collection, the vapidity of middle-class suburban fiction, and what constitutes “gritty realism.” Connie is the author of three novels: Along the Watchtower (Riverhead/Penguin, 2011), Live from Medicine Park (University of Oklahoma Press, 2017), and Low April Sun (University of Oklahoma Press, 2025), and a story collection, Hit Your Brights (University of Oklahoma Press, 2019). Her short fiction has appeared in The Atlantic and The Rolling Stone 500, among others, while her essays can be found in The Village Voice, The New York Times, and World Literature Today. She holds a PhD in English/Creative Writing from Oklahoma State University and now teaches at the University of Central Oklahoma and gives regular talks and readings around the United States.