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The Geography of Home includes interviews with artists and curators who use research and historical data to shed light on inequities for Black homeowners and residents of public housing. Our first guest, Tonika Lewis Johnson, is a photographer, social justice artist and life-long resident of Chicago’s South Side neighborhood of Englewood. She is also co-founder of the Englewood Arts Collective and Resident Association of Greater Englewood, which seek to reframe the narrative of South Side communities, and mobilize people and resources for positive change. Tonika’s art often explores urban segregation, documenting the nuance and richness of the Black community to counter media depictions of Chicago’s violence. In 2017, she was recognized by Chicago Magazine as a Chicagoan of the Year for her photography of Englewood's everyday beauty. Her Englewood-based photography projects "From the INside," and "Everyday Rituals," were exhibited at Rootwork Gallery in Pilsen, the Chicago Cultural Center, the Harold Washington Library Center and at Loyola University's Museum of Art (LUMA). LUMA also exhibited her Folded Map project in 2018, which visually investigates disparities among “map twins”—Chicago residents who live on opposite ends of the same streets across the city’s racial and economic divides—and brings them together to have a conversation. An excerpt of the project was also displayed at the Museum of Contemporary Art within The Long Dream exhibition. In 2019, she was named one of Field Foundation’s Leaders for a New Chicago. Most recently, Tonika was selected as the National Public Housing Museum’s 2021 Artist as Instigator. Her newest project, Inequity for Sale, highlights the living history of Greater Englewood homes sold on Land Sale Contracts in the 50s and 60s. Tiff Beatty is a cultural organizer, arts administrator, performance poet, and host. She is the current program director of arts, culture, and public policy at National Public Housing Museum in Chicago. Tiff Beatty was a 2019-2021 Chicago United for Equity Fellow and Senior Fellow and received the additional distinction of the 2019 Field Leader Award from the Field Foundation of Illinois. Her work has been covered by The New York Times, Crain's Chicago Business, Ebony Magazine, Chicago Tribune and several other local and national media. Learn more about our featured music artist, PHENOM, at phenomuniversal.com. This episode includes an abridged version of his song, PHEGODOH.
Folded Map Project
National Public Housing Museum
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Sound Ecology is a continuation of our Season 2 theme, Art Meets Science. In this episode we experience the work of sound artists and musicians. We're moving at a meditative pace and providing listeners with a contemplative, relaxing experience. First up will be a six minute sound experience entitled "Shivering Sands," the contemplative ambient music project of singer-songwriter Angela James and multi-instrumentalist Jordan Martins.
After "Shivering Sands" is an interview with sound artist, Norman W. Long, followed by his sound piece entitled "Expanded Field." Norman’s practice involves walking, listening, improvising, performing, recording and composing to create environments and situations in which he and the audience are engaged in dialogues about memory, place, ecology, culture, race, value, silence and the invisible. Norman Long has performed and exhibited at Experimental Sound Studio, Kavi Gupta Gallery, Links Hall, Elastic Arts,Green Line Performing Arts Center, Chicago Humanities Festival, Chicago Cultural Center and 2021 Chicago Architecture Biennial. Norman has performed with Damon Locks, Tatsuya Nakatani, Cher Jey, Sara Zalek, Cristal Sabbagh, Xris Espinoza, Adam Zanolini, Dan Bitney and Todd Carter and performed and toured with Angel Bat Dawid and the Brothahood. He has released his compositions on Hausu Mountain, Reserve Matinee and Room40 labels. His latest release, BLACK BROWN GRAY GREEN, was released in September 2021 on Hausu Mountain.
The Pivot Arts Podcast is created and produced by Julieanne Ehre with sound engineering by Hannah Foerschler and original music composed by Andrew Hansen. Generous support for the podcast is provided by FLATS, a Chicago-based apartment community. For more information on Pivot Arts visit pivotarts.org.
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Virtual and augmented reality are the wave of the future. How are these nascent technologies being integrated into performance, immersive experiences and artistic practice? Learn more from contemporary theater and dance artists working at the forefront of these technologies.
Meet Our Guests
Jo Cattell (Playwright/Director) is a leading voice in the convergence of live theatre and immersive technologies. Her work has appeared at Sundance Film Festival, the BBC, Sky Television, Cirque du Soleil, and multiple US and London theatre's. Cattell is a member of the LightPoets digital and immersive theatre collective, whose immersive graphic novel, PARTICLE, is being developed for live performance and as an AR mobile game. She is also under commission with San Francisco State University's Fabula(b) to adapt Shakespeare’s KING LEAR into an AR immersive theatrical experience. She is a 3Arts awardee, a Joan Mitchell Center Fellow, a 2021 Illinois Artist Fellow and a Perkins Coie awardee. Cattell was the Maggio Directing Fellow at Chicago’s Goodman Theatre, with whom she is currently collaborating with the world-renowned Electronic Visualization Lab at the University of Illinois to create HUMMINGBIRD, an immersive theatrical experience with VR.
http://thefarsightedmonkey.com/
Christopher Knowlton, Ph.D., is a freelance movement artist and independent choreographer based in Chicago. He has worked as a collaborative performer with many artists, including ATOM-r, Erica Mott, Sildance/Acrodanza, Same Planet Performance Project, Khecari, Synapse Arts and UChicago STAGE Lab, among others. His own work spans multiple performative, interactive and immersive forms that explore the intersections of art, science, dance and technology. His work has been featured locally and internationally, including in Science Magazine’s Dance Your Ph.D. Competition, TEDxWindyCity in Chicago, DANSCIENCE Festival in Canberra, Brisbane and Sydney, Chicago International Puppet Theater Festival, the Movement Computing Conference, the International Society of Biomechanics and the Field Museum in Chicago. Chris is currently a Chicago Dancemakers Forum 2020 Lab Artist. In addition to performing and choreographing, Chris is a biomechanical research scientist and manages the Motion Analysis Laboratory at Rush University Medical Center.
The Pivot Arts Podcast is produced, edited and hosted by Julieanne Ehre with additional editing and sound engineering by Hannah Foerschler and original music composed by Andrew Hansen. The podcast is a program of Pivot Arts, an adventurous performance organization based in Chicago. You can learn more about us at pivotarts.org or follow us @PivotArts. The Pivot Arts Podcast is sponsored by FLATS, a Chicago-based apartment community.
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At the heart of most performance practice is storytelling. How can the arts impact the climate narrative? What can individuals and institutions do to make a difference when it comes to climate change? We’ll speak with a variety of artists, activists and experts about their work in shaping the story on climate and then close out with our featured artist, Nefertiti Abdulmalik, also known as SolAR Lightbeam. Be sure to visit our website pivotarts.org and click on "Get Updates" to stay informed about Pivot Arts or follow us @PivotArts.
EPISODE 1: RESHAPING THE CLIMATE NARRATIVE GUESTS:
Annalisa Dias (she/her) is a Goan-American transdisciplinary artist, community organizer, and award-winning theatre maker working at the intersection of racial justice and care for the earth. She is Director of Artistic Partnerships & Innovation at Baltimore Center Stage and a Co-Founder of Groundwater Arts. Prior to joining BCS, Annalisa was a Producing Playwright and Acting Creative Producer with The Welders, a DC playwright’s collective; and a Co-Founder of the DC Coalition for Theatre & Social Justice. For more information on the Green New Theatre Initiative visit: groundwaterarts.com/green-new-theatre
Hans Detweiler (he/him) Senior Director, Development at Jupiter Power LLC, has a demonstrated history in renewable energy project development. As vice president of development at Clean Line Energy, he directed development of long-distance overhead transmission line projects for wind power. He also oversaw development of a 1,000-MW wind farm in New Mexico, served as director of state policy for the American Wind Energy Association and was deputy director for energy and recycling at the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity.
Kristin Idaszak (she/they) is a two-time Playwrights’ Center Jerome Fellow and the former Shank Playwriting Fellow at the Goodman Theatre. Idaszak has received commissions from the Goodman, EST/the Sloan Foundation, Cleveland Play House, St. Louis Shakespeare Festival, and TimeLine Theatre. Her play SECOND SKIN received the Kennedy Center’s Paula Vogel Playwriting Award and the Jean Kennedy Smith Playwriting Award, and her play ANOTHER JUNGLE was a Relentless Award Honorable Mention. She was the Kennedy Center Fellow at the Sundance Theatre Lab. She is a Resident Playwright at Chicago Dramatists and adjunct faculty at The Theatre School at DePaul University and Northwestern University.
SolAR*, Nefertiti Abdulmalik (she/her) raised on Chicago’s Northside, recently presented her video animation work Portal to New Earth as part of the 2021 Pivot Arts Festival. She has always been drawn towards the arts and nature. Her current focus is to create works that illustrate nature and how it is interconnected. Nefertiti holds a BFA in Animation from DePaul University and is now beginning her career as a performing artist, combining her love for music, dance, animation and storytelling. By blending together animated visuals, music and story, she shares messages of human empowerment, imagination and nature connection.
Episode 1 was produced and edited by Julieanne Ehre with original music by Andrew Hansen and sound engineering by Hannah Foerschler.
The Pivot Arts Podcast is made possible by FLATS, a Chicago based apartment community.
Mentions in Episode Include:
"All We Can Save: Truth, Courage, and Solutions for the Climate Crisis" Edited by Ayana Elizabeth Johnson and Katharine K. Wilkinson
"Emergent Strategy: Shaping Change, Changing Worlds" by Adrienne Maree Brown
Groundwater Arts
Illinois' Stretch Code
Heat Pump Technology
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Our final episode in the "Reimagining Utopia" series focuses on "Utopia In Performance" and includes conversations with artists who are creating works that give us hope and imagine a better, more equitable society.
Damon Locks is an artist, musician and educator as well as the founder and leader of Black Monument Ensemble, a vibrant collective of artists, musicians, singers and dancers, making work with common goals of joy, compassion and intention. The contributors come from all facets of the diverse well-spring of Black Excellence in Chicago and are a multi-generational group ranging in age from 9-52 years old at this recording. In addition to Locks, current and consistent BME members include: instrumentalists Angel Bat Dawid, Ben LaMar Gay, Dana Hall, and Arif Smith; singers Phillip Armstrong, Monique Golding, Rayna Golding, Tramaine Parker, Richie Parks, Erica Rene, and Eric Tre’von; and dancers Raven Lewis, Cheyenne Spencer, Mary Thomas, Bryonna Young, Tiarra Young, and Keisha Janae.
Locks has a stated interest in work that explores “The Black Nod” which, as he explains, is “an unspoken acknowledgment that happens often out in the world – a sort of ‘I see you’ moment exchanged between Black people.” His work with BME attempts to do the same. Fronted by a jubilant choir, the ensemble embraces a kind of civically engaged, artistic approach to activism originally heard in the 1960s from bands like the Voices of East Harlem and on albums like Max Roach’s We Insist; or originally seen in the photography of Kwame Brathwaite and the art of Emory Douglas. Merging influence from the subsequent half-century of artistic & technological evolution, Locks employs a cyber-punk palette of disparate implements (including beatbox, boombox, telephone, and megaphone) to make narrative compositions of mined sound, beats & archival speech (a la Madlib or Supa K) which are brought to life by the ensemble in electric, improvisational performance. It’s a truly multi-dimensional sound that spans mediums, genres, and generations; past, present, & future.
Founded in 2014, Propelled Animals is a group of artists, dancers, scholars, musicians, and designers who embed innovative and provocative art in unconventional spaces. They are committed to creating work that interrogates, challenges, and ultimately attempts to dismantle the systemic "isms" of oppression. They adapt their projects and processes to address the specific needs of the communities they engage. Our performances encourage efficacy of the body, resilience, and radical tenderness as strategies for self-empowerment. Their work is centered on art as social action and ritual as performance.
The Propelled Animals have presented work nationally including six site-specific performances at institutions including: University of Iowa and Englert Theatre (Iowa City, IA); University of Northern Iowa (Cedar Falls, IA); Wassaic Project (Wassaic, NY); Grinnell College (Grinnell, IA); Lynden Sculpture Garden (Milwaukee, WI). In 2019 they were artists-in-residence at Lynden Sculpture Garden and the STUDIO for Creative Inquiry at Carnegie Mellon University.
This episode Includes the song "Now (Forever Momentary Space)" by Black Monument Ensemble with the following artists:
Players:
Angel Bat Dawid – clarinet
Ben LaMar Gay – cornet & melodica
Dana Hall – drums
Damon Locks – samples & electronics
Arif Smith – percussion
Singers:
Phillip Armstrong
Monique Golding
Tramaine Parker
Richie Parks
Erica Rene
Eric Tre’von
Lyrics & Compositions by: Damon Locks. Recorded August 27th-28th and September 29th, 2020, at Experimental Sound Studio, Chicago. Engineered & Mixed by: Alex Inglizian. Mastered by: David Allen.The episode also includes an audio excerpt of Propelled Animals collaborator Boubacar Djiga playing the tama – which was used in their piece STATE(D) part of the 2021 Pivot Arts Festival performance tour.
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Multidisciplinary artist, Jovan Landry, and Tony Award-winning director and Artistic Director of Chicago's Goodman Theatre, Robert Falls, talk about deepening their artistic work and leading during times of crisis.
We'll learn about Synergy, the first all women hip-hop album and then hear an excerpt from that work. The episode closes out with a segment from School Girls; Or, The African Mean Girls Play by Jocelyn Bioh and directed by Lili-Anne Brown. The play was scheduled to open in March of 2020 and will resume performances when it's safe to gather.
"Interlude: Chicago Woman Hip-Hop", from Synergy, the first all-woman produced, performed, and engineered Hip-Hop album. An Interview with Chicago Hip-Hop Veterans Femcee Flipside, Unmuvabo, Lady Gemstar, Jaquanda Villegas, and Tasleem Jamila, on what it means to be a woman in hip-hop from Chicago. Recorded and arranged by Jovan Landry, music produced by Qisum, mixed and mastered by Viibez.
School Girls; Or, The African Mean Girls Play by Jocelyn Bioh and directed by Lili-Anne Brown and produced by the Goodman Theatre. This excerpt includes performances by Lanise Antoine Shelley and Tania Richard.
Pivot Arts is an adventurous performance organization and you can learn more about us at pivotarts.org. This episode was sponsored by FLATS, a Chicago based apartment community with editing by Hannah Foerschler and original music by Andrew Hansen. Graphic design by Vin Reed. Your host and producer for Pivot Arts is Julieanne Ehre.
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Performing artists Jenn Freeman (Po'Chop) and Anna Martine Whitehead in conversation about their work. We'll learn about Black women from history like Jackie Ormes, the first African American female cartoonist and creator of the Torchy Brown comic strip. We'll talk what it means to be invisible-ized and the Abolitionist theory that there is no "away." The episode also features performances by spoken word artist, Tiff Beatty, a song from Whitehead's upcoming opera, "Force!" as well as original music sung and composed by Stacy Rene Erenberg. We then close out with a conversation with theater artist and activist, Jocelyn Prince, Principal at ALJP Consulting, on the importance of staying vigilant in a fragile democracy.
Bronzeville G-ddamn was written and performed by Tiff Beatty as part of The People's Church of the G.H.E.T.T.O created by Jenn Freeman (Po'Chop). Zach's Song from FORCE! is sung by Zachary Nicol, Tramaine Parker, Daniella Pruitt, and Ayanna Woods; composed by Anna Martine Whitehead with arrangement by Ayanna Woods.
Pivot Arts is an adventurous performance organization. To learn more about us, visit pivotarts.org.
This episode was sponsored by FLATS, a Chicago-based apartment community, with editing by Hannah Foerschler and original music composed by Andrew Hansen. Graphic design by Vin Reed. Your host and producer for Pivot Arts is Julieanne Ehre.
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The Neo-Futurists are a popular theater collective best known for their long-running show, The Infinite Wrench, that includes 30 plays in 60 minutes. According to the Chicago Tribune: “The Neo-Futurists have created the most successful online show of the pandemic.” We'll hear from company members, Jorge Silva and Ida Cuttler, about their creative process and listen to short plays including "Eden" written by ensemble members Trevor Dawkins and KR Riiber, plus “Ongoing Covidspondence,” conceived by ensemble member Neil Bhandari as a series of monologues in the form of letters, written and performed by Ida Cuttler. This episode closes out with featured music artist, Jovan Landry.
To learn more about Pivot Arts go to pivotarts.org or follow us @PivotArts. This episode was sponsored by FLATS, a Chicago-based apartment community, and created in partnership with Audacious Machine Creative, with editing by Jeffrey Nils Gardner and original music composed by Andrew Hansen. Graphic design by Vin Reed. Your host and producer for Pivot Arts is Julieanne Ehre.
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A short welcome to the new Pivot Arts Podcast! Pivot Arts is an adventurous performance organization based in Chicago, IL. We produce multidisciplinary works including theater, dance, music, puppetry, film/video and hybrid performance. The podcast is for curious listeners, like you.
Be sure to subscribe for future episodes, we'll be talking with Ida Cuttler and Jorge Silva from the Neo-Futurists Theater in Episode 1. And, be sure to check us out at pivotarts.org where you can click "Get Updates" to stay connected. Or follow us on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook @PivotArts.
