Where We Meet: Conversations from New Mexico and Beyond

Delinda VanneBrightyn is the President of Taos Search and Rescue. For almost 20 years, she has been helping find missing persons and strengthening the structure of the organization itself. She shares her expertise on the rescue process and her unique understanding of dogs as working companions.

Bianca Manuelita Encinias ’ research addresses and deconstructs inaccurate historical images, perspectives, and interpretations of Mestiza, Mexican, Spanish, and Nuevamexicana women from northeastern New Mexico in the field of planning. She is the owner of El Chante: Casa de Cultura, a community gathering space in Albuquerque, New Mexico with an emphasis on community-based economic development foc...

Sandy Rodriguez is a Los Angeles-based artist and researcher. Her Codex Rodriguez-Mondragón is made up of a collection of maps and paintings about the intersections of history, social memory, contemporary politics, and cultural production. The series pays homage to Indigenous artists and the history of migration between the Americas and raises awareness about immigration injustices. She was raised...

Street Safe is an all-volunteer, non-profit striving to reduce the harmful consequences associated with life on the street. Most of the women served have been victims of sex-trafficking, while others have struggled with homelessness and addiction. Please note that this episode contains depictions of violence that some people may find disturbing or difficult to listen to.

Dr. Christine Ami is a Diné College Associate Professor in the School of Business and Social Sciences where she teaches Indigenous Research Methodologies, Ethnographic Methods, and Indigenous Anthropology classes. Her dissertation is titled “Díí jí nída’iil’ah : A Study of Traditional Navajo Butchering.” She recently received a National Endowment for the Humanities grant, to further her research i...

Alejandro Jimenez is a formerly-undocumented immigrant, poet, writer, educator, and distance runner from Colima, Mexico. He lives in Santa Fe, NM and his work centers around cultural identity, immigrant narratives, masculinity, memory, and the intersections of these themes.

Virginia Grise, Adela Licona and Kemi Sijuwade-Ukadike in conversation with Colette LaBouff explore the following questions: what is possible beyond the play, how to make art accessible to audiences, what should administrative support for artists look like, and what is art in the time of diminishing democracy? Finally, how do all these questions relate to the idea of art as coalitional gesture.&nb...

Nikesha Breeze, a multidisciplinary artist, shares their recent visual and performing work. From a collaborative performance in Blackdom, New Mexico, to a collection of paintings, Breeze’s latest works center Black bodies, where Black pasts become re-informed by Black futures.

Amber Vasquez is an arts educator and advocate who works constantly to remove barriers for school children to participate and create in the performing arts. She talks with us on how integrative arts inform the whole person.