AirGo

AirGo digs deep in the vaults for #GoBack, a series of interviews Daniel did between 2011 and 2014 with some of hip hop's best. Originally aired on KDIC-FM, Damon and Daniel's college radio station, we dust off the conversations and bring them to you. First up, Kendrick Lamar in 2013. Follow AirGo - instagram.com/airgoradio bsky.app/profile/respairmedia.bsky.social Find us live! - www.respairmedia...

Bria Royal is a mythmaker. The artist, media journalist, organizer, and spacemaker creates worlds through comics, animation, and paintings that reimagine the relationships between liberation, the natural world, gender, mental health, technology, and more. She works for the youth media and journalism nonprofit Free Spirit Media, and is a member of Chicago-based organizations The People's Response T...

Ashley Ray is open. The comedian, writer, and cultural critic shares the stories, questions, insecurities, and challenges many of us struggle to ask about relationships, monogamy, and sexuality, and spins them hilariously toward a liberatory perspective. In addition to doing standup all over Chicago, she writes about television for the Onion, and has a day job where she spins your public data into...

Tanji Harper's light shines real bright. An OG of Chicago's creative community, she is one of the most genuine, kind, and creative mentors and communal creators in the city. She is the Artistic Director of the Happiness Club, an all-ages youth dance crew that operates as a family and lights up stages all over the Chi. She's also the Founder of Blu Rhythm Collective, a squad remixing the theatrical...

Dewayne Perkins is bubbly as hell. The actor, comic, and writer is Chicago born and bred, and has come up through the city's comedy farm system–he's an alum of the iO and of Second City, where he featured as part of their touring company. He recently was a cast member on MTV's Wildin' Out, and has a hilarious web series through OpenTV called Starving Artists. Recorded live 1/4/17 at WHPK 88.5FM in...

AirGo isn't just all talk! Listen to the latest edition of the Cottage Groove DJ mix series, a brand new #ChicagoSoCold mix featuring a gang of new Chicago artists who are poised to explode in 2018. Listen to all of the mixes by AirGo's own DJ Empathy aka Daniel at https://soundcloud.com/airgoradio/sets/cottage-groove-mixes Songs in this mix: Flaws - @JubaJate x Dezrielle Juanye Drain You - @melom...

This week's guest probably gotten you to stop scrolling before, which is no small feat. Korporate is the mastermind behind Chicago Be Like, a hilarious video series showcasing the absurdity of the city's lingo and culture, from juking in parking lots to hitting a stain at the bus stop. He's also a very dope rapper, and speaks in CPS classrooms across the city. Recorded 12/12/17 in Chicago Music fr...

Quite simply, Femdot raps his ass off. The up-and-coming rapper has gathered a whole bunch of buzz over the last couple years, performing on stages across the city, and has been featured on Fake Shore Drive and Pigeons & Planes. He's also rocking his way from one lab to another as a student at DePaul, where he studies Biological Sciences.  Recorded live 12/21 at WHPK 88.5FM in Chicago Music fr...

Glenance Green shades in the nuances and contours through her work as a poet, playwright, filmmaker, scholar, and activist. She directs A G Thing, a creative performance agency, and is also the creator of Melanin Voices, a performance collective series of poetry and live literature purposed to showcase the local, unsung voices in literature and highlight the narratives illuminated from their writi...

Mother Nature is up and running. The Chicago rap duo, consisting of emcees Klevah and T.R.U.T.H., has brought forth some banging recent releases, just rocked the Reggies stage, and just got back from a New York-area run of shows. The pair pops up to AirGo to talk movement, creating as artist-educators, and more. Recorded live 12/7/17 at WHPK 88.5FM in Chicago Music from this week's show: baaf - Ch...

You might be able to spot Cqqchifruit from a mile away. The DJ, visual creator, and space-creator wears an aesthetic that sparkles, shines, innovates, and reimagines concepts of gender, Caribbean diaspora, and nightlife. The cofounder of Pilsen party standout Trqpiteca, she DJs across the world. She is also a certified Reiki Master. Recorded live 11/30 at WHPK 88.5FM in Chicago Music from this wee...

Brandon Breaux is a visual artist whose dynamic work across media has become immensely recognizable across the city and beyond. He is the visionary behind Chance the Rapper's album artwork, and has recently created painting, sculpture, web, video, print, and interactive media projects. He also appeared as a gallery contributor at AirGo's very first We 'Go Chicago Showcase and Celebration, way back...

Coriama Couture goes there, without any fuckery. She is a writer, style envisioner, activist, and host/creator of Sex KiKi, a regular gathering and podcast in different areas of the city at which open, moderated, and meaningful conversation around sex and sexuality flourishes. She's also getting ready to launch a new talk show, which she discusses with Damon and Daniel, who may be out of their dep...

Jacinda Bullie and Jaquanda Villegas are the co-founders of Kuumba Lynx, a hip hop arts collective and community based in Chicago's Uptown neighborhood. The squad leads all kinds of to-the-root liberation-based collective creation, including: the annual Hip Hop Theater Festival, Half-Pint Poetics, a perennial contending team at Louder than a Bomb, and much more. From the classroom, to the stage, t...

Rich Jones knows everyone, and they smile when you mention his name. He's a Chicago music scene veteran, rapper, and curator of the ongoing concert series All Smiles at the Tonic Room. Straddling the line with indie pop, he brings bounce to his music and the spaces he builds. He is performing Thursday evening as part of a Puerto Rico benefit show at Chop Shop, alongside AirGo alum Ravyn Lenae, the...

It's a Chicago radical podcast meeting of the minds as Ashley Tribble comes on AirGo. Tribbz is the host and producer of P Power Radio, a podcast that shares stories of millennial women and the history that has shaped the world they are working to change. Ashley currently holds a residency at AMFM, the Pilsen studio and gallery founded by AirGo alum Ciera McKissick, and does standup across the cit...

Juliana Pino sees how it all connects. She's the Policy Director at the Little Village Environmental Justice Organization (LVEJO), bringing the organization's activism, organizing, and advocacy in the La Villita community and beyond to policy struggles at the city, state, and federal level. She brings the connections between the outside and inside, the macro and micro, the personal and the global...

Maya Schenwar is a journalist and Editor-in-Chief of Truthout, an independent social justice news website that takes on the pretense of objectivity and reimagines the ways we can tell the stories of our struggle. She's the author of Locked Down, Locked Out: Why Prison Doesn’t Work and How We Can Do Better, and co-editor of Who Do You Serve, Who Do you Protect? Police Violence and Resistance in the...

This week, we talk with the perfect rapper. Joseph Chilliams' debut project, Henry Church, just dropped, and the rapper/icon gets DEEP into it with Damon and Daniel about the project and much more. Plus a special birthday shoutout to Dame! Recorded 9/18/2017 in Chicago, IL Music from this week's show: Happy Birthday (KikupJ Remix) - Stevie Wonder Shake My Ass (feat. Jamila Woods) - @JosephChilliam...

Matt McLoughlin has done it before. The Philly native is an activist and accomplice in the best sense of the word–from the streets of Occupy, to the transformative lot of Freedom Square, to the courtrooms and offices of his current work with the Chicago Community Bond Fund, Matt's open-eyed commitment and love shines through. He comes on the show to talk about the campaign to end cash bond in Illi...

For the second time in AirGo history, a scheduling snafu leaves Damon and Daniel on the air with no guest. Good thing they like to talk to each other. They check in on how they're reimagining the show, wrestling with depression, laughing at the cosmic joke, and much more, plus some great music from Jamila Woods, Saba, Noname, Joseph Chilliams, Qari, Phoelix, and Elton Aura. Recorded live 9/7/17 at...

This week's guest is Ciera Mckissick, the founder and voice behind arts and culture multiplatform space AMFM. A Milwaukee native, she brought her AMFM brand to the city and worked to build a home for it, an effort that led to her new performance space and gallery in Pilsen. Recorded live 8/31/17 at WHPK 88.5FM in Chicago Music from this week's show: Rollercoaster - Roger Plexico Follow AirGo - ins...

We #runitback one more time with Chicago's nouveau disco rap superstar, Geneva-visiting activist, and community goofball Ric Wilson. Since his (late) appearance on Episode 3, the musical world has opened up for Ric–he's sold out Schuba's, performed at a bunch of festivals, and opened for Chuck D, DRAM, and The Roots. Together, we delve into the mystery wrapped in an enigma with a side of dance tha...

This week we run it back with the guest who started it all. AirGo first guest Malcolm London returns to the show to talk growth, masculinity, raggedy growth, and much more. NOTE: this is the third episode of #AirGoRunItBack, a five-week series featuring return conversations with folks who have been on the show through the first 100 episodes. Share your favorite episode on social media with hashtag...

The Champ is here! Eve Ewing returns to the airwaves as part of our #AirGoRunItBack series. Since she was on all the way back in 2015, she got her doctorate from Harvard, became a tenure-track professor at UChicago, launched a bajillion community-based creative projects here in the city, and gained MANY twitter followers. She goes the distance on the longest episode of AirGo we've ever done–we cou...