Scene Report

Rafael Shimunov is "just someone from Queens" who was born in Uzbekistan, and incorporates creative tactics into grassroots campaigns. Rafael is a board member of Jews for Racial & Economic Justice, and formerly with the Working Families Party and the Center for Constitutional Rights. In  December 2018, Rafael guerilla-style installed his own painting on a wall in the Whitney Museum of American Art. The piece depicted a family running from teargas that was fired at the U.S./Mexico border. The action was in protest of The Whitney's Board of Trustees Vice Chairman and owner of Safariland, Warren Kanders. Art magazine Hyperalergic reported that canisters of teargas bearing Safariland’s name were found where U.S. Customs and Border Protection had fired teargas at Central American migrants near Tijuana in November 2018. The migrants, who included children, were seeking asylum in the U.S. If you generally pay attention to lefty news, you may already have seen some of Rafael's other work.  He livestreamed the JFK Muslim ban protests for the Working Families Party, which received 16 million views on Facebook alone. He also made the video that used a red overlay to compare videos, the original and the doctored Inforwars version that was shared by the White House, of the altercation over a microphone between Jim Acosta and a White House intern when Trump cut off Acosta's question in November 2018. We spoke with Rafael at the Anchor Podcast Lab in Manhattan, about how to and why to sneak a piece of protest art into a museum, the ownership of cultural institutions, cars honking in support of demonstrations, coming to America from Uzbekistan, growing up in an immigrant family in Queens, and how using art in protest taps into different parts of people’s brains.

 

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Frankie Decaiza Hutchinson is a New York by way of UK electronic music promoter and grassroots organizer. She is one third of Discwoman, a collective, booking agency, and event platform representing and showcasing female talent in the electronic music community, who have pushed the needle on gender representation in techno. Frankie was also an active member of the Dance Liberation Network, a group of New York nightlife advocates who helped push the city of New York to repeal the Cabaret Law. The Cabaret Law was a century-old law, enacted with a racist intent, which was weaponized against nightclubs that catered to minority communities. We talked with Frankie at host Reed Dunlea's home in Brooklyn, and spoke about growing up in England, learning about race in America, the origins of Discwoman, the New York club scene, and what it feels like to effect change.

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Alli Logout is a Texas-raised, NOLA-based punk musician (Special Interest, Lassie) and radical filmmaker (Lucid Noon, Sunset Blush). Alli works to increase the representation of their community in media, in addition to making the tools to create that media more accessible. Simply, Alli is creating their own world with the people they love. But we all know it isn't that simple. In episode one, we interviewed the promoter of the punk festival This Is Austin Not That Great. We conducted this interview for episode two during that fest, on the roof of a parking garage in downtown Austin, right after Alli's band Lassie played. We spoke about creating community/family and the happiness (and lack thereof) that can come with that, DIY filmmaking, privilege at a punk festival, marketing and tokenizing of black and queer bodies, presenting your message on your own terms, and the pressures of being visible and loud with your art. **CW brief discussion of suicide in the episode**

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Juan-Carlos Silva is an Austin Texas born and raised punk musician, concert promoter, and anti-racist agitator. He works hard to create radical spaces of music and resistance, and isn't afraid to bounce the Proud Boys from his side of the city. We talked with Juan Carlos after he wrapped up the third installment of his international DIY punk festival This Is Austin Not That Great, which he also performed at with his band Strutter. We spoke about the fest, the legacy of Texas punk, politics in Austin and Texas, electronic scooters, benefit concerts, confronting white nationalists, the police, and Ted Cruz.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit scenereportradio.substack.com