Something (rather than nothing)

Ben Westhoff is an award-winning investigative journalist who writes about culture, drugs, and poverty. His books are taught around the country and have been translated into languages all over the world.

His new book Fentanyl, Inc.: How Rogue Chemists Are Creating the Deadliest Wave of the Opioid Epidemic is the highly-acclaimed, bombshell first book about fentanyl, which is causing the worst drug crisis in American history. It has received glowing reviews and was included on many year-end best lists. Westhoff was interviewed about the book for Fresh Air and Joe Rogan, and published an excerpt in The Atlantic. Since the book’s publication, Westhoff has advised top government officials on the fentanyl crisis, including from the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives, the U.S. embassy in Beijing, and the U.S. State Department.

His previous book Original Gangstas: Tupac Shakur, Dr. Dre, Eazy-E, Ice Cube, and the Birth of West Coast Rap is one of the best-selling hip-hop books of all time. It received raves from Rolling Stone and People, and a starred review in Kirkus. S. Leigh Savidge, Academy Award nominee and co-writer of Straight Outta Compton said it "may be the best book ever written about the hip hop world."

Westhoff's work has appeared in the Library of Congress, The Atlantic, The Guardian, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, NPR, Rolling Stone, Forbes, Playboy, Vice, Oxford American, Pitchfork, and others. He's been honored by the National Association of Black Journalists, the National Entertainment Journalism Awards, Religion Newswriters Association, Best Music Writing, Best of Southern Food Writing, L.A. Press Club, and the Missouri Press Association.

He has been interviewed as an expert commentator for CNN, BET, A&E, and ITV, and is the former L.A. Weekly music editor and Voice Media Group Senior music editor. He's a contributor to the Smithsonian Anthology of Hip-Hop and Rap, and his 2011 book on southern hip-hop, Dirty South: OutKast, Lil Wayne, Soulja Boy, and the Southern Rappers Who Reinvented Hip-Hop was a Library Journal best seller.

Alicia Angel is a New York City based songwriter, singer, visual artist, and activist. She has co-written over 35 songs for Emmy nominated and award winning hit preschool shows including Nickelodeon’s “Dora the Explorer" and "Dora and Friends: Into the City" as well as songs for “Sesame Street,” Sesame Studios, and Universal Kids’ “Snug’s House.” She has written songs for artists in China and Taiwan via Universal Music Publishing Group, including the song “Girls” performed by Rainie Yang and Cyndi Wang.

 

Alicia’s paintings have been exhibited in NYC art galleries. She’s used her music and art to raise awareness of, and money for, domestic violence, female genital mutilation, Myasthenia Gravis, and COVID-19.

Jakub Ferencik is a philosopher and an author. Ferencik's new book 'Up in the Air: Christianity, Atheism & the Global Problems of the 21st Century' formed the basis for our critical discussion.

 

You will enjoy this deeper dive into philosophy and the inquiry into our present difficulties in connecting humans to productive, up-building discourse. Jakub and I dig into space/time, art, epistemology, argument, rationality, Calvinism, atheism, agnosticism and Christianity and much more . . . 

 

 

S.A. Lawrence-Welch  (she/her/hers|they/them/theirs)

S.A. is a Métis / Néhiyaw (Plains Cree) Indigenous Advocate, Organizer, Speaker, Activist, Artist & Writer.

Their main focus of work has been on the lasting damage the Residential School System, Indian Boarding Schools & The 60’s Scoop left on First Nations people. They are an advocate for community gathering and cultural connection as a form of healing trauma. S.A.’s goal is to see Indigenous representation and leadership in historically and presently non-Indigenous spaces.

HARDLINERAY makes smart, high energy art of a noticeably singular and unique hand. Ray is of noteworthy talent. I loved doing this episode. To learn about Ray check out these words from his Folks Press (Portland) feature:

"When all is said and done, however, what keeps Ray sane is comics. Comics, comics, comics. In part, the sanity comes from being skilled. A fellow illustrator had this to say about Ray from Chi City. 'Even though I've seen a lot people do comics—that was like my first love—you can tell when somebody has a unique angle. Even in a very common job—some people do backgrounds, some do ink, some do coloring—you can tell when someone is just trying to do their own thing. That's what caught my attention about Ray.'" 

DIRTY PRINCESS is a mischievous alchemy of Francesca, Mikayla , and Jewlz

These women appear as a dark obscurity that rose into the spotlight in early 2018.

Dirty Princess have encapsulated crowds with fuzz guitars, banshee-like vocals, and stand up drums. Their music is a field of energy you can feel starting at your toes and ending in the tips of your hairs.

Wild and Alive rock n' roll will NEVER die!!!

Claire Peaceful Deer Lady Zwicker is an Anishinaabe woman from Lake Simcoe Territory / Williams Treaty Territory in Ontario, Canada.

"I am currently writing my thesis for my Masters of Education around Indigenous Survival, Revitalization & Self-Determination. I am a big advocate for Indigenous Youth and believe they are the future. I am also a beginning educator and have worked in Vietnam, my home community, and will be working at a First Nations school in the city. 

Beadwork and art have been my medicine and I love sharing it with the world and our youth as it was something I did not learn until I was an adult."

Cathy Camper is the author of Lowriders in Space, Lowriders to the Center of the Earth and Lowriders Blast from the Past, with a fourth volume in the works, Lowriders to the Rescue, all from Chronicle Books. She has a forthcoming picture book, Ten Ways to Hear Snow (Dial/Penguin), release October 13, 2020, and also wrote Bugs Before Time: Prehistoric Insects and Their Relatives (Simon & Schuster). Her zines include Sugar Needle and The Lou Reeder, and she’s a founding member of the Portland Women of Color zine collective.

A graduate of VONA/Voices writing workshops for people of color in Berkeley, California, Cathy works as a librarian in Portland, Oregon, where she does outreach to schools and kids in grades K-12

Joëlle Jones is an Eisner nominated artist currently living and working in Portland, Oregon. Since attending PNCA in Portland, OR, she has contributed to a wide range of projects and has most recently has worked on Batman for DC comics. She also wrote and drew the series, Lady Killer, published by Dark Horse comics. Jones has also provided the art for fashion designer Prada, and various projects for Marvel, Boom, Vertigo, Oni Press and The New York Times. 

Joëlle currently has projects with DC comics as well as continuing her Series Lady Killer.

Originally from Istanbul, Özlem Sorlu Thompson now paints in the flat where Piet Mondrian made his art studio in Belsize Park. Her influences include the great expressionist artist Kandinsky and the abstract surrealist Joan Miró. 

 

Özlem’s works have already made their way into the homes of renowned celebrities such as actress Anita Dobson and her husband Brian May, musical theatre star Maria Friedman, actor Andy Nyman, and several private collectors.

 

With degrees in biology and botany, and an in-depth knowledge of exotic plants and a keen interest in physics, Özlem strives in her work to create synaesthesia in the experience, the process and the result, with a visionary energy that generates an extemporaneous flow of strong colours and shapes.  Painting without preparation or planning, she merges intellectual concepts with visual ideas, mixing real and imagined organic structures with one another, while dream-like worlds and creatures all converge to create a vivid explosion of the real and fantastic.  As a result, positivity and joy invariably manifest strongly in the viewer.