On this weeks’ episode we check in with artist, activist, comedian, actor, writer AND multiple award-winner Kristina Wong. We chat about life as a third generation Chinese-American, the inspiration behind her radical, thought-provoking shows, the lure of selling out, and the launch of her newest show, “Kristina Wong, Food Bank Influencer.” https://www.kristinawong.com

Kristina Wong is a Doris Duke Artist Award winner, Guggenheim Fellow and a Pulitzer Prize finalist in Drama. She’s a performance artist, comedian, actor and writer whose original theater works have been presented internationally across North America, the UK, Hong Kong and Africa. She’s been a guest on late night shows on NBC, Comedy Central and FX. She’s been awarded artist residencies from MacDowell, San Diego Airport and Ojai Playwrights Festival. She is concurrently the Artist-in-Residence at ASU Gammage and the Kennedy Center Social Practice Resident until 2025. Her recent “Kristina Wong for Public Office” was simultaneously a real life stint as the elected Sub-district 5 representative of Wilshire Center Koreatown Neighborhood Council and rally campaign show. She's created and directed original theater works with residents of LA's Skid Row, the Bus Riders Union, undocumented immigrants, and most recently the formerly incarcerated Asian Pacific Islanders members of API Rise. Kristina founded Auntie Sewing Squad, a national mutual aid network of volunteers that sewed cloth masks for vulnerable communities during the Covid pandemic. Their book “The Auntie Sewing Squad Guide to Mask Making, Radical Care and Racial Justice is published by the University of California Press. Her role in the Auntie Sewing Squad is the subject of “Kristina Wong, Sweatshop Overlord”— a New York Times Critics Pick that premiered off-Broadway at New York Theater Workshop. The show won the Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle and Lucille Lortel Awards for Outstanding Solo Performance.

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Produced and Edited by Arts and Craft.
Theme Music: Sound Gallery by Dmitry Taras.

We welcome award-winning filmmaker, director, writer, and Professor Tamar Halpern to this episode of “Arts and Craft.” Tamar shares her experiences directing the feature documentary, “Llyn Foulkes One Man Band” (now streaming on Amazon Prime and others), stalking the “STOMP” cast through South America, and the challenges she’s faced as a woman in a male-dominated industry. We also dive into her transition to academia, where she’s shaping the next generation of storytellers. Tune in for our convo with a creative force who’s paying it forward. https://www.tamarolandpictures.com/

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Produced and Edited by Arts and Craft.
Theme Music: Sound Gallery by Dmitry Taras.

Aerosmith, Sting, Bryan Adams, and a host of other acts…Russ Irwin, singer-songwriter, producer, composer and multi-instrumentalist has worked with all of them. What makes great art? What does it take and how does it happen? In this episode we chat about jazz, improvisation, influence and ingenuity, and how an artist’s life can change in a flash. http://russirwin.com

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Produced and Edited by Arts and Craft.
Theme Music: Sound Gallery by Dmitry Taras.