Throughout history and across the world, Black people have used protest songs to boost morale and inspire action. In this episode, Katie and Yves explore the history of protest songs created to uplift major social movements, including the U.S. Civil Rights Movement and the anti-apartheid struggle in South Africa. Get show notes at ontheme.show Follow us on Instagram @onthemeshow Email us at [email protected] See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information....
Jan 25, 2024•35 min
Katie and Yves delve into the often overlooked yet impactful role of Black artists in times of war. Join us as we unravel the stories behind the artwork, songs, and poetry that have played a crucial role in shaping perceptions, challenging systemic injustices, and advocating for change on the frontlines and beyond. We also talk with surrealist blues poet, aja monet, about how she uses art to support Palestine. Read aja’s poems in My Mother Was A Freedom Fighter Listen to aja's album When the Poe...
Jan 19, 2024•49 min
What stories are you looking forward to this year? What stories will you create? Katie and Yves chat about all the stories to come in 2024. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Jan 11, 2024•29 min
We’re diving into a realm filled with characters who make us grit our teeth, furrow our brows, and sometimes—let's admit it—make us itch to reach into the story and deliver a perfectly executed whack! Listen to see if you’d slap the same characters we would. Follow us on Instagram @onthemeshow Email us at [email protected] For show notes, visit our website ontheme.show See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information....
Jan 04, 2024•28 min
Haters get a bad wrap and for good reason. They demean, ridicule, and well...hate, but they are often the catalyst in many of the Black stories we know and love. We hear about haters in songs, memoirs, acceptance speeches. It’s possible that without haters, we would only have a fraction of the Black stories we have today. In this episode, Katie and Yves discuss haters’ place in the Black storytelling ecosystem. Follow us on Instagram @onthemeshow Email us at [email protected] For show notes, vi...
Dec 28, 2023•34 min
Katie and Yves head to the movies to watch American Fiction. Afterward, they discuss the anatomy of the Black Struggle Industrial Complex™ using examples from the movie and Erasure by Percival Everett. Buy Erasure by Percival Everett Follow us on Instagram @onthemeshow Email us at [email protected] Visit our website ontheme.show See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information....
Dec 21, 2023•31 min
Katie and Yves talk with Ambar Johnson, an oral historian who created a guide specifically to help collect family stories. We discuss the dos and don’ts of gathering family histories, and Yves uses the guide to interview a family member. Download Ambar Johnson’s guide on collecting family stories at dandelyonsstudios.myflodesk.com Follow us on Instagram @onthemeshow Email us at [email protected] Visit our website ontheme.show See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information....
Dec 14, 2023•20 min
Some rappers put the brakes on their music careers and flipped the script — literally. In this episode, Katie and Yves discuss three different hip-hop artists who made their way down the rap-to-act pipeline and consider how we can reflect on their reinventions. Follow us on Instagram @onthemeshow Email us at [email protected] See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information....
Dec 07, 2023•28 min
With hip-hop in its 50th year, the music genre and cultural phenomenon has gone from the block to the world’s stage. In this episode, Katie and Yves are taking it back to the block (and the cubicle and the classroom and the grocery store checkout line) and delving into the role of amateur rappers play in storytelling. Discover how these part-time rappers become modern-day griots, chronicling the highs, lows, and hidden truths of their neighborhoods. Follow us on Instagram @onthemeshow Email us a...
Nov 30, 2023•25 min
Here at On Theme, the season to give thanks for Black stories is year-round, ya dig? As a small token of gratitude, Katie and Yves dedicate an episode to their appreciation for Carrie Mae Weems’s “Kitchen Table Series” and Fannie Lou Hamer’s 1964 speech at the Democratic National Convention. Check out Carrie Mae Weems’s Kitchen Table Series Read “ Carrie Mae Weems by Dawoud Bey ” in Bomb Magazine Listen to Fannie Lou Hamer’s full speech Follow us on Instagram @onthemeshow Email us at hello@onthe...
Nov 23, 2023•31 min
Who do you go to for advice? In this episode, Katie and Yves revisit Princess Mysteria’s 1920s advice column and speak with author and podcast host Damon Young about advice, storytelling, and faulty iPhone chargers. Follow us on Instagram @onthemeshow Email us at [email protected] See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Nov 16, 2023•30 min
Oh, shoot! Your best friend’s wedding is tomorrow and you didn’t prepare a toast. No worries. In this episode, Katie and Yves break down the key ingredients of the perfect toast using examples from their favorite movies and TV shows. Follow us on Instagram @onthemeshow Email us at [email protected] See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Nov 09, 2023•20 min
If you’re an artist, it’s pretty much guaranteed that you’re going to create art that you’re not happy with at some point. But when Black artists have to look back at past works that didn’t age well on the race front, the regret can run deep. In this episode, Katie and Yves dive into Octavia E. Butler’s, Viola Davis's, and Ernest Hogan’s stories of remorse and reckoning. Follow Coley Gilchrist @ coleygilchrist Follow us on Instagram @onthemeshow Email us at [email protected] See omnystudio.com/...
Nov 02, 2023•40 min
In today’s episode, Yves has beef with jokes about Black people running away from danger in horror movies. But the best stories have dramatic reversals, and even the most stubborn minds can be changed. Katie and Yves get into the complexity of the well-intentioned jokes and speak with Dr. Robin R. Means Coleman, a horror expert who isn’t afraid to look in the mirror and say “Candyman” five times. Follow Dr. Means Coleman on X @MeansColeman Purchase “The Black Guy Dies First” and "Horror Noire" F...
Oct 26, 2023•44 min
There are Black folks who are real-life colleagues with the supernatural. Then there are Black folks who are sacrificial fictional characters in problematic storylines. Then there’s the other other “magical Negro”: the one who performs the art of magic. Katie and Yves delve into the history of Black magicians and the significance of the stories they told. Then they return to the present for a conversation with modern-day magician Nicole Cardoza. Keep up with Nicole Cardoza: blackgirlmagician.com...
Oct 19, 2023•34 min
Katie and Yves are joined by journalist and author of “When Crack Was King,” Donovan X. Ramsey. They discuss his new book, the media’s role in exacerbating the devastating effects of crack, how hip-hop artists memorialized the early days of crack in their rhymes, and the unhinged PSAs put out during the crack era. (Ahem, looking at the Partnership for a Drug Free America PSA : “Make no mistake — drug abuse is the new slavery.”) Follow Donovan on X and Instagram @DonovanXRamsey Follow us on Insta...
Oct 12, 2023•37 min
Art inspires. But what happens when the lives we see on the screen leave us feeling disappointed with our own lives? In this episode, Katie and Yves talk with Dr. Joy Harden Bradford of Therapy for Black Girls about what to do when our expectations don’t match our reality. Follow Dr. Joy on social media @hellodrjoy Buy Dr. Joy's book "Sisterhood Heals" Follow us on Instagram @onthemeshowEmail us at [email protected] See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information....
Oct 05, 2023•32 min
Dear Audience, In today’s episode, we pour back into Black stories a modicum of the love that they’ve given us. In admiration & gratitude, Katie + Yves See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Sep 28, 2023•36 min
Who doesn't love a great beginning? Katie and Yves introduce themselves and discuss the art and science of capturing audiences’ imagination by examining the first episodes of “Abbott Elementary” and “I May Destroy You.” Follow us on Instagram @onthemeshowEmail us at [email protected] See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Sep 28, 2023•36 min
Black stories are more than a fad. We know them. We love them. They change our lives. And on this podcast, Black stories are the default. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Sep 21, 2023•4 min
