Artful Thought

This is episode #12 of Artful Thought, recorded live at the University of San Francisco's KUSF studio, which aired on Saturday, August 17th, 2019. I’m stoked to be joined by Roadkill who I met 7 months ago at my first weekly meeting as a volunteer at the Coalition on Homelessness. Roadkill is an SF Native who grew up in the  Mission and shares her experience as a formerly unhoused citizen. She’s an adamant community leader for housing and human rights justice, working alongside the Coalition on Homelessness, the production team at Stolen Belonging Project, and among other capacities to urge social change. We talk about almost everything in this episode, including the Queer community, The Lumineers, mental health, colonialism, how Mayor Breed’s snoozin’ on the job, the fact that Jesus was homeless, her kiddos, as well as the central urgent message of how Roadkill and I met, as she says “we need more solutions for homlessness.” Nonprofit organizations Roadkill urges folks to learn about and get involved.... WRAP Glide The Dope Project Homeless Prenatal Program Coalition on Homelessness Stolen Belonging Project *Due to copyright laws, I had to cut the music from the recording, but have embedded my Spotify playlist to accompany the edited cut.

This is episode #11 of Artful Thought, recorded live at the University of San Francisco's KUSF studio, which aired on Saturday, July 27th, 2019. I'm beyond stoked to talk with Paul S. Flores. His roles as a prolific poet, playwright, performance artist, youth arts educator, and USF theater professor continue to inspire and illuminate. Due to copyright laws, I had to cut the music from the recording, but have embedded my Spotify playlist on KUSF to accompany the edited cut. The music includes legendary and current Latinx artists PALO!, Cimafunk, Celia Cruz, Johnny Pacheco, La Lupe, Obsesión, and the Colorado-based Mocochetes accompanied with their tribute music video to the 1969 Walk-Out Movement, Que Viva la Revolución.  ............................ Paul’s Future & Ongoing Projects:  On top of teaching his popular Hip Hop Theater course here at USF, this fall he will also be teaching in SF State’s Theater Department, and two creative writing classes in the Prison Arts Project at Solano, Vacaville State Prison. His portfolio of outreach includes co-founding Youth Speaks, Brave New Voices: National Teen Poetry Slam (now on HBO), founder of Latino Men & Boys Program, former programming director at La Peña Cultural Center  and currently the Paseo Artístico Coordinator at Acción Latina. As a performing artist, he has gone on tour with his creative works and collaborations all over the U.S. as well as internationally, including Cuba, Mexico, El Salvador— and most recently presented at 2019 Latinx Theatre Commons in Miami, Florida. His play, We Have Iré begins touring in December. Creative Works Along the Border Lies (2001 novel)  “Brown Dreams” (spoken word appearing on HBO’s Def Poetry, contestant on seasons 3 and 4)  “Gravity's Volume” (spoken word)  plays include… PLACAS: The Most Dangerous Tattoo  YOU'RE GONNA CRY (SF Weekly's Best Politically Active Hip-Hop Performance Artist)  REPRESENTA!  We Have Iré: True Stories about Afro-Cuban Immigrant Artists in the US — his most recent docu-theatre production which received a 2019 Creative Capital Award  Future & Ongoing Acción Latina Events El Tecolote’s  “Unsettled in the Mission” -- Adriana Camarena (editor/writer) Paseo Artístico’s “COUNT ME IN/CUENTA CONMIGO CENSUS 2020”

This is episode number 10 of Artful Thought, recorded live at the University of San Francisco’s KUSF studio, which aired on Saturday, June 29th, 2019.  This is Part 2, but not the finale, of a music-talk feature about the ongoing celebration and an address to current social issues of the LGBTQIA community. The mix consists of phenomenal new (and newish) artists as well as seminal figures, including Lou Reed, Le Tigre, Ezra Furman, Blood Orange, Girlpool feat Dev Hynes (aka Blood Orange), Dizzy Fae, Courtney Barnett, Ssion, Troye Sivan, RuPaul feat. Kummerspeck, Janelle Monáe, Planningtorock and KUSF currents: Lucille Furs, Amyl + the Sniffers, Soak, and Razteria.  Between Pride Parts 1 and 2, I do a scattering of commentary on music from decades starting from the  1920s to current, as well as historical/cultural  landmarks, including the “Lavender Scare,” and personal ponderings about the other “Q.”  Both episodes come back to engaging with an ongoing question about gender-sexuality exploration while respecting boundaries that refrain from Queer appropriation. Also, as chatted about, but not deeply dove into, I referenced some enlightening sources on Queer culture and how the history of LGBTQIA came into the movement as we understand it today. Those references and others are... The podcast, Making Gay History Getting Curious with Jonathan Van Ness's episode "What's Your Experience with the Binary?" featuring Alok Vaid-Menon  NPR podcast, Throughline's episode "Before Stonewall" Ellen Page and Ian Daniel's docu-series Gaycation And, because there was either not enough time on my show or because of certain USF boundaries with language discretion, I wasn't able to share some artists' songs on my mix over the live airwaves.  But, in case you missed the entire show or just the songs I didn't include, please do check out their music on my Spotify playlist (*not-aired starts at "Touch" by Shura)... Most significantly, if you are experiencing any kind of crisis...  or abuse (mental and/or physical) related to your (non)gender and/or sexual identity, please know that you have a community that loves you, supports you, and will enthusiastically help you feel more welcome for whoever you are, and protect you from abusers.  if you are Transgender/sexual, reach out to Trans Lifeline at 877-565-8860,  for youth, reach out to The Trevor Project at 1-866-488-7386,  for individuals of any other LGBTQIA identity, please reach out to GLBT National Help Center at 1-888-843-4564,  and for more info or community support, check out oStem's LGBTQ Crisis Hotlines and Services. 

This is episode number 9 of Artful Thought, recorded live at the University of San Francisco’s KUSF studio, which aired on Saturday, June 22nd, 2019.  On the live show, I named the first episode of a 2-part special, “All the Pride and No Prejudice”, reverting back to my DJ Mr. Darcy persona as I jammed-and-gabbed out to a playlist made up of Queer Artists, seminal through current to celebrate the month of Pride. The playlist is chalked full of fantastical artists, starting with Ma Rainey, Lesley Gore, Liberace, Queen, Tracy Chapman, Sylvester, RuPaul featuring Martha Wash, Jobriath, Elton John vs. Pnau, George Michael, David Bowie, The Internet, and Vampire Weekend. In mic breaks, I talk about each artist and related LGBTQIA issues from past to present. Between Pride Parts 1 and 2, I do a scattering of commentary on music from decades starting from the 1920s to current, as well as historical/cultural  landmarks, including the “Lavender Scare,” and personal ponderings about the other “Q.”  Both episodes come back to engaging with an ongoing question about gender-sexuality exploration while respecting boundaries that refrain from Queer appropriation. Due to copyright laws, I had to cut the music from the recording, but have included my archived Pride Part 1 playlist to accompany the edited cut. 

What is poetry? Poetry can be anything. Fellow Poet-Writer, Abhay Shetty and I break down this cryptic question and answer a bit further. One of the things that inspires me most about Abhay, as a writer (and as a human in general) is how he strives to peacefully cruise with the flow of circumstances that unfold outside of his control. Which as you'll hear in this episode, is something I struggle with on the daily, if not hourly, basis.  We dig into the rituals of a writer, in discipline and in enjoyment, the importance of balancing writing and reading, how to turn anger into calmness in the process of creative works, and how to stick with or leave a certain rhythm. Abhay shares his fascination, saying “I get to serve as a medium for something to travel from the unknown to the known world onto the page”, and always looks forward to the mystical act of writing. We also talk on the restraint from comparing ourselves to writers who have reached success by a certain age, initial perceptions of poetry between his childhood education in Mumbai, India and mine in Fair Grove, Missouri, and the dangers of overthinking. He urges listeners to head towards a book of poetry if you’re still unsure about the genre, as it can lead to surprising tools of self-knowledge. The poems recited or mentioned in this broadcast were from books... Poems of Nazim Hikmet by Nazim Hikmet Marriage of Heaven and Hell by William Blake “The Centipede’s Dilemma” thought to be written by Katherine Craster in Pinafore Poems published in 1871 (however, I found it in Alan Watts’ The Way of Zen, where the source was uncited) *And, if you haven’t already, Abhay recommends folks to check out works by Sufi poets, Hafiz (or Hafez) and Rumi. Thanks times infinity to Abhay for sharing so much of his process and relationship to the art and practice of writing. And a special thanks and music credit to Mark Allred.   This is episode #8 of Artful Thought, recorded live at the University of San Francisco's KUSF studio, which aired on Saturday, June 15th, 2019.