We tell tales of the train and bus yard, the tenement yard and the prison yard. We detail close calls and chase stories. We dig into larger conversations about crossing boundaries, the other side of the tracks, borders, and forbidden space. Whether to make big life changes, to forward the artistic or professional practice, to escape peril—or just for the sheer thrill of it. With first-person storytellers including trans-disciplinary artist Lupe Maravilla, musician/producer Scott Harding ("Scotty Hard"), drug-user activist and award-winning radio documentarian Garth Mullins (from the Crackdown podcast), graffiti artist and fashion designer Claudia Gold ("Claw Money"), pioneering painter and graffiti artist Chris "Freedom" Pape, and many more.
Ryan McMahon; groundbreaking Anishinaabe comedian, writer, producer, and creator of compelling media confronts the borders he has faced throughout his entire career. Borders that he was able to kick down in an effort to create a new space for a new narrative about Indigenous presence in today's popular culture as we know it.
26 Nov 2021
Airto Morales: Behind The Wall
Multigenerational trauma and a life of violence led to many of Airto Morales' early years being incarcerated, ultimately landing him with a long prison sentence. But even after getting out from behind the wall, Airto never did leave the prison system. Airto is now an advocate and consultant at the Haywood Burns Institute in Oakland, where he continues to work with community to abolish carceral systems across the nation, targeting structural racism and supplanting it with structural wellbeing.
11 Nov 2021
Chris Pape: Freedom Tunnel
First generation NYC graffiti writer, author, documentarian, archivist, and historian Chris Pape, AKA FREEDOM, tells his own surreptitious stories around the Upper West Side Manhattan train tunnel that was ultimately named after him. His decision to live on the streets and paint in the "Freedom" tunnel propelled him toward a career that he never could have imagined.
4 Nov 2021
Claw Money: Key To The City
World renowned graffiti writer, fashion designer, and cultural icon Claw Money recounts the many borders she had to cross in order to land in the space that she calls Claw & Co. When life puts a fence in your way, you climb it. When it puts a second one, you rip your pants.
29 Oct 2021
Bennington: Ghost Stories
Bennington alumni spanning four generations come together to share first person paranormal experiences and encounters they had on the small campus in Southern Vermont. As the stories unfold, striking parallels are drawn that prompt deep questions about space, who owns it, and who is not welcome to occupy it.
21 Oct 2021
Scotty Hard: The Hard Way
Musician, producer, and engineer Scott Harding tells a life-changing story about a fateful night in Brooklyn in 2008. The line that Scotty crossed that night was a line that he never asked to cross.
18 Oct 2021
Bonus: Presenting "Crackdown"
A special bonus episode in your Yard Tales feed. Last week we were lucky enough to hear Garth Mullins tell his incredibly personal tales of having to navigate forbidden space. We heard about his trajectory towards activism, reporting, and radio documentary work. We also got to hear about the birth of his podcast, "Crackdown."
So today I'm bringing you Episode 1 of "Crackdown." It's such a well-made and important show that I wanted to give Yard Tales listeners a chance to hear it. The combination of first-person storytelling and in-depth reporting make for an extremely compelling show. My own prospective on drug use, addiction, and policy has shifted significantly from listening to "Crackdown."
When you're done listening, make sure and search for Crackdown wherever you listen to podcasts and follow the show in its own feed. So please enjoy Episode 1 of "Crackdown."
14 Oct 2021
Garth Mullins: A Ghost In My Own Life
Garth Mullins is a journalist and radio documentary producer who focuses on the decriminalization of drugs, issues of race, class, environment, capitalism, colonialism, and oppression. Listen in as he details the struggles he has had to work through in order to become one of the leading voices in the fight for a safe and legal drug supply. In his words, this could completely eliminate the overdose crisis as we know it.
7 Oct 2021
Susan Tran: Canada Is Racist
Susan Tran is a Vietnamese Canadian who was kidnapped from her mother in Vietnam at the age of two. But she never knew that she even had a mother because her abductor was her own father, intent on keeping her abduction a secret. After immigrating to Canada, Susan discovered that her mother’s strength and resilience was the foundation for her own self empowerment. Which now allows her to fully embrace her own family and culture, and also empowers her to confront Canada’s special brand of deep seated racism head on without reservation.
30 Sept 2021
Lupe Maravilla: Tripa Chuca
Renowned transdisciplinary artist Guadalupe Maravilla was among the first wave of undocumented immigrants to enter the US from Central America when he immigrated alone from El Salvador at the age of 8. In this audio narrative, Maravilla sensitively recounts harrowing tales of traumas experienced during the events leading up to and including his border crossings and how they later evolved into an illness he uncovered through experimentation with “ancient medicines” — eventually getting diagnosed with and then overcoming stage 3B colon cancer.
30 Sept 2021
Luz Fleming: Potreros
A story of finding family boundaries, fleeing danger, and the inescapable pull of graffiti. On a cold winter night in early 1990s San Francisco, a group of kids attempt to quench their insatiable appetite for bus yard destruction with an all-out Muni assault that doesn't go the way they had hoped.
24 Sept 2021
Listen To The Yard Tales Podcast
A podcast about crossing boundaries and entering forbidden space.
13 Feb 2021
Introducing: Yard Tales
Welcome to the place where we discussed entering forbidden space. We detailed border crossings. We enter space we never asked to enter. Whether to make big life changes, to forward the artistic or professional practice, to escape peril, or just for the sheer thrill of it.
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Apple Podcasts (US)
4.9 / 5
27 ratings
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