In today’s show, Chris Lievense, high school social studies teacher in Vermont and Kelly Junno 3rd grade teacher in Western Massachusetts, and Spark faculty, share with us their insights from the 2025 Socialism conference in Chicago and how those lessons are applicable to their work as K-16 educators. A major theme Kelly and Chris found at the conference was, how does the progressive left recapture the narrative. Fascist can’t win unless they capture education and the narratives around it that normalize injustice. How does the progressive left ask for the unimaginable. How do we ask for a better world where we don’t have prisons, where we don’t spend billions of dollars and billions of lives to have them and instead ask for what are the kinds of care we need and what are the things that we need to meet, at minimum, the basic needs for people: food, clothing, shelter, health, education, transportation. How do we bring the majority of people in the United States along with the possibilities of abolition. Most Americans can’t imagine an abolitionist society. How do we as educators change the conversation which then changes the narrative around this and make it imaginable? Most importantly that Capitalism can’t solve capitalism

Host Becca sits down with Dax who recently return from working and learning in India at Vandana Shiva's project Navdana. We discuss the historical and current work of agriculture. Navdana began as an example and teaching farm, showing that a farm without chemicals can exist. We also discuss on of the main aspect of the project, seeds saving as resistance to global capitalism.

Indigo host Anna sits down with Dr. Ari Brazier, community organizer & educator in Atlanta - Ari talks with us all about the #stopcopcity movement here in ATL, race, education, their work with ParentLab, children, abolition, and more! *Photo of Remix, provided by Dr. Ari Instagram accounts to follow @atlparentlikeaboss @stopcopcity @thehighlanderschoolatl @saveweelaunee Songs: 1) Hard Times, Baby Huey 2) Violent, 2Pac 3) I Wish I Knew How to be Free, Nina Simone 4) Overjoyed, Stevie Wonder

Indigo host Anna sits down with Jasmine Burnett and Aja Arnold, organizers with Mainline ATL to talk about the upcoming Summer of Resistance here in Atlanta, learnings from past movements, organizing, and more. "Through this campaign—which will include a series of rallies, demonstrations, teach-ins, and a three-day music festival & convergence hosted by Mainline—organizers and community members hope to reignite various types of activism and community building in the city. While the fight to #StopCopCity continues, organizers say it’s time to bring all intersections of Southern struggle and resistance together to fight against elements that preceded Cop City and allow police militarization to continue." To connect with Summer of Resistance and follow events check out: www.mainlineatl.com, Instagram pages: mainline_atl; strikeblac_scc; saveweelaunee; and stopcopcity Songs: Neith Sankofa - Hummingbird Medicine Blue Scholars - Proletariat Blues James Brown - Say it Loud: I'm Black and I'm Proud Show notes and resources: https://www.mainlineatl.com/atlanta-organizers-announce-summer-of-resistance-stop-cop-city-juneteenth/ https://www.mainlineatl.com/police-escalate-harassment-south-atlanta-cop-city-site/ https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/apr/08/cop-city-tortuguita-human-rights-investigation Books Guests are reading: Fanshen: A Documentary of Revolution in a Chinese Village by William Hinton The German Ideology by Karl Marx In the Courts of the Conqueror by Walter R. Echo-Hawk

On the morning of April 25th, 2024 students at Emory University began their Gaza Encampment in the national movement to end the genocide and for academic institutions to divest from Israeli apartheid. Listen to the speeches of these brave students along with Rev Keyanna Jones as they peacefully speak out; and continue to center what they are fighting for. Minutes later they were met with violent repression from the Atlanta PD, GA state patrol, and Emory police. Student Op-Ed https://mondoweiss.net/2024/04/we-are-occupying-emory-university-to-demand-immediate-divestment-from-israel-and-cop-city/

Hosts Anna & Chris sit down with Jayna Ahsaf & Jonathan Elwell of FreeHerVT. This show is Part II of our look at Vermont and prisons - from the historical context of VT carceral systems to today's campaign to stop new prison construction. Jayna Ahsaf is the lead field organizer for FreeHerVT and Jonathan an organizer. We talk with them about the FreeHerVT campaign, women in prison, criminalization of certain populations, & abolition. You can find Part I here: https://on.soundcloud.com/oT6SmwM8e6F6iPhJ8 Songs: 1) Loretta Lynn "Women's Prison" 2) Wanda Jackson "Tennessee Women's Prison" 3) Lightnin Hopkins "Jailhouse Blues" Show notes: - National website: https://www.nationalcouncil.us - FreeHer Zine: drive.google.com/file/d/11hILxjEc…qg9zTc-8ut3/view - VT’s website: https://www.nationalcouncil.us/vermont - VT Landing page (more info & links): http://the-council.us/freehervt - Jonathan's article: https://www.rakevt.org/2024/01/04/behind-the-smoke-and-mirrors-the-true-story-of-prin/ - Mariame Kaba’s zine: https://www.interruptingcriminalization.com/what-about-the-rapists

Part I of a two-part show on Vermont and incarceration. Hosts Chris and Anna spend the hour with Jonathan Elwell, organizer with the FreeHerVT campaign. In Part I, Jonathan speaks with us about the purpose of prisons, the history of incarceration and surveillance in Vermont, and the criminalization of the poor. Part II will air next week and will focus on the FreeHerVT campaign with Jayna Ahsaf and Jonathan. Songs: 1) Tom Waits: "Fish in the Jailhouse" 2) Warren Zevon: "Prison Grove" 3) Felice Brothers: "Rockafeller Drug Laws" 4) Public Enemy: "Black Steel" Photo: VT State Prison, Windsor 1907 show notes: FreeHer: https://www.freehercampaign.org/vermont FreeHer zine https://drive.google.com/file/d/11hILxjEcUBBU8KcjJOqxIqg9zTc-8ut3/view Books: Tip of the Spear - Orisanmi Burton Golden Gulag - Ruth Wilson Gilmore

Host Anna sits down with Emory University students Bella and Zach Hammond, two leading organizers with Students for Socialism @ Emory. Bella and Zach talk about what influences shaped their political thoughts, organizing at Emory (and beyond!), media role, and hopes they have. Info on GILEE https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/rania-khalek/atlanta-mayor-rejects-demand-end-israel-police-training Songs: 1) "Change Tomorrow" by DAM 2) "Yama" by Gitkin 3) "Me Gustan Los Estudiantes" by Mercedes Sosa

In a recent interview on Democracy Now, director of “Unseen” Set Hernandez quoted Ursula Le Guin: “Hard times are coming, when we’ll be wanting the voices of writers who can see alternatives to how we live now. … We’ll need writers who can remember freedom — poets, visionaries — realists of a larger reality.” In this episode we invited Emily and Nora Khilfeh, two Palestinian students: Emily is graduate student of writing at Arizona State University and she shares her poetry in our show today, Nora is a student at Edmonds College in Seattle. Both students share their experiences as Palestinian college students, their visits to their family home in Palestine, and poetry that speaks truth to power. Song #1: Lowkey - Long Live Palestine ft Frankie Boyle, Maverick Sabre (Part 3) [Music Video] | GRM Daily (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bhEFrv-Xwtw) Song #2: Ramallah Underground - Sijen ib Sijen (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jlRVdbMZSJk)

Listen to high school students in Vermont share their thoughts about what is happening in Gaza. C

On Sunday, March 10th ATLradicalart held a rally outside the High Museum in Atlanta, GA. Their rally was to say No Artwashing Israeli Apartheid! They ask: "How does Empire use Art against the people and to cover up complicity in genocide?" Listen to the voices from outside on the streets! Songs/Speakers in order: 1) Song and chant - Priscilla Gay Smith 2) Opening with Rozina Shivaz Gilani 3) Umaymah Mohammad 4) Song by Emmanuel Lockett 5) Andrea Ornelas - Gaza Monologue 6) Nushrat Nur 7) Poem by Keara Skates 8) Gaza Monologue 9) Cristy York 10) Libre Sankara - Gaza Monologue 11) Song by Divina Salam

We spend the hour with Umaymah Mohammad - Palestinian, organizer, and current MD/PhD student at Emory University in Atlanta, GA. Umaymah speaks with us about her own history, rejecting the silence of the university in not protecting the safety of those students who have been targeted by racist, anti-Palestinian, xenophobic, and Islamophobic harassment , international solidarity, and what she calls "victory outside of empire." Read Umaymah's Open Letter: https://drive.google.com/file/d/19WveLfyzyxalsmLg6SdKQ0O7oeLjqcbv/view Read here: an Open Letter to Emory Jan 24, 2024 by a coalition of community and civil rights organizations, writing on behalf of Palestinian, Arab, and Muslim students and students perceived to be Palestinian or Muslim at Emory University. https://mondoweiss.net/2024/01/open-letter-on-the-anti-palestinian-and-islamophobic-environment-at-emory-university/

Part II in of our conversation with Dr. Sewell. Dr. Sewell is an Associate Professor in Sociology at Emory University in Atlanta, GA and also the founder and director of the Race and Policing Project. In part II, Dr. Sewell speaks on race in Atlanta, policing and adverse health, "carceral grief," and teaching. Listen to Part I https://on.soundcloud.com/3Khfp Dr. Sewell: https://sociology.emory.edu/people/bios/Sewell-Alyasah%20A..html https://www.abigailasewell.com/index.html

Indigo host Chris and Anna talk poetry, teaching, hope, and struggle. Chris shares some of the work that he is doing with his students at Springfield High School in Springfield, Vermont. Poems: Pablo Neruda "United Fruit Company" https://genius.com/Pablo-neruda-the-united-fruit-company-annotated Article: "From Guernica to Gaza" https://www.counterpunch.org/2023/12/25/from-guernica-to-gaza/ Songs: Marvin Gaye: "Inner City Blues" LowKey: Instrumental Palestine Newsies Musical

On the heels of MLK Day we air our annual poetry and conversation show with Spark faculty, alum, and Indigo hosts. We read poems that speak to the moment as we look forward to 2024. With poems by: Derek Johnson -- D.C. teacher & Spark alum Reads: "Climate Justice and Food Sovereignty Now!" by Elizabeth Mpofu Katie Behan -- RI teacher & Spark alum Reads: "All of us or None" by Bertolt Brecht Josh Wyman - Spark faculty, W. Mass Reads: "The Prison Cell" by Mahmoud Darwish Patrice Strifert - Spark faculty & Keene state professor, NH Reads: "Refugee God" by Mahmoud Darwish and an original poem Kyra Swain - Spark alum and Vermont education, VT Shares an original poem Dr. Janaki Natarajan - Spark founder Shares an original poem SONGS: 1) Nina Simone, Why? (The King of Love is Dead) 2) Public Enemy, By the Time I get to Arizona

Indigo host Anna Mullany interviews Dr. Alyasah “Ali” Sewell of Emory University. Dr. Sewell is Associate Professor of Sociology at Emory and Founder and Director of The Race and Policing Project. Advancing quantitative approaches to racism studies, they assess empirical links between the political economy of race and racial health(care) disparities using policing and housing policy data. In Part I, we learn about Dr. Sewell's current work on housing and firearm epidemic in Atlanta, gentrification, housing & health, and their thoughts on Cop City and the surrounding areas. Part II will air in a few weeks!

Indigo hosts Anna & Josh spend the hour with Reverend Keyanna Jones. Rev. Jones, born and raised in Atlanta, GA, is a community activist and organizer. She talks with us about the #stopcopcity movement in Atlanta, the history of the Weelaunee forest, policing, the GILEE program & militarism, the connections between Gaza and Atlanta, and necessary international solidarity. Songs: The Revolution Can Not be Televised - Gil Scott Heron So Grows the Flame - Matt Rivers Fight the Power - Public Enemy

On November 14, 2023 public health workers against Cop City held a rally outside of the American Public Health Association (APHA) annual meeting held in Atlanta, GA at the Georgia World Congress Center. Listen to the voices from the rally. CopCity is a public health issue & Atlanta is one of the most well-funded PDs in the country. From Atlanta to Palestine - militarization has got to go! Song played - Matt Rivers: "So Grows the Flame (The Ballad of Tortuguita)" Speakers: 1) Rita Valenti - Project South 2) Devin Franklin - Southern Center for Human Rights 3) Dominique Grant - Women on the Rise 4) Felipe 5) Omid 6) Dr. Katie Huffling - Alliances of Nurses for a Health Environment 7) Devin Barrington Ward -Black Futurists Group, Community Org 8) Dr. Mark Spencer -- introductions to Felipe, Omid, and Devin

Indigo Radio spoke with 4 educators in our back-to-school special. We discussed what is happening in students' and teachers' lives within and outside of schools, what their work looks like beyond the classroom, what gives them strength to meet the challenges facing, and more.

Indigo Radio interviewed Fred Magdoff, former Professor of Plant and Soil Science at University of Vermont. He is a director of the Monthly Review Foundation, and has written on political economy for many years. We discussed the importance of soil, how soil is alive, how human activities have impacted our soils, and what we can do to care for our soils. Fred helps us to make connections between environmental, social, political, and economic aspects in order to build an environmentally sound and economically just society. Find Fred’s book Building Soils for Better Crops online for free https://www.sare.org/resources/building-soils-for-better-crops/.