Radio Resistance

In this bonus episode, co-producers Wassan Al-Khudhairi, Michelle Dezember, and Misa Jeffereis look back at Radio Resistance with Lara Hamdan, Producer of St. Louis on the Air, the noontime talk program hosted by Sarah Fenske on St. Louis Public Radio. The four trace connections between episodes, share behind the scenes insights, and celebrate the power of radio. -As a major component of the Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis's exhibition Stories of Resistance, Radio Resistance assembles the v...

What is the power of writing to carry a voice, or many voices, particularly defiant ones? In this final episode, we return to the impetus for this series, the exhibition Stories of Resistance, as an invitation to consider the medium of words and storytelling. Artist Banu Cennetoğlu and poet Treasure Shields Redmond discuss their work attending to the writings of American Civil Rights activist Fannie Lou Hamer and Kurdish freedom fighter Gurbetelli Ersöz, respectively. They acknowledge the res...

How can we move beyond the dominant narrative, to hear stories that have been erased? Artist Tuấn Andrew Nguyễn and curator and public historian Gwen Moore find similarities in growing up in communities that were violently transformed or completely erased. Building on earlier discussions of trauma in this program, the two talk about how their practices of storytelling and public memory are a response to damage leveled on Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam and Mill Creek Valley in St. Louis. Their mu...

This episode explores historic and contemporary failures of infrastructure, racial capitalism, and climate change and how these current dysfunctions are intertwined. Our guests discuss ideas of spatial justice, St. Louis’s ongoing engagement with confronting its past, and how to work across disciplines to envision possible futures.Torkwase Dyson describes herself as a painter working across multiple mediums to explore the continuity between ecology, infrastructure, and architecture. Dyson’s a...

What would it mean to live out a fair and better future, right now? Join artist Jen Liu and scholar Candace Borders as they explore the complex role that women have played in labor rights and activism in both the US and China. This episode digs into the history of St. Louis’s Pruitt-Igoe housing project and the African American women who lived there, organized, and performed everyday acts of resistance. Our guests unpack the radical idea of building community and the immense possibilities tha...

What it would mean to reset our understanding of health and well-being as an entire community, especially now? In this episode, artist Guadalupe Maravilla and trauma surgeon Dr. LJ Punch speak to the effects of untreated, unhealed trauma in the body. They explore deep connections between the body and the mind, between physical and spiritual realities, and the power of ancient and traditional medicinal practices from across the world. Ultimately, they advocate for the importance of bringing he...

In this episode, artist Hank Willis Thomas holds space for Congresswoman Cori Bush to share vulnerability around the intense battles that have shaped her public career: the Ferguson uprising, personal traumas, the road to Congress, and the violent insurrection she confronted in her first weeks in office. Thomas shapes an empathetic conversation, taking a moment to recognize Bush and show an appreciation of Black women throughout history. Their conversation asks us to consider how we can care ...

How do public spaces reflect public consciousness? Join Shannon Levin and Marina Peng of PSA:, a public art project that features text installations by St. Louis-based artists, writers, and poets, and Cleo Barnett of Amplifier, a non-profit design lab that builds media experiments to amplify social movements. These creatives share with us how and why they use their platforms to reclaim public space in order to uplift the voices of others, and how public art has the ability to shift our perspe...

In a gesture witnessed around the world, Tommie Smith’s raised fist at the 1968 Olympics, with fellow US sprinter John Carlos, connected with and inspired future athletes to take part in social and political activism. Colin Kaepernick and other NFL players taking a knee during the National Anthem, WNBA players wearing Black Lives Matter adorned jerseys in games—such recent acts are part of Smith’s legacy. In this two-part episode, hear from Smith and artist Glenn Kaino about their long collab...

If taking a collaborative stance in protesting ensures sustainability and longevity, how do we lay the groundwork for participation? In this episode of Radio Resistance, Wendy Red Star and De Nichols talk about how and why they use their creative work to connect with communities of ancestors and young people across time and place. They share thoughts on defining success by the ability to make, hold, and take space, as well as how important maintaining curiosity and setting strong boundaries a...