Let's Have a Renaissance: The DateKeepers Podcast with Itto and Mekiya Outini

Welcome to Let’s Have a Renaissance, a podcast about literature and the arts, where where authors, editors, artists, composers, and other creative professionals come together to discuss what it takes to build a sustainable career in the arts in the twenty-first century. If you enjoy the pod, help us keep it going by making a donation: https://www.paypal.com/donate/?business=HE5EAYSMNWB34&no_recurring=0&item_name=Thank+you+for+keeping+the+creative+community+strong%21+¤cy_code=USD

Let's Have a Renaissance: The DateKeepers Podcast with Itto and Mekiya Outini is a arts podcast hosted by The DateKeepers, with 116 episodes on record and a Required Pod Score of 80. PitchCentric scores this show on Booking Probability, Listen Score, and live audience signals refreshed every 24 hours.

The DateKeepers hosts Let's Have a Renaissance: The DateKeepers Podcast with Itto and Mekiya Outini, a arts show with 116 episodes published.

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  Episode #135

  135: Are the Universities Collapsing? – A Conversation with Jorge Grossman

  Sep 4, 202618 minS2

  In this episode, we speak with composer Jorge Grossman about his ongoing exploration of the lost the sound world of the Incan Empire, the Janus-facedness of multiculturalism, and why higher education in the West is in decline. Jorge’s music has been performed throughout the United States, Latin America, and Europe, and he’s received support from the Fulbright, the Guggenheim Foundation, MacDowell, Copeland House, the Bogliasco Foundation, the Fromm Music Foundation, and others. He holds a Master of Music from Florida International University and a Doctorate of Musical Arts in composition from Boston University and now teaches at Ithica College in New York.

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  Episode #134

  134: Our Families Discarded Us…Now What? – A Conversation with Ben Miller

  Sep 2, 202639 minS2

  In this episode, we speak with author Ben Miller about what happens when families fracture, how lives can be pieced back together, the centrality of creativity to healing, and the sacrifices we make to survive. Ben is the author of two memoirs, River Bend Chronicle: The Junkification of a Boyhood Idyll amid the Curious Glory of Urban Iowa (Lookout Books, 2013) and Pandemonium Logs: Sioux Falls, South Dakota 2020-2022 (Rutgers University Press, 2024), and one novel, The Parade (April Gloaming Publishing, 2026). His work has appeared in The Georgia Review, The Kenyon Review, The New England Review, The Yale Review, AGNI, Ecotone, The Harvard Review, and others. He holds an MA from New York University, his honors include a fellowship in writing from the National Endowment for the Arts, and he now lives with his wife, the poet Anne Pierson Wiese, while sustaining his writing by working odd jobs.

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  Episode #133

  133: Listen to This Before Starting Your Nonprofit – A Conversation with Mitch Cope

  Aug 31, 202618 minS2

  In this episode, we speak with artist and curator Mitch Cope about the rapid rise and unfortunate fall of Power House Productions, the Detroit-based nonprofit he founded and ran in collaboration with his then-wife, Gina Reichert, in hopes of mitigating local fallout from the 2008 housing crisis. Mitch holds an MFA from Washington State University, has worked as an artist and curator for the Berlin-based, international research/art project Shrinking Cities, and served as the first Assistant Curator for The Museum of Contemporary Art. He’s participated in numerous creative collaborations, including the Detroit Tree of Heaven Workshop and the duo Design 99, and his work has been shown at the Smart Museum in Chicago, the Detroit Institute of Arts and Museum of Contemporary Art, The Mattress Factory in Pittsburgh, Van Abbe Museum in Eindhoven, Netherland, Kunsthalle in Dresden, and KunstWerke in Berlin, and elsewhere.

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  Episode #132

  132: Where Your World and My World Meet – A Conversation with Andrea Clearfield

  Aug 28, 202614 minS2

  In this episode, we speak with composer Andrea Clearfield about her work in the Nepalese Himalaya, where she collaborated with Tashi Tsering, the last remaining master of the Gar-glu (Tibetan court song) tradition, to preserve his ancestral melodies. She also wrote music inspired by her experience. Andrea has written over 175 works for orchestra, opera, chorus, chamber ensemble, dance, and multimedia collaborations and has been supported by the Pew Center for Arts & Heritage, the Rockefeller Foundation, the American Academy in Rome, the MacDowell Foundation, and others. She holds an MM in piano from the University of the Arts and a DMA in music composition from Temple University, and she’s taught at the University of the Arts and held visiting lectureship positions around the world.

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  Episode #131

  131: What's a Book Really Worth? – A Conversation with Kevin Brockmeier

  Aug 26, 202622 minS2

  In this episode, we speak with author Kevin Brockmeier about his contributions to speculative fiction, his distinctive approach to narrative as thought experiment, whether the production of a book can ever justify suffering, and whether pain can make us beautiful to God. Kevin is the author of three novels, three story collections, two books for young readers, and one memoir, all published by imprints of Penguin Random House or Harper Collins. He holds an MFA from the Iowa Writer’s Workshop, his work has been translated into eighteen languages, and his honors include an O’Henry Award, an Italo Calvino Short Fiction Award, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts.

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