Future Prairie Radio

Playwright Karen Polinsky on devising multilingual theater.

Poet, performer, musician, mythologist, educator, and psychospiritual intuitive Jesse Carsten on creating joyful, eclectic song collages that embrace the experimental singer-songwriter tradition of the Pacific Northwest.

Actor Henry Noble on process, conviction, and his role in August Wilson's play “Gem of the Ocean”.

Painter Jess Ackerman on paint, process, addiction, recovery, gender, and discovery.

Choreographer Colleen Loverde on integrity, voice, and expression in movement.

Fiber artist Lehuauakea on identity, displacement, and environmental dysfunction through a contemporary Indigenous lens.

Portland drummer Elly Swope on making collaborations work, leveraging neurodivergence as a creative asset, and finding passion in music again after the onset of the COVID pandemic.

Freelance illustrator and muralist Damon Smyth on making work that makes your family proud, staying engaged with the community, and creating and facilitating difficult conversations through art. Please note this episode contains racial slurs, racialized violence, and a discussion of violent crime.

Photographer Ebenezer Galluzzo on gender identity and photography as a way to claim and redefine the lens through which he sees the world and the world sees him.

Artist and activist Michael Bui on self-expression, social practice as art, and living a free and creative life.

Writer and doodler Kate Zipse on her two full-length illustrated children’s books: "Squishing the Squash" and "Lighting the Garden".

Collage artist Laura Weiler on visual composition, working with texture, line, color, form, and placement, image sourcing, and developing a narrative for an art piece.

Visual journalist and author Sarah Mirk on representing marginalized voices as a method of writing future historic records.

Painter, teacher, and creative mentor Annamieka Davidson on getting started with a professional art career, making botanical paintings, and finding new avenues for social support for artists.

Medical student, retired football player, and augmented reality artist Steven Christian on making Black stories available to children of all ages, reading skill and comprehension level, making time for everything you love, and getting big dreams to come true.

Professor Matt Schumacher on moving play into process, how to manage a tenuous artist collective during an economic crisis, the importance of creating art during crisis, and how poetry can support the community during challenging times.

Designer, printer, and educator John Akira Harrold on responding to what interests you, finding a political home while grappling with wokeness, and developing personal politics as an artist.

Visual artist and musician Daren Todd on unearthing buried Black history, expressing through art, and letting go of expectations through the creative process.

Trans poet, curator, and artist An Duplan on accessibility in art, Afrofuturism, and driving social change through community building in the arts.

Artist and entrepreneur Marceau Michel on self-discovery, the process to liberate oneself from outmoded ways of thinking, and raising ten million dollars for Black Founders Matter, a venture fund for black entrepreneurs.

Musician Jonny Cool on spiritual music, ancestor work, and weaving family and future into all of his projects.

Composer, professor, and activist Darrell Grant on the love of jazz, love of community, and the mythology of Portland, Oregon.

Painter Arcadia Trueheart on her project "Handmade Stories Live", a multi-media theater performance that invites the audience to explore how our hands hold formative and enduring stories about who we are and our role in the world.

Perfumer Kelly Harland on founding her small-batch fragrance house, Crosby Elements, which is known for botanical, naturally-derived scents inspired by travel, nostalgia, and intuition.

Award-winning filmmaker Kanani Koster on reclaiming nostalgic tropes and aesthetics for diverse audience members who've historically been left off-screen.