Listening with China Blue

What if listening doesn’t simply change what we hear, but determines how we understand and relate to the world around us?

In this episode of Listening with China Blue, I sit down with pioneering composer Annea Lockwood to explore her lifelong fascination with sound, the environment, and the visceral ways we experience listening through our bodies. We talk about her belief that listening determines everything, her decades of listening to and recording rivers, and her understanding of rivers not simply as landscapes or sources of sound, but as living systems with agency of their own.

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What if listening wasn't just something you do with your ears, but a way of connecting with the Earth, your ancestors, and every living thing?

In this episode of Listening with China Blue, I sit down with Singing Rain and Laughing Owl of the Association of Native Americans of the Mid-Hudson Valley about oral tradition, listening to birds, trees, rocks, and ancestors, and the belief that every living thing has a voice. This conversation is about listening as relationship, memory, and a way of belonging.

If you've ever wondered what the natural world might be...

Field recording, sound mapping, and soundscape storytelling are transforming how we experience the world. In this episode of Listening with China Blue, I speak with Stuart Fowkes, founder of Cities and Memory, one of the world's largest collaborative sound projects, bringing together more than 2,500 artists who remix the world one sound at a time.

Since 2014, Stuart has built an extraordinary global archive of field recordings and creative reinterpretations from more than 100 countries. What began as a simple idea—to pair an original environmental recording with an artistic remix—has evolved into an international community exploring memory, place, cult...

China Blue speaks with musician Vero Faye Kitsuné who goes by the name C Z A R I N A about how as an indigenous Filipino shamanism, the grandeur of nature and Spain's witches inspired listening for the Dark Wave.

Vero Faye Kitsuné is an American award-winning electronic artist, producer, and filmmaker based in Galicia, Spain, she is known for a darkwave/industrial sound inspired by cyberpunk and anime, she creates synth-heavy, cinematic music.

China Blue speaks with Timothy Blunk a former US political prisoner who served over 13 years in some of America’s most notorious prisons for his activism in resistance to racism, US support for apartheid in South Africa, and involvement in Central America during the 1980s. His prison term included 7 years in solitary confinement in USP Marion. Tim appeared on the television program “20/20” documenting the campaign against Marion’s use of solitary confinement as a form torture. His case was recognized and documented by both Amnesty International and US Human Rights Watch.

#listening

#podcasts

#Activism...

Internationally recognized art critic Richard Vine, PhD is the former managing editor of Art in America who has taught throughout the world and has produced more than three hundred art articles.

His books Range from the career survey of "Odd Nerdrum: Paintings, Sketches, and Drawings" and "New China, New Art," which traces the emergence of avant-garde art in post-Mao China to the crime novel "SoHo Sins," set in the New York art world of the 1990s. He has also co-curated exhibitions at the National Art Museum of China, Beijing; the National Academy of Art in New Delhi...

Listen to Martha Little, a podcast and audio consultant who speaks about listening to others and how compassion can be contagious.

Martha Little is an award-winning journalist and executive audio producer whose career has spanned more than 35 years at organizations such as NPR and Amazon’s Audible. Today, Little leads LittleMedia, a creative consultancy that helps companies and individuals elevate their storytelling. Her latest passion project explores the transformative power of empathic listening, unlocking deeper human connection and communication in both personal and professional spaces. She is also fortunate enough to have a son who has been di...

Next on Listening with China Blue is Richard Humann who speaks about his exhibition based on bone music currently up in New York City and listening for a revolution.

Humann is a New York City-based artist who uses a multitude of materials to create installations, sculptures, videos, and sound projects. In his work he delves deep into concepts and ideas like in this case bone music.

My next guest, Scott McVay, helped the world to hear whales sing for the first time.

With his wife Hella, he co-discovered the songs of humpback whales—an underwater symphony that became a vinyl phenomenon in 1970 and forever changed how we listen to the sea.

His work on whale songs has appeared in Science and Scientific American, and his books, Whales Sing and Other Exuberances and Surprise Encounters, capture a lifetime of listening in deep kinship with the living world.

In "Listening with China Blue" hear from Ellen Waterman a Professor of Music and Sound Studies who states that listening equates to care.

Ellen Waterman holds the Helmut Kallmann Chair for Music in Canada at Carleton University. There her interdisciplinary research is wide. As a flutist and vocalist she engages in improvisation, performance ecologies, and Deaf and disability-led music where she realized that listening equates to care. She also forms community-engaged methodologies and explores the potential of listening to create social change.

In "Listening with China Blue" hear from Cynthia McVay the author of "A Field of My Own: A Memoir of Place" who tells about how listening connects to place.

McVay is a lifelong creative and environmentalist who chronicles her intimate, two-decade relationship with a flagging orchard in the Hudson Valley. As an architect and general contractor, you will hear how she moved an enormous 180-year-old hand-hewn Amish barn to the property to make her sustainable home, as she dealt with snarky contractors, a tippling partner, puzzling neighbors, concerning caretakers, black rat snakes and coyote chases. Yet, each...

In "Listening with China Blue" hear from the US National Lifetime Beat Poet Laureate, Ron Whitehead who says "Listening is the greatest art of all"

Whitehead is a poet, author and runs the non-profit organization Global Literary Renaissance, to support literature worldwide. He teaches, and collaborates with artists and musicians focusing primarily on the Louisville art scene and Kentucky folk art. Whitehead was also the honorary poetry editor of GonzoToday.

Whitehead who has authored thirty titles was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize twice, and nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature. He published a book...

In my podcast "Listening with China Blue" hear from Listen to Esteemed Art Critic, Poet and Author John Yau, speak about listening to artists like: painter, Ed Moses’ who spoke about his gestures as animations, Jasper Johns’ experience about describing his famous Flag painting and Duchamp’s quote about artists not interested in listening.

John Yau is a Hudson Valley based American poet and critic who has published over 50 books of poetry, artists' books, fiction, and art criticism. Among his collection of poetry is Corpse and Mirror selected by John Ashbery for an award from the National Poetry...

In this podcast Professor Eric Lewis speaks about how "silence is an action" and his relationship to composer Pauline Oliveros.

Eric Lewis is a professor of Philosophy at McGill University, specializing in the philosophy of improvised art, and Black Aesthetics. He is the author of five books, and numerous other publications. He is also on the management team of the International Institute for Critical Studies in Improvisation, and the Toolkit of Care.

He is the Director of The Laboratory of Urban Culture, and co-founder and President of Arts in the Margins. Eric is an active...

In this podcast hear from Hudson Valley's, Laura Kuhn, Executive Director of the John Cage Foundation who speaks about her relationship with Cage, his understanding of silence and the importance of intentionality.

Kuhn helped to establish the John Cage Trust, shortly after the composer’s death in 1992. in 1968 he began working with Cage on a variety of large-scale projects, completing her doctoral dissertation on Cage’s “Europeras” in 1992. In 2007 Kuhn became the first John Cage Professor of Performance Art at Bard College. Additionally, she has lectured and conducted performance workshops in venues as diverse as the Shanghai Conserva...

In my podcast "Listening with China Blue" hear from the interspecies musician and professor David Rothenberg, who explores if bird songs are music, why birds sing at dawn, and how the beauty of whale music got the world to care.

David Rothenberg, is a professor of philosophy and music at the New Jersey Institute of Technology, with a special interest in animal sounds as music. He is also a composer and jazz musician whose books and recordings reflect a longtime interest in understanding other species such as singing insects by making music with them. Rothenberg...

Hear from Bjorn Eriksson, Composer who speaks about the early years of Deep Listening and creating works that are based by listening and conducting in the moment.

Mr. Eriksson is a sound artist, improvisor and composer. He makes electronic music, composes and performs with among others Norrbotten Improvisers Orchestra, Aleatoriska Ensemblen as well as AOM (Avatar Orchestra Metaverse) and DVN-EAO. He is a teacher of sound art, music and sound at Hola folkhögskola. Sweden. He is a Certified Deep Listening® teacher/facilitator at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, NY.

Hear from Dame Evelyn Glennie the world's premier solo percussionist who speaks about how she respects the sound and that "listening needs space and time."

Dame Evelyn Glennie is the world’s premier solo percussionist. Her solo recordings exceed 40 CDs. A double GRAMMY award winner and BAFTA nominee, Evelyn composes for film, theatre and television. The Evelyn Glennie Podcast was launched in 2020. Evelyn was awarded an OBE in 1993 and has over 100 international awards to date, including the Polar Music Prize, the Léonie Sonning Music Prize and the Companion of Honour. Evelyn is Curator for The Evelyn Gle...

Hear from Michael Reiley, a meditation teacher, a Sound Songha producer and a Deep Listening professor speak about listening as a mindfulness tool.

Michael Reiley is a producer, therapeutic musician, and meditation teacher focused on helping others to awaken their innate capacity to listen and resonate with the interconnected web of inner and outer soundscapes. Michael Reiley has dedicated more than two decades to a prolific career as a musician, producer, and collaborative artist. His extensive body of work includes crafting music for dance, film, and diverse applications for esteemed clients such as Alchemy of Breath, Wavepaths...

Hear from Heloise Gold about her contribution of movement in the development of Deep Listening. She states: "When people are in a safe place beauty arises."

Heloise Gold is a performing artist, dancer, choreographer and T’ai Chi/Qi Gong instructor. She was inducted into the Austin Arts Hall of Fame in 2015, for recognition of her extensive and continuous career as a performer and creator. Additionally, she is the co-founder of “Art From The Streets” a highly regarded program for artists who are unhoused. She runs a move-ment arts studio in Austin; conducts annual T'ai Chi retreats in New...

Tiokasin Ghosthorse is a member of the Cheyenne River Lakota Nation of South Dakota. He is an educator, musician and international speaker on peace and the global issues facing Native peoples. Tiokasin has a long history in Indigenous activism and advocacy. As a 15 year old he spoke at the United Nations in Lake Geneva, Switzerland. Tiokasin is the Founder, Host and Executive Producer of the internationally syndicated “First Voices Radio,” now in its 30th year of broadcasting. He describes himself as “a perfectly flawed human being” and is most importantly, a Sundancer in the cosmology of the Lakota Nation.

Want to hear from Kingston, NY's Mayor Noble about how listening is a Kingston culture, how it inspired the creation of a mental health ambulance and the city's development of an art plaza for people to reflect and create a community? The Pauline Oliveros Plaza will include 70 units of housing, commercial space, retail storefronts and a courtyard for people to come together and enjoy the beauty of art with 70 families living around it.

Mayor Noble stays: "To be a good politician you have to be a good listener."

Want to hear from the the Director of the Center for Deep Listening, Stephanie Loveless and what listening means to her?

Professor Stephanie Loveless is also the Director of the Center for Deep Listening. She is also a sound and media artist whose research centers on listening and vocal embodiment. Her recent projects include a mobile web-app for geo-located listening, and sound works that channel the voices of plants, animals, and musical divas.

In this episode China Blue speaks with the neurobiologist, Dr. Nina Kraus about how the hearing brain is vast and integrated with our other senses.

Nina Kraus, Ph.D., heads the auditory Neuroscience Lab Brainvolts and is a professor at Northwestern University. She is a scientist, inventor, and amateur musician who studies the biology of auditory learning. She began her career measuring responses from single auditory neurons and was one of the first to show that the adult nervous system has the potential for reorganization following learning; these insights in basic biology galvanized her to investigate auditory...

In this episode China Blue speaks with the Spoleto Festival Orchestra conductor Timothy Myers about his job listening and communicating without words to an orchestra.

Timothy Myers is one of America’s most versatile conductors, engaging collaborators, and innovative purveyors of ideas. A frequent collaborator with leading opera companies and orchestras, he is internationally acclaimed for his eloquence, energy, command, and unbridled curiosity across a wide range of repertoire and projects.

Myers also serves as the Sarah and Ernest Butler Music Director at Austin Opera. A leading voice on the topics of leadership and innovation, My...

In this episode I speak with Adam Schartoff of FilmWax Radio. Filmwax Radio is a podcast that features luminaries from the indie film community. His guests include actors, filmmakers, festival programmers, journalists and just about anyone else with a stake in the game. It captivates listeners because they are treated to engaging and nuanced conversations from his guests.

Hosted by Adam Schartoff, Filmwax Radio began in 2011 and has had thousands of guests over the years, many who have returned over and over again. His guiding principle is to champion independent cinema.

In this episode I talk with Alvin Eng the author of "Our Laundry, Our Town: My Chinese American Life from Flushing to the Downtown Stage and Beyond." He tells us about his experience living in a home where Chinese and English were both heard, how that defined his love for rock and roll and shaped his writing.

Alvin Eng is a native NYC playwright, memoirist, performer, acoustic punk rock raconteur and educator. His plays and performances have been seen Off-Broadway, throughout the U.S., as well as in Paris, Hong Kong and Guangzhou, China.

He...

Mia Lobel is a veteran audio producer, manager, and educator who has spent her career championing creativity, diversity and character-driven storytelling.

She has worked with the best writers, journalists and intellectuals to help them achieve their vision in sound.

She was the Managing Producer & Lead Producer for Malcolm Gladwell’s "Revisionist History." As VP of content and production for his Pushkin Industries company she oversaw the creation of 28 podcasts.

She says that she "believes that happy people do great work" and she "leads by creating a culture of kindness."

She also re...

Norman Lowrey is a mask maker / composer / performance sound video artist and Professor Emeritus of Music at Drew University, Madison, NJ. He holds a Ph.D. in composition from the Eastman School of Music. He is the originator of Singing Masks. The masks, ceramic, carved wood, leather and virtual, incorporate flutes, reeds, ratchets, electronics and other sounding devices. Each mask has a unique voice. They have been exhibited in East Coast museums and galleries, including the New Jersey State Museum. He was a long-time student/colleague of the late composer-philosopher-accordionist-humanitarian Pauline Oliveros, is now the web master for her...

David Amram is a distinguished composer who composed the scores for many films including "Pull My Daisy" (1959) considered one of the most important experimental films of the 20th century, "Splendor In The Grass" (1960) and "The Manchurian Candidate" (1962). He composed the scores for Joseph Papp's Shakespeare In The Park from 1956-1967 and premiered his comic opera "12th Night" with Papp's libretto. He also wrote a second opera, "The Final Ingredient, An Opera of the Holocaust," for ABC Television.

He has collaborated as a composer with Elia Kazan, Arthur Miller, Eugene Ormandy, Sir James Galway, Langston Hughes and Jacques...

Lisa Kelley is a vocalist, performance artist and mother residing in Kingston, NY. Steeped in traditional theater, vocal and performance studies in her youth, Lisa’s creative process continues to revolve around investigations of identity, musical genres and styles, dream action theater, her family’s immigration memories from the Philippines, universal archetypes, Eastern philosophy and a recognition of the metaphysical and spiritual. Lisa’s performances and writing explore womanhood, grief and loss, dreams and the confluence of self in nature and the cosmos. She spent twelve years working closely with Pauline Oliveros and Ione as a staff member and artist...

In this episode we will hear from the Columbian born and UK residing sound artist Dr. Ximena Alarcón Díaz. She is a sound and listening artist-researcher exploring embodied forms of sensing place and telepresence to listen to and sound collectively our sonic migrations. She speaks about how migration and geographical changes alters the sense of bodily placement and leads to dislocation. She also addresses the idea of relational listening in the concept of cultural inbetweeness and uses Anna Mendieta's performances are one illustration of this idea.

Daniel Weintraub is a Director, Producer and Editor. His most recent feature length documentary "Deep Listening: The Story of Pauline Oliveros", is currently screening all over the world and garnering Weintraub best director accolades. Daniel also created documentary and experimental shorts on the work of Oliveros; "Don’t Call Them Lady Composers", and "Montage for Improvisors" which were shown in museums and festivals in CA, NY, UK, Spain and Switzerland. Additionally, Daniel acted as video curator for the exhibition of Pauline’s work at Centro de Creacion Contemporanea de Andalucia, Cordoba, Spain.

Weintraub will speak about listening as a...

Stephan Kunze is a writer, book author, and Editor of the Zen Sounds newsletter on experimental music and culture. He's a student and practitioner of Zen Buddhism and Deep Listening, and resides with his family in rural Northeast Germany. He is the author of the popular book Zen Style.

Stephan Kunze is a writer, book author, and Editor of the Zen Sounds newsletter on experimental music and culture. He's a student and practitioner of Zen Buddhism and Deep Listening, and resides with his family in rural Northeast Germany. He is the author of the popular book Zen Style.

Stephan Kunze is a writer, book author, and Editor of the Zen Sounds newsletter on experimental music and culture. He's a student and practitioner of Zen Buddhism and Deep Listening, and resides with his family in rural Northeast Germany. He is the author of the popular book Zen Style.

Norman Lowry is a mask maker / composer / performance sound video artist and Professor Emeritus of Music at Drew University, Madison, NJ. He holds a Ph.D. in composition from the Eastman School of Music. He is the originator of Singing Masks. The masks, ceramic, carved wood, leather and virtual, incorporate flutes, reeds, ratchets, electronics and other sounding devices. Each mask has a unique voice. They have been exhibited in East Coast museums and galleries, including the New Jersey State Museum. He was a long-time student/colleague of the late composer-philosopher-accordionist-humanitarian Pauline Oliveros, is now the web master for her...

In this episode China Blue will be speaking with the internationally exhibiting New York artist Richard Humann about how listening informs his art making.

Richard Humann is a Brooklyn-based neo-conceptual artist with innumerable international gallery and museum exhibitions, including: the Museum of Contemporary Art, the Kemi Art Museum, the Tampere Art Museum, the Youngeun Museum of Art, the Tornio Art Museum, the San Cristóbal Art Museum, the Daelim Art Museum, the Macao Art Museum, the Kaohsiung Museum of Art, Ssamzie Space, and the Espoo Museum of Modern Art.

Richard has been included in numerous b...

IONE is an Kingston, NY author, director and performer whose works include the critically acclaimed memoir, Pride of Family Four Generations of American Women of Color, and Listening in Dreams and This is a Dream!

She is the playwright and director with her creative partner and spouse, Pauline Oliveros of several large theater works including Njinga the Queen King; The Return of a Warrior (premiered at BAM’s Next Wave Festival), The Nubian Word for Flowers; A Phantom Opera, "a deep dream exploration of Nubian Soul and the Colonial Mind," premiered at Roulette Intermedium, NY and the Ne...