Race Matters FBi Radio

Censorship in the arts has been rampant across our galleries, theaters, airwaves and screens. As the genocide devastates across Palestine in its seventh month, we witness sites of art-making cower away from speaking out and silencing artists who do. In this tumultuous and heartbreaking climate - how do we understand the role of the artist? Hear from artists Lux Æterna, Alissar Chidiac and Nicole Barakat unpacking this, creating an intergenerational chat on the need for artists to be vigilant witnesses and creative resistors. They’re part of an exhibition at The Cross Art Projects, Potts Point Forms of Censorship - gathering artists across forms and identity to query the culture of self-censorship on now, and has been extended until until June 15th 2024.

Other works referenced


 This bridge called my back - Writings by radical women of colour
Mondoweiss - From the River to the Sea, history, meaing and power
artists for Palestine 2023 - instagram campaign calling galleries into account, publishing responses (or lack of) from artistic boards

This episode was hosted and produced by Shareeka Helaluddin, and was edited by Mateo Baskaran.
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Content note: this episode contains mention of family violence, incarceration, houselessness, and visceral descriptions of some memories. It's not described in detail but please go gently if these will affect you. 

Samantha Haran and Bipasha Roy chat to Gomeroi writer, curator and scholar Dr Amy Thunig. A rich chat on memoir as a politcal act amid erasure, dismantling white supremacy in academia, finding wisdom by attuning to ancestral practices. 

Catch Amy at the Sydney Writers Festival from May 20 spanning their curatorial and literary output across a few events, for more details head to the Sydney Writers Festival website. 

This piece was co-produced and hosted by Samantha Haran and Bipasha Roy, with audio editing, supervising producer Shareeka Helaluddin. 

 
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A spirit of protest and deep sensitivity echoes in this episode with two staunch First Nations activists and artists Jazz Money & Thea Anamara Perkins. Honored to have FBi broadcaster, writer and curator Levent Can Kaya take over Race Matters with an incisive and luminous chat. Hear Lev, Thea and Jazz on personal archives and joyous collective imagination as antidotes to colonial violence; and the politics of art-making as institutions try to stifle our resistance. 

Image: from Atherreyurre, by Thea Anamara Perkins


This episode was produced by Levent Can Kaya, with final audio editing, supervising producer Shareeka Helaluddin. 
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Alicia Zhao and Joannie Lee are joined by artist, Dharma practitioner and co-founder of the Inner Fields collective - Elaine Su-Hui. Together they share a reflective chat on their relationships with Buddhism, what it is to come to a politicised reclamation of spirituality, decolonise Western appropriations of faith, and turn towards a practice that doesn't bypass injustice - but faces it with courage and loving action.  

This episode was co-produced and co-hosted by Alicia Zhao and Joannie Lee. Audio editing by Alicia Zhao, with supervising producing and final mixing by Shareeka Helaluddin. 
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This week the Race Matters team settle in to have a deep chat about love. What is the role of love when we are witnessing the horrors, violence and apathy of the genocide of Palestinian people and the rise of facism? Join Alicia Zhao, Toobs Anwar and Samantha Haran unpack the politics of love and what it means to practice radical and political love in our everyday life.

Featuring excerpts from Saul Williams & James Baldwin. 

This episode was co-produced and co-hosted by Alicia Zhao, Samantha Haran and Toobs Anwar. Audio editing and supervising producer was Shareeka Helaluddin. 
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how can we gather in non-hierarchical ways, form solidarities, resist shallow representation and form cultures of genuine reciprocity? ⁠


Upending the colonial building of artshouse during Dalit History Month, ಒಡಲಾಳ Odalala (‘from the depths of one’s being’) brings together local and international artists to examine histories of caste, migration, gender and sexuality through contemporary expression. Envisioned by Dalit curator-artist Vishal Kumaraswamy morphing conventional expectations through an anti-caste politics of curation. Hear Vishal in dialogue with artists Elyas Alavi & Jagath Dheerasekara making these ideas come to life. 


This episode was produced by Shareeka Helaluddin, and came together through the dedicated collaborative efforts of Vishal Kumaraswamy, Louana Sainsbury, Varsha Ramesh & Nithya Nagarajan. 
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.