Tune in Mondays 9-10pm EST on 89.9FM or stream via WKCR for a mood of Black bops interwoven with stories and exclusive interview soundscapes to fill your shelter-in-place hideaway. Reach out + join a movement.
Black Siren Radio Intro Music: Drew Lewis
To be featured, write to Maurice Ivy at mid2113@columbia.edu
Mourning Good is a sound collage inspired by Ruha Benjamin's talk, The Mourning After: A Dreamer’s Guide to Staying Woke. This mix is layered with the words of Pauline Rogers, Joshua Bennett, Geto Boys, 2Pac, Mamie Till and more. A zine with more lengthy citations to accompany the mix is forthcoming. Please listen, share and steal this idea. We need more people remixing their favorite Black scholars to archival audio and hip hop.
On Dray is inspired by the work of Andre Brock on Black Technoculture. Shout out to Maurice Ivy for putting together the outro. Thanks for taking the time and I encourage you to enjoy this alongside the custom made zine available below, Khadijah. You can download the transcript here.
This zine is designed to accompany the On Dray sound collage. You can download as a PDF and it is available as an ePub by clicking the button below.
Jumping the hour off with NoName’s Song 32, this experimental episode elides a linear narrative to crack open a conversation about race that doesn’t center white fragility. Vince Pierce, an Open Doors Reality Poet joins the show to discuss #NursingHomeLivesMatter, and surviving the pandemic as a quadraplegic Black man in Coler-the only occupied nursing home where New York City Mayor Bill DeBlasio assigned COVID-19 patients. Coler CEO Robert Hughes’ failure to address the nightmarish conditions at Coler is why Vince started the Voices of Coler petition to demand his resignation.
Excerpts of Tupac Shakur’s speech to the Malcolm X Grassroots dinner prompt us to consider who organized Black revolutionaries leave behind, who’s responsible to educate and to what end. Dj Roger Smith drops knowledge about the challenges of nightlife workers during COVID, Joyce McMillan and Angeline Montauban discuss #AbolishACS, a Lyrical Report, a new segment “Blueprint” by Amiri and more on this week’s Black Siren Radio with Maurice, Khadijah and Amiri.
As we roll into the somber ass month of July and our Juneteenth celebrations return solely to our Black Twitter feeds, we grapple with the re-politicking of “Independence Day” and watch as he-who-you-know-need-not-be-named, raises a Black Power fist and poses in front of Mt. Rushmore -- the site of ongoing demonstrations by Indigenous peoples who call for repatriation of their inherited lands. Khadijah, Amiri and Maurice discuss the fever of a nation in performance (Kanye) to the unending firework soundscape. We aurally thumb through Meditations in Mayhem, Kimberly speaks on her protest teach-ins and perspectives about Occupy City Hall. Activist and designer, Bones comes through in prologue to the upcoming Emerging Artist episode airing July 20. Did you buy Black this week?
Roya Marsh is a nationally renowned poet whose book "Daylight" was recently published by MacMillan Publishing. Host Advocate of Wordz and Roya discuss her personal experience at the Black Lives Matter protest here in New York City, her thoughts on the NYPD, how she came into writing and performing, her family's support, and the process of getting her book of poems published with a major publishing house. The show ends with a quick interview with Congressman hopeful Jamaal Bowman. Wordz asks him why he's running and why anyone who has become disgusted and disenfranchised by contemporary politicians should even care.
Maurice, Amiri, and Khadijah jump between Black political movement and the intricacies of Black art on this episode of Black Siren Radio. We chop it up with Lewis Long, founder and director of the Harlem based, Long Gallery and painter Alteronce Gumby about When the Nightmare Comes -I Believe a window installation exploring mythical protection for Black people facing state sanctioned violence.
Maurice, Amiri, and Khadijah vibe on the subject of Juneteenth, exploring the commodification of Black resistance; a movement that aims to heal while dismantling white supremacy. The trio discusses the implications of Ramsey Orta: both filming Eric Garner’s death and reenacting that violences on his wife, Jessica Orta. Jahmel Reynolds, a visual artist and filmmaker from Brooklyn whose photos we use for the Black Siren Radio and WBI logos, discusses expressing Black life and body in his art. Plus, Bria Bacon contributes this week’s Lyrical Report.
“If you want the arc to bend towards justice, you gotta bend that mf yourself.”
In this week’s episode, the secondary function of BSR comes to life. When we imagined a radio show under the guise of We Be Imagining, we hoped to include a regular segment introducing new and emerging artists working in and around New York City. Our debut Emerging Artists episode features indie r&b duo Blue Soul who walked away with the open mic prize at our We Be Imagining launch party February 22nd; Performance artist Taquirah Thompson discussing her forthcoming EP; and Drew Lewis - creator of our We Be Imagining Podcast score and Black Siren Radio intro music. Enjoy three very different sounds and give these young artists a follow on Instagram and Spotify if you like what you hear.
Are you an emerging artist interested in being featured on Black Siren Radio? Reach out to Maurice Ivy with a bio and link to your work at mid2113@columbia.edu
Maurice, Amiri and Khadijah discuss the global rebellions demanding justice for the routine state violence against Black lives on this week’s episode of Black Siren Radio. Whose cities are being destroyed when we don’t own anything? Whose media is this if they frame our demands for justice as looting by outside agitators? Where’s the anger and righteous indignation for property when there’s people being brutalized and murdered by the police?
We also vibe with Sudanese American author, Fatin Abbas who troubles the idea of mapping as a colonial or humanitarian project in Diminishing Returns, a short story from her forthcoming novel The Interventionists. She shares her journey to Berlin from New York City and the Black German perspective on the struggle for racial justice in America. Always got the fire music on deck, Meditations on Mayhem and Lyrical Reports.
This week on Black Siren Radio, we survey the worlds of food and health — backgrounded by the many dynamics of COVID-19. We speak with author and educator Olga Lucia Torres about her personal health experiences in the midst of Trump and coronavirus. Drew McClendon, a coordinator at New Jersey community food kitchen Elijah’s Promise, joins the show to talk about how the coronavirus has amplified the urgency of their work and mission. And, we interview Padmore John, manager at the East Harlem Action Center, about developing relationships with the community around public health and social services. Plus, as always, enjoy the music, Meditations in Mayhem, and thought-provoking poetry from college sophomore Tyler Burston! - Black Siren Radio is a place to convene. It’s your aunties in the kitchen. It’s your Saturday morning barbershop appointment. It’s a resistance that accepts that if the future is to belong to us, we have to take it. Co-hosts J. Khadijah Abdurahman (We Be Imagining), Maurice Ivy, and Amiri Tulloch (WKCR) assemble as a multi-generational team to curate a lens that engages specialists in their fields by collecting front-line (wartime) news and keeping a beat on the culture of NYC and beyond. More than anything, Black Siren Radio is a place for us to assemble under the radar, and really be heard. Tune in Mondays to WKCR from 9-10 pm ET (wkcr.org) for a mood board of music interwoven with stories and exclusive interviews stretching a little further than your shelter-in-place hideaway. Reach out and join the movement.
This week’s episode on Black Siren Radio features lupus warrior and Columbia narrative medicine professor, Olga Lucia Torres discussing the hydroxychloroquine shortage following Trump’s endorsement of the drug as a treatment for COVID-19. Drew McClendon, a coordinator at New Jersey’s Elijah’s Promise discusses both the urgency of their mission and the shortcomings of the non-profit industrial complex. Padmore John, manager of the NYDOHMH East Harlem Neighborhood Action Center shares the vision of their staff to repair relationships with a community historically distrusting of the Department of Health and the push back from those who feel they have not taken an active enough role in responding to the pandemic. As always, enjoy the music, Meditations in Mayhem, and Lyrical Report from college sophomore Tyler Burston!
In this inaugural episode of Black Siren Radio Thursdays, host Advocate of Wordz meshes his eclectic taste of music with his guests, as they discuss the power of words in a broad and specific scope. Award winning performing poet and editor Peggy Robles-Alvarado talks to us about Spanglish, finding and creating space for women's voices, and writing workshops. Rob Vassilarakis joins us in the second half to discuss the history of GMHC, how the AIDS Walk is maneuvering during the pandemic and provide insight into what it is like to administer a positive HIV test.
Welcome to Advocate of Wordz's edition of Black Siren Radio, live every Thursday night at 9pm on WKCR 89.9FM and wkcr.org. - In this inaugural episode, host Advocate of Wordz meshes his eclectic taste of music with his guests, as they discuss the power of words in a broad and specific scope. Award winning performing poet and editor Peggy Robles-Alvarado talks to us about Spanglish, finding and creating space for women's voices, and writing workshops. Rob Vassilarakis joins us in the second half to discuss the history of GMHC, how the AIDS Walk is maneuvering during the pandemic, and some insight into what it is like to receive and give clients a positive HIV test.
This week's episode of Black Siren Radio explores the urgency of efforts to free people incarcerated on Riker’s Island during the pandemic interwoven with Meditations on Mayhem and Lyrical Reports. This week features interviews with supervising attorney of the Legal Aid Society’s Decarceration Project, Maria Ndiaye and Joss Greene, an organizer from Free Them All for Public Health. Maurice gives us a sneak peak into a conversation with west coast based pharmacogenomics researchers examining the health outcomes of weed. Come vibe with the squad, Amiri, Khadijah and Maurice as we assemble to the rhythms of reggae and hip hop. This is wartime radio!
Jerk chicken, dancehall and hydroponic farming season this week’s episode of Black Siren Radio. We travel from the Jamaican Chinese shops to meditate on the impact of World War II on reggae sound systems with Tao Leigh Goffe to Universe City, an aquaponic farm/MakerSpace in East New York fighting the food apartheid and COVID-19 at the same damn time. Vibe with Maurice, Amiri and Khadijah for some wartime radio.
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