Art Heals All Wounds

When my cousin, Tiffany Braden, a.k.a. Halloween the Dancer, first started pole dancing twelve years ago, my first response was “Oh my!” Considering that my cousin is one of the smartest people I know, I knew that I had to learn more about it. I've watched her grow to be an incredible artist, with choreography that is moving and expressive and makes my heart ache. I finally got to hear her story in-depth when she joined me on ...

In this episode, documentary filmmaker and cinematographer Morgan Schmidt-Feng and I talk about his new film Anton:Circling Home about the New York-based artist Anton van Dalen. We explore the theme of home in Schmidt-Feng's other works and what effect the San Francisco Bay Area housing crisis has had on his life, as well as how it has drained the Bay Area of artistic talent over the past few decades. And we talk a lot about p...

Do you like drag kings? Of course you do! In this episode, we meet psychotherapist Cassandra Falby and learn about her performance as drag king Brock Cocker. What made her decide to begin performing as a drag king and what are some of the benefits of creating an alter-ego like this? We talk about what it means to perform masculinity and femininity as a drag performer. Why are drag queens better known in our culture than drag kings?...

Orlando Williams, aka DJOACES, helped form a budding core group of DJ's in 1980's Berkeley, California. Known as the Mixologist DJ's, this group would help build the tradition of house parties in the city, as well as influence other DJ's in the wider world of Hip Hop. After the death of his mother, Orlando turned to his life-long passion of spinning music as a way to travel beyond his grief. In the process, he d...

How can the power of storytelling help us make sense of things as seemingly disparate as the Covid-19 pandemic, the healing potential of psychedelic drugs, and the navigation of life's largest crises? In this episode, documentary filmmaker Marjorie Sturm shares her work on PSAs for Decriminalize Nature San Francisco, an organization which advocates for the decriminalization of the cultivation, possession, and sharing of many p...

Printmaker and sculptor Angelica Trimble Yanu talks about how her work brought her from existing “in-between” to grounding her in her Oglála Lakȟóta heritage. At the same time, it connects her to a larger community of Indigenous artists. Her bold prints of landscape and short films join the growing chorus of Indigenous voices in saying, “We are here. We are real. And we are resilient.” (Angelica Trimble Yanu, episode 9 of Art Heals...

When the poet Maw Shein Win was faced with the wearisome task of moving, it got her thinking about her relationship with her things. She found a storage unit for the objects she didn't part with and she realized that, while the storage unit contained her things, her things, in turn, were containers as well--of memory, emotions, and attachments. At the same time, she had been researching nat spirits, something she was familiar ...

Do you need a positive mantra to get you through the ups and downs that these times keep throwing our way? How about a mantra set to amazing music? I know the perfect thing for you, a new single, Gonna Be Alright, from Luqman Frank and Quincy Griffin. It's from their upcoming album, composed and recorded during the pandemic, with messages of positivity, unity, and love as a response to the cultural and political division that ...

They say you can never go home again. When Denise Zmekhol, daughter of the late Roger Zmekhol, a prolific and masterful architect in Brazil, decides to make a documentary film about his most famous building in Sao Paulo, she hopes that by telling the story of the building she will also be able to deepen her connection with her father. Known as the Skin of Glass (Pele de Vidro), this building symbolized the emergence of Brazil on th...

Filmmaker Ken Paul Rosenthal first met Berkeley street poet Julia Vinograd thirty years ago. Struck by her work and her presence, he asked if he could make a film about her poems. Although she agreed, Rosenthal felt that he didn’t yet have the experience as an artist to do her work justice. In 2018, Julia Vinograd passed away. Now Rosenthal has taken on the mission of bringing this iconic poet to life on screen by conveying the pow...

Have you ever had a difficult relationship with someone that you absolutely adore? How would you handle your grief if that person unexpectedly dies before you've worked through your issues together? This was exactly the dilemma faced by Michelle Kennedy when her father was tragically killed in a car accident. As a writer, on-camera reporter, and news anchor, Michelle was at the top of her field. She left her career in TV news ...

April Harris performs to heal. Her journey as a performer began when she was still serving as Captain in the United States Army. She had survived several sexual assaults during her service, but she realized that surviving wasn’t enough. For herself and for her two sons, she needed to thrive. To do that, she first needed to heal. Finding her way to a personal storytelling workshop was the beginning of April’s healing journey. Every ...

The very special guest on the Season 1 finale of Art Heals All Wounds is opera composer Hector Armienta. Hector is also the Art Director of Opera Cultura, a Latinx Hispanic opera company in San Jose, California. As a Mexican American composer, Armienta composes operas that explore what it means to be between two cultural worlds. His musical inspirations include the works of Puccini, Mexican corridos, and mariachi, to name a few.

Wh...

Sit back and relax while you listen to episode 1 of The Re(a)d Lounge from Shantre Pinkney. You'll get a chance to hear excerpts from her upcoming book Raw, Black, & Blue in her podcast. You can find The Re(a)d Lounge wherever you listen to podcasts and you can hear more about her story as a writer, filmmaker, and photojournalist on Season 2 of Art Heals All Wounds.

Be sure to sign up for the Art Heals All Wounds newslette...

Welcome to Season 2 of Art Heals All Wounds, the podcast where we meet artists transforming lives with their work. In this season, we'll explore some of the themes that came up in Season 1--the body, family, home, community, and self. We’ll be releasing episodes every week. We’ll hear the stories of artists whose work presents a creative approach to these five themes. of body. Through stories we gain empathy for others and we ...