What Is Black? Podcast

10/05/2022

Coming June 2022, we're excited to drop video episodes for Season 4. Subscribe now, or whenever at your leisure.

Welcome to the What Is Black? Podcast where we attempt to defy the myth of a Black monolith. We'll be meeting Black creatives, innovators, and motivators fro...

22/04/2022

Been a minute, bc “life™️”, but here is Terry “” Gibson and I talking about when Afro-Latinx became “Black” and gatekeeping who can say “it”; “it”being the soft “a”, not the hard “r” amongst other things you just *know* growing up in urban environs.

04/01/2022

New episode dropping Wednesday, January 5 with Kirkus Prize winning writer, and author of "Punch Me Up To The Gods", Brian Broome on https://whatisblacpodcast.com or wherever you listen to podcasts.

03/01/2022

Join Terry Gibson and I as he slanders catfish, and we talk about how The South is "different..." We also talk about how the common motivating factor in xenophobia, racism, anti-Blackness, anti-LGBTQ, anti-women, and anti-critical thinking is fear, and how you can organize against that fear to activate your communities.
https://whatisblackpodcast.com

01/12/2021

Available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and most podcast platforms, or Https://whatisblackpodcast.com.
Join me and Aaron as we talk about pivoting from law enforcement to crime stories. Also how Marvel's Blade movie proved it pays to always bet on the Black(ness of Wesley Snipes). Aaron's book "Under Color of Law" is now available as paperback and Kindle via Amazon, and audiobook on Audible. For more info, visit AaronPhilipClark.com.

This mixcast is brought to you in part by the Pittsburgh Office of Public Art. For more info visit opapgh.org.

Be sure to grab a copy of the What Is Black Mixcast zine at participating businesses and organizations for more in depth content with all of our guests. Visit whatisblackpodcast.com for a list of distribution points on the regular as we are always updating. If you’d like to sponsor a distro point, or get your hands on a copy, email [email protected]. Thanks for listening!

29/11/2021

New episode dropping Wednesday, December 1 with guest Author Aaron Philip Clark. We talk about going from art, to law enforcement, to art again. We also geek out about Wesley Snipes in "Blade".
The What Is Black? Mixcast is brought to you in part by Office of Public Art.

19/11/2021

Welcome back for another season of the What Is Black? Podcast. Join me and Jessica as we talk protecting Black autonomous spaces and Archie comics. Jessica also has a dope exhibit at the August Wilson Cultural Center in Downtown Pittsburgh called The Black Box Test that everyone should be checking out starting November 17 (the same day this ep drops).
🔗 whatisblackpodcast.com

12/11/2021

New episode of the WIB?P is dropping on November 17 w/ guest Jessica Gaynelle Moss. Jessica is launching an exhibit called the Black Box Test: a Black autonomous space within public space to cultivate and preserve Black space through art. The exhibit starts on November 17 and runs through January 31, 2022 at the August Wilson Center in downtown Pittsburgh.
Visit whatisblackpodcast.com for listening options.
-
The What Is Black? Mixcast is brought to you in part by the Pittsburgh Office of Public Art. For more info visit opapgh.org.

10/11/2021

Info at https://aacc-awc.org/event/research-production/

18/10/2021

I love seeing Black people skate.
I once had a young Black girl ask me if girls could skate at a skateboarding event my nonprofit hosted and it gutted me. Are we really out here not letting Black girls fly how they want to fly? This video patched up that gutted feeling.

I love seeing Black people skate.

02/09/2021

We're looking for guests for nest season! We're also growing: What is Black? Mixcast is a project of artist Jason McKoy and was commissioned by the Office of Public Art.
Visit tinyurl.com/whatisblackmixcast for details.

06/07/2021

It's dope when you have talented friends that make dope s**t and it's actually dope so you don't have to lie to them. I never have to lie about LoFTee. He just makes dope s**t, including this House track.
Follow him on Soundcloud.

Listen to WILL IT FU*K ME UP by LoFTee on

09/06/2021

A dope BIPOC tabletop role-playing game made for all the afrofuturist nerdy types. We backed it and come September 2022, we’ll be giving it a go.

Setting book for Into the Mother Lands RPG!!!

19/05/2021

Welcome to the AKAC: All Kinks Allowed Crowd! For the season finale.
For more info, episodes, and ways to support visit whatisblackpodcast.com. Don’t forget to rate us 5 stars and review us on Apple Podcasts, and share with your friends and enemies.
Ray Smiling and I open things up talking about Tilda Swinton (if you don’t know, educate yourself) and how she is literally everything. So much so that she brings unlikely pairs together in the short “Tilda”, part of the series Khaki Is Not Leather. We then touch on getting film projects done during a whole panini press, and the processes they went through to get the job done being daunting but ultimately doable when you break things down into little passionate pieces. All this to sum up how absurd the world is, and the best art comes from being true to the absurdity of the human condition.
Real heady s**t made simple.
For more info on Ray and his film and commercial projects, check out on Instagram and creator-destroyer.com.
Also peep khakiisnotleather.com to view the full series on relationships and connecting in the age of social distancing.

28/04/2021

*CW: Sh*t talking*
For more info, episodes, and ways to support visit whatisblackpodcast.com. Don’t forget to rate us 5 stars and review us on Apple Podcasts, and share with your friends and enemies.
For this episode, inventor, entrepreneur, yoga instructor, sculptor, mother, and friend Alecia Dawn and I start out talking sh*t (literally), continue talking sh*t about slave yoga for kids, and end up talking about how Marvel’s Inhumans comics are the sh*t (the TV show was trash though!). In between we talk a lot about motherhood and what it’s like raising children whilst trying to achieve greatness. It ain’t easy!

For more info on Alecia and her inventiveness, check out and on Instagram.
Also peep yogamotif.com for info on yoga classes and yoga paint parties.

21/04/2021

Listen as Cary Fagan waxes poetic about an ice cream experience in Japan that is guaranteed to melt your heart.
-
Listen to the full ep. and more What Is Black? Podcast content wherever you get your podcasts or visit https://whatisblackpodcast.com

14/04/2021

https://whatisblackpodcast.com/cary-fagan/
In this episode, Cary Fagan and I talk about how a fascination with chairs lead to the Dadaist adjacent, stacking sculpture project chairs are people. We then segue into what happens when it all falls down and learning the best lessons from failing forward, and picking up the pieces for his fine art jigsaw puzzle project timeless.goods. Finally we dive head-first into our shared love of Japan and the ease at which it was to exist while being Black there.
SPOILER ALERT: Police actually know how to do their jobs there.

31/03/2021

Building things from your brain: that’s what guest Kristen McIntosh does. We talk about how her visual arts journey lead to architecture, a field with approximately 2% Black representation. Then we transition into the really heady territory of cosplay subculture and the many varied genres. And of course I got her to drop her favorite anime, because how could we not talk about anime.
https://whatisblackpodcast.com/kristen-mcintosh/

*CW: brief talk about su***de* Building things from your brain: that’s what guest Kristen McIntosh does. We talk about how her visual arts journey lead to architecture, a field with approximately 2% Black representation. Then we transition into the really heady territory of cosplay subculture and ...

08/03/2021

03/03/2021

Welcome back, and welcome Black for season two, the next revolution around that gas giant. This episode, we are joined by Jez. A multitalented, multifaceted, human that maybe the closest we come to interacting with a living myth as possible. THEY ARE THE REALEST! They do it all, and they do it with aplomb and grace. We get into it about music, the music industry, liberation of self through expression as a Black, q***r, trans independent artist, and who’s people makes the best “Peppapot”, which also happens to be the name of their latest EP.

For more info, visit https://whatisblackpodcast.com

For more on Jez., visit https://allmylinks.com/jez-who and follow them on IG at .who, or Twitter/Patreon at .
For the “Peppapot” EP visit https://jez-who.bandcamp.com/

For more on Jason, visit https://linktr.ee/mckoy

23/02/2021

Dropping sooner than an Oklahoma native...
whatisblackpodcast.com

18/01/2021

Been slacking on my post game because Facebook has been a plague since the New Year (and four years past (and forever)). The convo with the awe-inspiring Kelsey Wooley Jumper is up and you should be listening to it, like, right now on most podcast platforms incl. Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and Google.

Also note this is the last episode of this season, and we're planning to come back in March 2021, but don't call it a comeback.

Whatisblackpodcast.com

22/12/2020

Enjoy the dulcet tones of me and Kahlil as I present a snippet of on convo about showing and proving. Putting you on to game for the holidays. Full episode droms Decemeber 23.

10/12/2020

Gail Taylor and I talk about how the pragmatism of Duane Jones could have saved us all during a zombie apocalypse *SPOILER ALERT ON A MOVIE THAT CAME OUT 52 YEARS AGO* but he was Black so of course they shot him in the end.
We also talk on afrofuturism, and morphogenetic fields. Hope you got your wig on tight because your minds are about to be blown.
https://WhatIsBlackPodcast.com

25/11/2020

All the greats go by one name. Prince, Jesus… Kandaka is pretty great too. The homie has flavor whether it’s serving up delectable delights in the chef’s kitchen, or painting live murals for J Cole’s Dreamville festival, if it needs done, Kandaka gone show you how to do it.
Visit whatisblackpodcast.com or find us on your favorite podcasting service.

15/11/2020

DOPE convo about BIPOC representation in gaming not just as players, but as content creators, programmers, staff, etc. especially as the “console wars” are heating up -> https://youtu.be/Br8SozhFyX8

When next-gen consoles appearing in the hands of reviewers, YouTubers, and streamers, content creators like Stephanie "Nnesaga" Ijoma and ZombaeKillz noticed...

11/11/2020

Novelist Chris L Terry and I wax on his book "Black Card", growing up Black and punk, and owning your being a the thing you do to be the person you are. Plus we trade music notes on what should be on everyone's afropunk playlist.
Find us wherever you get your podcasts or listen via the link below.

Senator Kamala Harris and former Vice President Biden are presidents’ elect. Now what? I have a propensity to feel like I almost never know what I’m doing. Most of that is because I have difficulty accepting things outside of my control are outside of my control. I’m getting better though and ...

11/11/2020

Out now: a convo with novelist . Chris drops science on punk music/culture/ideology, writing a book about a multiracial punk dude finding his Black ID in “Black Card”, and where Blackess all fits in in the punk house we call life.
-
Listen now wherever you get your podcasts and make sure to check out the Feel Notes (link in bio) for some dope music you need to add to your playlist immediately, as well as books you should have on your shelves.

09/11/2020

For a double dose of dope ness, check out this live chat b/w Cheryl Durgens () and WIB?P guest Gail Taylor () on Tuesday, November 10, as well as our chat with Chris L Terry on on Wednesday.
-

・・・
Join us tomorrow, Tuesday, Nov. 10, 2020. and I talk about the power of HBCUs.

09/11/2020

This Wednesday, novelist Chris L Terry (), author of “Zero Fade” and most recently “Black Card” shoot the proverbial s**t about life, punk dignity, and the pursuit of Blackitiness.
-
For info visit the link in the bio, and find us on all the podcasting platforms.