THE ARTIVISTS’ ROOM
podcast features artists who create with and for communities in struggle.
New episodes drop bi-weekly Saturdays @ 12pm (EST)
Through our guests and their dedication to radical truth-telling, we dare to dream, to reimagine, and to understand what’s possible for our world.
We explore the integral role that art and artists have in movements struggling for freedom.
With guests such as Aja Monet, Moses Sun and Melaw Nakehk’o we offer our listeners an opportunity to understand the critical social issues that artists engaged in movement building are speaking to, and the healing, education, and solidarity their expressions can evoke.
FEATURED ARTISTS
Hip-hop artist/emcee/producer, Jamal STEELE. Jamal is from Pensacola FL, by way of Panama City Beach, and he didn't initially see his music as a way to organize. It wasn’t until 2014 that he made the transition to being an emcee, one that spoke to the violence he was witnessing impacting his community. He started his journey as a musician in the church, and was initially discouraged by some of his community, from organizing and using his music in this way. Jamal found his organizing home in Pensacola, and has since then continued to combine his passion for music to aid his grassroots work. He shared with us a spoken word piece entitled “Stand your ground”, initially written as a song in response to the senseless murder of young Trayvon Martin it has since been modified to honor the lives of the young people we’ve lost since then.
Artist Jabari Mickles of Born by Pressure, a clothing brand that aims to redefine and creatively shift the way we think about culture as it relates to fashion. Jabari found his sense of fashion while in college, which is where he was influenced heavily by southern culture and aesthetic. He sees Born by Pressure being placed in the streetwear legacy even though he doesn’t create that type of aesthetic, he’s excited to experiment more with clothing that’s made to last and he wants to design things that working folks can utilize; to create things that are quality for the spaces we need to be in for survival.
Land based-indigenous arts educator; actor, filmmaker, performing artist & moose hide tanner, Melaw Nakehk'o. Born in and raised in Denendeh also known as the Northwest Territories, Canada, Melaw comes from a long line of tribal leaders of the Dehcho Dene & Denesuline people. Her work in reviving and teaching moosehide tanning techniques has sparked a resurgence of the practice and shaped a broader community building movement within Canada. Her work centers on the preservation of culture through the teaching of traditional moose hide tanning techniques. Melaw shares these techniques with native communities who have lost their ancestral connections to knowledge because of colonization and forced assimilation to Western society. She sought out the assistance of elders over the course of several years, and in her studies she realized just how many of her people wanted to learn this practice. Melaw is continuously working creatively through performance art, contemporary visual art, public art, filmmaking, graphic recording and teaching land based Indigenous art practices.
Chicago based Palestinian artist and singer, Mary Hazboun. Her work is specifically crafted for women and people of color, the drawings she creates highlight the multilayered traumas that women of color carry, due to the intersecting systems of oppression we experience. She describes her work as an act of decolonizing the bodies of women and people of color, and calls it a creative form of resistance against oppression through transgressing boundaries, making the trauma visible, and linking it with collective and ancestral traumas. Creating her work was initially something she used to help her process this trauma, and it wasn’t until folks in her community began reaching out to her to commission pieces, and telling her that they felt connected to her work, that she then began to put it out into the world.
The Ujima Company, a multi-ethnic and multicultural professional theatre whose primary purpose is the preservation, perpetuation and performance of African American theatre. Founded in 1978 by the recently departed ancestor Lorna C. Hill, the Ujima Company has served for the last 43 years, with the purpose of creating beauty and justice through the theatre that is grounded in the african principle of Ujima; Swahili for “collective work and responsibility.”
Chicago based Poet, Emcee, & Visual Artist, Kxng Moosa. Kxng Moosa grew up in Rockford, Il; an hour outside of Chicago. In 2007 at the young age of 14, he was arrested and charged, as an adult, for 1st degree murder; a charge that came with a 25 year sentence. While incarcerated, Moosa started to understand exactly what happened with his case, and how he was able to be sentenced in this way as a minor. It was during this time when he began to turn to different forms of art to express not only what he was understanding about the legal system but what he was beginning to understand about himself, his voice, and the type of artist he wanted to be. With the help of community organizers here in FL and in Illinois, Jess (his partner and advocate) and many others were able to help Moosa get clemency for his case and he was finally released in 2020 after serving 13 years of his life in prison. Now with the air of freedom in his lungs, Moosa is determined to tell his story using his mic and pen pad as his sounding board. His EP 13 summers is out now (check out the link below), which he’ll be using to spark conversations about youth incarceration, enact policy changes, and bring the narrative of what prisons really are into the classrooms and our greater ideology.
Artist and cultural worker, Mama Lucha. Mama, whose name comes from a nickname their dad gave them when she was a child, lucha means to fight; they creates their digital designs and illustrations through a queer, abolitionist lens. Growing up they were introduced to their art practice by their father, who taught them how to freehand draw. The digital illustrations Mama creates are informative, culturally resonant and utilized largely by grassroots organizations and campaigns for justice and liberation for queer, working-class, latinx, Black and Brown communities.
Artist, Educator and Children’s Literature Author, Marjuan Canady. A native of DC, Marjuan’s work spans across multiple disciplines including acting and directing for theatre/film. She is the founder of The Canady Foundation for the Arts, which is a volunteer-based STEAM focused non-profit whose mission is to educate, empower and implement innovative arts and media programs for youth of color. She’s also the co-creator of Callaloo Kids an independent children’s media brand that promotes cultural literacy, African Diaspora culture and social awareness education for children aged 3-7. Since the pandemic began, Marjuan has been engaging with youth and their families, by providing online read alouds of her Callaloo books series, as well sharing lesson plans and tools with Parents and early educators. She talked with us about her newly released documentary short, Girls, Girls, Girls, which started as a one woman play--it explores the representation of black and brown girls in the media, through satirical storytelling.