Bourbon 'n BrownTown

Ep. 59 - Creative Jobs, Life Balance, & Working towards a Liberatory Future within Capitalism (& COVID) 2.0 ft. Genta Tamashiro

Episode Summary

BrownTown on BrownTown. Once again, the squad takes a second to reflect on their own lives in regards to work and struggle under capitalism. In part two, enter COVID-19 and the international uprisings against white supremacy and state violence: As mass consciousness has shifted in understanding how interrelated structures have always failed us, friend and audio engineer of the podcast Genta Tamashiro joins the conversation to unpack how they’ve personally adapted livelihoods, resistance, and relationships as well as the navigated the changes in virtually every industry. Originally recorded October 1, 2020.

Episode Notes

Building off of the first installment, episode 39, BrownTown again takes a second to reflect on their own lives in regards to work and struggle under capitalism. In part two, enter COVID-19 and the international uprisings against white supremacy and state violence: As mass consciousness has shifted in understanding how interrelated structures have always failed us, BrownTown and Genta unpack how they’ve personally adapted livelihoods, resistance, and relationships as well as navigated the changes in virtually every industry.

The gang details the events of February and March 2020 as COVID-19 and the quarantine that followed in the United States made a larger impact in all of our lives. SoapBox and grassroots organizing aside, David speaks on the food service industry and gig economy, Genta speaks on the live music industry, and Caullen speaks on the fitness industry while all three discuss the government and corporate response to the crisis. 2020 revealed that the "security" that was always promised with more formal, "traditional" jobs is all but secure. As a broader society, we now have a better understanding of what jobs are actually essential for our livelihood (hint: it's not the CEOs). The discussion weaves through various topics including thoughts on #BnBLive: Corona Conversations (BrownTown's 8-week Instagram live series during quarantine), the CARES Act, mutual aid (shoutout Dean Spade), survival techniques for creatives, as well as police killings during quarantine. With the global uprisings after the murder of George Floyd, David centers the importance of living with an abolitionist framework in not just our work but our everyday. How do the interrelated major events of 2020 shape societal comprehension of inherently oppressive structures? How do we work within, struggle against, and build our own systems outside said structures while living with the uncertainty of how the world will look on the other side of COVID-19? Here's BrownTown's take. Originally recorded October 1, 2020.

GUEST

Born and raised in Denver, Colorado, Genta is a creative devotee of the artistic community. He attended the specialized magnet school Denver School of the Arts for middle and high school, which gave him a solid foundation in musical performance and theory as well as an introduction into audio engineering. After spending some time at the University of Hawai’i at Manoa, Genta moved to Chicago to pursue a career in audio engineering where he received a Bachelor of Arts in Audio Design and Production from Columbia College in 2015. Through his freelance audio work, he has traveled around the country and the world with notable artists such as the Becca Kaufman Orchestra, The Way Down Wanderers, and Masego. When he is not running the sound for a band somewhere, you can find him producing his own music or editing podcasts for SoapBox and other creative organizations. Listen to more about this life, work, and perspectives on hip-hop in Episode 5 - Hip-Hop in the Age of Spin (2017) and all of Bourbon 'n BrownTown's previous New Years episodes.

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Other topics mentioned:

CREDITS: Intro sound bite, intro/outro song, and audio engineering all by Genta Tamashiro. Episode photo by Sean Kelly.

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