Road Trip! This is My Life I’m Talking About with Danny Lyon

Join me for a classic American road trip with the legendary photographer, photo-journalist, writer, and film-maker Danny Lyon. Danny left the University of Chicago in the 1960s and headed South to join the great Civil Rights Movement, where he became the official photographer of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. We will visit the Black Freedom Movement together, but we will also revisit his groundbreaking documentary photographs of prison life in Texas, the gripping story of a friend of his who was also one of America’s Ten Most Wanted fugitives, and his involvement with the Chicago Outlaws Motorcycle Club, which he documented in The Bikeriders (1968), a collection of black and white photographs with accompanying interviews that was released the year before the classic “Easy Rider.” That work of photojournalism is the inspiration for Jeff Nichols’ contemporary film of the same name. His memoir, This is My Life I’m Talking About, was just released. Danny Lyon’s website is bleakbeauty.com where you can read his blog, and view his films for free on Vimeo.

Om Podcasten

“Under the Tree” is a new podcast that focuses on freedom—a complex, layered, dynamic, and often contradictory idea—and takes you on a journey each week to fundamentally reimagine how we can bring freedom and liberation to life in relation to schools and schooling, equality and justice, and learning to live together in peace. Our podcast opens a crawl-space, a fugitive field and firmament where we can both explore our wildest freedom dreams, and organize for a liberating insurgency. "Under the Tree" is a seminar, and it runs the gamut from current events to the arts, from history lessons to scientific inquiries, and from essential readings to frequent guest speakers. We’re in the midst of the largest social uprising in US history—and what better time to dive headfirst into the wreckage, figuring out as we go how to support the rebellion, name it, and work together to realize its most radical possibilities—and to reach its farthest horizons?