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The CHIRP Blog
Beatnik writesPledge Drive Day Two: A Big Thank You!
And we’re off! Our abbreviated Fall Fundraiser is well underway and we could not be more grateful for you, our listeners, for keeping us going. Investing in the communities that mean most to us has never been more critical, and we want you to know that the CHIRP community is live, local, and here for you.
We had a great second day today with a record-busting morning and a great afternoon. To give a peek behind the curtain — our goals were set on the conservative side to accommodate for the uncertainty of 2020. But our needs are pressing, and we are asking for your assistance to help us continue to bring you the DJs, programming, and music you rely on us for.
From the bottom of our hearts, thank you. If you have not yet donated or become a sustaining member, you can check out our donation page here filled with all the radio pledge goodies your heart desires.
As a radio station, we’re fortunate to be able to share the gift of music with our audience. We’re asking for your support so we can continue to do what we do best, and bring this community ever-closer together.
Thank you so much for your continued support, we truly could not do this without you!
Clarence Ewing: The Million Year Trip writesCHIRP Radio’s Fall Fundraiser is On!
Throughout an extraordinary (to put it nicely) 2020, CHIRP Radio has remained in operations, providing music and information to our community in Chicago and beyond. The support we continue to get from our listeners is inspiring and heartwarming.
As ever, our expenses must bee accounted for. Rent must be paid. Equipment must be maintained and repaired. Hand sanitizer must be replenished.
This year CHIRP Radio is holding a shorter Fall fundraiser than usual to help keep us financially solid. We weren't able to hold our Spring fundraiser this year, so it's important for us to reach our goals for the Fall campaign.
Click here to make a one-time or recurring donation. There are thank-yous available at various levels, and your contribution is tax-deductible. Thank you!
moimoi writesThe “Exit West” Playlist
This September, the Chicago Pubic Library selected Moshsin Hamid's novel, Exit West, as its "One Book, One Chicago" selection for 2020, describing is as "..an astonishingly visionary love story that imagines the forces that drive ordinary people from their homes into the uncertain embrace of new lands."
And for another year, the Library invited us here at CHIRP to create]https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3oA1fNLQs5VjtxQlAefgiB?si=bk2fXwoxQ_K30JTONEGSbw">create[/url] a playlist to accompany the reading.
CHIRP Radio volunteer and DJ Moizza Khan reflects on the novel and presents a playlist]https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3oA1fNLQs5VjtxQlAefgiB?si=bk2fXwoxQ_K30JTONEGSbw">playlist[/url] of music that captures the themes and spirit of this work.
“We are all migrants through time.”
In 1968, my dad came to Chicago as an international student from India, working multiple jobs and living with multiple roommates as he studied engineering at the UIC Circle campus. Shortly after his arrival, he got word that his father back in Hyderabad had passed away. He never got to say goodbye and, over time and migration, he would lose nearly all direct family ties to India.
Life in the Midwest has never been particularly welcoming to foreigners, and though my childhood was in many ways typical, I never fit in or felt the same nostalgia for the suburbs as the kids I grew up with.
My goal was to spend at least half of my 20s outside the U.S. and the only thing that kept me from achieving this was my father’s health problems after he became a widower. My greatest fear was that, like him, I would get word of his passing from thousands of miles away and never get to say goodbye.
DJ Mick writesCritical Rotation: “The King of Sudanese Jazz” by Sharhabil Ahmed
Twice a month, CHIRP DJ and Features Co-Director Mick takes a deep dive into two albums currently in rotation on CHIRP's charts that he thinks are worth some special attention. If you haven't given these albums a listen in their entirety, let Mick make the case for why you should!
Sharhabil Ahmed
The King of Sudanese Jazz
Habibi Funk
Sharhabil Ahmed is once again holding court in his kingdom long lost to the age.
His palace has now risen like Atlantis from the briny broth of the sea or the City of Babylon from the sands of time, thanks to the relentless crate excavation efforts of Jannis Stürtz and his north-Africa allied, Berlin-based, Habibi Funk label.
Standing as the first and only proper collection of Ahmed's works to be released for mass enjoyment in the 21st Century, The King Of Sudanese Jazz is both a historical document and thoroughly tanalizing rock 'n roll record. Now in his 80s, Ahmed was, is, and will be for as long as the time permits, a man of taste and vision.
DJ Mick writesCritical Rotation: “Chicago Waves” by Carlos Niño and Miguel Atwood-Ferguson
Twice a month, CHIRP DJ and Features Co-Director Mick takes a deep dive into two albums currently in rotation on CHIRP's charts that he thinks are worth some special attention. If you haven't given these albums a listen in their entirety, let Mick make the case for why you should!
Carlos Niño and Miguel Atwood-Ferguson
Chicago Waves
International Anthem
Chicago Waves is likely the most Athenian collection of improvised jazz to be released this year.
Springing fully formed from the hands, mouths, and minds of collaborators Carlos Niño and Miguel Atwood-Ferguson, Chicago Waves was debuted as an impromptu performed during the release show of Jeremy Cunnigham’s stupendous The Weather Up There, where the duo had been invited as special guest performers.
There was no precursor to the performance and no indication of its content. It merely emerged as you hear it on captured on the album, now released by Chicago’s best new jazz imprint, International Anthem.