Free City Radio Free City Radio

On this edition of Free City Radio we share the first in a series of 4 interviews that speak to housing justice struggles today in Canada. This first interview is with long time anti poverty organizer John Clarke who is based in Toronto and currently deeply involved in the 230 Fightback campaign which is organizing to block the conversion of a downtown east Toronto building into a massive condominium tower, you can learn more about this campaign here: https://230fightback.com/

This interview series takes place in collaboration with SEIZE and takes place as part of an effort to asses and speak to the realities, challenges and critical importance of networking across housing justice struggles in Canada. Learn more about SEIZE and the work on this issue here: https://www.solidarityeconomy.ca/

Music on this edition is by Anarchist Mountains. The image is from a screenshot of a video promoting the 230 Fightback campaign.

Free City Radio is hosted and produced by Stefan @spirodon Christoff and airs on @radiockut 90.3FM at 11am on Wednesdays and @cjlo1690 AM in Tiohti:áke/Montréal on Wednesdays at 8:30am. On @ckuwradio 95.9FM in Winnipeg at 10:30pm on Tuesdays. On @cfrc 101.9FM in Kingston, Ontario at 11:30am on Wednesdays. Also it broadcasts on @cfuv 101.9 FM in Victoria, BC on Wednesdays at 9am and Saturdays at 7am, as well as Met Radio 1280 AM in Toronto at 5:30am on Fridays. Now Free City Radio will also be broadcasting on CKCU FM 93.1 in Ottawa on Tuesdays at 2pm, tune-in!

On this edition of the Art in Action interview series Mexico City based artist Daniel Aguilar Ruvalcaba's speaks about contributions to a collective exhibition at Biqini Wax ESP during art week in Mexico, 2024. Daniel's work explores ideas and expressions through frenetic drawings and sketches that are shaped by understandings of the world and humanity as an experience of multitudes not a world shaped by a universal framework of conception. Biqini Wax ESP is a collectively run art space in Navate district in Mexico City that has long explored the creative intersections of art and activism within the space in both militant and playful modes.

This interview explores, in conversation, Daniel's work as relating to the realities of the survival of pre colonial cultural narratives and artistic landscapes that continue to shape Mexico. The cultural multiplicity that exists in Mexico that can been understood as standing as an existing challenge to the sustaining dominant frameworks of universalism that continue to define the major narrative arcs of mainstream artistic practice in western Europe and North America. Daniel specifically speaks about Mexican cultural modes that challenge the notion of death as shaped by dark forces, while articulating reflections about alternative cultural vantage points of looking to death as a pathway to listen to the voices and heritages of the past, of ancestors, a cultural framework within which death can be best understood a bridge that connect you to eternities.

The accompanying artwork is by Daniel, photos taken by Stefan.

Music on this program is "Passage" by Anarchist Mountains.

Stefan produces this monthly artist interview series, Art in Action, that broadcasts monthly on Radio AlHara in regular programming on the first Friday of each month at 4:30pm in Bethlehem, Palestine and 9:30am eastern time. This series also airs on the third Friday of each month at 11am on CKUT in Montreal (ckut.ca) and on the second Thursday of each month on CJLO 1690 AM at 8am also in Montreal.

This is the second edition of Voices from Beirut which I have produced for Radio AlHara in Palestine. On this edition we hear from Omar Abi Azar, the co-artistic director and theatre creator at Zoukak Theatre company in Beirut, Lebanon. Omar speaks critically about the decision to keep the theatre company open in Lebanon during this time of war, which includes of course Israeli airstrikes in south Lebanon and throughout the country which has resulted in many killings and the widespread destruction of major agricultural lands and nature reservations in the south of the country. Info on Zoukak Theatre here: https://zoukak.org

Also we hear from Lena Merhej, one of the founders of the Samandal comic art project in Lebanon that has long created space for the expression of social movement voices through drawing, comics and the arts in Lebanon. Lena speaks about giving drawing workshops this past year, including to a student in Gaza who was killed within the context of the ongoing Israeli state genocidal military action in Gaza, Palestine. Information on the Samandal comics project here https://samandal-comics.org

Finally we got directly to Palestine and hear from Ahmad Jaradat who works with the Alternative Information Center (AIC) in the occupied West Bank of Palestine. Ahmad speaks about the realities that face Palestinian political prisoners today and over the last generations. Information about Ahmad's work at AIC here: https://www.aicpalestine.org

Finally we hear a radio documentary that I co-produced in 2005 with Sawsan Kalache about the realities facing Palestinian refugees living in the refugee camps in Lebanon, particularly in the community of Burj Shemali Camp in southern Lebanon. Although this documentary was produced almost twenty years ago it speaks to some critical issues that remain, namely the lived realities of Palestinian refugees in Lebanon who are living in camps waiting for their Right to Return to historic Palestine to be enforced. It should also be noted that many services within a community like Burj Shemali Camp, including health and education, are administered by UNRAW. Info about this specific camp is here: https://www.unrwa.org/where-we-work/lebanon/burj-shemali-camp

The music on this edition is by the artist Badawi and PJS. I took the accompanying photo was taken in the borderlands between Lebanon and Palestine in 2005.

On this edition of the program we hear from Chicago based filmmaker and community activist Merawi Gerima who speaks on the intersections of art and activism around #BlackLivesMatter and the movement for freedom in Palestine. Also Merawi speaks about alliance work with The National Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression.

Follow Merawi's work here: https://www.instagram.com/gerima_gang and find information about The National Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression here: https://naarpr.org

Song at the end of the interview is Simo Cell - Orange Fluo from the ENOUGH! compilation, learn more here https://dreaminglive.bandcamp.com/album/enough

This interview series hosted by Stefan Christoff airs on the first Monday of each month on Radio AlHara at 5:30pm, Palestine time, 10:30am eastern time. Also this series will start to air on a network of community radio stations. To listen in on Radio AlHara visit : radioalahra.net

On this edition of Free City Radio we feature a conversation with researcher and writer Laura Carlsen who shares some important reflections on the state of social movements in Mexico today. This conversation gets into exploring the dynamics of tension between transformative social activism and the current government of Andrés Manuel López Obrador who is set to leave office this month, June 2024. Learn more about Carlsen's work with MIRA project that lifts up Feminist analysis on Mexico and social movements in the Americas, they are at https://www.americas.org/we-are

Music on this edition is by Anarchist Mountains. The image is by Antonio Gritón.

Free City Radio is hosted and produced by Stefan @spirodon Christoff and airs on @radiockut 90.3FM at 11am on Wednesdays and @cjlo1690 AM in Tiohti:áke/Montréal on Wednesdays at 8:30am. On @ckuwradio 95.9FM in Winnipeg at 10:30pm on Tuesdays. On @cfrc 101.9FM in Kingston, Ontario at 11:30am on Wednesdays. Also it broadcasts on @cfuv 101.9 FM in Victoria, BC on Wednesdays at 9am and Saturdays at 7am, as well as Met Radio 1280 AM in Toronto at 5:30am on Fridays. Now Free City Radio will also be broadcasting on CKCU FM 93.1 in Ottawa on Tuesdays at 2pm, tune-in!

Listen to an interview with Brussels based researcher and activist Omar Jabary Salamanca. In this interview Omar speaks about the ways that Brussels has become an important hub for Palestinian solidarity organizing in Western Europe. Beyond only speaking about the organizing over the last months this interview situates strands of popular organizing history in the city within different diaspora communities representing, both culturally and politically, territories in the global south that are shaped by struggles against colonization.

This interview is broadcasting on Radio AlHara on Tuesday, May 28 at 7am eastern time, 2pm Palestine time, streaming at https://www.radioalhara.net

Stefan took the accompanying photo at a Palestine solidarity rally in Brussels in fall 2023.