Gradient Identities

Writer Soni Brown chronicles her journey from Jamaica to New York to Los Angeles to Las Vegas. Now, she wonders if she feels like Las Vegas is really her home and reflects on the tradition of Black people who sought liberation through migration.  BMI Shearing Fellow Natasha Tarpley grapples with the idea that violence and armed self-defense are a necessity to create a safe community for Black People. In this piece, she speaks to her neighbor Bernadette in the South side of Chicago, an older Black woman who happens to be an avid gun owner, reflects on the Black towns of the past, and imagines a future where Black people are safe. 

Writers Mary South and Alexandra Kleeman discuss writing climate crises in works of fiction in the face of rising temperatures and unprecedented ecological disasters. Kleeman’s latest novel, Something New Under the Sun, takes us to a drought-ravaged California, where water is so scarce that a substitute is manufactured and sold as WAT-R. In the middle of Nevada lies Rhyolite Ridge, a place with the largest known lithium deposit in North America and home to an endemic wildflower known as Tiehm’s buckwheat. The flowers’ endangered status prevents the development of more lithium mines. Writer Mason Voehl investigates the battle between those who seek to gather the precious ore essential to decarbonizing our economy and those who seek to defend a species on the verge of extinction.

Food activists Jocelyn Jackson and Cheyenne Kyle discuss food as a means of liberation, keeping history, and showing community love.Artist and activist Carolina Caycedo discusses her project “Be Dammed” — a geochoreagraphy that chronicles the movement of rivers, how they become blocked by dams, and the negative effects dams have on communities who have historically lived near those bodies of water. Artist and BMI Shearing Fellow Faylita Hicks revisits the Declaration of Independence, the principles that guide the democratic solutions of North America. In rewriting this document they reimagine what the United States could be. 

To be patient is to be able to endure hardship, “to bear pains or trials calmly or without complaint.” Writer Jumi Bello recounts her experience of being a psych ward patient as a woman of color and the countless ways in which neurodivergent people become dehumanized and estranged from society. Hexagons have mysterious qualities related to dynamite, LSD, DNA, plastic, geometry, and metaphysics. In this essay, Ruth elucidates their obsession with the shape as it relates to their depression and mental health. Sound design and production from musician Aubrey Calaway. Jackie DesForges has a hypersensitivity to sound referred to as misophonia. In the loudest city on Earth, DesForges experienced full body hives and incredible anxiety. One sound, however, brings DesForges a sense of euphoria. https://blackmountainradio.org/ 

Joe Raposo had a gift for imbuing simple concepts—letters, numbers, colors—with rich emotion through music. In 1969, he received a call from a friend to be the music director for a new children's TV show. And so Sesame Street found its sound. In the first part of this episode, essayist Chris Arnold looks back on the life of a man who created a sound that echoed the world children saw and heard outside their windows. Consult the pages of The Believer to read the unabridged version of this essay.Later, producer Vera Blossom tells the story of the Kim Sisters. She looks into the political circumstances that transported the Kim Sisters from performing in their home country just after the American–Korean War all the way to the early days of the Las Vegas Strip.Rasar Amani began rapping in 1999. A talented lyricist and emcee, he performed in venues around the world. In 2015, he formed The Lique, creating explosive meldings of hip-hop, funk, rock and jazz. Last fall, Rasar passed away unexpectedly. In the last segment, one of his bandmates, Jeremy Klewicki pays tribute to him. The Lique’s third album, Imposter Syndrome, released this winter, commemorates Rasar’s 36th birthday. https://blackmountainradio.org/

On the sidewalks of Las Vegas, Aarrow Sign Spinners like Laramie Rosenfeld, Evan James, Chris Sicuso, and Rayen Jones throw giant arrow-shaped signs into the air, spinning them around their bodies as they backflip, wave to passersby, and point to a destination–all in the name of advertising. Yumi Janairo Roth is an artist and anthropologist who has recontextualized the work of sign spinning as art. In the first part of this episode, BMR producers Layla Muhammad and Vera Blossom explore the high-spirited world of sign spinning. Later, journalist Amanda Fortini delves into the history of Las Vegas’ Historic Commercial Center District. In this segment, business owners and patrons relay the importance of the Commercial Center to a thriving city and the misconceptions that have put the place into despair. Finally, Vi Khi Nao and Daisuke Shen discuss Nao’s new collection of short stories, titled Vegas Dilemma; love languages; and the power of being invisible.https://blackmountainradio.org/

In this episode, cartoonist Amy Kurzweil discusses art and simulation with her father, inventor and futurist Ray Kurzweil; poet Vi Khi Nao takes listeners through a sound walk in Las Vegas; novelist Lisa Ko and visual artist Toisha Tucker reminisce on virtual karaoke nights in early quarantine; and writer Elena Passarello presents an essay on puppets and the legacy of Elvis Presley.

In this episode, performance artist Brent Holmes explores the origins and myths of the American cowboy. Meanwhile, businesswoman Anna Bailey shares pieces of her life as one of the first African-American women to hold a gaming license in Nevada. Writer Sam Forbes brings us an account of being invisible while working as a dancer in a Las Vegas strip club. Plus, BMI Fellows Ahmed Naji and Jordan Kisner discuss how living in exile has changed Naji’s writing and life.

Attorney Dayvid Figler grew up near the famous Las Vegas Strip in a hard-gambling family. Decades after becoming a lawyer, Dayvid meets Nann, a problem gambler who would become his client. In this episode, Dayvid and Nann unpack the emotional and life-altering effects of Nevada’s most lucrative industry. You'll also hear poet-performer-librettist Douglas Kearney and Afro-electronic musician Val Jeanty discuss the ways they surrendered to experimentation in the name of artistry while making their live album Fodder. Plus, novelist Walter Mosley presents a contrarian perspective on race and the color white in an excerpt from his 2015 lecture at BMI.

In this episode, writer Soni Brown sets out to reconsider what’s left of the Mint 400, an elusive made popular by Hunter S. Thompson's novel Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. Meanwhile, LeVar Burton transports listeners into an engine oil-infused dust storm as he reads an excerpt from Fear and Loathing. Inspired by Octavia Butler, writers Megan Stielstra and Erica Vital-Lazare unpack the question: What specifically did the desert teach me? Poet Aimee Nezhukumatathil and essayist Jordan Kisner discuss Aimee’s latest book, a collection of 28 essays about the natural world, and the way its inhabitants can teach, support, and inspire us.