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We Got Next: Youth Poets Changing the World
On this edition of Making Contact, we’ll examine how young people, particularly queer POC youth, are using spoken word as a mechanism for social change. The show also will explore how Brave New Voices International Youth Poetry Slam has challenged mainstream culture and created spaces that welcome and encourage marginalized communities to speak up about their life experiences – all through poetry. Special thanks to James Kass (Founder & Executive Director of Youth Speaks), Tara Dorabji (Director of Development & Communications at...
read moreFallen Heroes of 2017
Like this program? Please show us the love. Click here and support our non-profit journalism. Thanks! Thousands of local social justice organizers, activists and other leaders passed away this year. People doing crucial work in their communities, whose deaths didn’t make the headlines. On this edition of Making Contact, as we do every December, we’ll hear about some of the fallen heroes of 2017. Special thanks to filmmaker David Hoffman, African Women’s Development Fund, Goldman Environmental Prize, The School for...
read moreParenting From Prison, Inside Out
Like this program? Please show us the love. Click here and support our non-profit journalism. Thanks! When one or both parents are in prison the whole family is, in a way, also imprisoned. Family members are negatively affected in ways that worsen existing struggles and inequities. Today we’ll go to New York and New Hampshire to hear about programs for inmates and families that encourage rebuilding and maintaining relationships — despite being separated by prison. The Osborne’s FamilyWorks program, the first in NY State, is a...
read moreThe Far Right and Antifa
In this episode of Making Contact, we explore the past and present of the far right and anti-fascism. We begin with a story from Athens on the murder of Greek anti-fascist rapper Pavlos Fyssas and the resulting investigation. In the second half of the show, historian and author of Antifa: The Anti-Fascist Handbook, Mark Bray, describes anti-fascist responses to Hitler and Mussolini in the 1920’s and 30’s. Image Credits: Photo by seven_resist on Flickr Image Caption: Pavlos Fyssas, antifascist Rapper and left activist was killed by fascists in...
read moreDonate Today!
Click here OR return your envelope plz! The envelopes are going out! Making Contact staff and volunteers working hard on snail mail fundraising. #MakingContact6400 Thanks to listeners like you Making Contact has been able to produce 52 weekly shows in 2017: That’s 1500 minutes of programming, broadcasting on 140+ radio stations around the world, working with 28 US & international freelance reporters during 22 years of community and public radio! In honor of our work, please make a generous donation today. Thank you for supporting...
read moreGhosts of the Korean War: Stop THAAD
On this edition of Making Contact, Part 2 of our Korea series by producer Marie Choi, we head to Soseongri, a small village nestled in the mountains of Seongju County. There, grandmas and grandpas in their 70s, 80s, and 90s have gone from quietly farming to organizing daily protests and blockades to stop THAAD. THAAD is part of a missile defense system that gives the U.S. the ability to carry out a nuclear first strike. The region has historically been Korea’s conservative stronghold, but with the deployment of THAAD, people are re-evaluating...
read moreA Tale of Two Heights
Two neighborhoods — Boyle Heights in Los Angeles and Crown Heights, Brooklyn New York — are experiencing the gamut of changes associated with gentrification. And some are pushing back against those who would cash in on the eviction and displacement of longtime residents. On this edition of Making Contact we hear how one Crown Heights restaurant drew the protest of local residents, and how a coalition of activists in Boyle Heights is taking direct action against gentrifying forces in the neighborhood. Special thanks to Jesús...
read moreFantastic Negrito and The Last Days of Oakland
In the last three years, Fantastic Negrito, an Oakland-based black roots revivalist has gone from busking at bus stops to winning a Grammy and touring internationally. He’s done this by creating a unique sound — melodic hooks, primal blues-rock chords, clever lyricism, a killer falsetto, and in-your-face social consciousness. On this week’s Making Contact, we learn about Fantastic Negrito’s journey, his creative process, and how he’s utilizing his artistic platform to advocate for social justice. Special thanks to Fantastic Negrito and...
read moreAt the Intersection of Faith and Reproductive Justice
Faith and reproductive justice: we rarely hear these words in the same sentence. Instead, we associate faith with the belligerent protester outside an abortion clinic or sex ed curriculums that shame young women for their sexuality. But what if faith could fuel a movement that supports women and families in having real choices over their lives and their bodies? On this week’s Making Contact, we head to the crossroads of faith and the struggle for reproductive justice. We’ll hear from people like Dr. Willie Parker, Toni Bond...
read moreSmall Independent News Outlets have Outsized Impact
Small Independent News Outlets have Outsized Impact By Jo Ellen Kaiser at The Media Consortium Google, Facebook and Twitter were hauled in front of Congress last week to explain how Russian bots were able to spread fake news on their platforms. The concern—and a very real one–is that these bots and fake news sites had a significant impact on the 2016 election. Fighting fake news, however, is not the only or best way to ensure that our content ecosystem prioritizes real news.This week, a groundbreaking article in Science proves...
read moreI Am Not Your Negro
Master filmmaker Raoul Peck envisions the book James Baldwin never finished, Remember This House. The result is a radical, up-to-the-minute examination of race in America, using Baldwin’s original words and flood of rich archival material. I Am Not Your Negro is a journey into black history that connects the past of the Civil Rights movement to the present of #BlackLivesMatter. It is a film that questions black representation in Hollywood and beyond. And, ultimately, by confronting the deeper connections between the lives and assassination of...
read moreThe Poetic Address to the Nation (Encore)
November 8 marks one year since Donald Trump won the US presidency. One year later, Gallup puts the President’s approval rating at 33%, an all-time low. We at Making Contact reflect on his solid win in the electoral college, his resounding loss of the popular vote, and the year that is drawing to a close. The Poetic Address to the Nation was an event that brought together poets to speak out and against the current administration. The event featured poets Cam Awkward, Guillermo Gomez Peña, Michelle ‘Mush’ Lee, Chinaka Hodge, and many others to...
read moreSacrifice Zones – Part 2
Since 2003 a rash of proposals have surfaced in communities throughout the Northwest to export vast amounts of fossil fuels to Asian markets via Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia. If these plans go through the Northwest would become home to the largest oil terminal in North America, the largest coal export facility in North America, and the largest methanol refinery in the world. As the fossil fuel industry turns up its pressure to turn the Pacific Northwest into a fossil fuel export hub, a Thin Green Line stands in its way. This week...
read moreSacrifice Zones – Part 1
Since 2003 a rash of proposals have surfaced in communities throughout the Northwest to export vast amounts of fossil fuels to Asian markets via Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia. If these plans go through the Northwest would become home to the largest oil terminal in North America, the largest coal export facility in North America, and the largest methanol refinery in the world. This week we present Part One of Sacrifice Zones by Barbara Bernstein. It’s the first in a two-part series on the pressure to transform a region of iconic...
read moreJeff Chang on Revolutions in Seeing and Being
“From almost every kind of responsibility and tie from engagement and from faith. So the artist–our task is to move ourselves and the rest of us in the opposite direction. Toward more engagement, towards stronger ethics, toward a social that’s open and inclusive to all toward seeing each other in full, to challenge us to recognize the debts, and yes, the reparations that we owe to each other.” – Jeff Chang Jeff Chang offers ideas to reinforce the importance of art and artists in today’s sociopolitical...
read moreYOUR INPUT MATTERS! Pls Take 2mins & Fill Out Our Survey Today
SHARE YOUR THOUGHTS WITH US! WE WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU! You’ve been a great support to Making Contact (focmedia.org) and are instrumental to our work. Tell us the types of stories you would like to hear. Here is a great opportunity to take action and be invested in the change you seek in local communities and the world! If your story idea is chosen, you will be highlighted in our credits. Take our survey and be entered into our raffle: We’ll pick 3 people to win a $25 gift certificate to online bookstore Powell’s Books (a progressive,...
read moreMrs. Hamer Echoes
Like this program? Please show us the love. Click here and support our non-profit journalism. Thanks! Civil rights leader Fannie Lou Hamer, spoke words that are all too relevant today. Mrs. Hamer would have turned 100 years old on October 6th 2017. Today on Making Contact, you’ll hear archival recordings, and excerpts from a powerful new film featuring Fannie Lou Hamer’s contemporaries– themselves now elders. You’ll hear about the context of her life, and the lives of other sharecroppers in Mississippi from a seldom...
read moreLanguage Is Life, Land Is Sacred
Making Contact’s Community Storytelling Fellow Vincent Medina is a Chochenyo Ohlone Native American who is a part of a young generation working to revitalize the Chochenyo language for future generations. Making Contact’s Community Storytelling Fellow Isabella Zizi is a young native-american environmentalist shaped by the 2012 Chevron Refinery Explosion and by her indigenous women elders in the Refinery Corridor Healing Walks in the Bay Area of California. Like this program? Please show us the love. Click here and support...
read moreThe Arrival: Trump’s Travel and Refugee Ban
Leading up to the US Supreme Court hearing on Trump’s travel ban, we’ll hear about the order’s impact on people from affected, Muslim-majority countries, and how advocacy groups like the Council on American-Islamic Relations are responding. On this edition of Making Contact we begin with the story of a woman who was in flight to the US when President Trump signed his first travel ban. Special thanks to the Stanford Storytelling Project and State of the Human podcast managing producer, Jake Warga....
read moreThe Ghosts of the Gwangju Uprising
On May 18, 1980, the people of Gwangju, South Korea came together for reunification and an end to an era of martial law imposed by U.S.-backed military dictators. Over the course of ten days, they staged mass protests, battled riot police and soldiers, and were met with brutal repression. Together, they successfully drove the military out Gwangju and governed the city together. Their actions changed the course of Korean history. On Part 1 of this episode of Making Contact, we hear from survivors of the Gwangju Uprising about how they...
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