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Raw Material

SFMOMAsfmoma.org
Raw Material is an arts and culture podcast from the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA). Each season focuses on a different topic, featuring voices of artists working in all media and exploring the inspiration and stories behind modern and contemporary art.
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Episodes

I Still Have a Voice (Epilogue)

As an epilogue for the Raw Material: Disability Visibility Mixtape, we’re honored to share an audio piece by this season's podcaster-in-residence Alice Wong. The story first aired on KQED Perspectives, a show that features opinions from folks living in the Bay Area. If you haven’t already, check them out at kqed.org/perspectives. Thank you for listening and learning with us this season. Full episode transcript available below: https://docs.google.com/document/d/16gg7FbeIus45ltihrb1qA-i3i6xlBgMnw...

May 09, 20236 min

Museums w/ Amanda Cachia

In this episode Alice Wong introduces us to Amanda Cachia, an independent curator and critic whose work focuses on contemporary art, activism, and disability language in visual culture. Episode Artwork by: Jen White-Johnson (www.jenwhitejohnson.com) Full episode transcript available below: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1yz6gvmvR623muzyvxbkgHyMyJpYuvPyYHSQ4mu7Qhz4/edit?usp=sharing

Apr 25, 202333 min

Accessibility w/ Finnegan Shannon

In this episode Alice Wong introduces us to Finnegan Shannon, a multidisciplinary artist making work about disability culture and access. Episode Artwork by: Jen White-Johnson (www.jenwhitejohnson.com) Full episode transcript available below: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1b5mnmutrmxGUAci1nSxkQT1y6o--8dZ4HX6Eypzc6yY/edit?usp=sharing

Apr 11, 202336 min

Art & Technology w/ Lindsey D. Felt and Vanessa Chang

In this episode Alice Wong introduces us to Lindsey D. Felt and Vanessa Chang, curators who collaborated on the multidisciplinary art exhibition "Recoding CripTech". Episode Artwork by: Jen White-Johnson (www.jenwhitejohnson.com) Full episode transcript available below: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1rW9gUlWx_jbxLV7aRTBimrIyoCbfCFY9NvoBiGfBxRI/edit?usp=sharing

Mar 28, 202348 min

Disabled Artists w/ Jeff Thomas

In this episode Alice Wong introduces us to Jeff Thomas, an urban Iroquois photographer, researcher, public speaker, and curator. Episode Artwork by: Jen White-Johnson (www.jenwhitejohnson.com) Full episode transcript available below: https://docs.google.com/document/d/13hGXKXo1tJokHHKtpobdaHdJBG03eb0D-fL_-EAFm38/edit?usp=sharing

Mar 14, 202333 min

Disabled Dancers w/ India Harville

In this episode Alice Wong introduces us to India Harville, an African American queer disabled femme dancer, somatic bodyworker, activist, and educator. Episode Artwork by: Jen White-Johnson (www.jenwhitejohnson.com) Full episode transcript available below: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1TlOETTK70geysFM9MpBmYLmQ1ADhCF825M_6DZFC-Ws/edit?usp=share_link

Feb 28, 202333 min

Raw Material Presents: The Mission Muralismo Audio Zine - Volume I

Raw Material is excited to share The Mission Muralismo Audio Zine – Volume I with our listening audience — because we know how much you love ART about ART! Local writers Olivia Peña and Josiah Luis Alderete interweave their perspectives on the history of the Mission Muralismo movement with stories from the muralists themselves. This zine expands storytelling related to SFMOMA’s Summer 2022 exhibition Diego Rivera’s America, centering voices of The Mission community and Muralism movement. Full En...

Apr 13, 202248 min

Visions of Black Futurity Episode 7: Radical Dreaming

In Episode 7, Babette reconnects with EJ, and we hear her loud and clear. Babette talks with KQED’s Pendarvis Harshaw + former Oakland head librarian Dorothy Lazard about what makes Oakland soulful. NIAD artists Deatra Colbert and Halisi Noel-Johnson tell us about being Black and legendary. Featured: Deatra Colbert, Nan Collymore, Susan Goldman, Pendarvis Harshaw, Martha Jackson Jarvis, Halisi Noel-Johnson, Dorothy Lazard, Evangeline Montgomery, Stephany Neal, and Babette Thomas. Audio excerpt f...

Apr 06, 202243 min

Visions of Black Futurity Episode 6: We All We Got

In Episode 6, Babette is welcomed into the home of artist Mildred Howard. Twice. Listen to Mildred speak about letting her materials inform her, reflecting light through glass bottles, and giving Black women their flowers. Featured: Elizabeth Catlett, Mildred Howard, Evangeline Montgomery, Betye Saar, and Babette Thomas. Cover art: Evangeline's Garden by Jeanna Penn @jinamae

Mar 23, 202246 min

Visions of Black Futurity Episode 5: How Art Lives

In Episode 5, Babette connects with artist Cheryl Fabio to discuss the work, impact, and foresight of her mother, poet and activist Sarah Webster Fabio. Rapper and fellow writer Nappy Nina reflects on the role of community in building an art career and practice. Featured: Cheryl Fabio, Sarah Webster Fabio, Evangeline Montgomery, Nappy Nina, and Babette Thomas. Cover art: Evangeline's Garden by Jeanna Penn @jinamae

Mar 02, 202240 min

Visions of Black Futurity Episode 4: Black Futurity Rightnowish

In Episode 4 of Visions of Black Futurity, Babette shares an update on their search for Evangeline. Plus, we hear two episodes of Rightnowish hosted by Pendarvis Harshaw, exploring what it looks like to build liberated Black spaces in the Bay Area. Featured: Deanna Van Buren, Pendarvis Harshaw, Tajai Massey, Evangeline Montgomery, and Babette Thomas. Cover art: Evangeline's Garden by Jeanna Penn @jinamae

Feb 16, 202239 min

Visions of Black Futurity Episode 3: Big Black Open Spaces

In Episode 3, Babette tries to answer the question, “Where will we host our Black art spaces of the future?” In the woods, by the ocean, or in a city center? They turn to artists who deal with matters of space, place, and land: Octavia Butler, Richard Mayhew, and Bay Area artist Sage Stargate. Follow us, as we trace the footsteps our ancestors have left behind. Featured: Richard Mayhew, Evangeline Montgomery, Bí Oke, Sage Stargate, Babette Thomas, Jay Thomas, and Veronica Thomas. Cover art: Evan...

Feb 02, 202241 min

Visions of Black Futurity Episode 2: Preparing for Launch

In Episode 2 of Visions of Black Futurity, Babette visits a museum with no walls: the Noah Purifoy Outdoor Desert Museum in Joshua Tree, CA. Purifoy tells us what led him to the desert and Cauleen Smith creates a Black, feminist utopia in the spaces he built. Even our dreams have rhythm, let’s go together, moving through time + space — funkin to the beat of “One.” Interview of Noah Purifoy provided by the Center for Oral History Research, Charles E. Young Research Library, UCLA Featured: Evangel...

Jan 19, 202238 min

Visions of Black Futurity Episode 1: Finding Kinship in the Archive

In Episode 1 of Visions of Black Futurity, Babette Thomas takes us on a journey through time. We travel to a 1968 Black arts exhibition in Oakland, California, called New Perspectives in Black Art. It was the first of its kind in the country and, in this episode, we meet the woman behind it all, a Black artist and curator named Evangeline "EJ" Montgomery. Featured: Etta Moten Barnett, Dewey Crumpler, Zora Neale Hurston, Evangeline Montgomery, Ma Rainey, Bobby Seale, Babette Thomas, and Sarah Vau...

Jan 01, 202224 min

Visions of Black Futurity Playlist: The Vibes are Free

Babette sets the sonic table for Season 7 of Raw Material with a playlist of songs inspired by the ethos of the Black Bay Area during the 1960s and 1970s. Spotify playlist: https://spoti.fi/3pfCBgY Featured: Evangeline Montgomery, and Babette Thomas Cover art: Evangeline's Garden by Jeanna Penn @jinamae

Dec 21, 20219 min

Anselm Kiefer by The Lonely Palette

The art of postwar German artist Anselm Kiefer and the poetry of Holocaust survivor Paul Celan are both layered, dense, and hard to read. Sometimes the best starting point is through the layered, dense, and idiosyncratic ways that an individual processes trauma. So grab a spelunking hardhat and together we'll mine these layers of metaphor and materials, texture and text, golden straw and blackened ash, that comprise the unimaginable. This episode was produced by The Lonely Palette. More episodes...

Aug 10, 202055 min

Alexander Calder by Accession

This episode talks about a number of pieces by Alexander Calder. Calder is most well known for his mobiles, giant hanging pieces that move subtly with the currents in the room. This episode was produced by Accession. More episodes at accession.fm.

Aug 03, 202024 min

Kara Walker by The Way I See It

Roxane Gay reflects on Kara Walker's Christ's Entry into Journalism (2017). The Way I See It, "Roxane Gay and Kara Walker's Christ's Entry into Journalism" was produced by the BBC in association with the Museum of Modern Art New York. More episodes at www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0009bf6.

Aug 03, 202014 min

Agnes Martin by Bow Down

The best-selling novelist and essayist, Olivia Laing explores the influential abstract artist Agnes Martin (1912-2004). Martin – a gay, working class woman who forged a path in a male-dominated art world – embraced solitude and didn’t have her first solo show until she was 46. This episode was produced by Reduced Listening © Frieze. More episodes at frieze.com/article/bow-down-podcast-women-art-history.

Aug 03, 202022 min

Roberto Matta by Art History For All

Art History For All guides you through Roberto Matta’s surreal mental landscape, Invasion of the Night (1941), and explores its connections to physics and psychology. This episode was produced by Art History for All. More episodes at arthistoryforall.com.

Aug 03, 202029 min

Betye Saar by Recording Artists

This episode focuses on Betye Saar (b. 1926). In a 1975 interview, she discusses the diverse sources for her art and how she prevailed in the face of racism and gender discrimination. This episode is produced by the J. Paul Getty Museum Museum. More episodes at getty.edu/recordingartists/.

Aug 03, 202037 min

Mark Rothko by The Lonely Palette

“A painting is not a picture of an experience. It is the experience.” — Mark Rothko This episode is produced by The Lonely Palette. More episodes at http://www.thelonelypalette.com/.

Aug 03, 202029 min

Connor by Everything Is Alive

Connor is a portrait of President William Howard Taft. He's hanging on a wall, but is anybody looking at him? This episode is produced by Everything Is Alive. More episodes at https://www.everythingisalive.com/

Aug 03, 202026 min

Barnett Newman by 99% Invisible

This episode, "The Many Deaths of a Painting" was produced by 99% Invisible. More episodes at 99percentinvisible.org.

Aug 01, 202031 min

Raw Material Mixtape: The Beholder's Share

Catch a sneak peak of what’s coming this season on Raw Material's "summer mixtape," from SFMOMA. Season update: Raw Material is temporarily suspending this season to create space for more urgent stories and conversations. Black lives matter.

Jun 01, 20204 min

Welcome to Raw Material

Welcome to Raw Material from SFMOMA! Start here for a quick introduction to our seasonal arts + culture podcast, by SFMOMA Content Producer and Raw Material creator Erin Fleming.

Mar 20, 20202 min

Six Degrees Episode 6: Nikhil

Sayre Quevedo, Raw Material’s podcaster-in-residence for Season 6, is at the end of his journey. It all started with a curiosity about the surprising ways humans are connected, and a wild plot to make his way to various artists through “degrees of separation.” When we first meet Sayre, he’s stealing love letters back from an ungracious ex. In this final episode, where does this experiment leave him?

Dec 13, 20196 min

Six Degrees Episode 5: Every connection

After a series of false starts, rabbit holes, and mind maps, the time has come for Sayre to (possibly) meet internationally acclaimed artist Nikhil Chopra, the sixth degree of separation. Nikhil is at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, splayed upon the floor. Sayre is intimidated, alone, and buried behind a crowd of Nikhil’s friends and fans. Will the two finally connect, or will fate have it otherwise?

Nov 25, 201916 min

Six Degrees Episode 4: Nooshin

Nooshin Rostami is a United States–based Iranian artist living in exile. While her father was dying in Iran, Nooshin was 6000 miles away from home. How will she process her grief without physical contact—without seeing her sisters, her mother, and the body of her father? What will it take to cross the insurmountable distance between her and her closest connections? Her answer: light.

Nov 18, 201920 min
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