Podcasts about individual artist grant

Bill welcomes author Carla Panciera back to the show. Carla's collection of short stories, Bewildered, received the 2013 Grace Paley Short Fiction Award from the Association of Writers and Writing Programs and was published by the University of Massachusetts Press. Her short stories have appeared in the New England Review, the Clackamas Review, Slice, and other magazines. Her short story, “The Kind of People Who Look at Art” was chosen by Junot Diaz as a distinguished story in Best American Short Stories 2017. She was the James E. Kilgore scholar in Nonfiction at Bread Loaf Writers Conference and is the recipient of an Individual Artist Grant in Creative Nonfiction from the Massachusetts Cultural Council. Her newest book, Barnflower: A Rhode Island Farm Memoir, was released in 2023 by Loom Press. She has also published two collections of poetry: Cider Press Award Winner, One of the Cimalores and Bordighera Press Poetry Award Winning, No Day, No Dusk, No Love.  Her poetry has appeared in numerous magazines including Poetry, Painted Bride Quarterly, and the Los Angeles Review. 

This is the first episode of a two-part series about coping with anxiety. We discuss how it feels, what can help alleviate symptoms, and how the arts can play a role in managing stress and mental health. Part I focuses on dance and movement; part II will focus on improv and play. In this episode of Lifeyness, we explore the intersection of dance, movement, and mental health in this episode. Rebecca R. Levy, co-founder of Jacksonville Dance Theatre, discusses her personal journey with severe anxiety.  Choreographer, performer, and educator Rebecca Levy (aka Becca) has firsthand experience with  inexplicable feelings of panic, anxiety, and even terror. Most of the time these emotions seem to arise from nowhere. But she hasn't let those pressures get the best of her. Instead, she's developed a toolkit of techniques for managing anxiety and staying grounded in the moment, both on and off the stage.  Becca offers insights into how to cultivate a healthy relationship with stress and the pressures that coming with growing up, building a successful professional life, and even dealing with extreme challenges such as the Covid lockdown. In this episode of Lifeyness, we explore the intersection of dance, movement, and mental health in this episode.  We discuss: Symptoms of generalized anxiety disorder Common symptoms and treatments of anxiety What anxiety can feel like Becca's management of symptoms How movement plays a role in boosting mental health Pilates and yoga Dance Follow me! IG: book_of_lifeyness TikTok: book_of_lifeyness   Featured Youtube LINK! In this episode we refer to a short film titled "Disorder" created by Becca in collaboration with filmmaker Will Darden and composer Mark Snyder. It is a choreographic film project about mental illness based on her personal experience with Generalized Anxiety Disorder.   Rebecca's Bio Rebecca R. Levy, a choreographer, performer, and educator based in Jacksonville, Florida, creates dance works that explore the complexities of the mind, feminism, bodily autonomy, and the forces that bring people together or drive them apart. As the artistic director of Jacksonville Dance Theatre, Rebecca co-founded the company in 2012 and has been working to change the art culture of the city. Her role includes creating dances, mounting performances, commissioning new and innovative artists, and providing dance training to company members. She is also an esteemed professor of dance at Florida State College at Jacksonville, where she serves as Director and teaches a diverse range of students. Her contributions to the arts community have been recognized with numerous awards, including the 2020 Art Educator of the Year Award from the Cultural Council of Greater Jacksonville, a 2019 40 Under 40 award from The Jacksonville Business Journal, and the Outstanding Faculty of the Year in 2016. She is also a registered Certified Yoga Instructor, a certified Pilates instructor, and has experience with aerial acrobatics. Additionally, she was awarded a 2019 Individual Artist Grant from Community First Bank and a 2020 Art Ventures Individual Artist Grant for her new choreographic work, Disorder, which investigates mental illness.   Check out the Jacksonville Dance Theatre here. See JDT's Upcoming show in Jacksonville, FL! May 13, 2023: Spring Concert--InMotion    Intro and outro music credit: "Song for a New Beginning" by William Claeson   Disclaimer: the host and guests of this show are not mental health professionals. The discussion and interview here are for educational purposes only. Please seek professional help if you're experiencing distressing mental health symptoms.  

Lisa Phu is an Alaska-based journalist and the creator of "Before Me", a limited series chronicling her mother's journey to America. Lisa has always wanted to record her mom's story but never quite found the right moment, until she gave birth to her first child in 2016 and her mom came to care for them both. During that visit, Lisa's mom finally shared the real story about growing up in Cambodia, fleeing genocide by the Khmer Rouge, surviving as a gold dealer in Vietnam, building a home in America while navigating the fallout and traumas of war… and carrying the future of her children throughout the journey. Lisa shares her 5-year journey in making the series from the first day she pressed record to releasing the story, Before Me with Self Evident Media.    "Before Me" is a 5-part story that follows one woman's life, from Cambodia to America, over the course of decades. But it's also a long overdue conversation between mother and daughter about their family's history — through war and violence, separation and loss, endings and beginnings. To make Before Me, Lisa was awarded an Individual Artist Grant from the Juneau Arts & Humanities Council and did a residency at Alderworks Alaska Writers & Artists Retreat. She was an AIR New Voices scholar in 2017 and an AIR Edit Mode fellow in 2021. Photo: Lan Phu holds her granddaughter Acacia in 2016 Oct Episode Credits: Executive Producer: Tracey Nguyen Mang Editing Support: Matt Young VBP theme music: Clarity, Paulina Vo Other music: Free Mind: Wildflowers, In-Between Heartbeats: Headlund  

Bonnie Ilza Cisneros is a fourth-generation educator in a line of Tejana school teachers. She holds an MFA from Texas State University, is a member of Macondo Writers Workshop, and was awarded a NALAC artist grant in 2018. She received an 2023 Individual Artist Grant from the City of San Antonio to archive, exhibit, and celebrate Siempre Verde: Música for Feeling & Healing, an interdisciplinary pandemic project at Evergreen Garden. 

Mandy Morrison, Ridgewood, Queens, NY 2021 Mandy Morrison's process explores how the body projects itself in varying contexts.  Her  particular  focus is on physicality; its expression, and how it's capacity for agency and mobilization is affected by colonized or corporatized structures. With a practice that straddles between Baltimore and New York, she generates projects that link capital and control with the politics of movement. Her interest derives from a body's meaning, in having different forms of entitlement to public, private and mediated space. Over the years, her collaborative efforts with video and performance engage with architectural environments and include, dancers, youth groups, and local community participants. Her works have been performed, exhibited and screened internationally at festivals, galleries and museums, including the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Brooklyn Museum, Dixon Place (NYC), the Kunstlerhaus e.V., Hamburg, CINESONIKA in Vancouver, and the Center for Art, Design and Visual Culture in Baltimore. Grants, fellowships and residencies include the Illinois Arts Council, the New York State Council on the Arts, Wexner Center for the Arts, and the Sacatar Institute in Bahia, Brazil. A distinguished educator she has been faculty at Pratt Institute and Rutgers University, and a visiting artist at Sarah Lawrence College, the University of Minnesota, University of Wisconsin, Museum School of Fine Arts, Boston, and SUNY Oswego. In the summer of 2021 she is performing with other artists in the work of Maja Bekan (Netherlands/Slovenia) in “Hold It Together (We Have Each Other)” at the International Studio and Curatorial Program in Brooklyn, NY developed over 2020 during Covid. She is a 2021 recipient of an Individual Artist Grant from the Tree of Life Foundation. The book mentioned in the interview is Underland: A Deep Time Journey, by Robert Macfarlane. Housekeeping (Video Still) 2018 Single-channel video installation with audio Dimensions: 9'5” x 16′ Duration: 01:46 (loop) Spirits of Promise and Loss, 2020 (Installation view) Six-channel video installation with audio Dimensions: 4' x 40' Duration: 02:31 (loop)

John Hoppenthaler's books of poetry are Domestic Garden (2015), Anticipate the Coming Reservoir (2008), and Lives of Water (2003), all with Carnegie Mellon University Press. His poetry and essays have appeared in many journals, anthologies, and textbooks, including New York Magazine, Ploughshares, Virginia Quarterly Review, McSweeney's Internet Tendency, Southern Review, Christian Science Monitor, Southeast Review, The Laurel Review, The Florida Review, West Branch, The Literary Review, Blackbird, New York Magazine, Making Poems: 40 Poems with Commentary by the Poets (State U of New York P, 2010), September 11, 2001: American Writers Respond (Etruscan Press, 2002), Blooming through the Ashes: An International Anthology on Violence and the Human Spirit (Rutgers UP, 2008), Chance of a Ghost (Helicon Nine Editions, 2005), Poetry Calendar (Alhambra Publishing, 2006-2012), Literary Trails of Eastern North Carolina (U of North Carolina P, 2013), A Face to Meet the Faces: An Anthology of Contemporary Persona Poetry (U of Akron P, 2012), The Incredible Sestina Anthology (Write Bloody Publishing, 2013), The Southern Poetry Anthology, Volume VII: North Carolina (Texas Review Press, 2014), Eyes Glowing at the Edge of the Woods: Fiction and Poetry from West Virginia (West Virginia UP, 2017), and A Compendium of Kisses (Terrapin Books, 2019).With Kazim, Ali, he has co-edited a volume of essays on the poetry of Jean Valentine, This-World Company (U of Michigan P, 2012). His essays, interviews, and essay/reviews appear in such journals as Arts & Letters, Southeast Review, Chelsea, Bellingham Review, Pleiades, The Greenwood Encyclopedia of American Poetry, The Cortland Review, Tar River Poetry, Waccamaw, North Carolina Literary Review, and Kestrel, where he served as Poetry editor for eleven years. He currently serves as Advisory Editor to the cultural journal Connotation Press: An Online Artifact, where he edits “A Poetry Congeries.” He also serves on the Advisory Board for Backbone Press, specializing in the publication and promotion of marginalized voices.Among his honors are the ECU 5-Year Achievement for Research & Creative Activity Award, the ECU Department of English Award for Excellence in Research and Creative Activity, an Individual Artist Grant from the West Virginia Commission on the Arts, grants from the New York Foundation on the Arts and New York State Council on the Arts, and the North Carolina Community Council for the Arts, and Residency Fellowships from The Weymouth Center for the Arts and Humanities, the MacDowell Colony, the Elizabeth Bishop House, and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts. He was named and served two terms as the Gilbert-Chappell Distinguished Poet for the Eastern Region of North Carolina, and Domestic Garden received the Brockman—Campbell Award for the best collection of poetry by a North Carolinian in 2015.

Amy Wright is the author of three books of poetry and six chapbooks. Wright’s essays have appeared in The Georgia Review, Fourth Genre, Ninth Letter, Brevity, and elsewhere. She has been awarded two Peter Taylor Fellowships to the Kenyon Review Writer’s Workshop, an Individual Artist Grant from the Tennessee Arts Commission, and a fellowship to Virginia Center for the Creative Arts. Her nonfiction debut, Paper Concert: A Conversation in the Round, is forthcoming in 2021 from Sarabande Books. She teaches at Austin Peay State University.  "Habitat" is used with permission by the author. Links: https://files.captivate.fm/library/8f159bff-4ec5-47f5-af89-52102f602c5f/habitat-amy-wright.pdf (Read "Habitat" by Amy Wright) http://www.awrightawright.com/ (Amy Wright’s website ) https://www.sarabandebooks.org/titles-20192039/paper-concert-a-conversation-in-the-round-amy-wright (Forthcoming book: Paper Concert: A Conversation in the Round by Amy Wright) http://www.versedaily.org/2016/yamweevil.shtml ("Yam Weevil” at Verse Daily) https://kenyonreview.org/kr-online-issue/2020-marapr/selections/amy-wright-656342/ (“Prey,” an essay at Kenyon Review Online) https://newbooksnetwork.com/amy-wright-cracker-sonnets-brickroad-poetry-press-2016/ (Review of Cracker Sonnets and interview at New Books Network )

Amy Wright is the author of three books of poetry and six chapbooks. Wright's essays have appeared in The Georgia Review, Fourth Genre, Ninth Letter, Brevity, and elsewhere. She has been awarded two Peter Taylor Fellowships to the Kenyon Review Writer's Workshop, an Individual Artist Grant from the Tennessee Arts Commission, and a fellowship to Virginia Center for the Creative Arts. Her nonfiction debut, Paper Concert: A Conversation in the Round, is forthcoming in 2021 from Sarabande Books. She teaches at Austin Peay State University.  "Habitat" is used with permission by the author. Links: https://files.captivate.fm/library/8f159bff-4ec5-47f5-af89-52102f602c5f/habitat-amy-wright.pdf (Read "Habitat" by Amy Wright) http://www.awrightawright.com/ (Amy Wright's website ) https://www.sarabandebooks.org/titles-20192039/paper-concert-a-conversation-in-the-round-amy-wright (Forthcoming book: Paper Concert: A Conversation in the Round by Amy Wright) http://www.versedaily.org/2016/yamweevil.shtml ("Yam Weevil” at Verse Daily) https://kenyonreview.org/kr-online-issue/2020-marapr/selections/amy-wright-656342/ (“Prey,” an essay at Kenyon Review Online) https://newbooksnetwork.com/amy-wright-cracker-sonnets-brickroad-poetry-press-2016/ (Review of Cracker Sonnets and interview at New Books Network )

Does creativity belong to an exclusive few ? Is there a link between out-of-box thinking and innovation? What is the kindness contagion ? These are few of the discussion points that I explore with our speaker today. Michael Lee is the founder of Innotivity Institute. An internationally accredited Creativity Coach, Life Coach, Executive Coach, NLP Practitioner, and a long-time educator, Michael has years of experience in the TV and film industry in many roles: Screenwriter, Director, Producer, Story Consultant, and Script Editor He has worked extensively in Europe, the USA, and Africa. He is the creator and lead trainer of The Innovation Explosion, a step-by-step creativity training that has doubled participants' creativity levels and led to their rapid fulfillment of previously-stuck projects. Michael began his career as a script analyst for Castle Rock Pictures in Hollywood before moving to Prague, where he co-founded the international literary magazine TRAFIKA. He is the recipient of a Ford Foundation Fellowship and an Individual Artist Grant from the NY State Council on the Arts.He has taught at AFDA, WITS, and NEMISA, and created the program of the Academy of TV in Johannesburg, where he served as Head of School and Head of Development at various junctures. He has directed numerous reality shows and documentaries in Africa, including as co-creator of the 4x SAFTA-winning Jam Sandwich. He founded the Innotivity Institute that helps individuals and organisations "create their creativity". You can find more details on Innotivity institute in the below links: Innotivity Institute Portfolio Hope you enjoy this episode. Please do share and subscribe to our podcast. If you want to be part of this journey, do write to me at kindnessissuper@gmail.com. Do visit our website for thoughts and perspectives around kindness and human potential. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/thegentleproject/message

Where is all of the literary love for Queens? It’s right here at LIC Reading Series. Join them each week for stories, readings, and discussions with acclaimed writers, recorded with a live audience in the cozy carriage house of a classic pub in Long Island City, Queens, New York, and hosted by founder Catherine LaSota. This week, the podcast features the reading and panel discussion from the LIC Reading Series event on March 13, 2018, with Jared Harél (Go Because I Love You), Morgan Jerkins (This Will Be My Undoing), and Rachel Lyon (Self-Portrait With Boy). About the Readers: Jared Harél is the author of Go Because I Love You (Diode Editions, 2018) and The Body Double (Brooklyn Arts Press, 2012). His poems have appeared in such journals as Tin House, Threepenny Review, the Southern Review, Massachusetts Review, Poetry Daily, Bennington Review, 32 Poems, and Newtown Literary. He has received the Stanley Kunitz Memorial Prize from American Poetry Review, the William Matthews Poetry Prize from Asheville Poetry Review, and an Individual Artist Grant from Queens Council on the Arts. Harél teaches writing at Nassau Community College and lives in Queens, New York with his wife and two kids. Morgan Jerkins is a contributing editor at Catapult and a former Book of the Month judge. On the freelance side, her work has appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Times, the Atlantic, ELLE, Lenny Letter, Rolling Stone, The New Republic, and BuzzFeed, among many others. Morgan runs a TinyLetter called Meraki. Her debut essay collection, This Will Be My Undoing, was released by Harper Perennial, and her next book, Wandering in Strange Lands comes out later this year. Rachel Lyon is the author of Self-Portrait With Boy, which was long-listed for the Center for Fiction’s 2018 First Novel Prize and the 2020 International Dublin Literary Award. Her short work has appeared or is forthcoming in publications including One Story, Longreads, Joyland, and Electric Literature. Editor-in-Chief of Epiphany magazine and cofounder of the reading series Ditmas Lit, Rachel has taught at Catapult, the Sackett Street Writers Workshop, Slice Literary, and elsewhere. She lives in Brooklyn, her hometown. * This event was made possible in part by the Queens Council on the Arts, with public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Where is all of the literary love for Queens? It’s right here at LIC Reading Series. Join them each week for stories, readings, and discussions with acclaimed writers, recorded with a live audience in the cozy carriage house of a classic pub in Long Island City, Queens, New York, and hosted by founder Catherine LaSota. This week, the podcast features the reading and panel discussion from the LIC Reading Series event on March 13, 2018, with Jared Harél (Go Because I Love You), Morgan Jerkins (This Will Be My Undoing), and Rachel Lyon (Self-Portrait With Boy). Check back Thursday for the discussion! About the Readers: Jared Harél is the author of Go Because I Love You (Diode Editions, 2018) and The Body Double (Brooklyn Arts Press, 2012). His poems have appeared in such journals as Tin House, Threepenny Review, the Southern Review, Massachusetts Review, Poetry Daily, Bennington Review, 32 Poems, and Newtown Literary. He has received the Stanley Kunitz Memorial Prize from American Poetry Review, the William Matthews Poetry Prize from Asheville Poetry Review, and an Individual Artist Grant from Queens Council on the Arts. Harél teaches writing at Nassau Community College and lives in Queens, New York with his wife and two kids. Morgan Jerkins is a contributing editor at Catapult and a former Book of the Month judge. On the freelance side, her work has appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Times, the Atlantic, ELLE, Lenny Letter, Rolling Stone, The New Republic, and BuzzFeed, among many others. Morgan runs a TinyLetter called Meraki. Her debut essay collection, This Will Be My Undoing, was released by Harper Perennial, and her next book, Wandering in Strange Lands comes out later this year. Rachel Lyon is the author of Self-Portrait With Boy, which was long-listed for the Center for Fiction’s 2018 First Novel Prize and the 2020 International Dublin Literary Award. Her short work has appeared or is forthcoming in publications including One Story, Longreads, Joyland, and Electric Literature. Editor-in-Chief of Epiphany magazine and cofounder of the reading series Ditmas Lit, Rachel has taught at Catapult, the Sackett Street Writers Workshop, Slice Literary, and elsewhere. She lives in Brooklyn, her hometown. * This event was made possible in part by the Queens Council on the Arts, with public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Guest: Imin Yeh Host: Christopher Kardambikis Recorded at Carnegie Mellon University on July 17th, 2019 in Pittsburgh, PA. Imin Yeh is based in Pittsburgh, PA. She is an interdisciplinary and project-based artist working in sculpture, installation, and participatory events. Recent exhibitions include university galleries at Ithaca College and the College of New Jersey, San Jose Museum of Art, Asian Art Museum (San Francisco), and at the Contemporary Jewish Museum (San Francisco). She has been an Artist in Residency at Montalvo Art Center (Saratoga, CA), Blue Mountain Center (New York), Sandarbh Artist Workshop (Partapur, India), and at Recology San Francisco. She is a recipient of a Eureka Fellowship from the Fleishhacker Foundation and an Individual Artist Grant from the San Francisco Arts Commission. Imin Yeh holds a MFA from the California College of Arts. She is currently an Assistant Professor at Carnegie Mellon University School of Art. iminyeh.info --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/paper-cuts/support

Edra Soto is a Puerto Rico born, Chicago based, interdisciplinary artist, educator and curator whose architectural projects connect with communities. Soto's temporary modular SCREENHOUSE pavilions are evocative symbols of her cultural assimilation that we can enter and share. Each free-standing structure functions as both sculptural object and social gathering place. Couched in beauty, her ongoing OPEN 24 HOURS project offers a different visceral encounter — with evidence of displacement and want. The aesthetic display of cast-off liquor bottles culled from steadily accumulating detritus in the historically Black neighborhood she now calls home suggests that we consider the personal and communal impact of poverty and racism. During a studio visit with the artist in Northwest Chicago, we talk about recent iterations of these projects. In concert with the 2019 Chicago Architecture Biennial, the Millennium Park Foundation commissioned the artist to produce a temporary gathering place in one of the park’s outdoor galleries. Only steps from Anish Kapoor’s Cloud Gate, she worked with a team to construct SCREENHOUSE. The 10-foot high pavilion made of 400 charcoal-hued, 12-inch cast concrete blocks is part of an ongoing project, an architectural series inspired by iron grills and decorative concrete screen blocks found throughout the Caribbean and the American South. New versions of OPEN 24 HOURS are on view in two 2020 exhibitions. One appears in Open House: Domestic Thresholds at the Albright-Knox Museum, in Buffalo, New York. Cognac bottles carefully arranged on shelves with decorative panels reveal the artist’s connection to two places she calls home. More liquor bottles command attention in the three-part installation she designed for State of the Art 2020. Featuring work by artists from across the United States, the exhibition celebrates the opening of The Momentary, a new contemporary art space at the Crystal Bridges Museum, in Bentonville, Arkansas. Sound Editor: Anamnesis Audio  Related Episodes and Photo Features: Architecture with a Sense of Place, Views—Chicago Architecture Biennial 2019, Fresh VUE: Chicago Art and Architecture 2017 Related Links: Edra Soto, The Momentary, State of the Art 2020, Crystal Bridges Museum of Art, Knox-Albright Museum, Millennium Park, Chicago Architecture Biennial 2019 About Edra Soto: Born in Puerto Rico and based in Chicago, Edra Soto is an interdisciplinary artist, educator, curator, and co-director of the outdoor project space THE FRANKLIN. She is invested in creating and providing visual and educational models propelled by empathy and generosity. Her recent projects, which are motivated by civic and social actions, focus on fostering relationships with a wide range of communities.  Recent venues presenting Soto’s work include Chicago Cultural Center (IL), Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art (KS), Pérez Art Museum Miami (FL), Museo de Arte de Puerto Rico (PR), Hunter EastHarlem Gallery (NY), UIC Gallery 400 (IL), Smart Museum (IL), Bemis Center for Contemporary Art (NE), DePaul Art Museum, and the Museum of Contemporary Art of Chicago (IL). Soto was awarded the Efroymson Contemporary Arts Fellowship, the DCASE for Individual Artist Grant from the City of Chicago, the 3Arts Make A Wave award, and 3Arts Projects grants, and the Illinois Arts Council grant.  Soto holds an MFA from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and a Bachelor of Arts from Escuela de Artes Plásticas de Puerto Rico. She teaches Introduction to Social Engagement at University of Illinois in Chicago and is a lecturer at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.  About SCREENHOUSE: Decorative screens, known as rejas and quiebrasoles, are ubiquitous in Soto’s birthplace in Puerto Rico. In her SCREENHOUSE series, Soto transforms the quiebrasol form from a planar screen that divides public from private into a nearly fully enclosed, free-standing structure that functions as both sculptural object and social gathering place. About OPEN 24 HOURS: Witnessing the excessive accumulation of litter and detritus in the historic African American neighborhood of East Garfield Park where she lives motivated Edra Soto to initiate this ongoing project. Since December 2016, Soto has been collecting, cleaning and classifying cast-off liquor bottles to create installations that display the impact of racism and poverty on this marginalized community in Chicago. Bourbon Empire, the book quoted below, recounts the historic connection between African Americans and cognac from its genesis in the 1930s to contemporary repercussions instigated by hip-hop and rap culture. “Cognac’s relationship with African American consumers started later, when black soldiers stationed in southwest France were introduced to it during both world wars. The connection between cognac producers and black consumers was likely bolstered by the arrival of black artists and musicians... France appreciated these distinctive art forms before the U.S. did, continuing a French tradition dating back to Alexis de Tocqueville of understanding aspects of American culture better than Americans did. For African Americans, the elegant cognac of a country that celebrated their culture instead of marginalizing it must have tasted sweet ... During the 1990s, cognac sales were slow, and the industry was battling an image populated by fusty geriatrics. Then references to cognac began surfacing in rap lyrics, a phenomenon that peaked in 2001 with Busta Rhymes and P. Diddy’s hit “Pass the Courvoisier,” causing sales of the brand to jump 30 percent. During the next five years, other rappers teamed up with brands, and increased overall sales of cognac in the U.S. by a similar percentage, according to the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States.” —Reid Mitenbuler, author of Bourbon Empire: The Past and Future of America’s Whiskey

Latinx Poet Laureate of Philadelphia. Witness the Isthmus. Books for Unaccompanied Minors. Guests: Raquel Salas Rivera is poet Laureate of Philadelphia, and Geographer and storyteller Jessica Ofelia Alvarenga created the powerful exhibit Witness the Isthmus. Find out about a book drive for unaccompanied minors trapped in the immigration system. Bios Jessica Ofelia Alvarenga is a visual geographer and storyteller based out of Houston, Texas. Coupled with her background in journalism and social justice organizing, she uses photography as a way to document and reimagine immigrant narratives, particularly that of the Central American Diaspora. Her interests include urban political economies; religion and sexuality; diasporic identities; and volcanoes. She is the co-founder of Mujeres en Medio, an online media collective for women of color. In Spring 2017, she was awarded an Individual Artist Grant from the Houston Arts Alliance and the City of Houston. Jessica holds a Bachelor’s degree in Geography from the University of Texas-Austin. Raquel Salas Rivera es la poeta laureada de la ciudad de Filadelfia del 2018-19 y becaria de CantoMundo del 2018. Sus poemas han aparecido en revistas tales como la Revista del Instituto de Cultura Puertorriqueña, Apogee y el Boston Review. Es la autora de Caneca de anhelos turbios (Editora Educación Emergente), oropel/tinsel (Lark Books), tierra intermitente (Ediciones Alayubia) y lo terciario/the tertiary (Timeless, Infinite Light). En la actualidad, es co-editora para The Wanderer y co-editora de Puerto Rico en mi corazón, una colección bilingüe de volantes de poetas puertorriqueños contemporáneos. Producers: Leti Lopez & Marlen Treviño. Board Operators: Alex Sorto, and Joe Anthony Trevino. Founder and Director: Tony Diaz, El Librotraicante NP Radio airs live Tuesdays 6pm-7pm cst 90.1 FM KPFT Houston, TX. Livestream www.KPFT.org. More podcasts at www.NuestraPalabra.org. The Nuestra Palabra Radio Show is archived at the University of Houston Digital Archives. Our hard copy archives are kept at the Houston Public Library’s Special Collections Hispanic Archives. Tony Diaz Sundays, Mondays, & Tuesdays & The Other Side Sun 7am "What's Your Point" Fox 26 Houston Mon Noon "The Cultural Accelerator" at www.TonyDiaz.net Tues 6pm NP Lit Radio 90.1 FM KPFT, Houston www.NuestraPalabra.org 24/7 The Other Side TV www.TheOtherSideTele.com

The official word on HEAZZA (aka Heather Leonhardt) is that she is a recipient of the 2018 Individual Artist Grant from the City of Chicago & among the newest sounds coming out of Chicago in 2018. She brings uniquely soulful songwriting that forges 21st century soundscapes and neo-romantic indie-rock. Yup, she's a musical bad ass and we have her here for a quick episode. We get into some new cool bands (Highasakite) as well as some old cool bands (Red Hot Chilli Peppers) along with learning about one of music's brightest sounds right here in Chicago! If you'd like to check out what HEAZZA is all about check her out on Facebook & https://soundcloud.com/heazzaofficial.

Yona Harvey is the author of the poetry collection, Hemming the Water (Four Way Books, 2013), and the recipient of an Individual Artist Grant from The Pittsburgh Foundation. Her work has been published in jubilat, Gulf Coast, Callaloo, West Branch, and many other journals and anthologies, including A Poet's Craft: A Comprehensive Guide to Making and Sharing Your Poetry (ed. Annie Finch; University of Michigan Press, 2012). She lives with her husband and two children not far from where jazz pianist and composer Mary Lou Williams grew up. Williams married the spiritual to the secular in her music, and is a regular muse in Yona's writing.

This week: Two features for the price of...well....nothing actually, but you get where I was going with it. First Richard talks to Attorney Scott Hodes, about his work with Christo and Jean-Claude, keeping public art programs honest, the Visual Artist Rights Act and more! Then BAS India correspondant and Fullbright Scholar Tanya Gill checks in with a report of the 2013 India Art Fair, and tells us why it is totally different than last years fair. Scott Hodes has been in active practice for more than four decades. As a corporate lawyer, he represents clients in sophisticated corporate transactions from structuring of corporate entities to financing at all levels from private placements to public offerings, and frequently, to counseling clients in merger and acquisition activities. He also handles complex financing transactions as counsel for a variety of large Chicago banks. Mr. Hodes also practices in the field of art law and represents a number of prominent artists, dealers and collectors in all aspects of their business. He has published three books on art and the law, and has written and spoken extensively on this subject. Mr. Hodes serves as a director of Richardson Electronics, Ltd. and a director emeritus of the Foundation of the Federal Bar Association in Washington, D.C. In 2007, he was elected a director of the Chicago Bar Foundation. He is a founding member and former chairman of the planning committee for the annual Mutual Funds and Investment Management Conference now sponsored by the Investment Company Institute. Mr. Hodes is a recognized leader in metropolitan Chicago’s business community. Long active in bar, civic and political affairs, he was elected to serve three terms on the Democratic State Central Committee (1970-1982). He has served as co-chairman of the Illinois Attorney General’s Advisory Commission and as chairman of Chicago’s Navy Pier Development Authority from 1988 to 1990. He has served as principal outside counsel to the Arts in Embassies Program of the U.S. State Department from 1991 to 1993. He was co-chairman of the Private Enterprise Review and Advisory Board of the State of Illinois from 1992 to 1994, and was appointed in 1994 by the governor and served as a member of the State of Illinois Savings Board until 2010. Mr. Hodes was the national chairman of LAWBOOKS, U.S.A., a program sponsored by the United States Information Agency, and served as a member of the U.S. State Department’s Advisory Committee on Investment, Technology and Development. He was counsel to The Harold Washington Foundation. Mr. Hodes is a founder and past president and a director of The Lawyers for the Creative Arts. He serves as a trustee and member of the Executive Committee of the National Museum of Mexican Art in Chicago, a director of the Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce, and as a consultant to the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation. Tanya Hastings Gill has mastered the age-old art of paper cutting in a contemporary context. She utilizes reflective color, shadows and open installation to engage the space with her hand cut paper creations. Gill has been a fellow at McDowell Artists Colony, an Artist in Residence at The Ragdale Foundation, an Affiliate at Headlands Center for the Arts and a recipient of the Individual Artist Grant from the Marin Arts Council. In 1997 she received her MFA from Cranbrook Academy of Art and in 1992 her BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Tanya Gill is a devoted teacher of visual art. She has taught at the California State University of Sacramento, California; Randolph-Macon College in Ashland, Virginia; and at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago’s Contemporary Practices Department.          Tanya Gill has been awarded the Nehru-Fulbright 2011-12 Scholarship to conduct research and evolve her own artwork. Her focus is the intersection of Indian Contemporary Art and Handicraft. She is currently living in New Delhi, India, with her family. **Please note, Atty. Hodes bio and headshot were perilously lifted from the Bryan Cave LLP website. Yes, we know we should have called and asked and yes, we know you could squash us like bugs. It's 1:23 a.m. early Monday morning, we decided you'd rather sleep. Besides, we love you fine folks at Bryan Cave LLP. http://www.bryancave.com/scotthodes/ Don't hurt us. If you need a sacrificial offering we'll send Duncan over post haste.