Checking In Mixtape - The COVID 19 Edition

On this episode, Bronx based graphic designer and film maker, reckons with the notion that America has devolved into a failed state. Bell embodies the character of Edward Norton as Monty Brogan in the Spike Lee directed 25th Hour, to call out America's dramatic media, the political failures during COVID-19; as well as recollect on his recovery from the Corona virus

On this episode, Wided Khadraoui, an Algerian-American writer, art curator and digital maven, expresses her passion of bridging the digital storytelling divide prevalent in the COVID-19 era. In her quest to give a platform to a diverse group of art practitioners in North Africa and the Middle East, Wided is in the throes of curating an array of stories in a digital-first new normal.

Berlin is mostly perceived as a before and after city. It's before'- an epicenter to the fall of the iron curtain that separated East and West Germany in 1989. And it's 'after' a city with a burgeoning arts and culture scene. To look at Berlin more closely, founder of the experimental radio platform Reboot FM, Diana McCarty is navigator to this city's politics and the ongoing experiment that is Reboot FM. The platform exists as part of a bigger network of media makers and has a large focus on art, discourse, and electronic music. McCarty also paints an image of Reboot FM's modus operandi in the age of COVID-19. #CheckingIn

Andrew Miller, author of Dub Steps - a novel about an anti-hero who finds himself in a post apocalyptic Johannesburg – gives a freestyle about the changed nature of storytelling during the COVID-19 era, and how this period is a numbers game devoid of context. Miller also ponders on whether there'll be any form of moral framework when it comes to South Africa's domestic employment.

After leaving Paris for an entire year on an excursion to see how other people are experimenting with the medium of radio elsewhere in the world, radio journalists, Camille Diao and Christophe Payet return home to a lock down due to COVID-19. They are compelled to shut down the adrenaline gathered from globe-trotting and face the reality of being grounded. The result is an experience about illusions of suspended time, thoughts about social inequities in France and a festival season that will not be.

There is nothing more closer to imposed isolation than a lock down and in the most extreme case, it can be likened to solitary confinement. On this first episode of Checking In, two subjects, namely an anthropologist (Lebohang Masango) and a music journalist (Helen Herimbi); are tasked to take part in an experiment about recording the goings on in their lives during the first 14 days of the lock down. The result is an out pour about learning new tricks, puzzles, existential issues and astrological readings on Instagram.

The world is snowed under an avalanche of factoids and numbers during the Corona Virus outbreak. Beyond those statistics, Kagiso Mnisi teleports across the globe to forage for stories about how other storytellers are making sense of the times. He 'Checks In' on a few folks such as Journalists, authors, curators as well as as reputation crisis managers. Checking In is a mixtape chopped and screwed using the bare essentials during an unprecedented time of COVID-19.