the body is the brain
the body is the brain
Podcast Description
the body is the brain is a podcast about art and social justice hosted by artist and attorney Hope Mohr. Through conversations with artists and cultural workers, we explore the practice, production, and politics of contemporary artmaking.
Podcast Insights
Content Themes
The podcast focuses on the intersections of art and social justice, with specific topics including embodied practices in directing, the politics of casting, and the role of performance in community building. Episodes feature discussions around notable works such as The Magnolia Ballet and collaborative performances like Beyond, emphasizing themes like liberation, queerness, and cultural safety.
the body is the brain is a podcast about art and social justice hosted by artist and attorney Hope Mohr. Through conversations with artists and cultural workers, we explore the practice, production, and politics of contemporary artmaking.
This episode of Undoxx: Artists Untangle Censorship with guest host Yanira Castro investigates the censorship of the exhibit Diasporic Collage: Puerto Rico & the Survival of a People at the Broad Art Museum at Michigan State University. The episode tells the story of how one work in the exhibit by Kuwaiti-Puerto Rican artist Alia Farid, Piquete en el capitolio, became a flashpoint and how the curators and art workers’ powerful demands and strategies kept the exhibit open. Yanira talks with Yomaira C. Figueroa-Vásquez, Co-Curator of the exhibit and Director of CENTRO, about turning a moment of institutional cowardice into an example of solidarity.
This episode was recorded on May 6, 2026.
ABOUT YOMAIRA C. FIGUEROA-VÁSQUEZ
Dr. Yomaira C. Figueroa-Vásquez is an Afro-Puerto Rican scholar, writer, and creative from Hoboken, NJ. She is Professor of Africana, Puerto Rican, and Latino Studies and is the Director of the Center for Puerto Rican Studies (CENTRO) at CUNY Hunter.
GUEST HOST BIO
Yanira Castro is a Puerto Rican interdisciplinary artist and organizer working at the intersection of communal practice, performance, installation, and interactive technology. She forms iterative, multimodal projects activated and performed by the public as rehearsals for radical democracy. Her projects have been recognized with national awards, commissions and residency support. She is a 2026 Guggenheim Fellow.
CO-PRODUCER BIOS
Yanira Castro (see bio above).
maura nguyễn donohue is a Vietnamese American artist, performer, writer and organizer based in NYC for over 30 years, building systems for collaborative action through performance.
Hope Mohr is an artist and advocate who works at the intersection of the arts and social justice. Her law practice, Movement Law, builds power with artists and arts organizations. She co-leads the Artist Legal Case, a collaboration with the Sustainable Economies Law Center and Vital Arts.
Maya Simone is a Black performer, choreographer and producer that develops works centering queerness, Black kinships, ancestral/emotional memory, and the absurd to imagine new worlds.
zavé martohardjono is a trans and queer Indonesian-American-Canadian choreographer, performer, filmmaker, writer, and organizer who thinks about ecological activism and decolonization as technologies for liberation.
UNDOXX is an artist-run collective that organizes conversations, festivals, and interventions against censorship in the arts. They build power among those most often targeted by censorship: BIPOC artists, queer and trans and women artists, and global artists.
ABOUT DIASPORIC COLLAGE
Dr. Yomaira Figueroa-Vázquez’s Statement on the cancellation of the exhibit.
Monica Huerta’s review in ArtForum.
Articles about the cancellation: The State News, Hyperallergic, WKAR News, Puerto Rico Art News, Middle East Studies Association.
RESOURCES
Learn more about UNDOXX and follow UNDOXX on Instagram for upcoming events.
Are you experiencing censorship? Reach out to National Coalition Against Censorship.
Need a lawyer?
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