The Heart Gallery Podcast – Details, episodes & analysis

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In this episode, we step into the world of ethnomusicology with Angela Impey. Angela is a researcher, author, and senior lecturer at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London, where she explores the links between music, culture, and social change.

Angela shares her experiences during apartheid in South Africa, where music became a powerful form of political expression, along with stories from several ethnomusicology projects across the African continent. She explains how performance-based knowledge systems are important in addressing global challenges like the climate crisis, and what constitutes “proper knowledge”.  We discuss how we can bridge between mainstream paradigms and other, but no less valid, frameworks of understanding our surroundings.

Songs around the world hold histories, clues, concepts, connections, and characters that have been not listened to, not heard, by so many. You surely won’t listen to your surroundings the same way after hearing from Angela. I hope you enjoy this invitation into the world of ethnomusicology with Professor Angela Impey.

Mentioned in the article episode:
- Merlyn Driver and his curlew project
- Musician Jeremy Dutcher
- Angela’s book Song Walking: Women, Music, and Environmental Justice in an African Borderland
- Scholar Donna Haraway
- Acacia karroo tree
- Chinspot batis bird

Connect:
- Angela Impey’s work
- Rebeka Instagram
- The Heart Gallery Instagram

Credits:
Jonathan Raz for podcast editing, Cosmo Sheldrake for use of his song Pelicans We, podcast art by me, Rebeka Ryvola de Kremer.

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In this episode launching on Juneteenth, come on a trip down the road from Selma, Alabama - home of the 1960s Selma Voting Rights Movement and the Selma to Montgomery marches - to the tiny little enclave of Gee’s Bend, situated in a bend of the Alabama river. This is the home of the famous Gees Bend quilters.

The community of Gee’s Bend, Alabama, traces its roots back to the enslaved individuals who toiled on Joseph Gee’s cotton plantation established in 1816. After the Civil War, ancestors continued to live and work on the plantation as sharecroppers. The economic downturn of the 1930s, marked by plummeting cotton prices, threatened the community's survival. In response, the Federal Government intervened during the Depression, purchasing ten thousand acres of the former plantation. They offered loans to the residents, enabling them to own and cultivate the land their forebears once worked unpaid. The people of Gee’s Bend managed to keep their land and homes, preserving and cultivating cultural practices… Such as quilt-making.

In the 1960s, inspired by a visit from Martin Luther King Jr., the Gees Bend community became active in the Civil Rights Movement, traveling by ferry to Camden to register to vote. In retaliation, authorities discontinued the ferry service, isolating Gee’s Bend from essential services. During this challenging time, local women established the Freedom Quilting Bee, a cooperative that provided vital economic opportunities and political empowerment.

Despite this past filled with hardship, the quilting tradition of Gee’s Bend, which began in the 19th century, has survived and flourished. The New York Times has praised Gee’s Bend quilts as “some of the most miraculous works of modern art America has produced.” These quilts represent a significant chapter in American art history and are now part of the permanent collections of over 30 major art museums.

Set against this historical backdrop is the conversation I had with Loretta Pettway Bennett. Loretta is a celebrated member of the Gee's Bend quilters, a group of (mostly) women whose incredible works not only bring their beauty to museum walls but have also weave important stories of Black American history, culture, and vision. Listen to hear about Loretta's stories and experiences growing up in this incredible arts community.

Connect:
- About Loretta Pettway Bennett
- Gee's Bend Quilters Instagram
- Rebeka instagram
- The Heart Gallery Instagram
- Episode blog post - coming shortly!

Credits:
- Samuel Cunningham: podcast editing
- Cosmo Sheldrake: music from his song Pelicans We.

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For the 10th episode (and the season finale!) of The Heart Gallery Podcast, I connect with my wonderful friend Taylor Freesolo Rees.

Taylor is a filmmaker, documentarian, storyteller and photographer. She has won numerous film festival awards for her work exploring environmental justice, natural resource issues, the outdoor adventure industry and its various players, nonhuman creatures and our relationships with them, and much much more. Taylor has the ability to deftly weave together myriad threads into complex story tapestries that not only manage to avoid being prescriptive but are undeniably alluring & approachable. As a storytelling mastermind, Taylor excels at showing nuance and presenting compelling questions that invite you into a deeper curiosity. Additionally, and so rarely in spaces of wicked problem-solving, through the way she lives and works, Taylor makes a case for play, whimsy, and silliness in the face of serious crises. May this episode with Taylor Freesolo Rees fortify your heart.

See here for an accompanying blog post (including photos, a film, Taylor's HW, and the podcast transcript).

Some of Taylor's favorite artists: Ayana Young & the For The Wild Podcast, Renan Ozturk, Baloo in the Wild, & cartoons in general:)

Mentioned:
- David Orr, What Is Education For
- The Metaphors We Live By by George Lakoff & Mark Johnson
- Fatu & Najin
- Sk’aliCh’elh-tenaut aka Tokitae

Connect:
 - Taylor on her website & @taylorfreesolo
- The Heart Gallery Instagram
- The Heart Gallery website
- Rebeka Ryvola de Kremer Instagram

Credits:
Samuel Cunningham for podcast editing, Cosmo Sheldrake for use of his song Pelicans We, podcast art by me, Rebeka Ryvola de Kremer.

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For Episode 9 of The Heart Gallery Podcast, Rebeka Ryvola de Kremer talks to climate story consultant Alisa Petrosova.

This episode explores how the film and TV industry is doing on climate messaging.
According to research from Good Energy and The Media Impact Project that analyzed 37, 453 scripted television episodes and films released from 2016 through 2020, less than 3% acknowledge climate change.Alisa works at Good Energy, which supports TV and film creators in telling stories that honestly reflect the world we live in now—a world that’s in a climate crisis. They have worked on the recent climate-focused Extrapolations, on Apple TV, and are focused on intersectional elements of climate stories, committed to showing how historically marginalized people are harmed “first and worst”. Alisa talks about how stories help us connect, process, and learn and how we need our stories to reflect the realities of the world and the future we want to move towards. 

See accompanying blog post here for annotated climate trailers, Alisa's HW, and the podcast transcript.

Mentioned:
- Climate poet & artist Cecilia Vicuña
 - Writer Rebecca Solnit.
- Rebecca Solnit's Hope in the Dark
-  Rebecca Solnit's, A Paradise Built in Hell
-  David Wallace-Wells', Uninhabitable Earth

Connect:
- Alisa: @minipetro, LinkedIn
- The Heart Gallery Instagram
- The Heart Gallery website
- Rebeka Ryvola de Kremer Instagram

Credits:
Samuel Cunningham for podcast editing, Cosmo Sheldrake for use of his song Pelicans We, podcast art by me, Rebeka Ryvola de Kremer, w/ the drive-in photo sourced from Boston Globe archives.

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For Episode 8 of The Heart Gallery Podcast, Rebeka Ryvola de Kremer talks to artist and writer John Kazior.

Today’s guest on The Heart Gallery sparks imagination incredibly well. He is John Kazior, an American artist and writer based in Sweden. John's writing also reveals the depths of these dark arts and shares how we can come to see these efforts more clearly. He talks about how we can learn to go deeper below the surface with issues and ideas that matter the most, and how we can come to orient ourselves towards cultures of true care. I believe that John needs to create curriculum for schools everywhere, for people of all ages. 

Visit The Heart Gallery's visual accompaniment for this podcast episode here (podcast transcript also available here).

HW: "One good thing to do is go out and find a nonhuman species, whether it's dead or alive, a plant or fungus or a moss or a fish or a fly. Find something and try to follow it for a little while, whether that means actually physically follow it and/or [tracing its life backwards]. Follow where it came from and try and see what you can find about it. If you really want to go the extra mile, then write or draw something about how you feel about it or the way you relate to it.  And that may be just reiterating like that, oh, I found this in a supermarket. It could be as simple as that. But this [activity] is something that's usually a pretty interesting thing to do in my experience.”

Mentioned:
- Artists: Petra Lilja, Nonhuman Nonsense, Brave New Alps, Climavore, Cooking Sections.
- Terminology: ecofeminism, ecocriticism, entanglement, & polyphonic assemblages.

Connect:
- John’s website
- The Heart Gallery Instagram
- The Heart Gallery website
- Rebeka Ryvola de Kremer Instagram

Credits:
Samuel Cunningham for podcast editing, Cosmo Sheldrake for use of his song Pelicans We, podcast art by me, Rebeka Ryvola de Kremer.

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For Episode 7 of The Heart Gallery Podcast, Rebeka Ryvola de Kremer talks to curators Lara Goodband & Gemma Lloyd.

Lara & Gemma are curators of Earth Spells: Witches of the Anthropocene, happening now at the Royal Albert Memorial Museum in Exeter. The exhibit features works from some incredible artists from around the globe: Caroline Achaintre, Emma Hart, Kris Lemsalu, Mercedes Mühleisen, Grace Ndiritu, Florence Peake, Kiki Smith, and Lucy Stein. Lara Goodband is the Contemporary Art Curator and Programmer at Royal Albert Memorial Museum, and Gemma Lloyd is an independent curator. Listen to Lara Goodband & Gemma Lloyd to be spellbound by the intrigue and relevance of witches throughout history and for our world today...

Visit The Heart Gallery's visual accompaniment for this podcast episode here (podcast transcript also available here).

Mentioned:
- article: Britain's Royal Albert Memorial Museum returns artefacts to Siksika First Nation.

HW from Gemma: "This is a bit of a strange one. We got my 8-year-old son a moth trap for his birthday last year. I feel that it opens up a huge world, this nocturnal world that we never get to see, [even in the city] (I'm saying this from London). We put this moth trap out at night, and from early spring right through to autumn it's absolutely remarkable what is under your nose in your own environment, what you can see if you have the means to capture it. It is extraordinary and will give you a bigger appreciation of your position in the environment and in the world. If you can find out about another species that's within your own environment, I kind of feel like that gives you an understanding of your place within it."

HW from Lara: "I would like to suggest that everybody reads Amitav Ghosh's book The Great Derangement: Climate Change and the Unthinkable."

Connect:
-  LaraGoodband
- Gemma Lloyd
- The Heart Gallery Instagram
- The Heart Gallery website
- Rebeka Ryvola de Kremer Instagram

Credits:
Samuel Cunningham for podcast editing, Cosmo Sheldrake for use of his song Pelicans We, podcast art by me, Rebeka Ryvola de Kremer.

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For Episode 6 of The Heart Gallery Podcast, Rebeka Ryvola de Kremer talks to artist Lauren Shapiro. 

Lauren has spent her whole life in Southern Florida and her work explores the potential of art to cultivate awareness of the environment. She often works alongside ecologists to understand and narrate nature and she merges craft, science and technology to document disappearing ecosystems like coral reefs and mangroves with sculptural ceramic archives. Lauren talks about art as a tool for environmental stewardship in Miami and South Florida, how the enchanting and dangerously threatened Southern Florida ecosystems can be supported by art, science, and tech collaborations, and how the power of art can spark change on today's climate and environmental issues. Listen to learn from the captivating Lauren Shapiro.

Visit The Heart Gallery's visual accompaniment for this podcast episode here (podcast transcript also available here).

HW: "There is a book called "Draw It With Your Eyes Closed: The Art of the Art Assignment", it's written by artists for artists, but it can also be for anybody. It's a hilarious book. I would recommend reading that book. Each artist gives you an assignment, which go from practical to ridiculous. It's great for anyone who wants to spark their creativity or feels stuck. Again, whether you're an artist or not. It's a great way to kind of think about the world and do something silly."

Mentioned:
- Anne Hamilton
 - Daniel Rozin
- Rafael Lozano-Hemmer.

Connect:
- Lauren’s website
- Laurenshapiro instagram
- The Heart Gallery Instagram
- The Heart Gallery website
- Rebeka Ryvola de Kremer Instagram

Credits:
Samuel Cunningham for podcast editing, Cosmo Sheldrake for use of his song Pelicans We, podcast art by me, Rebeka Ryvola de Kremer.

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For Episode 5 of The Heart Gallery Podcast, Rebeka Ryvola de Kremer talks to Morel Doucet. Morel is a Miami-based multidisciplinary artist and arts educator from Haiti. He creates captivating ceramic, illustration, and print works that examine the realities of climate gentrification, migration, and displacement within the Black diaspora communities. Listen and learn from the magical Morel Doucet.

Visit The Heart Gallery's visual accompaniment for this podcast episode here (podcast transcript also available at this link).

HW from Morel: “Being an educator in the museum space I like inquiry. How inquiry works is that you make a visual observation of the work in front of you. Instead of coming to an immediate conclusion, you analyze a work based on its various aspects before you form a conclusion about the work. Another way of phrasing it is, “don’t judge a book by its cover”. Extend this beyond art too: give people grace, give them an opportunity. By being patient, you may uncover something new."

Mentioned:
- Didier William
- Cornelius Tulloch
- Chris Friday
- The Saan people mentioned in the question about ceramics

Connect:
 - Morel Doucet IG
- The Heart Gallery Instagram
- The Heart Gallery website
- Rebeka Ryvola de Kremer Instagram

Credits:
Samuel Cunningham for podcast editing, Cosmo Sheldrake for use of his song Pelicans We, podcast art by me, Rebeka Ryvola de Kremer.

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For Episode 4 of The Heart Gallery Podcast, Rebeka Ryvola de Kremer talks to "artivist" Vidushi Yadav. Vidushi’s work revolves around gender justice, South Asian identity, access & right-based content. She is a communication & design consultant for multiple women rights, humanitarian & development organizations world-wide. Through her work she attempts to investigate gaze, representation, able-ism, gender binary, privilege & colonialism via image making. Listen to hear critical lessons & perspectives from Vidushi Yadav.

Visit The Heart Gallery's visual accompaniment for this podcast episode here (podcast transcript also available here).

HW from Vidushi: "Ask questions. And do not accept what is given to you, or what is considered the default of life. Ask, “why do I have to be like this” if something doesn't feel right. Examine where answers are coming from & look beyond the answers which are readily available. For example, there are so many things that we are told as women, like, “this is how you should be, this is how you should behave, this is what you shouldn't do, that's what you should do”. If you start asking questions, like, “why is it important for me to do this", or "what is stopping me to do that”… you can get closer & closer to what feels authentic to you."

Mentioned:
- Frida Kahlo
- Marina Abramović
- How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy by Jenny Odell.
- Seeing Like A Feminist by Nivedita Menon

Connect:
- Vidushi IG
- The Heart Gallery Instagram
- The Heart Gallery website
- Rebeka Ryvola de Kremer Instagram

Credits:
Samuel Cunningham for podcast editing, Cosmo Sheldrake for use of his song Pelicans We, podcast art by me, Rebeka Ryvola de Kremer.

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For Episode 3 of The Heart Gallery Podcast, Rebeka Ryvola de Kremer talks to artist Joyce Yu-Jean Lee. Joyce works with video, digital photography, and interactive installation that combine ​social ​practice with ​institutional ​critique. Curious about how the act of seeing is transformed by technology, her artwork examines how mass media and visual culture shape notions of truth and understanding of the “other.” Listen to hear from the incredible Joyce Yu-Jean Lee.

Visit The Heart Gallery's visual accompaniment for this podcast episode here (podcast transcript also available here).

HW from Joyce: “Next time you're in a debate with a friend or a family member about an issue,  really pause and think about the perspective of the other. Before you add your answer or your own perspective just pause and really reflect on what that other person is thinking or feeling. See if you might put yourself in their shoes. Try to empathize with their point of view before you speak.”

Mentioned:
 - James Turrell
- Pipilotti Rist
- Ai Weiwei.

Connect:
- Joyce IG
- The Heart Gallery Instagram
- The Heart Gallery website
- Rebeka Ryvola de Kremer Instagram

Credits:
Samuel Cunningham for podcast editing, Cosmo Sheldrake for use of his song Pelicans We, podcast art by me, Rebeka Ryvola de Kremer.