Lumpen Radio

“Steal this Story, Please!” Conversation w/ Amy Goodman, Juan González & directors Carl Deal and Tia Lessin 📍This Lumpen Special includes a Q&A with Amy Goodman and Juan González of Democracy Now! and a panel discussion introduced by Jesse Hoyt, Executive Director of ONE Northside, and moderated by Juliet de Jesus Alejandre, and Executive Director of Palenque LSNA. These recordings took place at the Music Box Theatre in Chicago on Saturday, May 9th 2026. 🎙️

📝 This week, we look at a radical alternative to top-down development in Pilsen with the organizers and resident-owners of PIHCO (Pilsen Housing Cooperative). 🏘️ We break down the mechanics of cooperative housing—how it actually works, what “limited-equity” means, and why this model is a crucial tool for fighting displacement and preserving the cultural fabric of neighborhoods like Pilsen. As PIHCO pushes toward its goal of scaling to 35 member-owners by the end of 2026, we unpack the physical reality of cooperative living, democratic governance, and removing housing from the speculative market to build permanent neighborhood stability. ✊🏾 Traditional media often frames neighborhood change as inevitable, but this conversation highlights the hands actively building a resident-controlled solidarity economy from the ground up. --- Airs: Tuesdays at 2:00 PM CST on 105.5 FM Chicago, lumpenradio.com, and the Lumpen mobile app  

POETRY DESPITE, MUSIC DESPITE (ETERNAL WAR REQUIEM)

 This Memorial Day weekend as we reflect on our current state of endless war, Aaron Hughes presents a special radio production of Poetry Despite/Music Despite (Eternal War Requiem), an audio visual project that connects artists across time and place, from World War I to the “Global War on Terror,” from the U.S. to Iraq. These connections acknowledge the recurring traumas of war and, conversely, the human connections that happen despite the pain. The presentation features improvised cello by maestro Karim Wasfi, hip-hop by The Syrian Kings, and poetry by Dunya Mikhail, Carlos Sirah, Kevin Basl, and Aaron Hughes. This new composition includes an original sound design by Nate Sandberg directed by Aaron Hughes and samples from Benjamin Britten’s War Requiem, performed at Coventry Cathedral on May 30, 1962.  

Lit & Luz features intimate conversations with participants of the Lit & Luz Festival, festival facilitators, and members of the broader community. Through dynamic dialogues in Spanish, acclaimed writers, musicians, performers, and visual artists from Chicago and Mexico reflect on their creative processes and the transformative power of cross-cultural collaboration. --- Airs: Second and Fourth Wednesdays at 7:00 PM CST on 105.5 FM

Join me this Sunday at 2pm when my guest will be Estefanía Bermúdez, whose love and appreciation for wine recently carried her on a long journey to the Willamette Valley.

Today, Saturday, May 23rd, hang with me and my friend, Sheri Rush, a Chicago artist and painter who has been fully committed to her creative life for decades. We’re talking large-scale painting, residencies, nature archives, surviving critiques, and what it looks like to keep making work through every season of being an artist and a human. It’s one of those conversations that makes you want to create something. --- Airs: Second and Fourth Saturdays at 2 PM CST on 105.5 FM Chicago, lumpenradio.com, and the Lumpen mobile app!

Soundboard Saturday is the pulse of Chicago's performing arts scene, representing working artists with discussions around creative culture, open-stage events, and artist resources. Expect a colorful lineup of special guests who represent our vast ecosystem and featured performances. Join the conversation with your host, Sam Thousand, artist advocate and founder of the ChiBrations App. --- Airs: First and Third Saturdays at 2:00 PM CST on 105.5 FM Chicago, lumpenradio.com, and Lumpen mobile app  

Part 6 focuses on borders, race & multiculturalism. This program is dedicated to Palestinian freedom and the liberation of indigenous people everywhere. The poem Affirmation, written by Assata Shakur, was read by Samantha Rodgers and Lujain Al-Saleh. Karla Cisneros read Gloria Anzaldua’s poem Borderland. Joseph Young read Open Roads, a poem by Naomi Shihab Nye. Bassam, Nabil, and Mr. Lou shared some of their personal border stories. Music by Jamie Branch, Ry Cooder, Sarah Hopkins, Cate Le Bon, and Mike Reed.
 We want to thank Ilaria Giglioli, Leila Awadallah, and Nellie Jo David for their willingness to be part of this program. 
Created by Mary Salome and Emily Charles (Queer In Your Ear Productions) --- Airs: 2nd and 4th Thursdays at 9AM CST on 105.5 FM Chicago, lumpenradio.com, and the Lumpen mobile app  

Joining on this week’s episode, the visionaries from Brave Space Alliance: Nikki Patin (Interim Executive Director), Ebony Thompson (Senior Facilities and Operations Team Specialist), and Jaheim Jones (Outreach Coordinator), Chicago’s first Black- and trans-led LGBTQ+ center. Born from the urgent need to bridge the resource gap between the North and South Sides, Brave Space Alliance provides essential food access, housing support, healthcare navigation, and identity-affirming services to the community. ✊🏿 Tune in as we discuss their history and why their work is the ultimate example of what it looks like when communities build systems of care where institutions have failed to deliver them. --- Airs: Tuesdays at 2:00 PM CST on 105.5 FM Chicago, lumpenradio.com, and the Lumpen mobile app

On this episode, our host Kamilah Rashied @shesgotta will be in conversation with producer, arts administrator, and consultant Kendall Karg @kendallkarg along with curator, educator, and arts administrator J. Gibran Villalobos @thegibran This week's theme, "can I get a witness" explores the art of capturing the illusive "industry" friend (who actually becomes a real one). this promises to be a very candid conversation about the glue that keeps enduring friendships together through all of life's changes, challenges and career pivots. --- Airs: Second and Fourth Sundays from 3:00pm-4:00pm on 105.5 FM Chicago, Lumpenradio.com, and the Lumpen mobile app  

On this episode of Dish with David: our guest is Tony Priolo of Piccolo Sogno. One of the kindest, hard working and most genuine people, Tony is a proud Italian Chicagoan. He and his partner Ciro Longobardo bring the best of Italy and the Midwest to the intersection of Grand, Milwaukee and Halsted where everything is made in house from scratch including all of their breads, pastas, and gelato! --- Airs: Second and Fourth Sundays at 2PM CST on 105.5 FM Chicago, lumpenradio.com, and the Lumpen mobile app!

Chicago-based production designer, set decorator, and artist Aaliyah Shae (@theaaliyahshae) for a conversation about world-building on and off-screen. We’ll get into art direction, storytelling through space and detail, Chicago creativity, community care, and the work happening through The People’s Panther Party ✨ Basically… we’re talking about the worlds we inherit, the ones we imagine, and the ones we’re trying to build. Get ready to meet your new favorite person!! --- Airs: Second and Fourth Saturdays at 2 PM CST on 105.5 FM Chicago, lumpenradio.com, and the Lumpen mobile app!

Amy Goodman, host and executive producer of Democracy Now!, and Tia Lessin, co-director and producer of Steal This Story, Please!, join Ed Marszewski, Founding Director of Public Media Institute and makers of Lumpen Radio, for a conversation on the power of independent media, the importance of telling our own stories, and the daily work of building journalism that refuses to look away. Their new documentary Steal This Story, Please! follows decades of reporting through war, protest, climate crisis, occupation, police repression, and the fight for truly independent media.

🌟 Ashley Barlow and Tracy Evans, founders of Ragbagalia, join Sandra Treviño in the studio to discuss their inaugural festival taking place on May 16 at Sleeping Village. Joining the conversation are two performing artists: MCAmy of She’s Crafty and the legendary Renee of ESG. Inspired by the radical space-making of the Riot Grrrl movement (specifically the histories of Girls to the Front and Hunger Makes Me a Modern Girl), Ragbagalia is a mission-driven arts festival designed to center women, femme, and queer voices in a scene that often overlooks them. 🌟

🛸 MACHOMAN VS. SUPERGIRL Welcome to the newest episode of the Mex Files... MACHOMAN vs. LA SUPERGIRL, an epic battle of the sexes at the End Of Times. For this week’s show we have invited two amazing poets who have been analysing the myths and projections about gender both in the US southwest and Mexico. Logan Phillips, poet laureate of Tucson Arizona is here to rant about growing up in Tombstone, Arizona surrounded by gunfights, outlaws and Hollywood cowboys. Also with us is Delia Zafiro, rapper mermaid from Veracruz, Mexico, exploring the ultimate powers of girlhood and womanhood in contemporary patriarchy. MC’s Gomez-Pena and Aranza Cortes along with DJ extraordinaire Charly Garcia collectively broker this tri-city poetic jam! ❤️‍🔥

 --- Airs: First Wednesdays from 6PM-7PM CST on 105.5 FM, lumpenradio.com, and the Lumpen mobile app

In this episode or Preserving Disorder, we go to Big Ears Festival in Knoxville, Tennessee! Featuring interviews with musicians Cleo Reed and Wu Fei, WUTK radio director/festival worker Sherleen Mwaura, and historian Jack Neely. Music based on guest recommendations. A shorter version of this episode aired on May 24. 2026. 0:00 Intro + Cleo Reed. “Always The Horse Never the Jockey” by Cleo Reed 13:12 Wu Fei. “Water is Wide / Wusuli Boat Song (乌苏里船歌)” by Wu Fei and Abigail Washburn 40:41 Sherleen Mwaura. “El Ghada (The Jungle)” by Ahmed Abdul Malik 55:53 Jack Neely. “Great Speckled Bird” by Roy Acuff Links to everyone's work below: https://cleoforshort.bandcamp.com/album/cuntry https://www.wufeimusic.com/ https://wutkradio.com/ https://www.bbc.com/articles/clyd21vxel2o https://knoxvillehistoryproject.org/author/jack-neely/  

¡Bienvenidxs al 27° episodio de Boletín Migrante: del Darién a las calles de Chicago. En el programa de hoy hablaremos de movimiento y resistencia: juventud, trabajadorxs y comunidades migrantes organizándose y exigiendo vivir sin miedo. Conversaremos con la investigadora Soledad Álvarez Velasco (@soledadalvarezvelasco) sobre políticas migratorias y las redes de solidaridad que las enfrentan. De igual forma, les compartiremos una cápsula que nuestra compañera Katalyn Solís realizó sobre las marchas recientes en Chicago. Migrar no es crisis, es lucha por sostener la v

Signal Hill is an audio magazine. We publish audio documentaries of all kinds: reporting, essays, shorts, profiles, dispatches, reviews, and other things we haven’t named yet. Tune into the Signal Hill Radio Hour for selected stories from our issues. --- Airs: First and Third Saturdays from 11AM CST on 105.5 FM Chicago, Lumpen Radio dot com, and the Lumpen mobile app

Talismxn Radio offers an earnest musing on the labor of being creative and the process of becoming oneself. It serves as a dialogue between the world we currently inhabit and the future we desire, exploring the creative and healing modalities that imagining a new world might require, one conversation at a time. --- Airs: Second and Fourth Sundays from 3:00pm-4:00pm on 105.5 FM Chicago, Lumpenradio.com, and the Lumpen mobile app

On this episode, Jason Rice of SUGOi Sweets and MOKOMA Tea joins the show! --- Airs: Second and Fourth Sundays at 2:00PM-3:00PM CST on Lumpen Radio  

On this week’s episode, Sarah Tang, director for programs at Coalition for a Better Chinese American Community in Chicago’s Chinatown (@cbcacchicago), and 11th Ward Alder Nicole Lee (@votenicolelee11) speaks on the Chicago Fire FC’s planned stadium at The 78 and what it could mean for Chinatown, Bridgeport, and Chicago’s riverfront. We dig into development, community impact, and who benefits as the South Branch continues to change. --- Airs: Tuesdays Every Tuesday at 2:00 PM CST

On this week’s episode, Sarah Tang, director for programs at Coalition for a Better Chinese American Community in Chicago’s Chinatown (@cbcacchicago), and 11th Ward Alder Nicole Lee (@votenicolelee11) speaks on the Chicago Fire FC’s planned stadium at The 78 and what it could mean for Chinatown, Bridgeport, and Chicago’s riverfront. We dig into development, community impact, and who benefits as the South Branch continues to change. --- Airs: Tuesdays Every Tuesday at 2:00 PM CST

community radio interview radio español CoAmp en Español. En este episodio del podcast Lit & Luz, nos adentramos en la 12a edicion del festival, celebrada en la Ciudad de Mexico en marzo de 2026, a traves de una conversacion con la artista visual Magali Lara y la escritora Margarita Saona, grupo de colaboracion 2025-2026 Desde la relacion entre cuerpo, lenguaje e imagen hasta la escritura como estrategia de supervivencia, Lara y Saona conparten procesos personales que dialogan entre si de manera organica. El episodio ofrece una mirada a los hallazgos del trabajo colaborativo, asi como a la potencia del arte como espacio de reparacion, conexion y transformacion. --- Airs: Second and Fourth Wednesdays at 7:00 PM CST on 105.5 FM

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Preserving Disorder is the new book show at Lumpen Radio. Hosted by Jeremy Kitchen, author, and purveyor of all that is weird, offensive, and obscene, amateur literary scholar Susie Swanton, the curious minded Tim Werner. Join us as we try and figure out the Midwest literary landscape and beyond. Produced by Julie Wu, and music by RXM Reality. This week's guest is Aoifie Josie Clements, author of Persona. Book available now on LittlePuss Press. https://www.littlepuss.net/shop/p/persona-pb-chariot-marketing-solutions-biometric-initializedotexe Also check out her music here https://ravineangel.bandcamp.com/ Recorded on April 12, 2026 and aired on April 26, 2026.

WHAT’S GOOD, CICERO? Interview with Michelle Ramirez 🌟 Local writer Michelle Ramirez sits down with Cicero Independiente’s April Alonso to share about the many identities she holds, how to do things WITH community and not for, how our Latine community is getting better at de-stigmatizing mental health, the ways to empower community and how in community, we can heal one conversation at a time. 🌟

Co-Hosted and co-produced by Jhonathan F. Gómez and Dr. Lydia Saravia, Ni Olvido, Ni Perdón is a space for multigenerational dialogue, political education, and cultural reflection centered on Central American and the Chicago diaspora. A place to “remember out loud”. --- Airs: First and Third Sundays at 3:00PM CST on WLPN-LP Chicago 105.5 FM Lumpen Radio, lumpenradio.com, and the Lumpen Radio mobile app

This episode, my guests are Elizabeth Gartelos Morris and Beth Salentiny, co-owners of Meze Table. Since 2020 the two have grown their catering business while doing pop-ups, Monday Night Foodball (more than once), multiple farmers markets across the city and most recently they celebrated the grand opening of Meze Table Market in the Bridgeport neighborhood. --- Airs: Second and Fourth Sundays at 2:00PM-3:00PM CST on Lumpen Radio

Join me in conversation with Eric Von Haynes : artist, publisher, and one of the spokes at Love Fridge Chicago. We’ll talk about the difference between mutual aid, charity, and fundraising, why reciprocity matters, and how community fridges across Chicago are quietly helping people get the food and resources they need. Come hang for a thoughtful conversation about community care, dignity, and what it looks like when people show up for each other. --- Airs: Second and Fourth Saturdays at 2:00PM-3:00PM CST on Lumpen Radio

Artist John Carson, who came up in the north of Ireland during the Troubles, sits with Nick Wylie to discuss his piece in the exhibition, “American Medly,” which is showing for the first time in 43 years. They discuss his travels across the states in the early 80s, listen to some significant songs tied to them, and John finishes with a virtuousic 10 minute rapid performance of 50 songs. 🌟
 ⏺️ This recording accompanies the group exhibition at Co-Prosperity “Tuneful Places” curated by Michele Horrigan and Sean Lynch of Askeaton Contemporary Arts.  

Preserving Disorder is the new book show at Lumpen Radio. Hosted by Jeremy Kitchen, author, and purveyor of all that is weird, offensive, and obscene, amateur literary scholar Susie Swanton, the curious minded Tim Werner. Join us as we try and figure out the Midwest literary landscape and beyond. Produced by Julie Wu, and music by RXM Reality. This episode features Patty Krawec, author of Bad Indians Book Club: Reading At The Edge of A Thousand Worlds. See more of her writing here https://www.thousandworlds.ca/ and podcast here https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/medicine-for-the-resistance/id1435420704