Reverse Centaurs Live!

In this month’s episode of Parallel Streams we listen to an episode of ART IS CHANGE, introduced by Bill Cleveland who created the long-running podcast.
Each episode aims to bring you “deep into the lives and work of activist artists and cultural organizers who are doing more than dreaming — they’re transforming communities around the world.”
 
PARALLEL STREAMS
EPISODE 06 | JUNE 12 | 2026
 
PARTICIPANTS
Bill Cleveland | Owen Kelly
 
COMMENTARY
Bill Cleveland is a musician, author, and teacher with a pioneering history in producing cultural, educational, and community arts programs. He is the Founder and Director of the Center for the Study of Art and Community, a group of creative leaders from business, government and the arts since 1991, based in Alameda, California.
Bill Cleveland is the author of a number of books, including Art in Other Places: Artists at Work in America’s Community and Social Institutions (Praeger, 1992) and Art and Upheaval: Artists on the World’s Frontlines (New Village Press, 2008). He was previously a leader in the Walker Art Center’s Education and Community Programs Department (1995-97), California’s Arts-In-Corrections Program (1981-1989), and the California State Summer School for the Arts (1989-1991). His most recent projects include STORYstory (2020) and an accompanying film, SongLines CD (2014), based on stories from Art and Upheaval, and the Change the Story / Change the World podcast. 
For this episode of Parallel Streams Bill Cleveland has chosen an episode from ART IS CHANGE (formerly known as Change the Story / Change the World), which he describes as “your front-row seat to the real-world impact of art and social change”. He provides a short introduction.
 
REFERENCES
Americans for the Artshttps://www.americansforthearts.org/users/5236
Center for the Study of Arts and Communityhttps://www.artandcommunity.com
Youtube: Bill Cleveland on the Power of Artmaking  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U4fYpQ6GAaU
Art is Change on Castbox.fm https://castbox.fm/channel/ART-IS-CHANGE%3A-Tactics-and-Tools-for-Activist-Artists-and-Cultural-Organizers-id3176767?country=us
Art is Change: curated lists https://www.artandcommunity.com/copy-of-podcast
 
 

In this month’s episode of Parallel Streams we listen to an episode of THOUGHT SNACK, with Max Haiven and Sarah Stein Lubrano.
THOUGHT SNACK is an occasional podcast from Sense & Solidarity where Sarah and Max explore the big ideas that make and break our world.
PARALLEL STREAMS
EPISODE 05 | MAY 8 | 2026
 
PARTICIPANTS
Max Haiven | Owen Kelly | Sarah Stein Lubrano
 
COMMENTARY
Max Haiven is an researcher and educator who uses writing, teaching, games, podcasts and other techniques for the radical imagination. He works as an associate professor and Canada Research Chair in the Radical Imagination at Lakehead University in Canada.  His latest book is Palm Oil: The Grease of Empire (2022).
Sarah Stein Lubrano is a writer and researcher who specializes in the social psychology of politics. For many years she was the Head of Content at The School of Life in London, Currently she is Head of Research for the The Future Narratives Lab, whose work focuses on narratives about social and political change. She is the author of Don't Talk About Politics: How to Change 21st-Century Minds (2025).
Together Max and Sarah founded and now organise Sense & Solidarity which offers a platform where people who want to radically change the world can learn together and build individual and collective capacity.
This THOUGHT SNACK podcast was released under a Creative Commons CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 licence.
The music in the podcast is by Dan Gouly.
REFERENCES
Three Motivations for Fascists on Soundcloudhttps://soundcloud.com/reimaginevalue/threefascistmotivations
 
THOUGHT SNACK on Soundcloud https://soundcloud.com/reimaginevalue/sets/thoughtsnack
 
Sense and Solidarity https://senseandsolidarity.org/
 
Sarah Stein Lubrano https://www.sarahsteinlubrano.com
 
Max Haiven https://maxhaiven.com/
 

In the fourth episode of Parallel Streams we listen to episode 52 of Ferment Radio, with Kirsty Hendry and Aga Pokrywka.
Ferment Radio is “a podcast series that takes you deep into the fascinating world of microbes. Through fermentation and transformation, we develop new recipes for living on a broken planet”. 
PARALLEL STREAMS
EPISODE 04 | APRIL 10 | 2026
 
PARTICIPANTS
Kirsty Hendry | Owen Kelly | Aga Pokrywka
COMMENTARY
Ferment Radio has produced more than 50 episodes “that takes you deep into the fascinating world of microbes. Through fermentation and transformation, we develop new recipes for living on a broken planet”. 
They do this because, argue, “Pollution, drought, floods, deforestation, biodiversity loss, climate change... We are experiencing the consequences of human’s alterations of the Earth’s ecosystems. There is no pristine world. We are living on a broken planet”.
They are Aga Pokrywka and her guests, and their starting points are more diverse than you can imagine, although they all link back to the process of fermentation.
REFERENCES
Ferment Radio https://fermentradio.com
Super Eclectic https://supereclectic.team
Super Eclectic shop https://holvi.com/shop/supereclectic/
Temporary Democracy: https://www.miaaw.net/e/temporary-democracy-in-a-cultural-space/
Sandor Katz: feminist and queer theories of fermentation https://www.miaaw.net/e/common-practice-ferment-radio/
Play that Fungi Music! https://www.miaaw.net/e/play-that-fungi-music/
Life on Mars https://www.miaaw.net/e/common-practice-life-on-mars/
Show me your kitchen https://www.miaaw.net/e/podcasting-ferment-radio/

In the third episode of Parallel Streams Sophie Hope introduces and contextualises the final episode of Remember the Future Season 2 from art.coop. 
What does it mean for philanthropy to exist in relationship to the solidarity economy? What if artists led a redistribution effort to resource arts collectives? 
PARALLEL STREAMS
EPISODE 03 | MARCH 13 | 2026
 
PARTICIPANTS
Sophie Hope | Marina Lopez | Sruti Suryanarayanan
COMMENTARY
Art.coop describes itself as “working for a future in which artists closest to the pain of an extractive economy know their power and use it to dismantle the current system. We resource a community of artists committed to building the art worlds we want. Art.coop is located in the U.S. but is rooted in the international Solidarity Economy movement.”
In this episode of Remember the Future (the final episode of season 2), Marina Lopez speaks with Art.coop organizer and Remember the Future Fellowship co-lead, Sruti Suryanarayanan. They discuss the work of three fellows, Acres of Ancestry, Ohketeau Cultural Center, and Question Culture - who weren’t able to join the podcast for individual conversations,
Marina and Sruti explore how three innovative artist collectives are building solidarity economies, resisting oppression, and creating transformative cultural work through cooperative practices. Sruti also reflects on the learnings from the pilot year of the Remember the Future Fellowship and what we can look forward to next year. 
What does it mean for philanthropy to exist in relationship to the solidarity economy? What if artists led a redistribution effort to resource arts collectives? 
 
REFERENCES
art.coop https://art.coop
The original podcast in its original context https://rememberthefuture.buzzsprout.com/2087911/episodes/18087382-reimagining-redistribution-when-artists-resource-each-other
Solidarity Not Charity (from the Miaaw archives) https://www.miaaw.net/e/solidarity-not-charity/
Art.coop & the New Economy Coalition (from the Miaaw archives) https://www.miaaw.net/e/artcoop-the-new-economy-coalition/
 
 
 
 
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Tags music, prison
Length 60:54
 

In the second episode of Parallel Streams Owen Kelly introduces and contextualises a recent episode from the weekly podcasts made by David Rovics. This one, which we repost here by kind permission of David Rovics, contains his personal analysis of the relationships between music, jobs and AI, and provides some practical examples.
 
PARALLEL STREAMS
EPISODE 02 | FEBRUARY 13 | 2026 
PARTICIPANTS
Owen Kelly | David Rovics
COMMENTARY
Wikipedia describes David Rovics as "an American indie singer/songwriter”. 
They also say that "his music concerns both topical subjects such as the Iraq War, anti-globalization, anarchism, and social justice issues, and also labor history."
We previously looked at some aspects of his work in the 25th edition of Miaaw on September 13, 2019, when we discussed his community-supported arts club, his crowdfunding activities (including the funding of his then-new album which he recorded that year in Ireland), and his fledgling A Penny A Play campaign.
Earlier this month YouTube deleted all his work from their servers because they claimed it is "supportive of unnamed criminal organizations". They offered him no possibility to remove the tracks they said violated their terms of service, and no possibility of appeal. He has written and broadcast about that, and there are links to this below.
In this podcast, though, he analyses the advent of AI and its relationship to music, musicians’ work, and jobs in general. He made a controversial personal decision to experiment rather than dismiss AI out of hand, and he discusses this. He finishes the episode with some music he has created and released with his imaginary friends in his imaginary band Ai Tsuno.
One of their songs, No Contract, No Coffee, written to support striking workers at Starbucks, won the Labor Grammys (organised by the Labor Heritage Foundation) a few weeks ago.
 
REFERENCES
David Rovics online headquarters: https://davidrovics.com
David Rovics on Substack: https://davidrovics.substack.com
Wikipedia: David Rovics’ entry: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Rovics
 
The campaign against me: https://davidrovics.blogspot.com/2021/07/the-campaign-against-me.html
 
Meanwhile on Youtube: Discographies Wiped and Channels Deleted:https://davidrovics.blogspot.com/2026/01/meanwhile-on-youtube-discographies.html
Miaaw 25: David Rovics’ strategies for survival: https://www.miaaw.net/e/david-rovics-strategies-for-production/
The Labor Heritage Foundation: https://www.laborheritage.org
 

The first in a new Miaaw series, in which we introduce and showcase other podcasts. In this episode the Irene Taylor Trust present Solidarity Tracks, a podcast about working with music in prisons. 
 
PARALLEL STREAMS | EPISODE 01
JANUARY 9 | 2026 
PARTICIPANTS
Sophie Hope | Sara Lee
COMMENTARY
The Irene Taylor Trust began in 1995 in memory of Irene Taylor who had a personal interest in both penal reform and music. While serving on the selection panel for the Butler Trust prison awards scheme, Irene had come across Sara Lee, who was at that time music co-ordinator at HMP Wormwood Scrubs. Following Irene’s, the Taylor family decided to set up a charity that would continue to do the work that she had been so in favour of, and invited Sara to set up the Irene Taylor Trust Music in Prisons programme.
Sara has led the trust’s music work ever since.
Sophie Hope recently met Sara Lee, and discovered that the Trust has produced a series of podcasts that describe work that fits directly into our areas of interest. Rather than interviewing Sara, Sophie decided to ask if we could republish one of their podcasts.
This has become the first in a new Miaaw series in which we invite you to listen to other podcasts we think you might enjoy; podcasts that complement, and in some cases extend, the range of actions and works we cover.
REFERENCES
The Irene Taylor Trust
Irene Taylor Trust Youtube channel
The Chicago Symphony Orchestra & Irene Taylor Trust