‘Artivista’ and MacArthur Winner Martha Gonzalez on Achieving Social Justice Through Music

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KQED

News, News Commentary, Politics

4.2 • 727 Ratings

🗓️ 25 October 2022

⏱️ 56 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

2022 MacArthur fellow Martha Gonzalez describes herself as an ‘artivista’ – at once an artist and an activist. The frontwoman of the East Los Angeles band Quetzal, Gonzalez focuses on the ways communities of color use music and creative expression as political tools toward social justice. From community fandango workshops to recording projects between women in L.A. and Veracruz, Mexico, Gonzalez makes music a conduit for conversation centering communities and their challenges. We’ll talk with Gonzalez about how her music practice and her activism influence each other. Guests: Martha Gonzalez, Associate Professor in the Intercollegiate Department of Chicana/o Latina/o Studies, Scripps/Claremont College; 2022 MacArthur ‘genius grant’ recipient; singer/songwriter/percussionist, the East Los Angeles band Quetzal. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Support for Forum comes from Rancho LaPuerta, a health resort with 85 years of wellness experience, providing summer vacations centered on well-being. Special rates on three-and-four-night August vacations include sunrise hikes, water classes, yoga, and spa therapies, all set in a backdrop of a dreamy summer sky. A six-acre organic garden provides fresh fruits and vegetables daily.
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0:42.8	From KQED in San Francisco, I'm Nina Kim.
1:03.0	Coming up on forum, Martha Gonzalez learned this month she was a winner of the MacArthur Genius Grant.
1:09.0	One of two California recipients of the $800,000 stipend.
1:13.2	Gonzalez is a professor, a feminist music theorist, frontwoman of the Grammy-winning East L.A. group
1:18.7	Getsal, and a self-described Chicana Artivista, or someone who uses their skill to instigate critical
1:25.2	dialogue and serve the community.
1:27.5	We'll meet the newly minted MacArthur Fellow after this news. This is Forum. I'm Mina Kim. This song is called Eastside Sunrise, and it's written and performed by my guest Martha Gonzalez and the Grammy Award winning band Getsal.
2:16.6	In addition to being the band's lead
2:18.9	singer, songwriter, and percussionist, Gonzalez is an associate professor of Chicanax and Latinx
2:24.5	studies at Scripps College, Chicana Artivista, and as of this month, a 22 MacArthur Fellow.
2:32.9	Martha Gonzalez, welcome to Forum.
2:35.3	Thank you for having me.
2:36.9	Really glad to have you.
	...

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