This episode is a deep dive into the “creative city” model of urban planning. We talk about the ways that influential urban planners like Richard Florida and Charles Landry have promoted investment in the arts as a way to solve urban problems. We will answer the question, can art solve poverty? (Answer: No).
Key Sources:
Florida, Richard. The Rise of the Creative Class.
Landry, Charles. The Creative City A Toolkit for Innovators.
Melamed, Samantha. “Can this tiny storefront save Philly’s most drug-ravaged neighborhood?” Philadelphia Inquirer. March 30, 2017.
Denmead, Tyler. The Creative Underclass: Youth, Race, and the Gentrifying City.
Mould, Oli. Urban Subversion and the Creative City.
Montgomery, Alesia. “Reappearance of the Public. Placemaking, Minoritization, and Resistance in Detroit.” International Journal of Urban and Regional Research. 2016.
In anticipation of the Super Bowl, and in response to conservative outrage over the selection of artist Bad Bunny as halftime performer, we present a deep dive into the history and politics of the NFL’s halftime show.
Major Sections Include:
Introducing the episode 00-1:30
Reflecting on current events 1:31-15:00
Recurring halftime themes and the identity of the NFL 15:00-24:52
The history of the halftime show 24:52-34:38
Nipplegate 38:48-49:16
Racial politics in the NFL 49:16-70:00
Michael Jackson’s Unprecedented Super Bowl Spectacular 70:00-74:46
As N.F.L. Fights Racism and Sexism, Team Owners Undercut the Message. New York Times. 2021. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/25/sports/football/woody-johnson-trump-jets.html
Horowitz, Juliana Menasce, Kiana Cox and Kiely Hurst. 2025. “Views of Race, Policing and Black Lives Matter in the 5 Years Since George Floyd’s Killing.” Pew Research Center. May 7. https://www.pewresearch.org/race-and-ethnicity/2025/05/07/views-of-race-policing-and-black-lives-matter-in-the-5-years-since-george-floyds-killing/
Honestly, we just wanted to do a normal episode that didn’t react to current events. We thought that the War on Terror would be a somewhat stable historical artifact. – Then Trump invaded Venezuela, kidnapped its president, and stole its oil. So this episode is unexpectedly relevant. While we don’t comment on Venezuela directly, there are some important themes in thinking about the aesthetics of war that are unfortunately topical.
“It’s Brutal!” Trump, Architecture, and American Authoritarianism. (Weird Little Architects Part II). E08.
In this follow up to our episode on Trump’s “Weird Little Architects” (E06) we examine the ways that architecture has been instrumentalized by the Trump administration. Through a close look at the Executive Order “Making Federal Architecture Beautiful Again,” and at administration comments around the renovation of the White House, we show how architecture is used by the administration to advance its authoritarian and white supremacist projects.
Major sections include:
Trump’s Architecture Program. 00-37:00
Fascist Aesthetics and the Demolition of the White House. 37:00-56:00
Brutalism and Modernism as a Contrast to the Trump Agenda. 56:00-81:00
Benjamin, Walter. 1935. “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction.”
Medovoi, Leerom. 2012.
“Dogma-Line Racism: Islamophobia and the Second Axis of Race.” Social Text. 30 (2 (111)): 43–74. https://doi.org/10.1215/01642472-1541754
We used a quotation: “The Democrat Party’s main constituency are made up of Hamas terrorists, illegal aliens, and violent criminals,” which should be attributed to White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt.
We invited Nick Sturm to join us to tell us about his recent Defector article, “Good Riddance to The Best American Poetry.” Nick tells us about the reactionary ideals which shaped the poetry anthology series and how these reactionary ideals influence American politics and the wider world of poetry.
Nick Sturm teaches at Georgia State University in Atlanta. His book “Publishing the New York School: Small Press Communities and American Poetry” will be published by Columbia University Press. Nick is also in the research stage on another book-length project, “The Poetry Business,” that examines the role of the state, nonprofits, universities, and philanthropy in the professionalization of American poetry. A few other forthcoming projects include a chapter on poet Frank O’Hara’s publishing history in “Frank O’Hara in Context” from Cambridge University Press; editing “The Collected Poems of Jim Brodey” for Nightboat Books; and a chapter on the relationship between federal arts funding and small press editorial practices in “The Bloomsbury Handbook of Literary Editing.”
Colin and Mariel watch “Style Wars,” a classic documentary about New York City graffiti in 1982, and explore what this documentary can tell us about the politics of today.
In this episode, we examine the ways that major funders of public art in the US have often sought to use public art as a tool of social engineering. What did these funders hope that public art would achieve? And were they successful in their efforts to transform the social life of American cities? We will look at a number of high profile public art projects and controversies and attempt to evaluate the goals and impacts of public art in the US.
The internationally famous graffiti artist, Banksy, has made 3 trips to Palestine, where he has attempted to use graffiti art to build solidarity with the Palestinian cause. What are the possibilities and limits of this form of artistic solidarity?
Colin interviews Leesa Kelly and Amira McLendon of Memorialize the Movement about their experiences as Black activists working to preserve art from the 2020 uprising in Minneapolis. Kelly and McLendon offer insight into the racial politics of art preservation.
Jenn M. Jackson: “The Militancy of (Black) Memory: Theorizing Black-Led Movements as Disjunctures in the Normativity of White Ignorance.” https://doi.org/10.1215/00382876-9825933
Cover Photo by Ted Timmons, Edited by Colin McLaughlin-Alcock
