Ayana Contreras
-
Energy Never Dies: Afro-Optimism and Creativity in Black Chicago
Energy Never Dies Afro-Optimism and Creativity in Chicago outlines the undefeatable culture of Black Chicago, past and present.
-
Linda Clifford and Richard Steele on Reclaimed Soul Live 2018
A tribute to classic Chicago radio station WJPC (Ebony/Jet’s radio station) hosted by Reclaimed Soul host Ayana Contreras with former WJPC program director Richard Steele, an interview with Chicago disco/soul legend Linda Clifford (“Runaway Love”, “If My Friends Could See Me Now”). We hear vintage WJPC audio including Richard Steele back in 1974 and Linda…
-
Donny Hathaway in Chicago.
Donny Hathaway was born in Chicago and raised in St. Louis. Early in his career, he returned to Chicago. During that time period, roughly from 1968 until about 1971, Donny was very prolific. In this hour of Reclaimed Soul, Ayana Contreras explores Donny Hathaway’s early work arranging and writing for other artists in Chicago: from…
-
Three the Hard Way: Breaking the feedback loop of time.
Friday July 10th marks the opening of a culminating group exhibition, part of my artist residency at the University of Chicago. from the show’s description: “Three the Hard Way” is an exhibition takes its title from a 1974 blaxploitation classic in which three action heroes, Fred Williamson, Jim Kelly, and Jim Brown must save the…
-
Preserving the Beats at Chicago State University.
This Saturday, February 28th at 2:15pm, I’ll be speaking on a panel at Chicago State University as part of the Symposium titled: Preserving the Beats: Collecting Chicago Hip Hop Here’s a description of the subject matter to be covered: Collecting is one part of preservation of hip hop. For the history and culture to…
-
Have you tuned into Reclaimed Soul lately? Newcity apparently has…..
“…Ayana Contreras’ “Reclaimed Soul”… better than anything else on radio in the city…” —Newcity “Aw, Shucks…” –Ayana Contreras Media activism is exactly the right phrase for what we aim to do. Jive on.
-
Reclaimed Soul: A Thin Line Between Chicago Soul and Gospel.
Reclaimed Soul Host Ayana Contreras explores the thin line between the Gospel and Soul scenes in Chicago during the 1960s and 1970s, and plays cuts that dip into each genre.
-
In Rotation: Ayana Contreras of Vocalo’s Reclaimed Soul on a softly stratospheric Andrew Hill LP
The music that is currently in rotation (in my head), as excerpted from Leor Galil’s article for the Chicago Reader. Ayana Contreras, DJ and host of Vocalo’s Reclaimed Soul, blogger at darkjive.com The Natural Four, Natural Four This was released here in Chicago on Curtis Mayfield’s Curtom label in 1974. The Natural Four was a…
-
The Jazz-Soul of Chess Records
Chicago’s Chess Records may be best known for its blues artists such as Howlin Wolf, Muddy Waters, and Little Walter. But in the 1960s, they also had a wealth of hip Jazz and Soul artists, many of whom recorded for Chess’ Cadet subsidiary. On this installment of Reclaimed Soul, host Ayana Contreras featured the Jazz-Soul…
-
Reggie Torian of The Impressions gives his impressions of Curtom, Curtis Mayfield, and more.
In this installment of Reclaimed Soul (sort of the radio version of this blog), check out host Ayana Contreras’ interview with Reggie Torian of The Impressions (that’s him sitting on the bumper of that antique Rolls Royce). He’s been a part of Chicago’s own Impressions (“Keep on Pushin”, “Gypsy Woman”, etc.) for 40 years. And…
darkjive.com 