Broken Boxes Podcast

The Navajo Nation sits on one of the richest energy corridors in the United States, and for close to a century, we have been on the frontline on resource colonization to provide cheap energy and water to the cities in the Southwest. Since the 1920's, our land and people have been sacrificed for energy extraction for oil, gas, uranium, and coal, which is poisoning our land, water, air, and peo...

Rose B. Simpson was born in Santa Fe, NM, and raised among an extended family of artists in Santa Fe and Santa Clara Pueblo. Her mother; Roxanne Swentzell, a known ceramic sculptor within the Indigenous art world, and her father; Patrick Simpson, a contemporary artist in wood and metal introduced her to the art world at a young age. Of both Indigenous and Anglo descent, with art and philosophy pri...

Currently the artwork of Chris Pappan is based on American Indian ledger drawings of the mid to late 19th Century with his own 21st Century twist. Chris has lived in Chicago for the past 20 yrs with his wife Debra Yepa-Pappan, and their daughter Ji Hae.

Artist and founder of Apache Skateboards Douglas Miles is San Carlos Apache, Akimel O'Odham, and White Mountain Apache from the San Carlos Apache reservation. As an indigenous visionary, Douglas Miles is one of those rare and important figures who continues to reside one step ahead of the main stream Native American art world. Miles tells his experiences through an array of mediums including...

Justin Ray bought his first DJ mixer in the early nineties. Ten years later, Justin created the DJ persona 13pieces. A decade after that, 13pieces created DJ Chopper. They currently live in Santa Fe, NM creating through DJ Culture, Photography, Writing and Graphic Design.

"Culture cannot be contained as it unfolds. My art enters this stream at many different points, looking backwards, looking forwards, generating its own sound and motion. I am inspired by generations of Tlingit & Unangax̂ creativity and contribute to this wealthy conversation through active curiosity. There is no room in this exploration for the tired prescriptions of the "Indian Art...

"Art is a way to communicate and engage with others transcending distance, time, or place. My images and installations, like the communities and experiences they draw upon, become symbiotic. My life and art are modes of intentional living borrowing from native traditions and contemporary subcultures. You take care of one another. You draw strength and nourishment from your roots. You use and...

“This Is A Stereotype” is an artistic narrative about the possible causes and effects surrounding Indigenous identity with the intention to socially engage the public. The project is compiled of historical footage sourced from the Archives of the Institute of American Indian Arts’ "Native American Video Tape Archive, 1976” juxtaposed with imagery and interviews from contemporary artists, scho...

Through Red Star's photographs and sculpture new universes are built, simultaneously urban-rural and high-low with their own language of symbols created from such seemingly disparate sites as HUD houses, rez cars, three legged dogs, powwow culture, proliferative indigenous commoditization, and Red Star's personal collection of memories growing up as a half-breed on the Crow Indian reserv...

Kimi grew up on Maui, Hawaii where her father was a dedicated freediver. With a craving for the simple life, Kimi followed in her dad’s footsteps, winning a U.S. National Spearfishing Championship in 2008. Kimi is not only an accomplished water-woman, but she is also a successful artist and chef. “Going diving feels like going home, and I hope to cherish it for the rest of my life.”-Kimi Werner

As a queer, multi-racial/lingual female mixed-media artist, Miyuki is happiest when working with people who embrace intersectionality. After graduating from Swarthmore College in 2012, where she was involved in queer Asian activism and making art, she received the Watson Fellowship to travel the world in search of queer artists and activists and made 8 zines highlighting what she learned under her...

Painter and large scale muralist Thomas 'Breeze' Marcus has painted over a dozen murals in the city of Phoenix alone, but he is also known to rock a canvas and mixed-media materials in a gallery setting with ease and grace. His work reflects the woven stories of our lives, and reminds us that everything is connected, that there is no one way to exist. Breeze has chosen the path of a full...

Valentina, better known in the music and art scene as VRGNZ was born a daughter of Texas music. This Appala Chilean exemplifies diversity not only in heritage, but also in her multi faceted artistic backgrounds. Her Chilean father, a musician and night club owner, and her Kentucky raised mother, a teacher, worked hard to cultivate they're daughters creative spirit. As a teen, Valentina grew w...

"I am motivated in my work fundamentally by the search for freedom in all forms. I seek to create a contemporary terrain in the juxtaposition of my living memories. Playing with elements of space and time, I create a synthesis of symbolic objects floating and bending on the canvas at all angles; negating the horizon and the rule of linear experience. In this suspended dichotomy between nature...

Bethany Matai Edmunds a.k.a Miss b. Me is a weaver, artist, fiber sculptor and Hip Hop lyricist. Edmunds visual work is grounded in traditional Maori weaving which she conceptually translates using traditional materials and fibers, combined with contemporary denim and mixed media, which further expresses her experiences of being a culture bearer of 'pART mAOri' descent. Lyrically, Edmund...

Frank Buffalo Hyde traces his heritage to the Nez Perce and Onondaga people, Hyde is recognized for breaking through the boundaries commonly placed around what is considered Native American art. His work confronts stereotyping of culture and informs the viewer that they are participants in the conversation. He is defining himself as a Native American without being a stereotype and dealing with wha...

Sophie Rousmaniere has worked as a filmmaker and freelance journalist in the US, Canada, India, Indonesia, Mexico, Guatemala, Pakistan, Laos, Vietnam and Thailand. She has produced, edited and directed over thirty documentaries, short films and music videos. Sophie’s work is largely social issue based, having worked on topics from child prostitution in Thailand to environmental issues in the four...

A conversation with Future Femme Artist Amaryllis DeJesus Moleski. A passionate activist and visionary, DeJesus Moleski possesses a positive, humble and gracious presence that is whole and rare. Her work is refreshing and unique, inviting the observer to engage further, to look deeper, to feel the warmth in the the color palate, and to look deeper into the integration of the various mediums she ch...

Micah Wesley (Creek/Kiowa) is a painter who works in Oil, Acrylic, and Graphite. His work is genuine and skillful, yet in the same moment able to convey the underbelly of our American culture. His work gives a perspective of the outsider, the underdog, it shows the stripped down truths that we tend to overlook. The humor in the pain, the hero's in the ordinary.

This episode of Art Beat Conversations I interview ceramic and mixed media artist Courtney M. Leonard from the Shinnecock Nation of Long Island, New York. Leonard's work explores the evolution of language, image and culture through mixed media pieces of video, audio and tangible objects. She studied art and museum studies at the Institute of American Indian Arts (AFA 2000), Alfred University...

In this episode, I interview Jesse Hazelip. Hazelip was born in 1977 in Cortez, Colorado amidst Navajo and Ute Nation territory, where at a young age, he became acutely aware of the racism and classism of our nation. At the age of 13, he relocated to Santa Barbara, CA. Shifting into this vastly different environment from his childhood, Hazelip became involved with graffiti, which has become the gr...

In this episode I talk with ceramic and mixed media artist Cannupa Hanska (Mandan/Hidatsa/Arikara/Lakota). Cannupa Hanska is from Standing Rock Reservation, North Dakota, and in this interview we learn about his life and process, beginning with growing up on a ranch, being free to explore his imagination without constraint. He also talks about being the son of an artist mother, about attending art...

In this episode, we hear from DJ INTI. Inti is currently living and Dj’ing in Oakland, CA. He has been working in music stores and collecting records for over 19 years. His connection with music is consuming, in the way all artists must obsessively process life through their chosen art discipline. Inti’s medium is music, specifically, but not limited to vinyl. We begin the conversation by talking...