Shelter Erin Sweeny

A conversation with artist, educator, and cultural worker Anna Adler exploring the idea of the body as home through the lens of mothering - inspired in part by Erin's own experience of pregnancy and the idea of literally providing shelter for another being. The catalyst for this first conversation, originally recorded in May 2020, was a group exhibition Anna curated titled (s)mother at Bethany Arts Community in Ossining, New York. The second iteration of that show is happening again this year, opening on May 8 and on view through May 29, 2021. This is the first in a series of related conversations to be published as an extension of the exhibition.

Ultimately, the conversation with Anna and those that will follow consider a broader exploration of what it means to mother and what it means to take care in a time of crisis. In this episode, Anna shares her own struggle with post-partum depression and curating/creating as a means of catharsis. Featuring original music by Char McCutcheon, who you’ll be hearing more from in an upcoming episode.

Bel Falleiros is a Brazilian artist with an Architecture degree whose artistic research focuses on land identity. Starting with her hometown, São Paulo, she has worked to understand how contemporary landscapes, city tissue and its monuments (mis)represent the diverse layers of presence that constitute a place. Since arriving in the U.S., she has continued working closely with the land, creating space for grounding and exploring the stories and symbols that can unite us.

During our conversation—originally broadcast live as part of Montez Press Radio’s summer programming from their Canal Street studio in New York City—we dig into ideas related to identity, displacement and what it means to trace lines towards home in different ways: from movement to monument to music. What is revealed when tracing the line in these cities back even farther in an attempt to find their starting point - or as Bel describes, their navel? Hers is an artistic practice driven by the relationship established with the land when we investigate the stories that each place can tell us. Imagining all cities as born from a zero, a starting point, a navel, she envisions each arising from a primordial force that makes a piece of earth become a place. This uncut interview also features music from Brazilian artist Luedji Luna.

In the final episode of this three-part series, Emily’s story is brought into the present. At the start, the story picks back up in Los Angeles, where Emily is at her wit’s end - but then connects with a doctor who serves as a critical link to a very unique program at the Mayo Clinic, setting her on a new trajectory with long game perspective as she builds her life in Richmond.

After relocating to Los Angeles, Emily describes her first conversation with a new doctor in LA, providing a promising new start with renewed hope. What follows is another series of twists and turns - from battling chemical addiction to healing and learning to forge new paths, finding alternative methods where conventional modes are just not cutting it.

An artist and professor at Virginia Commonwealth University, Emily Sara is also a healthcare advocate with plenty of hard-won wisdom. Since she was a child, Emily has navigated the challenging waters of the American healthcare system in a series of moves from coast to coast. Ultimately, Emily’s story is about finding her center in a body that has not made it easy for her. To say she’s comfortable in her own skin is a simplification, but she inhabits our most elemental structure in a way that is nothing less than revolutionary.

In the first episode of this three-part series, Emily shares her early experiences with the discovery of a challenging medical situation. Revealing the importance of a support system as well as a sense of humor, she ventures out on her own and eventually finds her way to Los Angeles.

For this first episode of Shelter, we set the stage with some real talk from a woman who has taken the road less traveled - and taken it by storm in her 25 foot Flying Cloud Airstream. Meet Lauren Lizardo: storyteller, data-lover and money boss. She's a financial maven who left a lucrative career in the Bay Area five years ago to start her own business and take it on the road. Lauren also pens The Sheconomista Report, a weekly newsletter which began with a focus on women and money and has since evolved into a resource for aspiring to well-established lady entrepreneurs. Our conversation explores her trajectory over the past five years, digging into the discoveries and realities of life on the road.