KSMoCA Presents… (Podcast)

KSMoCA Presents… features interviews with collaborating visiting artists and Dr. MLK Jr. School students, faculty, and staff.

Season 2

The four episodes of season two were recorded during KSMoCA’s summer 2023 podcast camp and workshop and feature Dr. MLK Jr. students Masico, Armani, Londyn, La’Nayah, and A’myrrah. The students worked with professional podcast producers and editors James Sneed and Liza Yeager and learned how to develop, record, and produce a podcast while interviewing artists and community members. They interviewed artists Pedro Reyes and Intisar Abioto, Portland State University Professor Courtney Terry, PhD., and radio personality DJ Ambush.

DJ Ambush talks about his love of playing and collecting music with KSMoCA interviewers Rose, Masico, A’myrrah, Londyn, and Armani.

Dr. Courtney Terry talks with KSMoCA reporters about the overlaps between teaching, listening to and studying hip hop and rap, and being in community. She was interviewed by Rose, Masico, A’myrrah, Londyn, and Armani. Dr. Terry is an assistant professor in Black Studies at Portland State University. Born and reared in South Central Los Angeles, she graduated from Humboldt State University in Arcata, California with a bachelor's degree in Ethnic Studies in 2009. She went on to pursue graduate studies at Clark Atlanta University, a historically Black college in Atlanta, Georgia. She earned a master's in African American Studies and a doctorate in humanities specializing in English literature and African American Studies. Her research interests are contemporary rap music and hip-hop culture as it manifests in North America and throughout the diaspora.

Intisar Abioto is an artist and explorer working across photography, dance, and writing. Storytelling, dreams, history, memory, and geography are recurring themes that permeate every aspect of her practice. Born in Memphis, Tennesee, she is currently based in Portland, Oregon. Her works showcase the rich, diverse narratives of peoples of African descent through projects that include The People Could Fly Project,The Black Portlanders, and The Black. She was also the curator of the monumental exhibition Black Artists of Oregon at the Portland Museum of Art.

Pedro Reyes talks with KSMoCA Presents about his development as a socially engaged artist and his recent project Palas por Pistolas. Reyes collected 1,527 guns from the Culiacán area in Mexico which were steamrolled and melted. Then Reyes used materials from the weapons to create shovels that were then used for planting trees. The KSMoCA Presents podcast team participated in the project by using one of the shovels to plant a Japanese maple tree on the grounds of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Elementary School in Portland, Oregon.

 

Season 1

For season one of the podcast, participating students met once a week during the 2017-2018 school year to learn the fundamentals of developing and recording a podcast, complete with professional recording gear and a field trip to KBOO, the local community radio station. This 10-week curriculum was developed as a sustainable/scalable model for expansion with guest podcast recording professional, Saint James. Other podcast programing was supported by Amenta Abioto, Nora Colie, and Shira Dennis.

Brooklyn-based artist Byron Kim discusses his exhibit, Sunday Paintings, at KSMoCA.

Ralph Pugay talks about his exhibit, Excursions, at KSMoCA.

Portland-based artist Samantha Wall discusses her KSMoCA exhibit, Inheritance.

Dr. MLK Jr. School PTA President, Shei'Meka Owens, talks about art and KSMoCA.

Vice Principal Yolanda Coleman talks with us about art and KSMoCA at Dr. MLK Jr. School.

Harrell Fletcher talks about art and KSMoCA. He is a co-founder and co-director of KSMoCA.