CHIRP RADIO’S ARTIST INTERVIEW SERIES
I’ve been working with CHIRP (the Chicago Independent Radio Project) Radio for more than a decade as a volunteer coordinator and on air DJ, and have been involved as a producer and interviewer since 2013.
Most recently, I’ve been serving as the Features and Production Director. I love this position because it allows me to have one foot fully planted in shaping the direction and tone of our podcast, and the other firmly in audio production. CHIRP is different because, as an all-volunteer organization, you have to be a rigorous self-starter and apply yourself towards what you want to learn, in addition to possessing an enormous love of radio as an art form. Additionally, it has given me the opportunity to lead a team from diverse backgrounds and experience levels, which has been some of the most rewarding work I’ve done. The station has given me many opportunities to grow as a self-taught producer and interviewer and serve in leadership positions that I may not have had otherwise as a queer woman of color.
Through CHIRP, all podcasts I’ve produced have been pitched, researched, booked, interviewed, recorded, transcribed, cut, edited, and scripted by me. Here are a few samples of my best and favorite work.
SHELTER IN SOUND
In March of 2020, the city of Chicago was ordered to shelter in place due to the ongoing global pandemic. CHIRP’s interview program had no choice but to go remote, and the Features department directors (Amanda Mayo, Mick Reed, and myself) at CHIRP decided to focus on the economic and cultural impact of COVID-19 on the music scene in Chicago and launched a limited series, Shelter In Sound.
Show Description:
Like you, the CHIRP Features team is staying home to help flatten the curve! We are shifting our programming to present a new series in our Artist Interview Program. Shelter In Sound features interviews with artists and local music related tastemakers on what they are doing right now during this global pandemic. Tune in to learn how some of your favorite folx are managing and staying creative while hunkered down.
TUESDAY FUNK
Tuesday Funk is a monthly reading series hosted by Andrew Huff and Eden Robins. I was lucky enough to be asked to read an essay about the history of cemeteries in Chicago and how they tie to my own mourning process in April 2016.