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Damon Williams and Daniel Kisslinger

Subscribe on Apple Podcasts! https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/airgo/id1016530091

A podcast and radical media hub reshaping Chicago and beyond for the more liberatory and creative. Listen to longform humanizing conversations with artists, organizers, performers, comedians, scholars, and more who are reimagining Chicago and beyond toward liberation. Hosted by Damon Williams and Daniel Kisslinger.

AirGo

We're excited to bring you this convo from this year's Socialism Conference, held in September 2024 here in Chicago! The last few years of political turmoil have unearthed the longstanding lack of public trust in the news media. As journalists who work in, outside and against legacy media, we had the opportunity to be in convo with some brilliant peers about the long and deep legacy of movement journalism that expands transformative, abolitionist, and antiracist movement building through truthful reporting. The session was captained by friend of the pod Lewis Wallace, whose book The View from Somewhere is a must-read about how the myth of journalistic objectivity harms journalists and community. We also were in convo with Clarissa Brooks, who is Editor-in-Chief of The Forge; and Ryan Sorrell, Founder & Publisher of the Kansas City Defender. Get in tune!

SHOW NOTES
Learn about Lewis Raven Wallace - https://www.lewispants.com/about

Dig into The Forge - https://forgeorganizing.org/

Peep the KC Defender - https://kansascitydefender.com/

Follow AirGo - instagram.com/airgoradio

Find One Million Experiments on tour! - www.respairmedia.com/events

Bring us to your community by hitting us up - contact@respairmedia.com

CREDITS
Hosts & Exec. Producers - Damon Williams and Daniel Kisslinger
Associate Producer - Rocío Santos
Engagement Producer - Rivka Yeker
Digital Media Producer - Troi Valles

Ep 362 - Movement Journalism And The Fall Of Legacy Media, live @ Socialism Conference 2024

We get topical with our last episode of the year. Dame and Kiss welcome a couple other members of the Respair squad.

The crew talks about a lil’ Luigi Mangione gossip, the inspiring abolitionist projects we’ve seen on the road this year, how Trump’s election win has impacted us all, and much much more.

SHOW NOTES
Follow AirGo - instagram.com/airgoradio

Find One Million Experiments on tour! - www.respairmedia.com/events

Bring us to your community by hitting us up - contact@respairmedia.com

CREDITS
Hosts & Exec. Producers - Damon Williams and Daniel Kisslinger
Associate Producer - Rocío Santos
Engagement Producer - Rivka Yeker
Digital Media Producer - Troi Valles

Ep 363 - Divest From Despair: EOY Check-in with the Respair Crew

Respair is kicking off the year by sharing a new project that we're proud to partner with and share with you! Welcome to Carceral Fictions & Abolitionist Realities, a series of narrative essays that reflect on emergent themes from conversations with Detroit-based organizers and futurists committed to abolition of police and prisons. 

This is Episode 1, entitled Alienation from Ourselves, Each Other, and Our Needs. Joined by a chorus of voices and visionaries, Detroit-based artist Lauren Williams invites us to consider roadmaps to futures we hope for, through a focus on the everyday & the contradictions of neoliberal philosophy. Should everything really be for sale, will the market protect the worthy?

First, a foundation: How do our ways of working separate us from our power and possibility? What exactly is neoliberalism, how did it become the dominant social and economic logic of U.S. civil society? What does any of this have to do with abolition?

To answer that last question first, it comes down to criminalization and control. Detroit’s 2013 bankruptcy and civic fights about water access serve as examples of how accepting a logic of separation weakens our ability to challenge social problems that affect people in very connected ways. Williams illuminates the short path from privatization to deprivation, before limning the difference between the state’s compulsion to watch & the human need to be seen.

The series is presented in partnership with Making Room for Abolition, a body of work that imagines a world without police and prisons by making speculative worlds through the lens of a home. It was dreamed up, written and produced by Lauren Williams; essays were co-produced by Ayinde Jean-Baptiste; and the audio was engineered by Conor Anderson. Featured guests include Nick Buckingham, Curtis Renee, Tawana Petty, PG Watkins, Angel McKissic, Monica Lewis-Patrick, Nate Mullen, Sirrita Darby, Kim Sherrobi, Monique Thompson, and Myrtle Thompson-Curtis. Voice actors who read various excerpts from references are credited on each episode. Our theme music is the instrumentals from a song called Detroit Summer by Invincible and Waajeed, courtesy of Emergence Media. 

Full time-stamped transcripts are available at www.makingroom.online/essays. This show is presented in partnership with Respair Production & Media.

Respair Presents: Carceral Fictions & Abolitionist Realities - Episode 1

Respair is kicking off the year by sharing a new project that we're proud to partner with and share with you! Welcome to Carceral Fictions & Abolitionist Realities, a series of narrative essays that reflect on emergent themes from conversations with Detroit-based organizers and futurists committed to abolition of police and prisons. Interweaving research with brief dispatches from speculative abolitionist futures, each episode draws together the voices of people working toward food justice, water access, educational equity, restorative justice, and Black liberation to connect thematic currents surrounding the abolition of police and prisons. In each episode, we look closely at the kinds of fictions that shape our current attachments to policing, prisons, and punishment to examine where they come from and how they affect us. At the same time, you’ll hear us explore abolitionist realities that counter these fictions and open up other ways of being. 

The series is presented in partnership with Making Room for Abolition, a body of work that imagines a world without police and prisons by making speculative worlds through the lens of a home. It was dreamed up, written and produced by Lauren Williams; essays were co-produced by Ayinde Jean-Baptiste; and the audio was engineered by Conor Anderson. Featured guests include Nick Buckingham, Curtis Renee, Tawana Petty, PG Watkins, Angel McKissic, Monica Lewis-Patrick, Nate Mullen, Sirrita Darby, Kim Sherrobi, Monique Thompson, and Myrtle Thompson-Curtis. Voice actors who read various excerpts from references are credited on each episode. Our theme music is the instrumentals from a song called Detroit Summer by Invincible and Waajeed, courtesy of Emergence Media. 

Full time-stamped transcripts are available at www.makingroom.online/essays. This show is presented in partnership with Respair Production & Media.

Respair Presents: Carceral Fictions & Abolitionist Realities (Trailer)

AirGo premieres this week with Malcolm London, one of the most vocal voices in Chicago's rich arts and activism community. Called the "Gil-Scott Heron of this generation" by Cornel West, Malcolm is an internationally recognized Chicago poet, activist & educator. He shares his thoughts, spits a great new poem, and shares a track off of his upcoming mixtape. 

Aired live 7/9/15
Thanks:
Ben Niespodziany
WHPK 88.5FM
Jake Austen

Songs: 
Floating - BIGfoot Beats
Other Side of the Game - Erykah Badu
Bee Good (Lion Song) - Gregory Porter

http://airgoradio.com
http://twitter.com/airgoradio
http://facebook.com/airgoradio

Ep 1 - Malcolm London

Raych Jackson is a teacher in every sense of the word. From the classroom to the stage, her nurturing buoyancy shines through, turning every person into a thoughtful student and every space into a home for joyful learning. An educator, poet, and member of Chance the Rapper's #STAFF, Raych engages every day in reshaping the stories and communities of Chicago.

Find out more about the show and corresponding We 'Go Mixtape Series at airgoradio.com, and stay linked on Twitter & Facebook @AirGoRadio. Help spread the words of these Strong Young Voices by becoming an Amplifier with a monthly donation through Patreon, the arts patronage site. 

Aired live 7/16/15 on WHPK 88.5FM
Best I Could - JCW
Time Machine (feat. Michael Anthony, Via Rosa, & The Mind) - THEMpeople
Sun - Jhon Myquale
Hey Love - Delfonics

Ep 2 - Raych Jackson

Prison abolitionist and hip hop artist Ric Wilson is a Strong Young Voice working in the studios and streets of Chicago. He has also moved across national borders in his activism, heading to Switzerland as part of group We Charge Genocide last fall to testify about police torture in front of the United Nations and traveling to Cambodia to transform harm caused by state and interpersonal violence and create community healing. He's also one-half of rap duo FYI (Fuck Your Institution), and released his debut full-length project Penny Raps in April.

Hear AirGo live Thursday at 12PM CST on WHPK 88.5FM in Chicago, or on the WHPK livestream. The show will be available as a podcast on Soundcloud and iTunes on Friday. 

Find out more about the show and corresponding We 'Go Mixtape Series at http://airgoradio.com, and stay linked on Twitter & Facebook @AirGoRadio. Help spread the words of these Strong Young Voices by becoming an Amplifier with a monthly donation through Patreon, the arts patronage site. 
Aired live 7/23/15
Music on this week's show:
The Funk - Dr. No's Ethiopium
If I Ruled The World - Nas & Lauryn Hill
Into the Water - Jean Deaux feat. The Mind
Baby, I'm Scared of You - Womack and Womack

Ep 3 - Ric Wilson

Nate Marshall is from the Hundreds. He stands in front of his house on the far south end of Chicago, completely at home in a stretch of the city often overlooked in the city's narrative. Marshall is bringing the city's triple-digit stories forward in his new poetry collection Wild Hundreds. In addition to his poetry, Nate is a Visiting Professor at Wabash College and a rapper, whose project Grown is due later this summer. 

NOTE: Due to technical difficulties, the live show didn't record. In it's place, you have a 10 minute mini-AirGo featuring some live poems and freestyles from this week's guest. 

Aired 7/30/15
Thanks to Ben Niespodziany (@neonpajamas) for curating the instrumentals on this week's show:
Mastermind - Apollo Brown
Eclectic Relaxation - The ARE
Drippin' Swagu - Woody

http://airgoradio.com
http://twitter.com/airgoradio
http://facebook.com/airgoradio

Ep 4 - Nate Marshall

What illuminates the people who bring light into the world? Jasmine Barber has found a light source that she shares as a writer, educator, friend, and pillar of the Chicago creative community, and she carries her torch with honesty and openness. A Young Chicago Authors teaching artist, Jasmine is working on her first children's book.

Aired live 8/6/15
Music on this week's show:
HC
Saba - Temporary (feat. Tink)
The Joy - M&O
People Make the World Go Round - The Stylistics

Thanks to Ben Niespodziany (@neonpajamas) for curating this week's instrumentals.

http://twitter.com/airgoradio
http://facebook.com/airgoradio
http://airgoradio.com

Ep 5 - Jasmine Barber

Ethan "Ethos" Viets-VanLear is a poet, organizer, peace-circle keeper and prison abolitionist hailing from Rogers Park on the north side of Chicago. Whether he's performing on stage or marching through the streets, Ethos has established himself as one the boldest voices in the city. His organizing work has allowed him to travel the world at a young age, including a trip to Switzerland where h testified on police torture at the United Nations as a part of the delegation We Charge Genocide. Ethos is also the lead vocalist of the new band Thy Neighbors, who are set to release their debut EP.

Aired 8/13/15
Music on this week's show:
Through the Way - Blazo
Pray 2 God - Goodbye Tomorrow
I'd Rather Be With You - Bootsy Collins
Black N Mild - Thy Neighbors
Meat Grinder - Madvillain

Thanks to: 
WHPK 88.5FM
Ben Niespodziany (@neonpajamas)

Ep 6 - Ethos

Based on Saba's breakthrough project ComfortZone, one can't help but feel like the chords of his music underpin the drastic growth he's made professionally over the last 15 months. The mainstream rap publication system is starting to take notice, leading to some recent features, but Saba's power stems from the stage–his Comfortzone Live shows have gotten bigger and better, bringing young people across the city together for a joyous musical celebration. Not bad for a self-proclaimed shy kid.

Recorded live Thursday 11/19/15
Music on this week's show:
LightningDog - @SabaPivot
SmthnThtIWnt - @SabaPivot
Whip (Areyoudown) - @SabaPivot
Marbles - @SabaPivot
Across 110th Street - Bobby Womack
Butter (feat. Jamila Woods) - @SabaPivot

Ep 18 - Saba

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