That’s How the Light Gets In

Episode 13: Mateo Nube of Los Nadies & Movement Generation

In this episode, I speak with a dear friend of mine, Mateo Nube of the band Los Nadies, which just released a new album, “Tiempo de Desembarcar,” on El Cerrito Records in August. Mateo is also a Co-Director at Movement Generation Justice and Ecology Project and a brilliant political strategist and popular educator on ecology and just transition.  In the episode, we talk Mateo’s experience growing up under dictatorship in Bolivia but being surrounded by revolutionary women, activists, and artists; the defense of truth as a way to defend against the scrambling of reality under authoritarianism; culture and music as intimacy and collective ecstasy; being creators not just consumers of culture; and the non-negotiability of our dignity.  Throughout the episode, we play clips from Los Nadies’ new album and from their recent album release party.  Find Los Nadies online at losnadies.com [http://losnadies.com] or on IG at @MusicaLosNadies.

Episode 12: Mamas for a Free Palestine

This week, I share a conversation I had at the end of last year with Michelle Mascarenhas and Lisa Juachon of Mamas for a Free Palestine. We talk about the role of movement mamas, aunties, matriarchs - really folks of all genders - who play that role in our communities of deeply embodying the James Baldwin quote about all of the children are all of our children, holding life sacred, moving in ways that recognize the interconnectedness of all life, and centering care for each other. Lisa and Michelle talk about the importance, in this moment in particular, of organizing as sectors of society - of finding your people, your crew, your squad and rolling together, not just in the streets, but in really identifying what the needs are in your community and meeting those needs in ways that contest for power.    Follow them on IG at @DefeatFascism24. Lisa can be found at @Diwangalon and Michelle at @Michelle4JT.    Please consider supporting the podcast by joining the Patreon at patreon.com/thatshowthelightgetsinpodcast [http://patreon.com/thatshowthelightgetsinpodcast] and following us on IG at @ThatsHowTheLightGetsInPodcast.  A transcript for this episode is available online. To access it, visit https://linktr.ee/thatshowthelightgetsinpodcast [https://linktr.ee/thatshowthelightgetsinpodcast] and scroll down to “Transcripts."

Episode 11: Patty Berne of Sins Invalid talks "Stages of Grief: Crip Hearts on Fire."

This week on the pod, I speak with Patty Berne, Co-Founder and Executive and Artistic Director of Sins Invalid, a disability justice performance project that centers people of color, queers, nonbinary and trans people with disabilities.    Patty is a queer disabled author, artist, and organizer of Japanese and Haitian descent and is widely recognized for her work to establish the framework and practice of disability justice.   In the episode, we talk about how capitalism and industrial production have defined a normative mindbody as a body that can produce profit, and sees all other mindbodies as disposable, and how disability justice therefore reorients us to an economy based on care, where all mindbodies are sacred and are powerful not despite the complexities of our bodies but because of them.    We also talk disabled ancestors from Frida Kahlo to Gloria Anzaldua, crip-centric liberated zones, disability as an aesthetic from which to make culture, and Patty’s forthcoming graphic novel. We then spend much of the episode talking about Sins Invalid’s upcoming performance, “Stages of Grief: Crip Hearts on Fire” at the ODC Theater in San Francisco, December 13-15th. Get tickets for that performance at odc.dance/sins invalid [https://odc.dance/sinsinvalid] and follow Sins Invalid via their website at sinsinvalid.org and on Instagram at @SinsInvalid.    Please consider supporting the podcast by joining the Patreon at patreon.com/thatshowthelightgetsinpodcast and following us Instagram at @ThatsHowTheLightGetsInPodcast.    A transcript for this episode is available online. To access it, visit https://linktr.ee/thatshowthelightgetsinpodcast and scroll down to “Transcripts."

Episode 10: "Sumud: Resistance Until Liberation" mural artists and organizers Jackie Romero and Nathaniel Moore

This week, I’m joined by two of the many artists and organizers behind the "Sumud: Resistance Until Liberation” mural in Oakland, CA — Jackie Romero of the Palestinian Youth Movement and Nathaniel Moore of the Freedom Archives. We also hear audio from incarcerated artist Kevin Cooper, who contributed a piece to the mural from Death Row.  In the words of the mural organizers “In both the U.S. and Palestine, creating art is often a political act and a testament to the imagination, brilliance, and creativity of people’s resistance to oppression, even behind bars. At this time, as death and destruction rain down on the people of Gaza and Palestine, painting this mural together as a community can affirm our collective commitment to resistance and liberation.” You can see each panel of the Sumud mural and read the artists’ statements at SumudMuralOakland.org. To donate, go to the website and click DONATE or google “GoFundMe Sumud Mural.” On Instagram, if you can find the mural at @sumudmuralproject. You can find Jackie at @graciashabibti and PYM at @bayareapym and @PalestinianYouthMovement. You can learn more about Kevin Cooper’s case at freekevincooper.org [https://www.freekevincooper.org/] And, of course, you can find this podcast on IG at @ThatsHowTheLightGetsInPodcast and you can find me, Brooke Anderson, at @MovementPhotographer. After donating to the mural, if you have funds remaining, please consider supporting the podcast by joining the Patreon at patreon.com/thatshowthelightgetsinpodcast.

Episode 09: Annnnnd... we're back!

Brooke is joined in conversation by Movement Generation's Angela Aguilar as the two moderate a panel on culture shift at an MG retreat. Brooke speaks to what it means to come back to podcasting after a 6+ month hiatus. Brooke and Angela riff on this idea that all economies - all ways of managing home - from extractive to liberatory, create a culture which makes it make sense for people to participate in the economy. And so, our task - as organizers and revolutionaries - is to create the culture that that helps build a regenerative economy, one that is grounded in collective care, cooperation, regeneration, and reverence for the web of life. Join the Patreon at https://patreon.com/thatshowthelightgetsinpodcast