Laura Flanders and Friends: Positive Independent Journalism for a Just World

This week, two artists who expand our ideas about beauty, risk, mobility, and inclusion. Wheelchair dancer and esteemed choreographer Alice Sheppard, and MacArthur Genius Award-winning action architect Elizabeth Streb. What difference does art make? Should art-making be a human right? What will it take to disable the limits society puts around “normal”?  Music Featured:  “How Do You Feel?” by Vanessa Daou from her “Welcome to My Blues:  Anthology (1994-2017)” released on Daou Music in conjunction with Kidd Recordings. For suggested reading, research and links to our guests and issues featured in this episode, go to: Patreon.com/theLFShow  That's where you can become a member. Our goal is to sign up 25 new members during our May Day to Memorial Day Membership Drive,    Laura Flanders and Friends Crew:  Laura Flanders, along with Sabrina Artel, Jeremiah Cothren, Veronica Delgado, Janet Hernandez, Jeannie Hopper, Gina Kim, Sarah Miller, Nat Needham, David Neuman, and Rory O’Conner.  FOLLOW Laura Flanders and FriendsInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/lauraflandersandfriends/Blueky:  https://bsky.app/profile/lfandfriends.bsky.socialFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/LauraFlandersAndFriends/Tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lauraflandersandfriendsYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFLRxVeYcB1H7DbuYZQG-lgLinkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/lauraflandersandfriendsPatreon:   https://www.patreon.com/lauraflandersandfriendsACCESSIBILITY - The broadcast edition of this episode is available with closed captioned by clicking here for our YouTube Channel

Art organizations and sponsorship dollars have gone hand in hand for decades. But with backlash and protests over donors ethics, should cultural institutions begin looking into new funding streams? We look at the role of private dollars vs. public good in cultural art institutions. PLUS, A AUDIO EXCLUSIVE: The conversation continues with guest Jonathan H. Marks We discuss his new book “Perils of Partnership.” Music Featured: Reverend Billy & The Stop Shopping Choir, a radical activist performance community, with “Beatitudes”, from their premiere album “The Shopocalypse.” Guests: L.A. Kauffman, activist and member of Sackler P.A.I.N and Author, HOW TO READ A PROTEST Professor Jonathan H. Marks Director of the Bioethics Program at Penn State University, and affiliate faculty in law and international affairs. And author of a new book “Perils of Partnership” Jess Worth, Activist, co-founder of “BP or not BP”and the Art Not Oil coalitions and currently is the co-director of Culture Unstained. For suggested reading, research and links to our guests and issues featured in this episode, go to: Patreon.com/theLFShow  Laura Flanders and Friends Crew:  Laura Flanders, along with Sabrina Artel, Jeremiah Cothren, Veronica Delgado, Janet Hernandez, Jeannie Hopper, Gina Kim, Sarah Miller, Nat Needham, David Neuman, and Rory O’Conner.  FOLLOW Laura Flanders and FriendsInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/lauraflandersandfriends/Blueky:  https://bsky.app/profile/lfandfriends.bsky.socialFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/LauraFlandersAndFriends/Tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lauraflandersandfriendsYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFLRxVeYcB1H7DbuYZQG-lgLinkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/lauraflandersandfriendsPatreon:   https://www.patreon.com/lauraflandersandfriendsACCESSIBILITY - The broadcast edition of this episode is available with closed captioned by clicking here for our YouTube Channel

"The Attorney General’s testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee and his standoff with the House may be important. Something, sometime, may come of it. But let’s consider the opportunity cost of all that one-note coverage." The F-Word, Laura Flanders' commentary.
Support the LFShow! You'll receive a copy of Laura Flanders' Izzy Award acceptance speech on independent journalism and additional audio extras and more by becoming a member for as little as $2 a month.  Laura Flanders and Friends Crew:  Laura Flanders, along with Sabrina Artel, Jeremiah Cothren, Veronica Delgado, Janet Hernandez, Jeannie Hopper, Gina Kim, Sarah Miller, Nat Needham, David Neuman, and Rory O’Conner.  FOLLOW Laura Flanders and FriendsInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/lauraflandersandfriends/Blueky:  https://bsky.app/profile/lfandfriends.bsky.socialFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/LauraFlandersAndFriends/Tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lauraflandersandfriendsYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFLRxVeYcB1H7DbuYZQG-lgLinkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/lauraflandersandfriendsPatreon:   https://www.patreon.com/lauraflandersandfriendsACCESSIBILITY - The broadcast edition of this episode is available with closed captioned by clicking here for our YouTube Channel

Recently, a fire at Highlander Center gained national attention for the historic movement institution. Donations, messages of love, and some knee-jerk panic poured in for the co-directors, well known to the Laura Flanders Show. Co-directors Ash-Lee Woodard Henderson and Rev. Allyn Maxfield-Steele join us from Chattanooga to discuss the fire at their home, as well as arsons across the country and world, at Black churches, at Notre Dame, and in Sri Lanka. Has capitalism limited our empathy? More in this episode: Pakistani activist, lawyer, and feminist on why digital rights are fundamentally civil and human rights that women deserve. Advances to allow for women’s access to technology have been made in Pakistan, says Dad. But true freedom of access is still a long ways away As an organizer of Pakistan’s aurat march (Women’s March), Dad has experienced both the danger and the satisfaction that can come from challenging cultural restrictions. She is the founder and Executive Director of Pakistan’s Digital Rights Foundation. Music Featured:  "Power Justice and Love" by Morley from her album 1000 Miles released on Six Degrees Records. For suggested reading, research and links to our guests and issues featured in this episode, go to: Patreon.com/theLFShow  Laura Flanders and Friends Crew:  Laura Flanders, along with Sabrina Artel, Jeremiah Cothren, Veronica Delgado, Janet Hernandez, Jeannie Hopper, Gina Kim, Sarah Miller, Nat Needham, David Neuman, and Rory O’Conner.  FOLLOW Laura Flanders and FriendsInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/lauraflandersandfriends/Blueky:  https://bsky.app/profile/lfandfriends.bsky.socialFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/LauraFlandersAndFriends/Tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lauraflandersandfriendsYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFLRxVeYcB1H7DbuYZQG-lgLinkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/lauraflandersandfriendsPatreon:   https://www.patreon.com/lauraflandersandfriendsACCESSIBILITY - The broadcast edition of this episode is available with closed captioned by clicking here for our YouTube Channel

Search for school cheating stories today and you’ll find a slew of articles and news reports on parents charged in the recent college admissions scandal. But skip back to 2015 and the eyes of the education world were on Georgia, where the state’s longest-running criminal case involved teachers and administrators, predominantly Black, accused and convicted in a RICO case of changing student test results to improve test scores. A new book, None of the Above: The Untold Story of the Atlanta Public Schools Cheating Scandal, Corporate Greed, and the Criminalization of Educators, aims to correct the record on the story and draw attention to the broader issue of how our system has failed both educators and students and how a grab by corporate interests from public housing to charter schools is at play putting profits over people. Joining us in this episode are co-authors Shani Robinson, a teacher who was charged and incarcerated in the case, and Anna Simonton, reporter and writer. For more information and to listen to the interview in its' entirety, go to Patreon.com/theLFShow  Laura Flanders and Friends Crew:  Laura Flanders, along with Sabrina Artel, Jeremiah Cothren, Veronica Delgado, Janet Hernandez, Jeannie Hopper, Gina Kim, Sarah Miller, Nat Needham, David Neuman, and Rory O’Conner.  FOLLOW Laura Flanders and FriendsInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/lauraflandersandfriends/Blueky:  https://bsky.app/profile/lfandfriends.bsky.socialFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/LauraFlandersAndFriends/Tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lauraflandersandfriendsYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFLRxVeYcB1H7DbuYZQG-lgLinkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/lauraflandersandfriendsPatreon:   https://www.patreon.com/lauraflandersandfriendsACCESSIBILITY - The broadcast edition of this episode is available with closed captioned by clicking here for our YouTube Channel

For our Patreon Community, you’ll find more in depth information on this week's show, including research materials and additional links to explore. Read Nate Powell’s About Face connecting paramilitary influence on civilian consumer style as we shrug off the encroaching normalization of fascism. And more on Mohammad Saba’aneh’s book, White & Black: Political Cartoons from Palestine, which draw attention to brutalities of the Israeli occupation and celebrate the Palestinians’ popular resistance. Music in the Middle:  “The Burning City” by Q Burns Abstract Message from his album “Audio Totem Pole”, released on 8D-Industries.  Laura Flanders and Friends Crew:  Laura Flanders, along with Sabrina Artel, Jeremiah Cothren, Veronica Delgado, Janet Hernandez, Jeannie Hopper, Gina Kim, Sarah Miller, Nat Needham, David Neuman, and Rory O’Conner.  FOLLOW Laura Flanders and FriendsInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/lauraflandersandfriends/Blueky:  https://bsky.app/profile/lfandfriends.bsky.socialFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/LauraFlandersAndFriends/Tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lauraflandersandfriendsYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFLRxVeYcB1H7DbuYZQG-lgLinkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/lauraflandersandfriendsPatreon:   https://www.patreon.com/lauraflandersandfriendsACCESSIBILITY - The broadcast edition of this episode is available with closed captioned by clicking here for our YouTube Channel

"These days, establishment journalists spend inordinate amounts of time, bemoaning their own welfare and the state of their beleaguered industry. but it’s rarely been journalism fed and watered by the establishment that’s asked anything uncomfortable and McKee called for us to have uncomfortable conversations." The F-Word, Laura Flanders' commentary. Support the LFShow!  Laura Flanders and Friends Crew:  Laura Flanders, along with Sabrina Artel, Jeremiah Cothren, Veronica Delgado, Janet Hernandez, Jeannie Hopper, Gina Kim, Sarah Miller, Nat Needham, David Neuman, and Rory O’Conner.  FOLLOW Laura Flanders and FriendsInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/lauraflandersandfriends/Blueky:  https://bsky.app/profile/lfandfriends.bsky.socialFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/LauraFlandersAndFriends/Tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lauraflandersandfriendsYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFLRxVeYcB1H7DbuYZQG-lgLinkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/lauraflandersandfriendsPatreon:   https://www.patreon.com/lauraflandersandfriendsACCESSIBILITY - The broadcast edition of this episode is available with closed captioned by clicking here for our YouTube Channel

Segregation in Education is as bad as ever, and no end appears to be sight. So what approaches might make a difference. What if Segregation, per se, wasn’t the problem? This week, educators speak out, and we visit an Afrocentric school in Brooklyn, where mindfulness and race are not a detail. Music Feature: “Plain Folks” by Alexis P. Suter and T.U.B.A., released on HipBone Records. Guests: -Rafiq R. Kalam Id-Din II, Esq. ,Founder & Managing Partner Ember Charter Schools for Mindful Education, Innovation and Transformation -Lurie Daniel-Favors, Esq. General Counsel, The Center for Law and Social Justice -Matt Gonzales, Director of School Diversity, New York Appleseed For our Patreon Community, you’ll find more in depth information on this weeks show, including research materials and additional links to explore.  Laura Flanders and Friends Crew:  Laura Flanders, along with Sabrina Artel, Jeremiah Cothren, Veronica Delgado, Janet Hernandez, Jeannie Hopper, Gina Kim, Sarah Miller, Nat Needham, David Neuman, and Rory O’Conner.  FOLLOW Laura Flanders and FriendsInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/lauraflandersandfriends/Blueky:  https://bsky.app/profile/lfandfriends.bsky.socialFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/LauraFlandersAndFriends/Tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lauraflandersandfriendsYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFLRxVeYcB1H7DbuYZQG-lgLinkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/lauraflandersandfriendsPatreon:   https://www.patreon.com/lauraflandersandfriendsACCESSIBILITY - The broadcast edition of this episode is available with closed captioned by clicking here for our YouTube Channel

It’s time to start looking at conflict in a new and different way -- and women are at the forefront. A look into a new PBS film series with an all-female directors that is focusing attention on what we can learn from women who risked their lives for peace --  and changed history in the process.  Guests: Julia Bacha, a Peabody and Guggenheim award-winning filmmaker, and director of “Naila and the Uprising”. Gini Reticker, an Academy Award-nominated and Emmy Award-winning filmmaker who  directed “The Trials of Spring” and is also an executive producer of the Women, War, and Peace series.  Music Spotlight:  Blake Leyh’s film score for Gini Reticker’s “The Trials of Spring". For our Patreon Community, you’ll find more in depth information on this week's show, including research materials and additional links to explore.  Laura Flanders and Friends Crew:  Laura Flanders, along with Sabrina Artel, Jeremiah Cothren, Veronica Delgado, Janet Hernandez, Jeannie Hopper, Gina Kim, Sarah Miller, Nat Needham, David Neuman, and Rory O’Conner.  FOLLOW Laura Flanders and FriendsInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/lauraflandersandfriends/Blueky:  https://bsky.app/profile/lfandfriends.bsky.socialFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/LauraFlandersAndFriends/Tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lauraflandersandfriendsYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFLRxVeYcB1H7DbuYZQG-lgLinkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/lauraflandersandfriendsPatreon:   https://www.patreon.com/lauraflandersandfriendsACCESSIBILITY - The broadcast edition of this episode is available with closed captioned by clicking here for our YouTube Channel

Trump’s hardline policies have all sorts of people asking how our immigration rules got to be so open to abuse - and what alternatives are out there? Is there any country that treats migrants right? And if so, what could we learn from them? Joining Laura to unpack these issues are Atossa Araxia Abrahamian, Senior Editor at The Nation magazine and author of “The Cosmopolites”, a book that focuses on the buying and selling of citizenship and John Torpey, Professor of Sociology and History and Director of the Ralph Bunche Institute for International Studies at the Graduate Center, of the City Univeristy of New York. He’s also the author of “The Invention of the Passport: Surveillance, Citizenship, and the State” that details the history of the modern passport and why it became so important for controlling movement in the modern world.  Laura Flanders and Friends Crew:  Laura Flanders, along with Sabrina Artel, Jeremiah Cothren, Veronica Delgado, Janet Hernandez, Jeannie Hopper, Gina Kim, Sarah Miller, Nat Needham, David Neuman, and Rory O’Conner.  FOLLOW Laura Flanders and FriendsInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/lauraflandersandfriends/Blueky:  https://bsky.app/profile/lfandfriends.bsky.socialFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/LauraFlandersAndFriends/Tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lauraflandersandfriendsYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFLRxVeYcB1H7DbuYZQG-lgLinkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/lauraflandersandfriendsPatreon:   https://www.patreon.com/lauraflandersandfriendsACCESSIBILITY - The broadcast edition of this episode is available with closed captioned by clicking here for our YouTube Channel