New Suns, Midwest Futures

New Suns, Midwest Futures is a bi-weekly podcast series centering Midwestern performing artists (born or relocated) working loosely around themes of place, identity, and social justice. Launching from Octavia Butler’s quote “There is nothing new under the sun, but there are new suns,” this project aligns with sci-fi methodologies to collectively imagine new systems and spaces outside of cis-patriarchal white supremacist models and to build beautiful futures beyond "the end of the world.” We'll meet with artists from various locations to brainstorm what it means to be an artist in the Midwest, what folks need, what’s working, what’s not working, and how different locations and geographies shape those realities in specific ways. Most importantly we ask the questions 1) How can we help each other? and 2) What can art do right now? While not directly focused on COVID-19, the scope of this project integrates the current issues, concerns, and practicalities of moving through the multiple pandemics at hand while collectively dreaming up what happens next in a constantly shifting social-political-ecological landscape.