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This is the full 9-10-2023 episode of the Labor Express Radio program. On this episode of Labor Express Radio, Teamsters rank-an-file vote 86% in favor of UPS contract - we look at the pros and cons of the ratified deal. UAW prepares for a possible auto strike on Sept. 15th. And ChiArts teachers suspend their planned strike and announce a tentative agreement. Labor Express Radio is Chicago's only labor news and current affairs radio program. News for working people, by working people. Labor Express Radio airs every Sunday at 8:00 PM on WLPN in Chicago, 105.5 FM. For more information, see our Facebook page... laborexpress.org and our homepage on Archive.org at: http://www.archive.org/details/LaborExpressRadio Labor Express is a member of the Labor Radio / Podcast Network, Working People's Voices – Broadcasting Worldwide 24 Hours A Day. laborradionetwork.org #laborradionetwork #LaborRadioPod #1u #UnionStrong
Volume 3 episode 2. Welcome, welcome y'all. Today's episode is with one of the legendary members of the The Era Footwork Crew, Sterling Lofton aka ‘Steelo'. Steelo is a 2020 CDF Lab Artist and has been developing “Sterling Publishing Company (SPC),” a new performance at the intersections of fashion and dance across Black history. Like many other artists the pandemic has been challenging for Steelo's creative process. We will also be chatting about The Era's performance of In the Wurkz at Links Hall in 2019. The group says their Links Hall performance “represents their “community debut” of the group and the long developed project. I was fortunate enough to see this performance and remember walking away thinking that The Era is here to educate and also get you hyped. They're going to deliver a message and be always true to themselves. They are the shit. Our Episode 2 co-host is Christopher “Mad Dog” Thomas. Mad Dog is also a footworker as well as an extremely motivated dancer, activist, and youth mentor. Mad Dog is the Program Manager for Kuumba Lynx and teaches a footwork program at the juvenile temporary detention center as part of a social/emotional learning program. Mad Dog is also a 2020 CDF Lab Artist and is spending his lab year codifying his style of Chicago Footwork while developing new choreographies that tell the stories of how bodies react to certain traumas, including his own.
“When we say the arts are not diverse or that ballet is the foundation of all dance forms, it's actually doing us harm by being exclusive; by disregarding the art forms of people, by disregarding the voices, by disregarding what makes us individuals and what makes our communities special,” José says. José Ochoa is the Founder of The Chicago School for the Arts (ChiArts) and now the President of ChiArts Foundation. He is determined to break down barriers in the arts which have historically held back people of color. In this week's show, José talks about why ChiArts was founded, and what challenges it faced at its inception. He discusses how they became the most diverse arts school in the country and the inequalities that artists of color face in the industry. Tune in to listen to José, and then let us know: how can each of us contribute to equality in the arts? Please share your thoughts in the comments. Resources José Ochoa on LinkedIn ChiArts.org
Jules Zimianitis is quarantined! She asks her fellow creative writers about superpowers, and then has unbridled enthusiasm about time-based work. Speaking of "Time" -- that's the title of the single we used into today's episode! MALACHITE is an aspiring R&B artist who fuses folk, hip-hop, and soul music. His first single (from an upcoming EP) called “Time” is out now via SoundCloud and Youtube: https://linktr.ee/m4lachite
Daniela Morales is quarantined! She has written a radio play, which is performed by her fellow creative writers. Daniela Morales edited the radio play. Music today is by Kenneth Howard. You can find more of his music here: YouTube: https://youtu.be/WP6ZlZIQ1CM Apple Music : https://music.apple.com/us/album/edge/1552273866?i=1552273867 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/album/39HIXTpicnJCw8noFJhj7m?si=9zjicmF5T5WvJx6Ll3dwVA
Jonah Weber is quarantined! Here, he discusses physical altercations, siblinghood, and a day in his life. About the music: Rain Garden is the musical project of Miranda Dianovsky, who started writing and recording songs for her 2019 EP, Cancer Season while she was still in high school at ChiArts. Her music comes straight out of this youthful, vulnerable space and speaks to her goal as an artist to communicate powerful personal emotion in a universal way. She is currently working on a full-length debut album.
Rasa Braswell is Quarantined! This week, she discusses what it means to be an adult in the world, and shares some of her own brilliant poetry. Our music is provided by Ketsa.
Trinity Simmons-Brooks is quarantined! She asks the other creative writers a question about nightmares and childhood fears, then explains why dreams matter.
Aiyana Thomas is quarantined! She asks the other creative writers a question about memory, then explains a conspiracy theory about human memories, and finally reviews the game "Counterstrike 2." Music is by Ketsa. License and details are here.
Get ready for eleven episodes dripping with content from the creative writers at ChiArts.
Emily Ritger is a director, playwright, performer and choreographer based in Chicago. As a teacher and director developing new work, she has worked for American Theatre Company, Redmoon, Cleveland Public Theatre, Northlight Theatre, ChiArts, The New Harmony Project and The National High School Institute. While Ritger’s focus is in ensemble based work, her diverse training includes Viola Spolin Theatre Games, Viewpoints, Puppetry, Contact Improv, experimental methods of writing and various forms of music, creating work that is saturated in movement, music and play. Her work draws from her experience of growing up in small town Wisconsin. It celebrates rural america - its voice, land, dialect, sense of community and the people who carry on the traditions and way of life inherent to living off the land. With the agrarian landscape as her cornerstone, her work explores the philosophy and religion inherent in nature and living off the land, and the cyclical birth and death inherent in life on a farm. Her current projects include her solo show, "Crud", part documentary style theatre, part fantastical music and shadow puppetry, examining a day her family never talks about. "Behaymas", a collaboration with playwright Aliza Bartfield, three humans and one animal blur the lines of domesticity and societal constructions of family. And her play "The Day Krissy LeDuke Fell Through the Ice", is a moment in time and its arrayed vectors of tragedy told through free verse and music. She has studied with theater artists Dan Hurlin, David Neumann, Sibyl Kempson, Tina Landau, Brett Bailey, Claudia Castellucci, Aretha Sills, Shirley Kaplan, Cassandra Medley, Stuart Spencer and Tom Lee, and received her MFA in Theater from Sarah Lawrence College and a BS in Theatre and Philosophy from the University of Evansville. Edited and Produced by Kyrie Ellison (SLC21) Interviewed by Anne Bakan (SLC20) and Kyrie Ellison (SLC21)
ChiArts creative writer Damayanti reads one of her works of writing; Tania asks her questions about her process.
Gary welcomes director Jonathan Berry and actor Jessica Dean Turner from the new hit play Red Rex to the Booth today. Written by Ike Holter as the newest in his Rightlynd series of plays, Red Rex is is receiving a world premiere by Steep Theatre and is being presented in their 55-seat space at 1115 W. Berwyn through March 30. Gary called it "one of the most moving, thought-provoking and beautifully produced plays he's seen in many a season." The production is about members of a Chicago storefront theater company who are working on a new play being presented by a Chicago storefront theater company. Jonathan discusses the meta nature of directing this project at Steep, where he's been an ensemble member for many years, having directed there since 2007. Jon describes one of the themes of the play: "The theatre community can create its own center of focus, obscuring, entirely, the actual world just outside the door." Jonathan and Jessica talk about the play's other themes, including equity and inclusion, inadvertent and subtle acts of racism, shining a light on the pretentiousness of some creative processes, and the deep humor and humanity with which Ike Holter treats each of his characters. It's a discussion that will make you want to run, don't walk, to the see Red Rex at the Steep. Jessica talks about her theatre training in the very intensive program at the University of Illinois - Urbana, and how the rigorous nature of the program prepared her for the life of a working actor. As a non-Equity actor striving to make a career in the burgeoning off-Loop theatre scene, Jessica is frank in her assessment of the challenges and struggles that entails. The commutes are long, the pay is low, and the competition is steep(!) But Jonathan and Jessica both emphasize what most audiences already know - the Chicago style of acting exemplifies a fierceness and passion fueled by the daily grind that is the nature of a life in the theatre. Gary offers a play idea with the news story of 183 Amtrak passengers stranded for 37 hours in a snowstorm in the Oregon wilderness. Jonathan has been on plenty of delayed Amtrak trips and describes the mounting stress among the passengers as "a Lord of the Flies mentality." The dramatic possibilities are endless! Jessica also teaches at the Chicago High School for the Arts (ChiArts), training young performers. ChiArts is a public 4–year college preparatory visual and performing arts high school located in the Humboldt Park neighborhood. Operated by the Chicago Public Schools district, the school opened for the 2009–10 school year. She's also worked as an actor-patient at Northwestern Medical School where she helped train doctors to treat a variety of conditions and symptoms. A great acting exercise. Kiss of Death: Ethel Ennis - Celebrated Singer Who Walked Away from Fame: Ms. Ennis was a highly respected jazz singer in the 1950s and 60s. Ella Fitzgerald stated that Ms. Ennis was her favorite young vocalist, and Frank Sinatra called her "my kind of singer". But Ethel grew disillusioned with the demands placed on young divas, and she eschewed national celebrity for a quieter life in her hometown of Baltimore, where she earned the unofficial title of Baltimore's "First Lady of Jazz." Ethel Ennis was 86. Read the full NYTimes obit here. Check out her beautiful rendition of My Foolish Heart on YouTube.
Ace Hobfoll reads his poem, Kike, and answers questions from Ethan Gathman. Music Credit: http://www.hooksounds.com
Noire Lin reads their piece, Love Letters from the Moon to the Sun, followed by a question and answer session led by fellow writer Mia Schoenbeck.