Race Matters

This week, Darren Lesaguis sat down in a deep chat with Andrew Brooks - who's one half of the critical art collective Snack Syndicate - alongside Astrid Lorange. Together, they make texts, objects, installations, and meals. Their collection of essays, Homework, was published in 2021 by Discipline. Andrew Brooks lectures in Media Cultures at UNSW, is a founding member of the Infrastructural Inequalities research network, and the author of poetry collection Inferno (2021). Hear them chat about study as a social practice, love as a political and ways that we can find possibility and hope in unexpected places. Listen in if you want to revel in a conversation with a lot of heart, hope and knowledge.  Readings Mentioned: On anti-colonial radio from Algeria - Frantz Fanon, This is the Voice of Algeria On loving action and love as dis-possession rather than possession -Poetics of Relation, Édouard Glissant On understanding race a shifting construct, not as a fixed marker of identity - Stuart Hall, Race: The Floating Signifier On the important history of Black Feminism and the origins of what we now call "identity politics" - 1977 Combahee River Collective Statement On study as a social practice - Stefano Harney and Fred Moten, All Incomplete (Brooklyn: Minor Compositions, 2021), 26. Image: Andrew Brooks by Jacquie ManningSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Content note: This episode contains mention of the violence faced at the hands of brutal regimes. We ask that listeners go gently, particularly if this content relates directly to the lived experience of you and your community.  We are honored to be joined Iranian artist Hoda Afshar on the ongoing feminist revolution unfolding in Iran. She brings to light the Kurdish roots of this movement, the neglect of Western media; and untangling the right for autonomy and expression for Muslim women from the trappings of Islamophobic rhetoric.  Sign the petition by Amnesty International  Follow Hoda's instagram where she is sharing updates @from____iran on instagram is also sharing live updates amid the internet blackout  Salaam Radio on 3CR recently aired a deeply personal and potent piece tracing Melbourne solidarity protests and emotive reflections on the current moment by media artist and feminist activist, Ramak Bamza Image: Twofold by Hoda AfsharSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Content note: this episode describes acts of homophobic violence mentioned in a film and from lived experience. Whilst not discussed in detail, we acknowledge that these instances could be distressing for audiences, and ask that you take care if you choose to engage. If you are in need of support, Qlife offers free and anonymous support via call on 1800 184 527 or online chat.  An introspective episode as Darren and Sara reflect on what compels them to make art or find their "why" in creative processes. Darren reflects on seeing Isaac Julien's 1991 cult classic Young Soul Rebels and the profound impact it had at this moment in his life. Sara shares the vulnerable process of being a writer on the acclaimed Netflix series Heartbreak High and what it is to write Indigeneity on such a mainstream platform.  This episode was hosted by Darren Lesaguis and Sara Khan. It was produced and edited by Shareeka Helaluddin. Cover image: a still from Young Soul Rebels dir. Isaac Julien (1991).   See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We were privileged to be joined by Gumbainggir historian, educator, activist Dr Gary Foley who for decades has played a central part in some of the most pivotal civil rights movements for First Nations justice. He's been part of community-led services including Redfern’s Aboriginal legal Service, the Aboriginal health service in Melbourne, and National Black Theatre; and continues to be an outspoken advocate for First Nations' justice and self determination.  In 1972 a documentary called NINGLA-ANA: Hungry For Our Land was released - charting the history of these movements. It’s since been restored and re-released, available nationally.  Hear him in conversation speaking to the legacy of Blak radical traditions, the importance of archives to envision socially-just futures, and what the hopes are for having this film being released for new generations to see. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

How do we tell the stories of those who have been diminished or ignored in the writing of history? How do we do justice to the lives they lived, or to the people they were? How does where we come from connect to where we are headed?  These are some of the questions put forward in a new anthology by LIMINAL, an anti-racist literary and art platform based in Naarm. A collection from the longlist of the Liminal and Pantera Press Nonfiction Prize, the book is titled, Against Disappearance. The essays on memory are a powerful collection of First Nations and People of Colour questioning the past and envisioning new futures - free from any shallow or singular story. Hear from editors Leah Jing McIntosh and Adolfo Aranjuez earlier this week on the importance of bringing together these works, fighting against the forced disappearance of cultures in so-called Australia through subversive and experimental writing and thinking. Catch them at the book launch on November 1st, details here. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Darren and Sara reflect on four years of Race Matters: how the show has evolved over the years, shaped their relationship and where the future of Race Matters lies.  We then hear an interview with multidisciplinary artist Riana Head-Toussaint after the debut of her club night Crip Rave Theory. It was an event created in response to inaccessible and exclusionary club spaces, centring and celebrating all bodies that are sidelined in traditional nightlife culture. We’ll learn about how she created a club night drawing on disabled knowledge to create a more intersectionally-accessible rave space, shifting what we think access and inclusion means; and honouring the history of disability justice as being founded by black and brown queer folk.  Our gratitude to Riana for sharing so generously, and for reminding us that accessibility is ongoing, loving and caring work. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Sara and Darren are back, chatting through a recent film and how it brought up feelings around having your lived experience as a marginalised person "extracted" and coopted from you. We then hear an interview by Shareeka Helaluddin with artists Victoria Pham and James Nguyen. Ahead of a series of workshops they'll be facilitating at the Sydney Opera House, they chatted about the work they’ve been doing to recover a Vietnamese drum called the Đông Sơn. Hear about how this led to their collaboration exploring ancestral instruments and “breaking the glass cabinet” of museums that take away cultural objects from colonised peoples to enact a deeper and politicised sense of listening.         RE:TUNING is part of this year’s Antidote festival at the Sydney Opera House on Sunday 11 September. RE:TUNING will take place as multiple sessions across the full day, from 10:30am – 5pm. Register Here.  During the interview, you hear excerpts from a piece composed by Victoria Pham Nước với đất (Water with earth) 2020, and layers of sound from the Đông Sơn open source library they created. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Activism: a word thrown around a lot especially in the last few years, but what does it actually mean? Does it still carry the same power as it once did? How do we differentiate from change-makers and clout-chasers? In the final piece of the Beyond Borders series Binta Yade speaks to three community facilitators and social organisers across the black diaspora in Naarm and the UK to upend what we assume social change looks like, and the long legacies of organisation and solidarity across the black diaspora sometimes forgotten.  We hear from Foundation For Young Australians community organiser Munira Yusuf-Jate and anti-racist, abolitionist organiser Reem Yehdego on approaching social change through a framework of healing, care and love. We then hear from an educational organiser from the UK and founder of Thinking Black, Hope Oloye on how she approaches transforming education systems from the inside out. The Beyond Borders artwork is by Gianna Hayes. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Two conversations exploring the complexities of queerness and masculinity. First, Darren chatted to First Nations playwright Dylan Van Den Berg about his upcoming work at Griffin Theatre, White Fella Yella Tree. We'll hear from Dylan about how this play came to be, what queer blak love on stage looks like, and what we take away from the theatre.  We then hear from Tian and Thy from DEiFY - a platform that centres the experiences of queer, trans, intersex people who also identity as black, First Nations and People of Colour. They’ve just released a zine called Queer Masculinties, exploring the ways that masculinity can be understood outside of a white, hetero and colonial framework.  White Fella Yella Tree is showing at Griffin Theatre from August 19 - September 23, get tickets here! The image is a still from the trailer. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Self-described as having ‘been in the ABC for a hundred years’, Jason Om has been around the block. A Walkley-winning reporter, author of All Mixed Up and household name for many, Om joined the Race Matters team to chat unearthing vulnerable work about grief, ABC’s apology on racism in the workplace, and the gay community’s ‘dirty little secret’ (hint: racism). All Mixed Up is available at all good book stores.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.