Covid Conversations: Life in a Time of Corona

Covid Conversations Episode 12 features two writers who created two public-facing journals during pandemic times. Amanda Lewis is the Founder and Executive Director of Trillium Project, a small arts and culture non-profit serving Ohio, Kentucky, and West Virginia; Co-Founder of Watch Me Grow Ohio, a non-profit that provides community-based programming in sustainable agriculture, environmental awareness and community engagement; and Founder of The Wandering Journal Project. Alejandro Alonso is a science and technology journalist and a writer of science fiction and fantasy. He lives in Buenos Aires, Argentina. During the lockdown in his country, he created a fantastical Diario de un Cuarentenado. The two participants are joined by Rodolfo Vazquez, a Columbus-based flutist and Spanish/English interpreter and translator. Covid Conversations is funded by an OSU Global Arts and Humanities Discovery Theme grant. It is produced and presented by radio producer and folklorist Rachel Hopkin. Episode 12 was recorded on July 23, 2021.

Covid Conversations Episode 11 features two composers and sound artists. Brian Harnetty is an interdisciplinary artist and composer who uses sound and listening to foster social change. Rooted in socially engaged art, his work flows between the fields of performance and recording, installation and writing. Each project begins with communities and local archives, and moves outward to include intimate portraits of everyday people and landscapes of Appalachia and the Midwest. Harnetty's forthcoming album, Words and Silences, is a musical portrait of Thomas Merton, a 20th century monk who lived in solitude in Kentucky, and will be released in January, 2022. Brian lives in Columbus, Ohio. Päiví Takala works as a composer, musician and sound designer as well as a documentary film director. She was a violinist in Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra over 10 years. She then moved into film and film music through studies at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She is the director of award-winning documentaries as well as an established musician and composer. Currently Ms. Takala is a professor in the Centre for Music and Technology at the Sibelius Academy, University of the Arts, Helsinki. Päiví lives in Helsinki, Finland. Covid Conversations is funded by an OSU Global Arts and Humanities Discovery Theme grant. It is produced and presented by radio producer and folklorist Rachel Hopkin. Episode 11 was recorded on July 7, 2021.

Covid Conversations Episode 10 features two artists who make and work with paper. Aimee Lee is an artist and scholar who champions Korean papermaking in the English-speaking world and beyond. She is the author of the award-winning book, Hanji Unfurled, and built the first hanji studio in North America, located in Cleveland, Ohio, where she lives. She teaches, lectures, exhibits, and is collected internationally. Barb Adams has been making paper for 21 years as an active member of Papermakers of Victoria in Australia and the International Association of Hand Papermakers and Paper Artists. She regularly leads workshops and has also exhibited widely. Covid Conversations is funded by an OSU Global Arts and Humanities Discovery Theme grant. It is produced and presented by radio producer and folklorist Rachel Hopkin. Episode 10 was recorded on May 26, 2021.

Covid Conversations Episode 9 features two musicians and songwriters. Floco Torres is a Hip-Hop artist based in Akron, OH and is one half of the duo Free Black! which he formed in 2018 with producer/drummer HR3. To find out more about Floco and his music, visit flocotorres7.bandcamp.com and nobodycaresnews.com. Sebastian Arze lives in Asunción in Paraguay, where he is a member of the reggae-grunge band Deficiente. To learn more about the group, visit linktr.ee/Deficiente. Covid Conversations is funded by an OSU Global Arts and Humanities Discovery Theme grant. It is produced and presented by radio producer and folklorist Rachel Hopkin. Episode 9 was recorded on May 4, 2021.

Covid Conversations Episode 8 features two visual artists and curators. Cat Sheridan uses many different media in her artistic work, with a special focus on ceramics. Cat is also the director of the Ohio Arts Council's Riffe Gallery which is based in downtown Columbus, the city where she lives. Gabriel Amza is a Romanian photographer, curator, and community organizer. His work usually takes the form of long-term documentary projects and installations, often with themes relating to social justice and the environment. Gabriel lives in Timisoara, Romania. Covid Conversations is funded by an OSU Global Arts and Humanities Discovery Theme grant. It is produced and presented by radio producer and folklorist Rachel Hopkin. Episode 8 was recorded on April 26, 2021.

Covid Conversations Episode 7 features two writers of YA fiction. Natalie Richards is the New York Times bestselling author of seven books for young adults. She lives in Columbus, Ohio. Fatima Sharaffedine is the award-winning writer and translator of books for children and young adults and also a writing tutor. She is from and is currently living in Beirut, Lebanon. Covid Conversations is funded by an OSU Global Arts and Humanities Discovery Theme grant. It is produced and presented by radio producer and folklorist Rachel Hopkin. Episode 7 was recorded on February 25, 2021.

Covid Conversations Episode 6 features two dancers and teachers of Bharatanatyam which is one of India's oldest classical dance traditions. Smitha Magal is a senior disciple of Professor Sudharani Raghupathy and, after some years teaching in her native India, formed her own dance school SILAMBAM in 1992 after moving to Dublin, Ohio. Smitha is originally from Chennai in India which is the home of the other guest in this podcast, Priya Murle. Like Smitha, Priya is also senior disciple of Professor Ragupathy – in fact, the two guests studied together and are long-time friends and colleagues. Priya was a senior teacher at Shree Bharatalaya, prior to founding her Shri Silambam Academy of Fine Arts in 2012 in Chennai. Covid Conversations is funded by an OSU Global Arts and Humanities Discovery Theme grant. It is produced and presented by radio producer and folklorist Rachel Hopkin. Episode 6 was recorded on January 28, 2021.

Covid Conversations Episode 5 features two scholars who specialize in ethnographic fieldwork methods and who have undertaken ethnographic fieldwork since the pandemic began early in 2020. Lucy Long is a folklorist and ethnomusicologist who teaches at Bowling Green State University in Ohio. She is the founder and director of The Center for Food and Culture. An online exhibition of her Covid-related foodways research is available at comfortfoodwaysexhibit.wordpress.com. Iñigo Sánchez-Fuarros is an anthropologist with the Institute of Heritage Sciences, Spanish National Research Council in Santiago de Compostela in Spain. He is also the Principal Investigator of the Sounding Out the Tourist City project which is based in Lisbon, Portugal and which has been documenting the soundscape of the city both prior to and during Covid. Covid Conversations is funded by an OSU Global Arts and Humanities Discovery Theme grant. It is produced and presented by radio producer and folklorist Rachel Hopkin. Episode 5 was recorded on January 5, 2021.

Covid Conversations Episode 4 features two world-class musicians from two of the world's greatest orchestras. Mark Kosower is Principal Cello with the Cleveland Orchestra. He has been with the orchestra since 2010. Matthew Hunter is a violist with the Berlin Philharmonic. He has lived in Germany for 25 years, but he was born in Ohio and spent some years working in the state, though he was raised in Massachusetts. As well as playing with their respective orchestras, both Mark and Matthew perform as soloists and chamber ensemble players and are teachers. Among the subjects they discuss during this episode are their approaches to live-streamed performances and concerns regarding hand sanitizers with respect to their musicianship and instruments. Some of Mark Kosower's online performances can be accessed via the following links: www.youtube.com/channel/UCiTBAKeujunlSKDdRIyfbHw Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100008328842166 For more information about the Cleveland and the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestras, including their online concert programming, please visit https://www.clevelandorchestra.com and https://www.berliner-philharmoniker.de/en/. Covid Conversations is funded by an OSU Global Arts and Humanities Discovery Theme grant. It is produced and presented by radio producer and folklorist Rachel Hopkin. Episode 4 was recorded on Tuesday, 1st December, 2020. To find out more about Rachel Hopkin, please visit www.rachelhopkin.com.

Covid Conversations Episode 3 features two quilters and quilting group organizers. Dr. Carolyn Mazloomi, who lives in West Chester, Ohio, is a quilter, quilt scholar, curator, founder of the Women of Color Quilters Network. She's received many honors, including being named as a National Heritage Fellow by the National Endowment for the Arts in 2014, which is the highest award given in the United States for traditional arts. Carolyn is also a trained aerospace engineer. Felicity Khan is based close to Cape Town in South Africa. She has been sewing all her life. She has formed several patchwork and quilting groups and teaches theses craft to others. Felicity was formerly a board member of the Good Hope Quilters Guild - which is the Western Cape of South Africa's patchwork and quilting umbrella body - and served as its Outreach Liaison person. More information about the Unmask Your Creativity competition discussed in the podcast can be found here: wcqn.org/unmask-your-creativity-contest. Episode 3 was recorded on Saturday November 7th, 2020. Mastered by Paul Kotheimer at the Ohio State University. Music from https://pixabay.com/music Covid Conversations: Life in a Time of Corona is a 12-part podcast series from the Ohio State University's (OSU) Center for Folklore Studies. To find out more about the OSU Center for Folklore Studies, where the full recordings of each Covid Conversation will be archived along with contextual information about each episode, please visit go.osu.edu/covidconversations. The series is funded by an OSU Global Arts and Humanities Discovery Theme grant. Its 12 episodes will be published between September 2020 and August 2021. It is produced and presented by radio producer and folklorist Rachel Hopkin. To find out more about Rachel Hopkin, please visit www.rachelhopkin.com.

In this episode of Covid Conversations, we are joined by two dancers and teachers of Argentine tango – Jessica Tupa, who lives in Dayton, Ohio, and Monica Maria Fumagalli in Milan, Italy. Jessica Tupa is a psychotherapist with a background as a dance artist and educator. (In fact, she has a degree from the Ohio State's Department of Dance, no less). She started dancing Argentine tango several years ago, and – pre-Covid – traveled extensively with her partner for tango within the US, and – more recently – Europe. Jessica uses her movement background to support wholistic wellbeing both in her psychotherapy practice and in her own life. During Covid, Jessica has spent some of her time teaching her Tupaco Tango Barre method online and she talks about this during the Conversation. Monica Maria Fumagalli studied many forms of dance before taking up Argentine tango in 1990. She has gone on to teach and perform the dance internationally, including in the USA. She also established a tango school in her native Milan. In addition, Monica is an accomplished scholar who has published and presented widely on the history and culture of Argentine tango. Covid Conversations: Life in a Time of Corona is a 12-part podcast series from the Ohio State University's (OSU) Center for Folklore Studies Each  Covid Conversations episode features two individuals – one from Ohio and one from a different part of the world – who share a distinct arts- and/or humanities-related professional or personal identity. Over the course of their conversation, they discuss and compare how their parallel involvements in the arts and humanities have informed their experience of life during the Coronavirus pandemic in their respective homes.  The series is funded by an OSU Global Arts and Humanities Discovery Theme grant. Its 12 episodes will be published between September 2020 and August 2021. It is produced and presented by radio producer and folklorist Rachel Hopkin. To find out more about Rachel Hopkin, please visit www.rachelhopkin.com. Conversation recorded on Monday October 9th, 2020. Mastered by Paul Kotheimer at the Ohio State University. Music from https://pixabay.com/music

For this first episode of Covid Conversations, we are joined by two wordsmiths and artists - Omopé Daboiku who lives in Dayton Ohio and Alinah Azadeh from Lewes in the southeast of England. Omopé Carter Daboiku grew up rural southern Ohio. Her work focuses on the intersectionality of place, identity and belonging, and the experience of growing up a “mixed-race, colored child” of Nigerian heritage on the Appalachian landscape. Alinah Azadeh is a UK-based writer, artist, performer and social activist of British-Iranian heritage. Both Alinah and Omopé are storytellers and textile artists for whom the concept of connection to land and the way in which that forms identity is an important theme. They are also – to use Omopé's phrase – “history keepers”. In addition, both guests teach and facilitate the creativity of others. To find out more about Omopé Carter Daboiku, please visit artslearning.ohioartscouncil.org/directory/name/omope-carter-daboiku. To find out more about Alinah Azadeh, please visit www.alinahazadeh.com. Covid Conversations: Life in a Time of Corona is a 12-part podcast series from the Ohio State University's (OSU) Center for Folklore Studies Each  Covid Conversations episode features two individuals – one from Ohio and one from a different part of the world – who share a distinct arts- and/or humanities-related professional or personal identity. Over the course of their conversation, they discuss and compare how their parallel involvements in the arts and humanities have informed their experience of life during the Coronavirus pandemic in their respective homes.  To find out more about the OSU Center for Folklore Studies, where the full recordings of each Covid Conversation will be archived along with contextual information about each episode, please visit cfs.osu.edu. The series is funded by an OSU Global Arts and Humanities Discovery Theme grant. Its 12 episodes will be published between September 2020 and August 2021. It is produced and presented by radio producer and folklorist Rachel Hopkin. To find out more about Rachel Hopkin, please visit www.rachelhopkin.com. Conversation recorded on Monday August 31st, 2020. Mastered by Paul Kotheimer at OSU. Music from https://pixabay.com/music