The Iconocast

This special episode of Iconocast Canvas features live performances from Standing with Standing Rock: A Benefit Event, which took place November 12, 2016. The fundraiser, which was emceed by Canvas hosts Nekeisha and Seth, brought together musicians, dancers and artists to support water protectors resisting the Dakota Access Pipeline in Cannonball, North Dakota. All of the proceeds, more than $2,500, went to the Standing Rock legal defense fund. The event, which took place at Fellowship of Hope Mennonite Church in Elkhart, Indiana, was co-organized by students of Goshen College’s EcoPax Club and Students for Social Reform Clubs, and by Iconocast Canvas. Read a full report back on the benefit here

Intro music: “FHH 12” by FREE Hip Hop Music on Soundcloud

Performers and speakers (in order of appearance)

  • Group song: Mimi Salvador Lucero
  • Song: Nayo Ulloa
  • Q&A: Mechelle Sky Walker, Water protector of the Omaha tribe from the Buffalo Clan residing in territory known as Lincoln, Nebraska. Facilitator: Mimi Salvador Lucero
  • Spoken word: Antonius Northern
  • Spoken word: Mimi Salvador Lucero
  • Song: Nekeisha Alayna Alexis
  • Song: Nayla Jimenez
  • Rap: Abe Medellin
  • Speakers: Cecilia Lapp Stoltzfus, Katerina Friesen and Jimmy Betts
  • Song: Seth Martin (singer) and Evra Tshisola (bass)
  • Group song: Led by Nicole Bauman and Jason Shenk. Written by Keisha Soleil.

Credits
Organizers (alphabetical order): Nekeisha Alayna Alexis, Naomi Gross, Cecilia Lapp Stoltzfus, Mimi Salvador Lucero, Seth Martin, Chelsea Risser and Hannah Yoder. Dancers: Phil Chan and Nimoy Vaidya. Rockport campaign information: Jason Shenk. Photography: Verlin Miller. DJ: Caley “DJ Rushmor” Ortman. Location: Fellowship of Hope Mennonite Church, Elkhart, Indiana and Suella Gerber, pastor.

Correction: Nekeisha sincerely apologizes for saying Mimi Salvador Lucero’s name incorrectly in the special thanks during the opening. We also regret neglecting to thank event DJ, Caley “DJ Rushmor” Ortman on the podcast.

Direct download: 005Canvas-StandingRockBenefit.mp3
Category:Iconocast -- posted at: 3:10pm CDT

On episode 65 of the Iconocast Joanna interviews Father Richard Smith. Father Richard Smith was ordained a Jesuit priest in 1978 and worked for several years in parishes in Washington State. Later, after receiving a Ph.D. in Ethics and Social Theory from the Graduate Theological Union, he taught Religious Studies at various San Francisco Bay Area Universities, before working as a technical writer in Silicon Valley. After his reception as an Episcopal priest in 2000, he served as a Priest Associate at St. John the Evangelist, working heavily for immigration reform in San Francisco's Mission District, a largely Latino community. In 2013, he became Vicar at St. John's and has worked to deepen his congregation's commitment to the larger community. He helped establish Mission Nightwalks, an effort by faith communities to stem both police and gang violence in their neighborhood. His congregation now opens their doors each weekday morning for homeless neighbors to sleep in a safe, dry space. And, with hostility toward immigrants increasing, St. John's has now become a Sanctuary congregation, accompanying and protecting newly arrived undocumented immigrants in San Francisco.

Father Richard lives in San Francisco with his husband Rob and their son David.

Direct download: ep65_Fr._Richard.m4a
Category:Iconocast -- posted at: 12:27pm CDT

In episode 64 Joanna interviews Zephyr Elise. Zephyr Elise is mixed indigenous artist, filmmaker, animator, and activist. They graduated from the Evergreen State College in 2012 with a B.A. in film and a specialization in queer and indigenous studies. Born in San Diego, CA they have since lived up and down both coasts, but currently call the #NoDAPL encampment at Standing Rock, ND home. In former incarnations, they have been an organizer with Idle No More- Two Spirits on Ohlone Lands, the executive media assistant for Indian Canyon Nation of Ohlones, and sat on the Two Spirit Council of Indian Canyon. They will be overseeing the Winyan (Lakota: woman) camp, a woman, children, and two spirit safe space in the Oceti Sakowin camp for the winter.

Direct download: i64_Zephyr_Elise.mp3
Category:Iconocast -- posted at: 1:20pm CDT

In episode four of Iconocast Canvas, Nekeisha and Sarah hang out at Activism Row at Afropunk Festival in Commodore Park, Brooklyn. At the August 2016 "Power to the Party" themed event, they talked with several organizers for Black and other liberation  and anti-oppression struggles. Interviewees include Allen Kwabena Frimpong and Walter Cruz from Black Lives Matter: NYC; Olaronke Akinmowo, founder of the Free Black Women's Library; Taliba Obuya, national coordinator of the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement; Emma Chu Murphy, festival-goer and doula with Ancient Song Doula Services and Mia Anderson from the Brooklyn Anti-Gentrification Network. Nekeisha and Sarah open the conversations by reflecting on their experiences at the eclectic gathering dedicated to dynamic and alternative expressions of Black music and culture.

Also mentioned: Every Black Girl and Kleaver Cruz's Black Joy Project.

Music: "Spanish Winter" by The Passion HiFi (Evil Twin Records) https://soundcloud.com/freehiphopbeatsforyou

Direct download: IconocastCanvas-Afropunk2016.mp3
Category:Iconocast -- posted at: 12:14pm CDT

In episode 63 Joanna interviews Clayborne Carson. 

Clayborne Carson has devoted his professional life to the study of Martin Luther King, Jr. and the movements King inspired. Since receiving his doctorate from UCLA in 1975, Dr. Carson has taught at Stanford University, where he is now professor of history and founding director of the Martin Luther King, Jr., Research and Education Institute.

During his undergraduate years at UCLA, Dr. Carson participated in civil rights and antiwar protests, and many of his subsequent writings reflect his experiences by stressing the importance of grassroots political activity within the African-American freedom struggle. Carson's scholarly publications have focused on African-American protest movements and political thought of the period after World War II. His other publications include In Struggle: SNCC and the Black Awakening of the 1960s (1981); Malcolm X: The FBI File (1991); African American Lives: The Struggle for Freedom (2005, co-author); and a memoir, Martin's Dream: My Journey and the Legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr. (2013).

Direct download: i63_Clayborn_Carson.mp3
Category:Iconocast -- posted at: 10:43am CDT

In episode 62 Joanna interviews Chris Carlsson. Chris is a writer, San Francisco historian, bicyclist, tour guide, photographer, and a book and magazine designer. He’s lived in San Francisco since 1978. He’s written two books (After the Deluge and Nowtopia) and edited six books, including: Critical Mass: Bicycling’s Defiant Celebration and Ten Years That Shook the City: San Francisco, 1968-78. He helped co-found Critical Mass in September 1992, and has ridden with Critical Mass rides in a dozen cities on three continents since then. He has directed Shaping San Francisco, a participatory community history project, since its inception in the mid-1990s, and continues to be co-director of the archive of San Francisco history at FoundSF.org. He also conducts award-winning bicycle history tours a dozen times a year, and hosts an ongoing Public Talks series in San Francisco.

Direct download: ChrisCarlsson_ep_62.m4a
Category:Iconocast -- posted at: 7:00pm CDT

In episode three of Iconocast Canvas, Nekeisha and Seth interview Roman GianArthur. Roman is a singer, composer, arranger, producer, performer and artist on Wondaland Records. He is consistently broadening the expectations of what a soul singer can do: writing musicals, composing concertos, conducting orchestras, scoring films, picking up new instruments and learning their mysteries at prodigious speed, all while offering heartfelt reflections on the social implications of art and the need for more beauty in the world around us.

Intro and outro credit: 
"Me in Your Life" by The Passion HiFi (Evil Twin Records) https://soundcloud.com/freehiphopbeatsforyou

Direct download: 003Canvas-RomanGianArthur.mp3
Category:Iconocast -- posted at: 11:41am CDT

In this episode Joanna interviews Sara Miles. Sara is the founder and director of the The Food Pantry and serves as director of ministry at St. Gregory of Nyssa Episcopal Church in San Francisco. Her books include City of God: Faith in the Streets, Jesus Freak: Feeding Healing Raising the Dead and Take This Bread: A Radical Conversion. She speaks, preaches and leads workshops around the country, and her writing has appeared in the New York Times Magazine, the New Yorker, and on National Public Radio.


Joanna is joined by fellow interviewer Suella Lehman Gerber. Suella is pastor of Fellowship of Hope Mennonite Church in Elkhart, Ind., and was visiting San Francisco on sabbatical.

Direct download: i_61_sara_miles.mp3
Category:Iconocast -- posted at: 11:38am CDT

In episode 60 Joanna interviews Ellen Dahlke and Rick Ayers about education and liberation. Ellen is a former high school English teacher and currently coordinates the outside end of a GED program with radical leanings that was founded and is led by incarcerated men for incarcerated men. Rick Ayers is an assistant professor of education at the University of San Francisco in the Urban Education and Social Justice cohort. He is author of A Teacher’s Guide to Studs Terkel’s Working, and the author of An Empty Seat in Class: Teaching and Learning after the Death of a Student. He has also co-authored with his brother Bill Ayers, Teaching the Taboo: Courage and Imagination in the Classroom.

Direct download: i_60_dalkhe-ayers.mp3
Category:Iconocast -- posted at: 8:46pm CDT

In episode two of Iconocast: Canvas, Nekeisha and Seth interview sculptor, painter and poet Jake Webster. Born and raised in Greenville, Miss. during the 40s, Jake's roots as an artist reach back to his childhood and extend into the present. Jake was a painter for more than a decade before adding direct carving to his skills in 1974. A resident of Elkhart, Ind. for 21 years, he often uses local materials, including wood from fallen logs in the area and excess limestone from quarries. Recycled materials is a core part of his work, with used nails, bones and scrap metal figuring prominently in his sculptures, and articles like paper, rags and plastic wrappers appearing in his paintings. Jake's artistic pursuits have taken him as close to home as South Bend and Indianapolis, Ind. and as far away as Italy, Greece and France. He invites those who view his work to ask themselves two questions: "What in the hell is he doing?" and, "How do I make my life better from this day forward?" You can find out more about Jake and his work at www.artpostblog.com/jakewebster/

Music for Cavnas 002:
​​"FHH 27" by FREE Hip Hop Beats at soundcloud.com/freebeatshiphop/

Direct download: 002Canvas-JakeWebster.mp3
Category:Iconocast -- posted at: 2:33pm CDT