Making a House a Home (PART 1): A Block Captain and an Artist Talk Engagement (with Anamaya Farthing-Kohl)

What turns a house into a home, and a neighborhood into a community?

The intention with which Mexico City-based sculptor Anamaya Farthing-Kohl and West Philly block captain Aminata Sandra Calhoun care for the spaces they call home is remarkable. While ‘home’ means something different for each guest, they’ve both expanded the definition to exist outside of their own walls. For Aminata, a clean, cared-for home includes the block it is situated within, and for Anamaya, the actual form a home takes can be ever-shifting.

Today, I talk to artist Anamaya Farthing-Kohl, who always asks the public to collaborate with their work, asking for help to define, circulate, or discover its meanings and intentions. Everyday encounters and actions and objects become moments where Anamaya thinks, ‘this could be a sculpture’. 

Music in this episode was created for the conversation by janna, in response to Anamaya’s work and themes of creating alternative spaces for home and belonging.

Check out our website to read more about the musicians and our guests, and to follow their collaborations together.

Thank you to technical director Eric Carbonara at NadaSoundStudio, and to the Center for Humanities at Temple University for supporting this podcast.