Conversation with Artist and Organizer Sharita Towne

In this episode we get into conversation with Portland based multi-disciplinary artist, educator and community organizer Sharita Towne. We talk art, ancestry, process, gentrification, accountability and much more. 

Subscribe to Broken Boxes Podcast on iTunes HERE to stream and download this episode

Music featured on this episode by Brown Calculus

More about the artist:

As an artist, Sharita Towne’s interests lie in unpacking the inherited struggles of past burdens and in affording collective catharsis. Through collaboration, stereo-photography, printmaking, video, and community art projects; she's worked at memorials in Germany; in the Sahrawi refugee camps in Algeria; Brazil; in gentrifying cities like Portland, Oregon and New Orleans; in schools, museums, and neighborhoods, and within her own family. Sharita received a BFA from UC Berkeley and an MFA from Portland State University. She currently teaches at Pacific Northwest College of Art, works in the DIY printmaking and audiovisual collective URe:AD Press (United Re:Public of the African Diaspora), the post-colonial conceptual karaoke band Weird Allan Kaprow, and is a 2016 Art Matters grant recipient. 

This conversation was hosted by Ginger Dunnill of Broken Boxes Podcast

Conversation with Curator and Writer bart fitzgerald

In this episode we speak with Queer artist/curator/writer/lecturer bart fitzgerald. The work of fitzgerald seeks to situate Trap Music within conversations around the longstanding tradition of sound in the black radical tradition. They discuss their practice and the relationship it has to Trap Music and we hear a bit on their theory around Trap Music including its sonic histories, relation to the black church and spirituality, and Trap's postmodern aesthetic practices. 

Here is the conversation with bart fitzgerald

Subscribe to Broken Boxes Podcast on iTunes HERE to stream and download this episode

This conversation was hosted by Ginger Dunnill of Broken Boxes Podcast

More about the artist:

bart fitzgerald’s work explores black sociality, religion and queerness through a lens of liberation theology as base ideology for radical living. they make work as an visual artist, writer, lecturer and curator of vibrant life for black folks in Portland, OR. Their work has been presented at Reed College, Newspace Center for Photography, Portland African American Leadership Forum, Black Lives Matter: Portland and The Portland Institute for Contemporary Art (PICA). They have received commissions and funding from c3:initiative, The Regional Arts & Culture Council, The Urban League of Portland, and numerous local and national organizations. Most recently, they were selected as a recipient of the Ford Family Foundation’s Golden Spot Award that is granted in connection with an artist residency at Caldera Arts Center in Sisters, OR.
-Source: PICA

Conversation with Writer Cooper Lee Bombardier

Cooper Lee Bombardier and Sassafras. Powells 2015

In this episode Trans writer and artist Cooper Lee Bombardier shares his multifaceted journey to becoming the writer and educator he is today. Cooper shares how in the 90's he found a radical community of queer artists, writers and musicians in the San Francisco Bay Area who invited him to participate in a safe and vibrant space, allowing him to really come into acknowledgment of his own creative practice. Cooper reflects on touring with Sister Spit, working in youth leadership with NMGSA youth empowerment workshops. He reflects on all the varying jobs of his survival, from digging trenches to working at the Santa Fe Opera scene shop. He also speaks about living, writing and performing in the Portland area and recently achieving two Masters degrees in writing before moving to Halifax, Novia Scotia where he presently resides. Cooper continues to write and educate, most recently hosting an online course titled Writing from your queer heart. The journey Cooper takes us on in this episode is full of heart and perseverance, and he offers incredible self care tips to move through the heavy societal pressures we all face, such as social media policing. 

Here is the conversation with Cooper Lee Bombardier

Subscribe to Broken Boxes Podcast on iTunes HERE to stream and download this episode

This conversation was hosted by Ginger Dunnill of Broken Boxes Podcast

More about the artist:

Cooper Lee Bombardier is a writer and visual artist originally from the South Shore of Boston. He has been a construction worker, a cook, a carpenter, a union stagehand, a bouncer, a welder, a shop steward, a dishwasher, a truck driver, and a housepainter, among other things, for a paycheck. His writing appears in many publications and anthologies, such as The Kenyon Review, CutBank, Nailed Magazine, and The Rumpus; and recently in the Lambda Literary Award-winning anthology The Remedy–Essays on Queer Health Issues, (ed. Zena Sharman) and Meanwhile, Elsewhere: Speculative Fiction From Transgender Writers, (eds. Cat Fitzpatrick and Casey Plett). The Huffington Post named him as one of “10 Transgender Artists Who Are Changing The Landscape Of Contemporary Art.” His visual art was recently curated in an exhibition called “Intersectionality” at the Museum of Contemporary Art in North Miami, andhung recently in shows at Meow Wolf in Santa Fe, NM, the National Queer Arts Festival in San Francisco, and at Helltown Workshop in Provincetown, MA. His visual work has been recently published in the journals Faggot Dinosaur and CutBank. A veteran of the original Sister Spit tours, he's performed, lectured, and exhibited art across North America. He has received fellowships from the Regional Arts and Culture Council, Lambda Literary Foundation, and RADAR Labs. Cooper Lee has taught writing at the University of Portland, Clark College, Portland State University, and at various Portland-area high schools as a writer-in-residence through Literary Art's program Writers in The Schools. He is a 2017-18 Writer-In-Residence at the Pacific Northwest College of Art’s Critical Studies graduate program.

Visit him at www.cooperleebombardier.com 
FB: cooperfrickinleee
Twitter: @CooperLeeB
IG: cooperleebomb

More resource on Coopers projects:

https://litreactor.com/classes/writing-from-your-queer-heart (an online writing class I typically teach 2X per year, Fall and Spring)

http://www.arsenalpulp.com/bookinfo.php?index=451 (The link for the book The Remedy: Queer and Trans Voices on Health and Healthcare, a Lambda Literary award-winning anthology which includes an essay of mine)

http://topsidepress.com/ (where to purchase the anthology MEANWHILE, ELSEWHERE: SCIENCE FICTION AND FANTASY FROM TRANSGENDER WRITERS which features a short story of mine)

http://www.gertrudepress.org/submit.html (I'm the fiction editor at Gertrude Press and want to read your submissions!)

Conversation with Artist and Organizer Israel Francisco Haros Lopez

Artist and poet Israel Francisco Haros Lopez was born in East Los Angeles to immigrant parents of Mexican descent. Israel brings his firsthand knowledge of the realities of migration, U.S. border policies and life as a Mexican American to his work, addressing a multitude of historical and spiritual layered realities of border politics, identity politics, and the re-interpretation of histories.

“Forget who’s watching you.... Your ancestors are watching you, and they are gonna give you what you need.” -Israel Francisco Haros Lopez

In this episode Israel Francisco Haros Lopez takes us on a journey of story; from growing up in East L.A., to attending UC Berkeley, to being a working artist and community organizer in New Mexico today. He speaks about how various experiences and humans have shaped his foundation as an artist and activist, how he has had to decolonize the learning process of higher education, how music has informed his life and writing, and the importance of creating a contemporary narrative through poetry and drawing. Israel shares several teaching he has received along his path which have changed his world view, such as words from a respected Elder and Xicana Activist who shared, “Without Art, there is no Movement”. Israel also speaks of participating in the 2009 “starving teachers” action in California and the strength of fasting, prayer and poetry as forms of direct action. He invites us to remember the complexity of existing as humans, that we all will contradict ourselves constantly, and as artists we must be aware not to get caught up in the ‘isms’, that “if we are always de-contructing, then when are we constructing".

Here is the conversation with Israel Francisco Haros Lopez

Subscribe to Broken Boxes Podcast on iTunes HERE to stream and download this episode

This conversation was hosted by Ginger Dunnill of Broken Boxes Podcast

More About The Artist:

Israel Francisco Haros Lopez is both a visual artist and performance artist. He was born and raised in East Los Angeles, graduated from Roosevelt High School with a 1.59 G.P.A. He is a graduate of Laney and Vista Community College with an A.A. in English Literature. Survived UC Berkeley with a degree in English and Xikan@ Studies and received an M.F.A. from California College of the Arts. His work is an attempt to search for personal truths and personal histories inside of american cosmology. The american cosmology and symbolism that he is drawing from is one that involves both northern and southern america that was here before columbus. The work both written and that which is painted is attempting to mark and remark historical points in the americas and the world. The mark making attempts to speak to the undeniable presence of a native america that will continue to flourish for generations to come. The understanding which he is drawing from is not conceptual but fact and points to the importance of honoring and remembering ancestral ways of living as a means of maintaining healthy relations with all humans, the winged, all those that crawl on this Earth, all Life, the Water, the Sacred Fire, Tonanztin, Tonatiuh, the Sacred Cardinal Points, everything in between, above and below and at the center of self and all things in the universe. Currently the visual motifs are drawn from both a pre-columbian america that had far far less physical, mental or spiritual borders . He also draws inspiration from the contemporary styles of inner city youth who use public space by any means necessary as their method of artistic expression. Israel also draws much of his inspiration from his peers and contemporaries who constantly show him innovative ways to approach cultural and political dilemmas. The written words cannot be without the painted image. The painted image cannot be without words. Neither the written work or visual work can be without sound without vibration, as all things on this earth carry vibration. As such his written and oral work is constantly shifting as it is performed or recording. The same poem,story,monologue or abstract diatribe shifts within the space it is performed taking into consideration audience and the theatrics and vibration of the moment.

Find out more about Israel Francisco Haros Lopez HERE 
Purchase Israel's Chicano Codex Coloring Books and other artworks HERE

Conversation with Artists Leena Minifie and Cannupa Hanska Luger

Broken Boxes is very excited to launch a new podcast series titled INTERSECTION. 

Our first episode of the INTERSECTION series features Gitxaala/British (Tsimshian) artist, writer, curator and media producer Leena Minifie in conversation with Mandan/Hidatsa/Arikara/Lakota multidisciplinary artist Cannupa Hanska Luger. Their conversation travels through space and time, weaving together topics such as identity politics, the pan-indigenous conundrum, 'the original poison', IAIA, the center of the universe, call out culture, stereotypes, the Roman empire, romanticism, technology worship, decolonization versus re-indigenizing and responsibility. Broken Boxes is so excited to launch this unfiltered, honest, hilarious, serious, exciting and insightful project on the podcast! 

Here is the conversation between Leena Minifie and Cannupa Hanska Luger:

Subscribe to Broken Boxes Podcast on iTunes HERE to stream and download this episode

Music Featured on this podcast: Weaves: Scream ft. Tanya Tagaq

Many thanks to Leena Minifie and Cannupa Hanska Luger for letting Broken Boxes record you talking story over tea and coffee to be shared out into the world. And shout out to fellow podcaster Sterlin Harjo of The Cuts Podcast for having a hand at inspiring this series launch.

MORE ABOUT THE INTERSECTION SERIES:

INTERSECTION series approaches open ended conversation between various visiting artists and multidisciplinary artist Cannupa Hanska Luger. The series is meant to engage our pointS of intersection and provoke critical thought as we process existence. There is no specified format and the conversation is guided simply by what is on the artists minds. The series invites us to examine humanity and the universe through radical, complicated and variant perspectives overlapping in one moment in time. 

A conversation among humans...

MORE ABOUT THE ARTISTS:

Leena Minifie is a Gitxaala/British (Tsimshian) artist, writer, curator and media producer. Leena grew up in small  town on the Douglas Channel near her traditional home territory of the Pacific Northwest coast. The temporal rainforest was her playground; grizzlies, black bears, wolves, whales, and deer were her neighbors. Leena studied media arts at Indigenous Media Arts Group in Vancouver under some of Canada’s influential Native media artists such as Dana Claxton and Archer Pechawis. Leena completed a BFA in New Media and BA in Indigenous Liberal Studies in New Mexico. She now resides in Minneapolis, MN where she works for boutique communications firm Seiche. Her art making and curatorial work is situated at the intersection of art, culture, land and politics. She creates video, media, and interactive works. She produced three short films that have screened at film festivals internationally and premiered at the ImagineNative film festival in Toronto. Most recently the film, ?E?anx/The Cave, played at the prestigious Sundance Film Festival in 2011 and her graduating piece “Sense of Home” picked up the 2012 Best New Media prize at ImagineNative Media Arts + Film Festival and was exhibited in the TIFF Bell Theatre Gallery. Her curated group exhibition “When Raven Became Spider” is touring across North America until 2020.

Leena holds a BA in Indigenous Studies and BFA in New Media from the Institute of American Indian Arts in New Mexico. She has worked as journalist for agencies such as Ricochet Media, CBC Radio One, CTV First Story, Native American Calling (US), APTN National News and acted as a freelance producer. Leena’s experience includes over a decade of work as a facilitator, reporter, videographer, webinar & tv producer & production manager on media projects including documentaries, radio broadcast, language retention projects and news sites. She is currently the only First Nations woman to participate in the Aspen Institute and the U.S. Embassy’s Edward R. Murrow Journalism Program in Washington, DC. Leena leads with visual and pattern thinking and a multi-disciplinary approach to problem-solving and communication. She believes that creative communications is all about creativity and passion with a healthy dose of sincerity, transparency, reciprocity and out-of-the-box thinking. 

---

Born in North Dakota on the Standing Rock Reservation, artist Cannupa Hanska Luger comes from Mandan, Hidatsa, Arikara, Lakota, Austrian, and Norwegian descent. Luger's unique, ceramic­-centric, but ultimately multidisciplinary work tells provocative stories of complex Indigenous identities coming up against 21st Century imperatives, mediation, and destructivity. Luger creates socially conscious work that hybridizes his identity as an American Indian in tandem with global issues. Using his art as a catalyst, he invites the public to challenge expectations and misinterpretations imposed upon Indigenous peoples by historical and contemporary colonial social structures. 

Cannupa Hanska Luger is the recipient of the Native Arts & Cultures Foundation National Artist Fellowship Award among other notable acclaims and has participated in artist residencies and lectures throughout the Nation. Luger currently holds a studio practice in New Mexico, maintaining a clear trajectory of gallery and museum exhibitions worldwide.

Cannupa Hanska Luger's work has been noted as "a modern look at ideas of colonization, adaptability and survival as major components to the development of culture” by Western Art Collector Magazine and The Native Arts and Cultures Foundation noted that "Luger could well rise to be one of those artists whose caliber is unmatched and whose work will be studied by students to come, thus furthering the path for many more contemporary Native artists." 

Cannupa Hanska Luger graduated with honors from The Institute of American Indian Arts in 2011 with a BFA focusing in studio ceramics. He has been exhibited at Radiator Gallery New York NY;  L.A. Art Show Los Angeles CA; La Bienalle di Venezia Verona, Italy; Art Mur Montreal, Quebec; Museum of Northern Arizona Flagstaff AZ; Rochester Art Center Rochester MN; Navy Pier Chicago, IL; University of Alaska Fairbanks, AK; National Center for Civil and Human Rights Atlanta GA; Blue Rain Gallery Santa Fe, NM, among others. Luger is also in the permanent collections of The North America Native Museum Zürich, Switzerland; The Denver Art Museum Denver, CO; The Museum of Contemporary Native Arts Santa Fe, NM; and The Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art Norman, OK.