Podcast
Cultural Manifesto
Hosted by WFYI Public Media · EN
Each week on Cultural Manifesto, Kyle Long reveals stories and sounds from the creative frontlines of the past and present. Through music, archives and artist interviews, discover how creators shape meaning with sound, in Indianapolis and well beyond. Tune in each week to this WFYI Public Media show for discoveries that will delight your ears and expand your understanding of our shared world.
36episodes
Episodes
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Pride Month - LGBTQ+ activist Mary Byrne looks back on her work promoting women’s music in Indiana
1w ago00:20:30Tap to summarizeCelebrate Pride by looking back at Kyle Long’s 2021 conversation with LGBTQ+ activist Mary Byrne. A key figure in Indiana’s gay rights movement, Byrne also played an important but lesser-known role in the state’s music history as a promoter and curator of women’s music. She owned and operated Labyris, a feminist and lesbian bar near downtown Indianapolis that became a vital gathering place for music and community.
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Marion, Indiana's Lizz Vega on playing harp, songwriting and livestreaming
1w ago00:25:20Tap to summarizeBefore she found an audience as a musician, Lizz Vega built a following online live-streaming video games. Today, the self-taught musician and songwriter still streams live, but her broadcasts now feature performances on harp, guitar and vocals. Born and raised in Los Angeles, Vega currently lives in Marion, Indiana. Cultural Manifesto’s Kyle Long spoke with Vega to learn more about her work in music.
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How Indianapolis Songwriter Bruz Fletcher Became a Pioneer of LGBTQ+ Music
2w ago00:36:14Tap to summarizeExplore the remarkable life and music of Indiana songwriter Stoughton “Bruz” Fletcher, a groundbreaking artist whose work challenged conventions of gender and sexuality decades before the modern LGBTQ+ rights movement. Host Kyle Long will talk with author and researcher Tyler Alpern, whose book “Camped, Tramped and a Riotous Vamp” remains the definitive biography of Bruz Fletcher.
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Indianapolis musician Naomi Pulver is building an audience for her finely crafted pop songs
3w ago00:26:24Tap to summarizeHear words and music from Indianapolis-based singer, songwriter, and guitarist Naomi Pulver. She is building a growing audience for her finely crafted music, a sound that blends elements of pop, folk, and R&B with deeply personal songwriting. Raised in Colorado as the youngest of eight children in a multicultural household, Pulver began exploring questions of identity, family, and belonging at an early age — themes that continue to shape her music today.
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Harp innovator Edmar Castañeda merges jazz and Colombian tradition
3w ago00:18:54Tap to summarizeBorn in Colombia, Edmar Castañeda is celebrated worldwide as one of the most innovative harpists in modern music. His work combines the folk traditions of his homeland with contemporary jazz. A Latin Grammy nominee, Castañeda has collaborated with artists including Wynton Marsalis and Béla Fleck and introduced his music to millions through the soundtrack of Disney’s Encanto.
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Rusty Redenbacher on Mudkids, Nasty Slim, and battling Eminem
4w ago00:46:50Tap to summarizeFor over 30 years, Rusty Redenbacher has been a fixture of the Indianapolis music scene, performing as a vocalist with rock and hip-hop groups including The Mudkids, Birdmen of Alcatraz, and The Last IV. He joins Kyle Long to discuss his history in music, including battling Eminem at Scribble Jam in 1997, and his latest project, Rusty Redenbacher is Nasty Slim, which expands his skill set to producing beats.
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Asian American musicians are shaping Indiana's Sound - celebrating AANHPI Heritage Month
May 1300:29:03Tap to summarizeAsian American musicians are shaping Indiana's sound — and this week, Cultural Manifesto celebrates AANHPI Heritage Month with music that proves it. Hear from Indiana artists with roots in Afghanistan, Vietnam, China, India, Myanmar, and beyond.
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Jermaine from the South on rapping in Creole, playing oud, and making psychedelic hip-hop beats
May 600:44:30Tap to summarizeHear Kyle Long’s conversation with Bloomington-based musician Jermaine Butler— also known as Jermaine from the South — an artist who defies easy categorization. Butler's submission to NPR's Tiny Desk Contest, titled "Dan Vi-Çila”, earned a coveted Top Shelf selection, drawing praise from Tiny Desk producer Bobby Carter and guest judge Tierra Whack. He is set to unveil a new project rooted in the culture of his home state — rapping in Louisiana Creole.
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Indianapolis musician, writer and rapper Foosie on his debut album, All-American Ghetto
Apr 2900:41:40Tap to summarizeIndianapolis-based rapper, musician, and writer Foosie discusses his debut album, “All-American Ghetto.” The album draws on his life — from growing up in Indianapolis’ Mapleton-Fall Creek neighborhood to serving a 20-year prison sentence. During his incarceration, he learned to play acoustic guitar and developed his voice as a writer through the Indiana Prison Writers Workshop. In this conversation, Foosie reflects on that journey — and on the music and family that shaped him, including his uncle, Vonzell Wheeler of the legendary Naptown soul group The Vanguards.
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The secret history of Radio Free Naptown
Apr 2200:54:51Tap to summarizeIn 1968, a group of young Indianapolis broadcasters made history — they built their own radio station from scratch, without a license, and dared the FCC to stop them. For four years, Radio Free Naptown brought underground music to the city, from Captain Beefheart to Gil Scott-Heron, broadcasting from makeshift locations that at one point even included a horse pasture. They didn’t call it pirate radio; they called it bootleg. Co-founders Steve Everitt and Don Worsham tell the inside story of Radio Free Naptown.
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