What the Folk

We are joined by journalist, performance artist, activist and general doer of amazing shit Eleanor Goldfield! Settle in for this great conversation about mutual aid, her new (and excellent) documentary Hard Road of Hope, and how we keep up our creativity and hope in these troubling times. After the interview, stay tuned for Emily and Sarah’s thoughts on imagining a better world, especially if you enjoy subtle metaphors that describe national politics as a hit-and-run car accident and counter-hegemonic resistance as “poking at holes” (Seriously, are we not doing phrasing anymore?)

HARD ROAD OF HOPE

https://hardroadofhope.com/

MUTUAL AID DISASTER RELIEF

https://mutualaiddisasterrelief.org/

MUTUAL AID HUB

https://www.mutualaidhub.org/

Featured music is “Sick, Tired & Wasted" by Rooftop Revolutionaries, courtesy of the artist.

GUEST BIO

Eleanor Goldfield is the founder and host of the show and podcast Act Out! and the co-host of the podcast Common Censored along with Lee Camp. Her current work focuses on more long-form and in-depth pieces, the first iteration of these being a film on West Virginia’s coal and fracking country. As a journalist, her articles and photographs cover people and topics which are censored or misrepresented. Artistically, Eleanor works in a variety of mediums and her performances blend music, spoken word and visual projections. Keep up with Eleanor’s projects here: https://www.artkillingapathy.com/

Follow Eleanor on Twitter and Instagram [@]activisteleanor

Episode Four: Dancing on the Ruins with Ash-Lee Woodard Henderson

We sit down with the awesome Ash-Lee Woodard Henderson, Co-Executive Director of the legendary Highlander Center, for an inspiring and motivating talk about movement building, solidarity economics, liberation practices and real deal education. This interview had us practicing our dance moves to shimmy on the ruins of the old world, so you don’t want to miss it if you’re needing some fuel for your fire. Then Emily gives a post-PDX protest report, and she and Sarah discuss ways to “get in where you fit in” to support M4BL.

P.S. We’d suggest a What the Folk drinking game where you take a shot every time Sarah says the word “consciousness” -- but that would likely render you unconscious.

THE HIGHLANDER CENTER

https://www.highlandercenter.org/

MOVEMENT FOR BLACK LIVES

https://m4bl.org/

GUEST BIO

Ash-Lee Woodard Henderson is a 33 year old, Affrilachian (Black Appalachian), working class woman, born and raised in Southeast Tennessee. She is the Co-Executive Director of the Highlander Research & Education Center in New Market, TN. She has served as president of the Black Affairs Association at East Tennessee State University and the Rho Upsilon Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. She is a long-time activist working around issues of mountaintop removal mining, and environmental racism in central and southern Appalachia, and has served on the National Council of the Student Environmental Action Coalition. She is an active participant in the Movement for Black Lives and is on the governance council of the Southern Movement Assembly. You can follow Ash on Twitter @hendersonaw0604

MUSIC

Featured music: 2019 performances of “If You Want a Revolution" and “Don't Know Much About Star Wars” by our own Emily Yates. You can check out the videos here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KkHVqdjgqN4&feature=youtu.be

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Ny6AWs7_kU&feature=youtu.be

DONATE TO GROUPS IN PORTLAND

PDX Protest Bail Fund

https://www.gofundme.com/f/pdx-protest-bail-fund

Black Portland Youth Movement

https://www.gofundme.com/f/21o0at70w0?utm_source=customer&utm_campaign=p_cp+share-sheet&utm_medium=copy_link-tip

Rosehip Medics

http://www.rosehipmedics.org/donate/

Emily sits down with Krystal Twobulls (Oglala Lakota and Northern Cheyenne), veteran and executive director of Voices of the Sacred, in Lame Deer, Montana. Voices of the Sacred’s mission is to develop the next generation of healthy organizers from Native Youth and Native Veterans. We talk about what healthy organizing means, global solidarity across liberation movements, and Krystal’s journey from serving in the army to serving her community. Then Emily and Sarah wrestle with technical difficulties and America’s general ahistorical consciousness.

Featured music is "Creation" by Nataanii Means, courtesy of the artist. https://soundcloud.com/nataanii-means

Get Involved:

https://www.voicesofthesacred.org/

https://aboutfaceveterans.org/

Krystal was just arrested at the direct action at Mount Rushmore, this interview was recorded before those protests. She’s out and doing well, but you can support the Black Hills Legal Defense Fund here: https://bhlegalfund.org/

We are joined by Dr. Carol Conzelman for a mind-expanding conversation about the history of the drug war in the United States, her work studying coca and democracy in Bolivia, how to encourage critical thinking about drugs, and our human need to explore inner space. Then Emily and Sarah have a chat that starts with studying the habits of the common American wook and ends with a discussion of the apocalypse, per usual.

Featured music is “Drugs R Bad” by What the Folk’s very own Emily Yates http://emilyyatesmusic.com/

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Guest Bio:

Dr. Caroline Conzelman is a cultural anthropologist and Senior Instructor at the University of Colorado Boulder with the Global Studies Residential Academic Program and the International Affairs Program. She directs a Study Abroad program in Bolivia and teaches courses on democracy, drug policy, globalization, sustainability, Latin America, and community engagement. She is Faculty Adviser for Students for Sensible Drug Policy, the Psychedelic Club, and Slow Food Youth. Since 2014, she has organized—together with students and colleagues—an all-day symposium to promote public education on ancient uses of cannabis and psychedelic plants and their modern political, economic, and therapeutic relevance. Since 1995, Conzelman has been a Volunteer Team Leader with the international grassroots development organization Global Volunteers, coordinating service learning programs in Jamaica, Ecuador, Italy, Tanzania, Ireland, and Cuba; she also served on their Board of Directors (seven years). Currently she is president of the international Board of Directors for the Andean Information Network out of Cochabamba, Bolivia.

Carol can be reached at [email protected]

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Carol’s book recommendations:

War and Drugs by The Role of Military Conflict in the Development of Substance Abuse

By Dessa Bergen-Cico

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10260413-war-and-drugs

From Chocolate to Morphine: Everything You Need to Know About Mind-Altering Drugs

By Andrew Weil

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/110490.From_Chocolate_to_Morphine?ac=1&from_search=true&qid=1vJUQcV46m&rank=1

Organizations to follow and support:

Drug Policy Alliance

https://www.drugpolicy.org/

Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies

https://maps.org/

Erowid

https://www.erowid.org/

Transnational Institute

https://www.tni.org/en

International Drug Policy Consortium

https://idpc.net/

Washington Office for Latin America (WOLA)

https://www.wola.org/

Institute for Policy Studies

https://ips-dc.org/

Ep. 2 will be out soon! In the meantime, as a follow up to Ep. 1, Emily sits down with her fellow Vets for Peace/About Face Vets after their direct action at the Trump rally in Tulsa on June 20th to reflect on what service now means to them during the current (and hopefully-finally-jfc-it-better-be victorious) iteration of the long fight for racial justice. Included in this conversation are Stephen Funk, Ollie, Emily Yates, Krystal Twobulls, and Jade Daniels.

Episode title is in reference to an apropos JJ Cale song that would have been cool to include except copyright, with special nods to the late great Jeff Austin, who did a smoking cover of it.

Photo credit: Frank Deck http://frankdeck.com/

https://www.veteransforpeace.org/

https://aboutfaceveterans.org/

https://grassrootsglobaljusticealliance.org

https://voicesofthesacred.org

https://unifytulsa.org

Our first episode! We are joined by Garett Reppenhagen, executive director of Veterans for Peace. You can learn more and get involved here: https://www.veteransforpeace.org/ We recorded this interview a couple days after the murder of George Floyd. Stay tuned after the interview to hear Emily and Sarah talk about shadow work, jumping timelines, and how no one is behind the wheel of the America bus.

**Sound note: Sorry about the buzzing sound in spots, we're new at this!**

Featured music is by two veterans, “Support the Troops” by the dearly-missed Jacob George http://www.jacobdavidgeorge.org/ and “The Golden Opportunity Outro” by Brittney Chantele https://www.brittneychantele.com/

Guest Bio: Garett Reppenhagen is the son of a Vietnam Veteran and grandson of two World War II Veterans. He served in the U.S. Army as a Cavalry/Scout Sniper in the 1st Infantry Division. Garett completed a deployment in Kosovo on a 9-month peace-keeping mission and a combat tour in Baquaba, Iraq. Garett gained an Honorable Discharge in May of 2005 and began working as a veterans advocate and a dedicated activist. He served as the Chairman of the Board of Iraq Veterans Against the War, worked in Washington, DC, as a lobbyist and as Vice President of Public Relations for the Nobel Prize winning Veterans For America, as a Program Director for Veterans Green Jobs and was the Rocky Mountain Director for Vet Voice Foundation. Garett lives in Colorado where he serves as the Executive Director for Veterans For Peace. Follow Garett on Twitter: https://twitter.com/SirGarett

The pod is almost ready for launch!

We’ll be live June 15th! In the meantime, here’s a tiny taste.