Documenting FREDY : Eight Years After the Shooting in Montreal
Fredy Villanueva was playing dice in a park in Montreal North when police officers arrived. In less than a minute, the 18-year-old was fatally shot by police. Eight years later, what happened in those sixty seconds remains unclear. The documentary play Fredy tries to untangle what happened before and after the shooting, as it asks questions about racial profiling, systemic discrimination, and the promise of art for social change....
Waiting for Home: The Refugee and Immigrant Experience
The root causes of migration vary widely. Some people migrate and return to their homes depending on the season. While others migrate and never return. Often, people are forced to leave or flee their homes indefinitely because of poverty, extreme environmental events, armed conflict, social strife, political turmoil, and economic hardships. On this edition of Making Contact, we hear stories from Central American migrants that take on...
Abortion Access and Eroded Rights
In 1973 the Supreme Court case Roe v. Wade established the legal right to abortion in the United States. Since then, state legislative and executive bodies have battled to restrict access to abortions. Federal law banned the use of federal funds for most abortions in 1977, and public funding for abortion remains a contested issue. One recent study in Texas found that more than 200,000 women performed abortions on themselves because...
Life, Breath, and Toxics: Lethal Negligence of Northeast and South L.A.
From Norco, Louisiana to Flint, Michigan to Los Angeles, California – environmental racism is real. On this edition of Making Contact, we look at polluting industries in Northeast and South L.A. We begin with a story by Making Contact’s Community Storytelling Fellow Ivan Rodriguez, followed by an interview with journalist Aura Bogado and Los Angeles County Supervisor Hilda Solis. Featuring Ivan Maceda Rodriguez, Making Contact...
Abortion Access Under Attack
Special edition of Making Contact with guest Host, Rose Aguilar discussing reproductive health and abortion rights 43 years after Roe v. Wade. Featuring: Corrine Rivera-Fowler, deputy director of COLOR, the Colorado Organization for Latina Opportunity and Reproductive Rights Carol Joffe, professor at the Bixby Center for Global Reproductive Health at the University of California, San Francisco and author of “Dispatches from the...
Looking Back Moving Forward: 2015 Year in Review
From the Fight for 15 campaign to the Syrian refugee crisis, the past year was full of news headlines that were tough to keep up with. Making Contact is committed to in-depth critical analysis that goes beyond the breaking news. On this edition of Making Contact we take a look at shows we produced in 2015, and we ll find out what’s happened since. Featuring: Alicia Garza, Black Lives Matter co-founder Cat Brooks, Anti Police Terror...
Abortion Access and Eroded Rights
In 1973 the Supreme Court case Roe v. Wade established the legal right to abortion in the United States. Since then, state legislative and executive bodies have battled to restrict access to abortions. Federal law banned the use of federal funds for most abortions in 1977, and public funding for abortion remains a contested issue. One recent study in Texas found that more than 200,000 women performed abortions on themselves because...
Ruben Salazar: Man in the Middle
A radio adaptation of the documentary Ruben Salazar: Man in the Middle. This documentary examines the life and mysterious death of pioneering Mexican-American journalist Ruben Salazar. At the heart of the story is his transformation from a mainstream, establishment Los Angeles Times reporter to a supporter and primary chronicler of the radical Chicano movement of the late 1960s until he was killed by a law enforcement officer in 1970....
Not Throw Away Women: Black and Indigenous Women Disrupt Violence
On this week’s show we’re exploring how some women have been dehumanized to the point of indifference. We’ll learn how one community is undoing the silence around the violence women of color face. We’ll also hear about how serial killers were able to hunt down mostly Black women for three decades in South Los Angeles. Then we’ll take you to the Yucatan where pregnant indigenous women struggle under a health care system failing...
Changing Communities, Imminent Threats: Katrina’s Legacy
On August 29, 2005 Hurricane Katrina ripped through the Southern Gulf Coast. Drawn by reconstruction work, the number of Latino immigrants has nearly doubled. Reconstruction after Hurricane Katrina drew thousands of people from India, Brazil, Mexico, Honduras, and other Latin American countries. Workers were charged with pulling dead bodies from abandoned homes and rebuilding New Orleans. But the influx of migrant workers also...
