AirGo

From the isolation of our homes, AirGo is presenting a series called On the Line, which focuses on the COVID-19 pandemic and the people putting their bodies on the line to help us all survive and heal. Over the next few weeks, we'll be hopping on the line with workers in the health care, educational, governmental, organizing, and prison abolition spheres to talk about what their work looks like right now, and what we can do to help as we isolate our physical bodies at home. This episode's guest is Antonio Gutierrez, an architect, organizer with Organized Communities Against Deportations, and a co-founder of the Autonomous Tenants Union. They delve into how ATU supports tenants as they fight against the violences of eviction and displacement, how this current crisis has both created enormous strife and brought many new renters into the conversation, the connections between the violence of eviction and that of deportation, and what a culture of de-commodified housing could look like. Sign ATU's petition demanding a rent freeze in Chicago now!: https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/rent-freeze-in-chicago-now Get information about how you and your neighbors can exercise your rights as tenants: https://autonomoustenantsunion.org/covid19 Recorded 4/28/20 in Chicago Music from this week's show: Park - Isaiah Rashad

Each month this year, we're going to revisit an episode from the 200+ episodes in the AirGo Archives and bring that conversation back to the forefront. This month, we're revisiting our conversation with KAINA, a vocalist, songwriter, and community staple here in Chicago, from back in 2017. Since then, she has put out a dynamite full-length album called Next to the Sun and has toured with the likes of Sleater Kinney, of all people. She was slated to play this year's Pitchfork before the pandemic descended, and has been continuing to make great songs, work hard, and love her city. Listen to Next to the Sun: http://smarturl.it/NextToTheSun Recorded 4/27/2017 at WHPK 88.5FM in Chicago Music from this week's episode: The Circuit - Juju Exchange Honey - KAINA Petals - KAINA Perspective - KAINA

Black Youth Project has joined forces with AirGo for a year-long #BYPSpotlight series, featuring our favorite Black academics and activists. This month’s #BYPSpotlight episode is with New Yorker columnist, professor, and organizer Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, who hops on the line with us in the midst of this shelter-in-place period. We discuss the relationship between her writing and her organizing work in Chicago, understanding the ways that racism is at the core of COVID-19's destruction, the implications of pegging human needs to profit motives, and much more. Read Keeanga's excellent piece The Black Plague in the most recent New Yorker: https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/the-black-plague Recorded 4/24/20 remotely Music from this week's show: Park - Isaiah Rashad

From the isolation of our homes, AirGo is presenting a series called On the Line, which focuses on the COVID-19 pandemic and the people putting their bodies on the line to help us all survive and heal. Over the next few weeks, we'll be hopping on the line with workers in the health care, educational, governmental, organizing, and prison abolition spheres to talk about what their work looks like right now, and what we can do to help as we isolate our physical bodies at home. This episode's guest is Zain Bullie, a high school teacher and mentor at Uplift High School, a social justice CPS school in Uptown. Bullie breaks down what the transition to online learning has been like, how he and his fellow teachers have adapted to be there for both their students and their students' families, some of the humanizing potential of this crisis, and more. Check out Kuumba Lynx: https://www.kuumbalynx.com/ Learn about Uplift Community HS here: https://uplifths.cps.edu/ NOTE: AirGo has created the COVID Stimulus Redistribution Plan! Find some direct methods to redistribute your $1200 to those who are being denied the means needed to survive this crisis. See the resource list at http://airgoradio.com/covid Recorded 4/20/20 in Chicago Music from this week's episode: Park - Isaiah Rashad

Climate Changemakers is a 5-part podcast series, showcasing and celebrating leaders in equity work and climate action across Illinois, presented by Elevate Energy. This episode's guest is Juliana Pino, the policy director at the Little Village Environmental Justice Organization (LVEJO) in Chicago. At LVEJO, Juliana analyzes, researches, and advocates for environmental justice, climate justice, and economic justice in local, state, and federal environmental policy. Recorded back in Early March, Juliana discusses the challenges that COVID exacerbates in Little Village and other environmentally unjust communities. NOTE: This was recorded before the recent demolition of the HILCO smokestack in Little Village. Juliana discusses the site of the demolition, but the devastating demolition had not yet happened. To learn more about the demolition and it's effects, check out this recent episode of the Hoodoisie, featuring Juliana: https://www.facebook.com/thehoodoisie/videos/1122529154767343/ Learn about Elevate Energy and their 20th anniversary: www.elevateenergy.org/ Check out LVEJO: www.lvejo.org

From the isolation of our homes, AirGo is presenting a series called On the Line, which focuses on the COVID-19 pandemic and the people putting their bodies on the line to help us all survive and heal. Over the next few weeks, we'll be hopping on the line with workers in the health care, educational, governmental, organizing, and prison abolition spheres to talk about what their work looks like right now, and what we can do to help as we isolate our physical bodies at home. On this episode, the guys talk with Alice Kim and Timmy Châu of the Prison Neighborhood Arts Project. They share info on what's happening inside Stateville Prison, where they both teach, connect dots between this crisis moment and the prison industrial complex's decades-long destruction of parole and other types of prison release programs, and explore the particular dangers and opportunities of this moment in relation to organizing and militarism. Help get people out of Illinois prisons: https://www.freethepeoplecoalition.org/ Learn more about PNAP, including their Mutual Aid effort for people behind bars: https://p-nap.org/ Recorded 4/17/20 in Chicago Music in this show: Park - Isaiah Rashad

From the isolation of our homes, AirGo is presenting a series called On the Line, which focuses on the COVID-19 pandemic and the people putting their bodies on the line to help us all survive and heal. Over the next few weeks, we'll be hopping on the line with workers in the health care, educational, governmental, organizing, and prison abolition spheres to talk about what their work looks like right now, and what we can do to help as we isolate our physical bodies at home. This episode features a series of conversations recorded with people currently detained at Cook County Jail, who describe the conditions they're experiencing. The interviews are conducted by the Invisible Institute's Maira Khwaja and produced by South Side Weekly Radio's Erisa Apantaku. The piece first ran on SSW Radio–thanks to both of them for allowing us to share their work! Join the Bond Fund's Call-in Campaign: https://chicagobond.org/2020/04/09/call-the-city-of-chicago-to-demand-they-drop-their-opposition-to-release/ Collage by J Michael Eugenio/South Side Weekly.

In collaboration with the Chicago Public Library, AirGo has produced this bonus episode exploring the legacy of Harold Washington. Dame and Kiss sit down with four young people here in the city to discuss the impact Chicago's first Black mayor has had on their lives, whether they know it or not. Thanks to Sylvia Ewing, who curated the piece as part of a scheduled birthday celebration at the Library that has been postponed due to COVID-19, and to the four young people–Denzel Burke, Faith Epting, Amir Leonard, and Nisa Anna Perez–for sitting down with AirGo and sharing their thoughts. Check out the Harold Washington Collection on the CPL website: https://cdm16818.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/rhwc/search/searchterm/Harold%20Washington%20Archives%20%26%20Collections/field/collec/mode/exact/conn/and Photo by Antonio Dickey

From the isolation of our homes, AirGo is presenting a series called On the Line, which focuses on the COVID-19 pandemic and the people putting their bodies on the line to help us all survive and heal. Over the next few weeks, we'll be hopping on the line with workers in the health care, educational, governmental, organizing, and prison abolition spheres to talk about what their work looks like right now, and what we can do to help as we isolate our physical bodies at home. This episode's guest is Alderwoman Rossana Rodriguez of Chicago's 33rd Ward. Rossana talks about how her office is supporting mutual aid work without coopting it, what City Council looks like right now (not much), and what hard lines the mayor and governor need to be taking to keep people safe. Read the Right to Recovery legislation demands: https://actionnetwork.org/campaigns/right-to-recovery Learn about everything that the 33rd Ward office is doing: https://33rdward.org/covid-19-resources/ Recorded 4/12/20 in Chicago Music from this week's show: Park - Isaiah Rashad

From the isolation of our homes, AirGo is presenting a series called On the Line, which focuses on the COVID-19 pandemic and the people putting their bodies on the line to help us all survive and heal. Over the next few weeks, we'll be hopping on the line with workers in the health care, educational, governmental, organizing, and prison abolition spheres to talk about what their work looks like right now, and what we can do to help as we isolate our physical bodies at home. This episode's guest is Dennis Kosuth. Dennis is a nurse in Chicago Public Schools, at Provident Hospital in Washington Park, and now inside of Cook County Jail. He gets on the line to talk about last week's shutdown of the ER at Provident Hospital, what he observed and experienced taking care of the people being held in Cook County Jail, what this moment means for CPS students, and how he stays struggling for a world less rooted in greed and profit. Sign the Petition to keep the Provident ER open: https://www.change.org/p/elected-officials-don-t-reduce-care-on-the-south-side-of-chicago-during-a-pandemic-reopen-provident-s-er?source_location=topic_page Recorded 4/12/20 in Chicago Music from this week's episode: Park - Isaiah Rashad