TRGGR Radio featuring Lois Ahrens, S.N.O.L., & Dr. Jared Ball – 6/7/2013

On this packed two-hour edition of TRGGR Radio, Chris sits down for an expository interview with Lois Ahrens, the director of the Real Cost of Prisons in Massachusetts. We discuss the current human rights abuses facing inmates in Massachusetts prisons, including the invasive strip searching of female assigned prisoners. In the second hour we speak with organizer Malcolm Chu and Springfield community youth Penny Noel and Kalimah Dunwell who share the importance and ongoing projects of the housing justice organization Springfield No One Leaves / Nadie Se Mude (S.N.O.L.). We hear personal testimonies of Penny and Kalimah who are fighting against the increasing home foreclosures in Springfield, witnessing the resilience of inter-generational activism in the face of discriminatory displacement. Keep on the lookout for several upcoming actions, including a community takeover of a foreclosed home, a community-organized garden in a vacant lot, and a fundraiser CD release party.

Finally, we are joined by TRGGR-South fam, Dr. Jared Ball of Vox Union who provided a highlight of his earlier conversation with author Jeff Chang about Hip Hop and radical politics. Enjoy the sounds of resistance!

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TRGGR Radio feat. Johanna Fernandez – 5.10.2013

Chris and Rec speak with Johanna Fernandez, (pictured above at left/on Mumia’s right) professor of History and Black and Latino Studies at Baruch College of CUNY and writer and producer of Justice on Trial: The Case of Mumia Abu Jamal. Connecting the campaigns to free political prisoners with other movements to attain racial justice, dignity, humanity, and self-definition, this episode of TRGGR Radio discusses Mumia Abu-Jamal’s current situation on Death Row, the state of the international movement for his release, and its relationship to the addition of Assata Shakur to the Most Wanted Terrorist list.

Our second guest is Kim Adino, speaking about the international organization Better Future and the cultural and educational work they engage in with youth in the Dominican Republic through the Women Worldwide Initiative. On the way out we briefly discuss the track, Neurotic Society, that Lauryn Hill was forced to release.
Part 1: Featuring Johanna Fernandez

Part 2: with Kim Adino

TRGGR Radio – 3.15.2013

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DMC Interviews Sister Helen Prejean

Sister Helen Prejean recently visited Hampshire College to give a talk on her life and work as an anti-death penalty activist. Prior to her lecture she sat down with Aurelis Troncoso and Tesh Pimentel, members of student organization, the Decolonize Media Collective, a group for which TRGGR co-founder Chris Tinson serves as faculty advisor.

In what Sister Helen called “the best radio interview she’s ever done,” Aurelis and Tesh ask about her background as an activist and public advocate for the oppressed and incarcerated, and get her thoughts on a range of issues including alarming rates of women’s imprisonment, the school-to-prison pipeline, education for empowerment, and the historical relationship between enslavement and the death penalty. Props to these up-and-coming media activists for their first interview!

About Sister Helen: Sister Helen Prejean is a death penalty activist, helping to shape the Catholic Church’s opposition to state executions. She is the author of Dead Man Walking, an account of her relationship with death row inmate Patrick Sonnier, which became an Academy Award-winning movie, an opera, and a play. Prejean divides her time between educating citizens about the death penalty and counseling individual death row prisoners. She also authored The Death of Innocents: An Eyewitness Account of Wrongful Executions, released by Random House in December of 2004, and is presently at work on another book.

About the DMC: The Decolonize Media Collective (DMC) is a student of color collective (and their allies) dedicated to promoting domestic and international social justice struggles through media. We view media as a critical site of struggle over issues of race, identity, class, gender and power.

Event date: September 20, 2012
Location: Hampshire College Media Basement
Run time: 25:31

Background on MAS banning in Tucson…#important

Why MAS is federally protected – Post-Unitary and deseg history from Abie Morales on Vimeo.

TRGGR w Paul Porter – 9.9.2011

Peace, check out our convo with Paul Porter of Industry Ears described as “a new generation nonpartisan think tank aimed at addressing and finding solutions to disparities in media that negatively impact individuals and communities.” We discuss Paul’s entry into the world of media and the state of black media production.

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Part Two of the show:

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TRGGR w Dr. Jared A. Ball – 9.16.2011 – pt. 2

Here’s our conversation with Dr. Jared A. Ball. Enjoy, download, and circulate!

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