The MoMA Magazine Podcast

Ten Minutes with Therí Pickens: On Access

For many, a trip to MoMA means confronting questions of access: Does this space welcome people like me? Will I be given what I need in order to feel safe and included?

At the core of this month’s Ten Minutes podcast is the question, What does access look like? According to Laura Aguilar’s work Access + Opportunity = Success, access includes, among other things, “the right to enter or use.” But Dr. Therí Pickens argues that access goes deeper than that. Using Aguilar’s work as a point of departure, the writer and disability studies scholar explores how our lives are shaped by our identities and the privileges granted to certain bodies and experiences.

Access a transcript of the conversation here: https://www.moma.org/magazine/articles/894

Ten Minutes with Amira Virgil: On Video Games

What do video games reveal about our reality?

In this Ten Minutes podcast, hear from gamer and content creator Amira Virgil, developer of the Melanin Pack for The Sims 4, about her vision to create a more accurate and inclusive version of the game.

 

Access a transcript of the conversation here: https://www.moma.org/magazine/articles/778

Ten Minutes with Kalpona Akter: On Fast Fashion

In Bangladesh, a garment worker barely makes enough money to cover the cost of rent. Discover the truth about the unfair labor practices behind many of the clothes we wear.

In this Ten Minutes podcast episode, Kalpona Akter, founder of the Bangladesh Center for Workers Solidarity (BCWS), describes the lives of garment workers in Bangladesh and some of the ways we can advocate for fair labor practices when making purchases.

Access a transcript of the conversation here: https://www.moma.org/magazine/articles/816

Ten Minutes with Adam F. Bradley: On Invisible Man

What is the relationship between literature and modern art? 

Join Adam F. Bradley, English professor and co-editor of Ralph Ellison's unfinished second novel, for a discussion about race and invisibility on the written page and beyond. Discover Ellison's iconic book Invisible Man and the ways it continues to resonate with readers (and artists) 70 years after its original publication.

 

Access a transcript of the conversation here: https://www.moma.org/magazine/articles/751

Ten Minutes with Lindsey Farrar: On Hair

Hear how a publisher decided to “create the world that we want to see” by founding the first natural-hair magazine.

In this Ten Minutes podcast episode, we talk to Lindsey Farrar, who cofounded CRWNMAG in 2016 with Nkrumah Farrar. The print and digital publication is dedicated to celebrating the diversity of Black women and the beauty of their natural hair textures. Hear Farrar talk about about CRWNMAG, the natural hair movement, and the possibilities of changing society through media.

Access a transcript of the conversation here: https://www.moma.org/magazine/articles/852

Ten Minutes with K. Melchor Hall: On Black Motherhood

Listen to the acclaimed writer talk about Elizabeth Catlett’s sculpture Mother and Child, and its connections to rest, intimacy, and reproductive justice.

In this Ten Minutes podcast episode, Hall reflects on a childhood wrapped in the embrace of Black community and an adulthood of “relearning how to hold” three generations of women in her family. Through tender descriptions of this sculpture and lyrical insights that weave together the personal and political, Hall conjures the spirit of Catlett and the many Black mothers who came before and after.

Access a transcript of the conversation here: https://www.moma.org/magazine/articles/732

Ten Minutes with Tricia Wang: On Web3

A tech ethnographer explains some key terms and ideas behind the future of the Internet.

In Unsupervised, Refik Anadol’s new installation at MoMA, the artist makes use of a core part of the Web3 technology: blockchain. What is blockchain technology and how does it relate to Web3? More importantly, why should we care about any of this? In this Ten Minutes podcast, we explore these questions with Tricia Wang, a tech ethnographer who studies the ways technology shapes our humanity. For Wang, Web3 offers enormous creative potential. In this new vision for the Web, we can tell new stories, explore our identities, and build more equitable communities.

Ten Minutes with Teddy Cruz and Fonna Forman: On Building Citizenship

Discover how architecture can unite communities divided by an international border.

Political theorist Fonna Forman and architect and visual artist Teddy Cruz talk about Manufactured Sites, an architectural project based on the flow of material waste between border cities in the United States and Mexico. Tires, garage doors, and even entire homes make their way from San Diego to Tijuana, where migrants seeking entry into the US reconfigure the parts into emergency housing. But the project doesn’t stop there—it also presents new possibilities for safer emergency housing. In this Ten-Minutes podcast, we hear about the ways communities can collaborate across international borders and the possibility of creating a safe home for everyone.

Ten Minutes with Mabel O. Wilson: On Found Materials

Can junk be transformed into art?

Discover the life and work of John Outterbridge, an artist who combined discarded objects and found materials into complex works of art. Hear from architect Mabel O. Wilson about her uncle's salvaging practice and the ways it brought him closer to his family, community, and visions for a better future.

Art & Intimacy: Olivia Laing on David Wojnarowicz

The artist and writer David Wojnarowicz, who died in 1992 at age of 37 from complications of AIDS, is best remembered for his political activism and his vibrant, confrontational paintings. Yet in her 2016 book The Lonely City, author Olivia Laing writes movingly about Wojnarowicz as a figure haunted by loneliness, a condition that inspired to him to fashion his work into a vehicle for visibility and connection. As part of our celebration of Pride month, writer Alex Halberstadt recently spoke with Laing—whose latest is Everybody: A Book About Freedom—about David Wojnarowicz’s life, legacy, and the desire for connection that animated his incandescent writing and art.