The Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami proudly announces two new seasons of the museum’s award-winning podcast, Tomorrow is the Problem. Awarded both for the quality of its stories and sound design, Tomorrow is the Problem is a unique narrative-driven podcast that explores urgent issues of our time through the voices of leading artists and scholars. Season three on The Art of Ritual covers spiritual practices of contemporary visual artists, while season four grounds itself in the integral arts and cultures of Haiti and the Haitian diaspora, a community that shapes the identity of Miami.
Tomorrow is the Problem builds on ICA Miami’s robust program of digital initiatives, designed to engage audiences around the world with the cutting-edge ideas explored in ICA Miami’s in-person exhibitions and programs. The platform is spearheaded by the museum’s Knight Foundation Art + Research Center (A+RC), South Florida’s only museum-based research department.
Across each of the podcast’s four seasons, host Donna Honarpisheh, Associate Curator, Knight Foundation Art + Research Center at ICA Miami, invites a diverse cast of thinkers and artists to join her as they delve into urgent issues and uncover new cultural and art-historical narratives across each episode. Guests from season 3’s Art of Ritual include performance artist Maria Magdalena Campos-Pons, artist José Bedia, artist Krista Franklin, cultural anthropologist Stefania Pandolfo, artist Lucy Bull, among others. Season 4, recently released, features artist Edouard Duval Carrié, historian Laurent DuBois, cultural anthropologist David Scott, literary scholar Kaiama Glover, art historian Richard Powell, and art historian Erica Moia James, among others.
Season 3: The Art of Ritual
Episode One: The Border Between Art and Ritual
From ancestral means of worship, to the blurry lines between art and worship, two Cuban artists share their experiences of Santeria and ritual practices in their art.
Episode Two: Rituals of Transformation—Betye Saar and Black Feminist Art
Beginning with the artist’s rituals of collecting objects and activating their spirits, this episode explores the role of ritual and the creation of altars in the work of Betye Saar and the legacy of her practice in the work of contemporary artists today.
Episode Three: A Lightning Stroke—The Poetic Vision of Etel Adnan
This episode explores the ways in which the writings and paintings of the late Etel Adnan, created a broader engagement with the cosmos and provided a meditation on space and time.
Episode Four: Art as Trance—Lucy Bull and Psychedelic Counterculture
From meditating with paintings to representations of altered states this episode probes the relationship between psychedelia and the other in psychedelic countercultures and how psychedelic visual culture reflects an expanded relationship to the senses.
Season 4: Reimagining Haiti—Past, Present, Future
Episode One: Little Haiti—Art Narrates the Change
Episode one foregrounds Haiti’s influence on the city of Miami – from a walk through the history of Little Haiti, the continued poetic force of Haitian literary culture, and the role of Afro-Caribbean traditions in Miami.
Episode Two: Symbols of the Rebellion—The Black Jacobins and the Haitian Revolution
By speaking to scholars of history, anthropology, and visual culture, this episode analyzes the history of the Haitian Revolution along with its visual symbolism through a contemporary interpretive lens that reflects on its lasting impact for Haiti, members of the diaspora, and the globe.
Episode Three: Haiti in the Contemporary Imagination
Artists have long played a role in calling out Haiti’s failings and offering paths to rectifying trajectories. In the face of mounting crises, who will listen to the voices of the past and the call for home-grown resilience?
Episode Four: Hervé Télémaque—Rituals of the Artist
The season’s last episode is dedicated to the work of Hervé Télémaque is brought to life by friends and admirers. His paintings were exhibited at ICA Miami in 2022.
Tomorrow is the Problem was made in partnership with the creative team at Podfly. All four seasons are now available to stream on ICA Miami’s website and anywhere else you listen to podcasts, including Spotify, Apple, and more.
