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A radio show, podcast, and radical media hub showcasing culture workers reshaping Chicago for the more equitable 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.
Tiff Beatty invites you into the circle. Tiff is the founder of Art is Bonfire, a seasonal open mic and cypher around a fire pit at Promontory Point in Hyde Park, and is the Programming Director of Chicago Humanities Festival, an event series bringing authors, thinkers, artists, and celebrities together in conversation around a central theme. The convo bounces between Tiff’s childhood in Washington State, her path to Chicago, building sacred space around the fire, transforming the humanities, and more. Recorded 11/13/19 in Chicago Music from this week's show: ArtiChoke - Tab Anitek
Third Coast International Audio Festival is a nonprofit arts organization that celebrates the art and craft of narrative audio storytelling. Every year, radio-makers from around the world converge in Chicago for a conference that explores the medium, the radio industry, and the creative bounds yet to be explored. AirGo talked with a crew of Chicago producers about their experiences making radio in the city, relationship to the medium, and the stories they're trying to figure out how to tell. Recorded 9/26-9/28/2019 in Chicago
Frank Bergh is as embodied as it gets. He's the founder of Beyond the Grid, a company that builds renewable energy microgrids in countries across the global south. He's also one of the founders of Emmaus House, a Catholic Worker community in North Lawndale, that has been instrumental in the work of the #LetUsBreathe Collective, and is the founder of Chicago's chapter of Showing Up for Racial Justice, a national network of groups and individuals working to undermine white supremacy and to work toward racial justice. We talk about how his relationship to God and religion show up, how he found himself living in Lawndale, some lessons from working in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and much more. Recorded 10/29/19 in Chicago Music from this week's show: Summer Dreams - Ryan Little
Monica Cosby is an organizer, activist, and mother who was incarcerated for 20 years in the state of Illinois. She now works for the Westside Justice Center, is the lead organizer of Moms United Against Violence and Incarceration, and is a wonderful and valuable spirit in the Chicago movement community. She talks about growing up in Uptown, the lessons about liberation and abolition she learned while inside, the transition after coming home, and a very special moment that makes Damon cry. Recorded 10/23/19 in Chicago Music from this week's show: Well and Good - Podington Bear
Black Youth Project has joined forces with AirGo for a year-long #BYPSpotlight series, featuring our favorite Black academics and activists. This month’s #BYPSpotlight episode is with Janae Bonsu, an organizer and scholar whose work centers the intersection of structural and gender-based violence. She recently stepped away from her position as National Co-Director, National Public Policy Chair, and Chicago Chapter Co-Chair of BYP 100, a member-based organization of 18 to 35 year old Black activists whose mission is to achieve economic, social, political, and educational freedom and justice for all Black people through nonviolent direct action organizing, education, and advocacy. She talks about learning stillness and finding peace, imagining new interventions when gender violence needs to be addressed, her cheese game, and much more. Check out the whole #BYPSpotlight here: http://blackyouthproject.com/byp-x-airgo/ Music from this week's episode: Mirror, Mirror - Diamond Ortiz
Kiss dusts off the turntables and brings y'all a new addition to his Cottage Groove DJ Mix series, with all kinds of goodness for you to vibe to. Music in this mix: Still Rude - @lulubeyene Jon Cena - Sho Madjozi Amnesia - Bas feat. Ari Lennox & KIDDOMINANT Passionfruit - Drake Education - Freddie Gibbs x Madlib feat. Yasiin Bey M'Baku Shit - Benjamin Earl Turner XO Tour Lif3 - Brasstracks DHL - Frank Ocean
The studio gets a lil' crowded this week, as a squad of collaborators behind the Chicago Black Social Culture Map, an interactive digital map documenting Chicago's Black social culture from the Great Migration through the end of the 20th century from blues to house. This project has evolved from the dance floor, to the internet, and now to event spaces across the city for conversations about how Black people in Chicago have created vibrancy, innovation, and joy in rooms across the city. You can check out the map here: https://www.honeypotperformance.org/chgpblksocialculturemap Recorded 10/8/19 in Chicago Music from this week's show: House Music Anthem - Frankie Knuckles Your Love - Jamie Principle
On the third AirGo Live episode, Damon and Daniel get everyone talking about how we can communicate in conflict with love. Plus a performance and conversation with musician and composer Akenya, and organizer and Assata’s Daughters founder Page May. And a special small furry guest joins us as well! Recorded 9/26/19 in Chicago Music from this week's show: Apache - Incredible Bongo Band Tribe - Bas
When Elijah McKinnon says the word manifest, they mean what they say. The multi-hyphenate creator is the new Executive Director of OpenTV, a web-based production and distribution channel for Queer TV, and is the cofounder of Reunion Chicago, an incubator and events space for Queer people of color. They run People Who Care, a consultancy that works exclusively with nonprofits and grassroots initiatives, including: AIDS Foundation of Chicago, Northwestern University, The Andy Warhol Foundation, Grindr for Equality, Raúl Anguiano Art Museum, Center for Disease Control and many more. They’re also a hoot. Recorded 9/24/19 in Chicago Music from this week's show: I Really Hope - Roger Plexico
Black Youth Project has joined forces with AirGo for a year-long #BYPSpotlight series, featuring our favorite Black academics and activists. This month’s #BYPSpotlight episode is featuring Danielle Roper, a professor and scholar at the University of Chicago. She talks about performances of Blackness across Latin America, navigating academia as a Black woman, the grassroots LGBTQ+ work she has been involved with in Jamaica, and much more. Plus, the introduction of a brand new game! Like TranswaveJa on facebook: https://www.facebook.com/transwaveja/ Support queer organization Wechange: https://wechangeja.org/ NOTE: AirGo Live is tonight! RSVP here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/airgo-live-with-akenya-and-page-may-tickets-71750286037 Recorded 9/18/19 in Chicago Music from this week's show: Money - Jahzzar
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