06. Gradient Identities
HOST AND CURATOR
Sara Ortiz
SENIOR PRODUCER
Nicole Kelly
ASSOCIATE PRODUCERS
Vera Blossom and Layla Muhammad
MIXER + ENGINEER
Fil Corbitt and Kevin Krall
CONTRIBUTORS
Anna Bailey, Guest Host Scott Dickensheets, Sam Forbes, Brent Holmes, Jordan Kisner, Arthur Moon, Ahmed Naji, Claytee White, and Lela Walker and her sons
MUSIC BY
Jeremy Klewicki
ILLUSTRATION
Jesse Zhang
BLACK COWBOYS
Why is the cowboy, the most iconic of American settlers, so central to white masculine identity when Latinx vaqueros and Diasporic formerly enslaved people turned ranchers are central creators of the culture? Artist Brent Holmes navigates Black ancestral identity by honing in on Nat Love, one of the few men of his ethnicity and generation to publish a biography and tell his own tale. In this segment, you will also hear from Lela Walker and her sons–descendants of Nat Love, the most famous Black cowboy in American history.
Music in this segment: Derek Clegg - Gone Is The Way, Mello C - Hills
AURAL HISTORY: ANNA BAILEY
History usually emphasizes dates and documents—the official, sometimes flat, encyclopedic facts. But through oral history, we can learn, first-hand, how people felt, what they saw, what they cared about. “Aural History” is an audio collaboration between Black Mountain Radio and the Oral History Research Center at UNLV Libraries Special Collections & Archives.
In this installment of “Aural History,” Oral History Research Center Director Claytee D. White presents an oral history based out of the Moulin Rouge Hotel and Casino: the story of professional dancer Anna Bailey, one of the first African-American women to hold a gaming license in Nevada.
WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE A WRITER IN EXILE?
BMI City of Asylum Shearing Fellow Ahmed Naji became internationally known when his novel Using Life got him arrested in Egypt. Someone had allegedly experienced a sudden drop in blood pressure while reading a sex scene in the novel, and Naji was arrested on charges of “violating public modesty.” In this segment, Naji joins writer Jordan Kisner (Thin Places) to interrogate the cost of making art and reflect on life as a writer in exile. To hear the full conversation, listen to Jordan Kisner’s Thresholds podcast.
Music in this segment is by Arthur Moon.
PLAYING FRIDAY
Sam Forbes is a writer, photographer, and actor. For many years, a significant part of her creative practice took place inside what she calls a hidden theater. While working as a dancer at a Las Vegas strip club, she wanted to be seen as an artist. But when she was showing her work in a gallery, she still wanted to be recognized as a stripper. In this segment, Sam unpacks the process of unifying these two seemingly conflicting identities.
Additional sound effects from Zapsplat.com