There is a version of the arts world where everyone shows up for each other. Where young artists have a safe place to practice, make mistakes, and figure out who they are before the world decides for them. Where elders are integral to creative spaces because intergenerational connection is how culture moves forward. Where artists are protected emotionally, financially, physically, and creatively. Tish Jones has spent 20 years building that version.

Tish is a Saint Paul poet, MC, hip hop artist, and founder of TruArtSpeaks, a non-profit organization focused on literacy, leadership, and social justice through spoken word and hip hop culture.

We talked about:

• Seeing the world as a poet
• The three things that inspired Tish to found TruArtSpeaks in 2006
• What young artists need to be protected from
• Exploitation in creative industries
• The pressure to choose the "practical" path
• Early art champions and detractors
• The emotional weight artists carry during collective grief and unrest
• Creative practice, the myth of the daily routine, and meeting the spark when it comes
• Creativity as ancestry, intuition, and spiritual practice

TruArtSpeaks is currently celebrating 20 years with a fundraiser punch card featuring 20 Twin Cities businesses and the Urgent Emergent Performance Art Series at Icehouse every third weekend of the month.

Connect with Tish: tishjonespoet.com

Learn more about TruArtSpeaks: truartspeaks.org

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• Subscribe at artisthenewwallstreet.com and on YouTube
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Keep creating, keep making art. Your art is a gift to you and to the world.

A lot of marketers are just would-be artists who took the practical path. Think about it. We came in because we were good at writing, or design, or knowing instinctively what makes something feel right. We took creative risks. We cared about craft. We ended up here because we were creative and needed a way to get paid for it.

What nobody told us is that creativity is a finite resource. When you spend it at work all day, there isn't much left for the novel you've been meaning to write or the instrument collecting dust in the corner. So...there's this deep sense of discontentment. Especially now that AI is here. Our inner artists are feeling neglected.

Amanda Jackson is a freelance content writer and original research content strategist who has spent the last decade giving her best energy to B2B marketing. She knows something needs to change, she just hasn't figured out what yet. One of her goals for 2026 is to like her work more. She also hosts Hone Your Craft, a low-key community gathering for people who just want to spend an hour making something alongside other people.

We talk about:

• What choosing a creative adjacent career can actually cost you
• The disillusionment so many marketers are feeling right now and why it makes sense
• What it feels like to watch the world debate whether your skills are replaceable
• The itch to blow it all up and start over in a completely different field
• Why putting your hobbies on a to-do list is the fastest way to kill them
• Amanda's Hone Your Craft sessions and what inspired her to start them
• Our definitions of success and how they've evolved
• Why we need to get more comfortable with being bad at things
• Our complicated relationship with being a beginner

This one is for anyone who has given their best years to a field that doesn't quite feel like theirs anymore and is starting to wonder what comes next.

Connect with Amanda:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amandajacksonamj/

Substack: https://substack.com/@mandaroostack

Support the show

• Subscribe at artisthenewwallstreet.com and on YouTube
• Learn more about host and producer, Morgan Short
• Follow us on Tik Tok, Instagram, and Facebook
• Subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts

Keep creating, keep making art. Your art is a gift to you and to the world.

ICE has been occupying Minnesota for weeks now. They are targeting workplaces, neighborhoods, and even schools. Protestors are being met with pepper spray and tear gas. Community members, including Renee Nicole Good and Alex Pretti, were killed in January. Fear is present. So is organized resistance.

This episode was recorded January 28th just a few days after a large ICE Out march and strike in Minneapolis. It documents what artists can do when harm is unfolding in real time and communities are mobilizing to protect one another.

Kyle "Guante" Tran Myhre, a Minneapolis-based poet, educator, and activist, joins the show to talk about the roles artists can play in moments of crisis. Artists are connectors, organizers, storytellers, and resource-sharers.

We talk about:

• What people on the ground in Minnesota are witnessing
• The workshop Kyle hosted for artists in MPLS and lessons learned
• Simple ways artists can move information, resources, and supplies
• How to use your platform and your voice
• What zines are and how they are a useful tool for spreading information
• The difference between outrage that mobilizes and outrage that demobilizes
• How to create responsibly when real people are at risk
• Why expertise is not required to help
• Staying informed without burning out

Kyle also shared an original piece, "Discourse - Let Your Heart be a Whistle"

If you're feeling powerless right now and want to get involved, but don't know where to start, this episode is for you.

Find movement-related resources for artists
Zine featured in the episode
Learn more about Kyle
Kyle’s Racket Article about what artists can do in Minneapolis

Support the show

• Subscribe at artisthenewwallstreet.com and on YouTube
• Learn more about host and producer, Morgan Short
• Follow us on Tik Tok, Instagram, and Facebook
• Subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts

Keep creating, keep making art. Your art is a gift to you and to the world.