Thursday, September 15th, at 8pm ET, 2022 Suzanne Fiol Curatorial Fellow Theodore Kerr presents AUDIO MEME, his second program in THE BODY POPULAR series. The program features multidisciplinary artist James T. Green performing a “live mix” of a conversation between sound culture luminaries Josh Gwynn and Leila Day. On July 27th, an an initial broadcast mix of the conversation played on Montez Press Radio. You can listen to that mix below.
Audio Transcript
All attendees will be required to comply with NYU site safety guidelines including the submission of appropriate COVID-19 vaccine verification and a health & safety screening.
AUDIO MEME is a project that explores the power and intimacy of podcasts to impact progressive social change. Through the art of using one’s voice, broadcast, and listening, podcasts bring ideas, people, and feelings together, creating opportunity for personal reflection, mass education, and collective conversations.
This event unfolds in two parts. On September 15th, audience members are invited to attend the AUDIO MEME live event at The Garage. In this non-tradition state of the art performance space, multi-disciplinary artist James T. Green will perform a live mix of a conversation about voice, power and social change recorded between sound culture luminaries, Josh Gwynn and Leila Day. On July 27th, a broadcast mix of their conversation will play exclusively on Montez Press Radio Radio.
AUDIO MEME is curated by Theodore (ted) Kerr for ISSUE Project Room. AUDIO MEME is part of Theodore (ted) Kerr’s curatorial residency for ISSUE entitled THE BODY POPULAR, a curated series of gatherings and broadcasts, propelled by artists, podcasters, writers, and others in NYC across the U.S. invested in questions around power, community, knowledge, and consumption in the 21st century. “The Body Popular” riffs on the phrase, “The Body Politic,” a notion that groups of people together have power, and a voice.
Josh Gwynn (he / they) is an Senior Producer and host at Pineapple Street Studios from Southern California who has created work for companies like The New York Times, Netflix, Essence, Stitcher, Mailchimp, and Nike. He is passionate about providing platforms for underserved voices. Josh received his Masters in Media Management from The New School/Parsons in New York City and is a graduate of Emory University in Atlanta. Given his California roots, Josh describes his vibe as a combination of palm trees, confetti, limes, rhythm, vitamin E oil, melanin, and bones. He is still waiting on a ticket to Oprah’s Legends Luncheon.
Leila Day (she / her) is a Senior Producer at Pineapple Street Media and is the Executive Producer and co-host of The Stoop Podcast, stories about the black diaspora. Her work has been featured on NPR, 99% Invisible, the BBC as well as other outlets. Before The Stoop, she was an editor at Al Jazeera's podcast network and worked on creating and editing award winning narrative driven journalism. She began her career in journalism at KALW where she worked as a health care and criminal justice reporter. During that time she contributed as an editor, taught audio storytelling to inmates at San Quentin, and helped develop curriculum for training upcoming reporters.
James T. Green (he / they) is an artist, designer, podcaster, and writer. They are also the founder of the creative studio Molten Heart, which takes an immersive and artistic approach to podcasts, musical albums, and in-person audio experiences. Outside of Molten Heart, Green’s personal documentary, PMHx, won the 2021 Third Coast Award for Best Documentary Short, and their artworks and productions were featured in the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Mass MoCA, 99% Invisible, and Pop Up Magazine.
Theodore (ted) Kerr (he / him) is a Brooklyn based writer, organizer, and artist. With Alexandra Juhasz, he is co-author of the book, We Are Having This Conversation Now: The Cultural Times of AIDS (forthcoming, Duke University Press). Kerr curated the 2021 touring exhibition AIDS, Poster, and Stories of Public Health: A People’s Pandemic for the US’s National Libraries of Medicine. In 2020, he worked with the New York City AIDS Memorial as a creative consultant on HEAR ME, an audio installation at the memorial, that resulted in A Time To Listen, a multi part online conversation series. In 2016 / 2017 Kerr performed 10 interviews for the Smithsonian's Archives of American Art's Visual Arts and the AIDS Epidemic: An Oral History Project. Kerr is a founding member of the What Would An HIV Doula Do? collective.
