Snehal Desai is the producing artistic director of East West Players (EWP). One of the longest running theaters of color, EWP is now the nation’s leading Asian American theater company. For half a century, EWP has been raising the visibility of Asian Americans and inspiring and advocating for a world free of racism and discrimination through transformative theater. In this podcast, Desai talks about programming with and for the diverse communities of Asian Americans, how EWP navigates the intersection of social justice and art, the importance of theater in combatting racist stereotypes, leading an Asian American theater company at this particular moment in time, and his own journey as an artist of color. And be sure to check out our issue of American Artscape, Showing Strength through Creativity: Equity and Access in the Arts for Asian American/Pacific Islander Communities.     

Art Works Podcasts

Snehal Desai

With her second novel The Taste of Sugar,  Marisel Vera has created an epic tale with an intimate heart. Her two protagonists Valentina and Vicente are small coffee farmers in late 19th century Puerto Rico whose lives had been shaped by Spanish colonialism. Then in 1898, Puerto Rico was invaded by the United States which assumed control of the island, devaluing the peso and levying property taxes. This was followed in 1899 by the devastating hurricane San Ciriaco which left thousands dead and a quarter of a million people without food and shelter.  Losing their farm to these “twin catastrophes,” Vicente and Valentina join 5,000 other Puerto Ricans on an arduous journey to Hawaii to work on the sugar plantations. Lured by the promise of good wages in exchange for hard work, they find themselves instead captive laborers in a strange land.  It is a powerful and moving story, deserving of all its considerable praise. But while this is a saga, it’s also a close look at family: we see this young couple grow and mature-- seizing whatever agency they can in the face of hardship. In this podcast, Vera talks about her need to write a book that explored the history of Puerto Rico—a history most people don’t know—her determination to get that history right, and the deep impact of colonization on the island. She also discusses her own struggle to find herself in books when she was growing up in Chicago, her sense that she was always living in two worlds, in two languages, and how writing helps her to bring these together and create something new.

Marisel Vera

Two-time Newbery Award winner and the 2014-15 National Ambassador for Young People's Literature, Kate DiCamillo writes stories that matter. From the fantastical like The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane (which author Ann Patchett calls a “perfect novel”)  to the more realistic Raymie Nightingale series, DiCamillo always finds the balance between humor and heart. First and foremost a storyteller, her immensely popular books are beloved by kids, parents, teachers and critics. Kate DiCamillo’s most recent book is The Beatryce Prophecy. Published by Candlewick Press and beautifully illustrated by Sophie Blackall, The Beatryce Prophecy is a compelling tale that opens our eyes to the sheer power of reading and storytelling to crack open the world. In this podcast, DiCamillo talks about how storytelling and reading both factor into her life, her writing process, why animals figure so prominently in her work, and her time as National Ambassador for Young People's Literature. Funny and thoughtful, Kate DiCamillo is as delightful to speak with as she is to read. 

Kate DiCamillo

Folklorist Elena Martínez is a producer for the documentaries “From Mambo to Hip Hop: A Bronx Tale” and “We Like It Like That: The Story of Latin Boogaloo.” What makes these documentaries stand out is, of course, the fabulous music. But the perspective or point of view of both films is just as important.  The films examine the music through the lens of urban folklore—music created by and for the people in the neighborhood, a small stretch of the Bronx often known for urban blight and not much else.  Well, as the films demonstrate, there is a lot more- the sound of Mambo which adopted Cuban rhythms and Puerto Rican traditions, a Latin beat joined up with R&B and funk which gave birth to Boogaloo, the creation of the New York salsa sound, the rise of hip hop. And astoundingly, all this creative energy happening in the same small neighborhood in the Bronx. In this podcast, Elena Martínez talks about the making of “From Mambo to Hip Hop” and “We Like It Like That”  She takes us through the exuberant Latino musical traditions of the Bronx and its impact on the people who live there. Martínez is an enthusiastic guide to some fabulous urban music traditions. “From Mambo to Hip Hop” “We Like It Like That” City Lore Bronx Music Heritage Center  

Elena Martínez

September 27 will be an historic night for opera lovers: the Metropolitan Opera, the largest performing arts company in the nation, will open its season after the long pandemic shut-down with “Fire Shut Up in My Bones.” Supported by the National Endowment for the Arts since its development period, “Fire Shut Up in My Bones” is based on the memoir by Charles Blow. It’s composed by jazz great Terence Blanchard with a libretto by Kasi Lemmons, and it is the first opera by a Black composer to be performed at the Metropolitan Opera.   Angel Blue will be starring along with baritone Will Liverman. It’s the second time Angel Blue has opened the season for the Metropolitan Opera: in 2019, she was Bess in the Grammy-winning production of “Porgy and Bess”—a role in which she shone. But shining on stage is what Blue does as a singer and as an actress.  For the past decade and a half, Blue has performed to great acclaim in opera houses around the world and in a variety of roles.  Now, she has emerged as one of the most vibrant sopranos performing today. Her voice has been praised for its “shimmering beauty”  that is “always perfectly controlled and consistent throughout her expansive range.”  In this podcast, Angel Blue and I talk about opera and its joys, “Fire Shut Up in My Bones,” her career in Europe, her first-time performing at the Met, and her thoughts about DEI and opera.  

Angel Blue

Tap Dancer and 2021 National Heritage Fellow Reginald “Reggio the Hoofer” McLaughlin has been motivated by one thing his entire life: his love of tap-dancing. He walked away from a successful R&B career as a bassist to pursue his unlikely dream of making it as a dancer. Born and bred in Chicago, he turned to mentors like Jimmy Payne to teach him the foundations of tap dance which only affirmed his passion for dance. Unable to find a job as a tap dancer, he went down to Chicago’s subways and danced there—learning along the way how to connect to an audience. He was approached by Urban Gateways—a non-profit that brings the arts to underserved children-- and began performing in classrooms. But McLaughlin wasn’t only dancing, he was also teaching the students the history of tap and its social and cultural context. Given his talent, personality, and dedication, Reggio McLaughlin was a natural performer and teacher. He teamed up with the legendry tap-dancer Ernest “Brownie” Brown and the two of them performed together for almost two decades. About 27 years ago,  McLaughlin began teaching tap at the [oldtownschool.org]Old Town School of Folk Music where he remains an in-demand teacher.  And he’s traveled around the world participating in Old Town’s International Program demonstrating tap and collaborating with dancers from many cultures.  Reggio is a great story-teller, and in this podcast we talk about Chicago, his career as an R&B bassist, his love of tap as an American art form, choreographing his Christmas classic “The Nut Tapper,” and dancing-- in the subways, in the classrooms, around the world, and with Ernest Brown. His enthusiasm and easy laughter are contagious!

Reginald “Reggio the Hoofer” McLaughlin

In Washington, DC, the evening of September 10 promises to be momentous: at 6 pm ET, Ford’s Theatre is presenting Come From Away: In Concert at the Lincoln Memorial. It’s hard to think of a more appropriate play than Come From Away to mark this occasion. The Tony and Olivier Award-winning musical was inspired by the aftermath of 9/11, when a small town in Canada welcomed some 7,000 people whose flights had been diverted when the U.S. airspace was closed.  Supported in part by the National Endowment for the Arts, the free non-ticketed concert is the brainchild of Sue Frost of Junkyard Dog Productions, the lead producers of Come From Away, and Paul Tetreault, director of Ford's Theatre. In this music-filled podcast, Frost and Tetreault talk about the origins of the play Come From Away, its inspiring story and glorious music, their hopes for the concert, and the power of art to give voice to tragedy and to shine light on possibility. We also discuss the significance of the return of live performance for Ford’s Theatre, for Come From Away, and for theaters across the country.  

Come From Away

2020 NEA National Heritage Fellow, teacher, and Haudenosaunee Raised Beadworker, Karen Ann Hoffman (Oneida Nation of Wisconsin) creates contemporary art that is deeply rooted in the past. Haudenosaunee  or Iroquois raised beadwork is unique to the Six Nations of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, which includes the Oneida. Its hallmark is beads sewn in a such a way that they arch above the fabric creating stunning dimensionality. Hoffman has taken this art to new literal and figurative heights—creating large beaded urns for example. But while her work is deeply connected to the traditions and culture of the Haudenosaunee, her interest is in taking the form and “exploring, expanding and reimagining it against contemporary life.”  A three-time master-teacher in Wisconsin’s folk arts apprenticeship program, Hoffman is committed to keeping this traditional art vibrant for the next generations through her teaching. She is not just an extraordinarily talented artist, she’s also, as you’ll hear, a passionate advocate for the art form and a fabulous storyteller.  

Revisiting Karen Ann Hoffman (Oneida Nation of Wisconsin)

Drummer, producer, educator and 2021 NEA Jazz Master Terri Lyne Carrington is not only a virtuoso musician, she’s also a strong advocate for social justice and gender equity on the bandstand and in the classroom.  Deeply committed to empowering the next generation of musicians, Carrington is the founder and artistic director of the Berklee Institute of Jazz and Gender Justice.  Carrington has spent her life in jazz. Coming from a musical family, she had her first professional gig at the age of ten (with Clark Terry, no less!). By the time she 11, she was a part-time student of the Berklee College of Music. And her career took off from there. In the 1980s, she worked with jazz luminaries like Pharaoh Saunders and Frank West; in the 1990s, she toured with jazz greats like Wayne Shorter and Herbie Hancock. She went on the lead her own groups, and in 2014, she became the first woman to win a Grammy Award as a leader for Best Jazz Instrumental Album with Money Jungle: Provocative in Blue. She brought together women instrumentalists and vocalists for The Mosaic Project tours and recordings. Her recent album Waiting Game with her group Social Science is the definition of artistic intersectionality in terms of race, gender, age, and style. In this podcast, we talk about her early mentors, her development as a drummer and as a bandleader, some of the great musicians she’s played with, and her advocacy for gender equity in jazz and society.

Revisiting Terri Lyne Carrington

With the new school year upon us, this week we’re turning our attention to arts education. First, Ayanna Hudson, director of Arts Education at the National Endowment for the Arts, reminds us of the singular role the arts and arts education can play as students return to the classroom. Hudson emphasizes that involvement in the arts not only engages and empowers students, it can also support the social and emotional needs of students during this critical transition and provide a much-needed vehicle for self-expression. Then we explore an example of arts education and its ability to transform students with new media artist and educator Agnes Chavez. Chavez is the founder of STEMarts Lab, which uses the arts to develop science and math skills.  Based in Taos, New Mexico, the artists at STEMarts Lab design and create light and sound installations and then build curriculum tools around the art. STEMarts Lab also bring artists into the classroom to work with teachers and provide hands-on workshops both in person or virtually.  During the pandemic and virtual classrooms, Chavez responded “to the problem that I was hearing from teachers that the kids were not engaged, that shifting to this online format was just not working. And my question to myself and to my team was, 'How can we use our creativity, our digital tools to come up a more engaging way to reach them?'"  In answer, Chavez created a virtual international exchange program that connected a classroom in Taos, New Mexico, with a classroom in Portugal in which the students collaborated on an art installation that had real world and virtual applications. Space Messengers turned out to be a winning formula, engaging students and exciting teachers. As one teacher wrote, “The temptation of creating art and learning some fascinating science from experts around the world, while working with kids from another country, has proven magical for the COVID-battered students…” In this podcast, Chavez tells us about the program, how learning science through art impacts students’ ways of thinking, and the program’s continuing evolution. Additional Information National Endowment for the Arts, Arts Education Arts Education Partnership “Supporting Student Wellness Through the Arts” “How Artists Can Bridge the Digital Divide and Reimagine Humanity” by Agnes Chavez https://www.arts.gov/back-school-arts-education

Arts Education: Helping Students Move Forward

This week, we’re talking about investing in the creative economy from two perspectives. First, we get an overview of the issues from Laura Callanan. She’s the founding partner of Upstart Co-Lab,  an organization which works to connect impact investing to the creative economy.  With global partners from the UK and Argentina, Upstart Co-Lab co-published a report about this--Creativity, Culture & Capital: Impact investing in the global creative economy brings together some 40 essays from organizations from around the world that support impact investing in creative industries. In the podcast, Callanan explains what’s meant by the creative economy and impact investing, and how they contribute to a thriving culture and economy. She always shares what the United States might learn from the work done in this area by other countries. Then, we burrow down and look at investing in the creative economy from a local perspective by looking at the work done in Atlanta, Georgia with Sheoyki Jones. Sheoyki Jones is the founding program manager of Creative Industries, an initiative of Invest Atlanta.  (She also contributed an essay to the Creativity Culture & Capitalreport called “The Creative Industries: Driving Economic Opportunity in Atlanta.”) Jones talks with me about the programs that Creative Industries began that support Atlanta’s creative workers. She discusses the importance of genuine outreach to creative workers and also shares some of the challenges and best practices in designing programs that invest in and support local creative communities.

Creativity, Culture & Capital

In his documentary The Story Won’t Die--an official selection of the AFI DOCS Film Festival-- director David Henry Gerson looks at the lives and work of eight Syrian artists in exile. Since the civil war in Syria began ten years ago, more than half of the country’s population has been forcibly displaced. Of these, 6.8 million are refugees and asylum-seekers who have fled the country. The life of an artist is never easy—but to create art, first, under a violent and oppressive dictatorship, and then, as a refugee struggling to survive in a strange land, is something else again. What meaning does free expression have for someone in exile? Who is there to see or hear? Where can words and images resonate? How do you make a community in exile? These are some of the questions that the artists ask themselves and that The Story Won’t Die explores. These artists do continue to create in spite of displacement, As Gerson says, they “find ways to turn very dark, awful circumstances into creativity.” The Story Won’t Die interweaves the stories of these eight artists, with their art—music, dance and visual arts—taking pride of place in the film and becoming a central part of the narrative. In this podcast, David Henry Gerson talks about his decision to make a film that focuses on Syrian artists in exile, the relationship that developed with the artists, interweaving the art with their stories, the burden of exile, and the extraordinary resilience shown by these artists under dire circumstances. Featured Artists: Abu Hajar, Bboy Shadow (Mohammad Sabboura), Diala Brisly, Tammam Azzam, Anas Maghrebi, Medhat Aldaabal, Omar Imam, Bahila Hijazi    

David Henry Gerson

Anita Fields, a citizen of Osage nation, is a renowned textile and clay artist whose work has been exhibited nationally and internationally. Her art reflects Osage philosophy with its connection to nature and emphasis on duality. Her work also gives a new visual language to the complexities of Native history and culture. While immensely talented in other media, Fields has been named a National Heritage Fellow for her outstanding ribbon work. Native American ribbon work is colorful, precise, and complex. The style of Osage ribbon work is unique and Anita Fields is an exemplar of the art form. An innovative artist, she honors the tradition while taking it to new places, for example, taking the designs of ribbon work and impressing it on her ceramic and clay pieces.  In this podcast, Anita Fields talks about the centrality of Osage culture and philosophy in her art, her work in different media, her respect for and innovations of traditional textile and clay work, and her long and continuing artistic journey.   Keywords: 

Anita Fields (Osage)

In 2015, the New Orleans City Council voted to remove four Confederate monuments from public grounds. Death threats, protests, lawsuits, and rallies ensued, and writer and comedian CJ Hunt thought the situation ripe for a short satirical YouTube video.  He was curious “why a losing army from 1865 still holds so much power in America.” He covered the hearings and protests, and a bigger story began to emerge—one with profound implications. The result of Hunt’s exploration is a documentary called The Neutral Ground—a personal, disturbing, sometimes-funny, and informative exploration of the struggle over the monuments in New Orleans. But more broadly, the film, an official selection of the both the Tribeca Film Festival and AFI Docs, is an examination of collective memory, the myths of the Confederacy, how history was rewritten and reaffirmed, and the price paid, especially by Black people, to keep the story of “Lost Cause” alive.  In this podcast, Hunt talks about the film’s journey from short funny video to a timely and scholarly documentary, his decision to insert himself as a central character in the film, the conversations Black people have been having about these monuments since Frederick Douglass, and how humor can be a great method to get people to examine uncomfortable truths.  

CJ Hunt

One of the most important public artists in New Orleans is Enrique Alférez who was born in rural Mexico of indigenous Nahua heritage.  His life spanned the 20th century, and his distinctive vision helped shape the look of the city. His figurative sculptures, fountains, architectural friezes, bas-reliefs and carvings can be found on buildings and streets throughout New Orleans from City Park to Lakefront Airport, from the Central Business District to Algiers Point. Alférez is the subject of a new biography by poet Katie Bowler Young called Enrique Alférez: Sculptor.  Young had unrestricted access to his private papers and his family’s holdings; and, the result is a thoughtful, comprehensive, and visually-rich assessment of Enrique Alférez’s life and work.  In this podcast, Young discusses the breadth of Alférez‘s work, his commitment to public art, his place in the New Orleans’ visual landscape, his celebration of women and laborers, his time with Pancho Villa’s revolutionary army (oh yes!) and why a poet would take on the task of writing a biography—even one of a great artist.

Katie Bowler Young

The National Endowment for the Arts podcast that goes behind the scenes with some of the nation’s great artists to explore how art works.

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Art Works Podcasts

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