My___on Mondays

Episode 24: My Peek Into the Life of Byron - MING Studios Public Archive Series

In 1824, Thomas Medwin published his book, “Journal of the conversations of Lord Byron noted during a residence with his lordship at Pisa, in the years 1821 and 1822". It was a response to the burning of Byron's memoirs by his publisher, which Medwin considered a betrayal of both Byron and the public. Today's episode is an excerpt from the beginning of this book, describing Medwin's first introduction to Byron ––– a vivid and delightful window into his personality, a moment of his life and the era.

Episode 23: My Early Irish-American Find - MING Studios Public Archive Series

This episode features three recordings made in 1917 by Irish-American piper, Tom Ennis. Ennis was born in 1888 in the US and was taught to play the Uilleann pipes by his father, John Ennis, who emigrated from Kildare, Ireland.

Young Ennis grew up steeped in the Irish-American Gaelic community and became a well-known piper. In early adolescence he became the youngest member ever admitted into the Irish Music Club of Chicago, playing amongst the most elite musicians of the day. He went on to perform in Vaudeville and was very active in the New York and Chicago music scenes.

Episode 22: My All Grammars Leak by Barnett Cohen

Barnett Cohen (b. Cape Town, South Africa) is a queer poet, painter, performance maker, and political activist who lives and works in Los Angeles and New York City. He has exhibited, staged performances, and held readings at REDCAT, JOAN, LAXART, Pieter Space, 356 Mission, Human Resources, The Box (Los Angeles), The International Center For Photography, Beverly's, JDJ (New York), Vox Populi (Philadelphia), Open Space/SFMOMA City Limits (San Francisco & Oakland), and The Onassis Foundation (Athens, Greece). He has been in-residence at SVA, Skowhegan, MacDowell, and is currently an artist-in-residence at the NARS Foundation, New York. In 2020, he was nominated for the Rema Hort Mann Foundation Emerging Artist Grant. Cohen is also the founder of the Mutual Aid Immigration Network (MAIN). Established in 2017, MAIN is a trilingual free assistance hotline for people detained in immigration detention centers across the US. MAIN connects people in detention with bond funds and legal services that can accelerate their freedom from incarceration.

 

https://www.barnettcohen.com/

Episode 21: My Grandmother by Christy Claymore

Christy Claymore (she/her) is a writer, researcher, freelance editor, and former adjunct English professor. She is an emerging poet whose work has been included in the previous three anthologies published by The Cabin, as well as in The Panorama Project, a pandemic arts segment underwritten by The Idaho Press Tribune and Surel's Place. She lives in Boise, Idaho where she loves supporting the arts, running in the foothills and raising her two wild boys.

Episode 20: My First Glimpse Through A Pervy Lens by Jodeen Revere

Jodeen Revere is an Idaho actor and writer, and a regular contributor to MING Studios programming. Her first reading at MING in 2019 became the spring board for her one woman show, The Persistent Guest. This darkly humorous story of her trifecta of cancer experiences, less than desirable relationships and life philosophy, premieres at Boise Contemporary Theater in January of 2022. In addition to her work on stage, in film and readings of her personal essays, she has been part of two Migration Theory site specific productions: S5 and Small Matters. You can listen to her earlier contribution to My On Mondays in Episode 8: My Getaway.

 

You can follow Jodeen on Instagram: @jodeenrevere

Episode 19: My Frankenstein Monster Part II by Samantha Silva

Idaho author and screenwriter, Samantha Silva's debut novel, Mr. Dickens and His Carol, was published by Flatiron Books in 2017, followed by Love and Fury: A Novel of Mary Wollstonecraft in May of 2021. Her essays appear on LitHub, and her short story, “Leo in Venice,” was the September 2019 issue of One Story. She is currently working with Seattle Repertory Theater to adapt Mr. Dickens and His Carol for the stage, and was a 2020 Idaho Commission on the Arts Literary Fellow.

 

You can learn more about Samantha and her work at: https://www.samanthasilvawriter.com/

Episode 18: My Frankenstein Monster Part I by Samantha Silva

Idaho author and screenwriter, Samantha Silva's debut novel, Mr. Dickens and His Carol, was published by Flatiron Books in 2017, followed by Love and Fury: A Novel of Mary Wollstonecraft in May of 2021. Her essays appear on LitHub, and her short story, “Leo in Venice,” was the September 2019 issue of One Story. She is currently working with Seattle Repertory Theater to adapt Mr. Dickens and His Carol for the stage, and was a 2020 Idaho Commission on the Arts Literary Fellow. 

You can learn more about Samantha and her work at: https://www.samanthasilvawriter.com/

Episode 17: My Small Moment of Clarity and Release by Zach Herbert (St. Terrible)

Zach Herbert is a Boise based musician and performance artist who has been creating under the moniker of "St. Terrible" for the past 10 years. With work that tends to be existentially charged and skewing towards the rougher edges of the human experience, Herbert has created a wide array of works ranging from immersive dance pieces to short music films. For this piece, the aim was to create something small and soft, a brief meditative moment of relief from the intense anxiety and feelings of detachment Herbert had been experiencing around the time of its creation.

 

View Zach Herbert's most recent project here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pk55qgIDAq0

 

Episode 16: My Salamuna by Huma Aatifi

Huma Aatifi was born in Kabul, Afghanistan and came to the US in 2002. She is a painter and heads the musical project, Unda Fluxit. Her piece is titled “My Salamuna”, which comes from “Salam”, a Muslim greeting. In it, Aatifi takes the listener on a meandering tour through various aspects of her life, welcoming us to her inner world.

 

Read an interview with Huma here: https://razorcake.org/huma-aatifi-interview-by-ryan-leach/

 

Purchase Unda Fluxit's album here: https://www.spacecaserecords.com/spacecase-releases/unda-fluxit-master-of-the-house

Episode 15: My Book Songs by J.R. Rivero Kinsey

J.R. Rivero Kinsey is a writer of both music and prose, based in the mountains of Idaho. Today's selection, titled “My Book Songs” comes from the second album of her solo music project called Palankeen. It features three songs. The first, titled “Slender” is a re-telling of Thomas Hardy's Jude the Obscure in seven verses. The second, “Baruch in the Northern Lights”, is based on two characters from the series, His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman. She ends with a song called “The Good Counselor”, which focuses on the story of Persephone in the Underworld and features an excerpt from The Odyssey.

To learn more about J.R. and her work, visit: https://jrrkinsey.com/