Hello friends and comrades!

We’re back with a mini episode of Outernational after a short hiatus. This is a special live episode with the brilliant pianist, composer and multidisciplinary artist Samora Pinderhughes, from the Press Play fair at Pioneer Works back in December 2025. We talked about what it means to be an abolitionist, his work collaborating with incarcerated folks through his organization the Healing Project and how art can help people process the horrors of the prison industrial complex. It was short and sweet, but packs a powerful punch.

In the intro you’ll hear me mention raise the concern of the Suno AI funding the Press Play fair and Pioneer Works working with Suno to host AI workshops. Suno notoriously and shamelessly data mines the intellectual and creative property of musicians, with no credit or compensation and makes generative AI “tools” which will eventually lead to the obsolescence of many forms of creative musical labor. The CEO of Suno AI infamously said people "don't enjoy" making music. Gross.

I was happy to hear that Pioneer Works will no longer be working with Suno AI, I hope in some small part to the attention many artists including Samora and I brought to the issue.

If you didn’t catch the last episode with Alsarah, it’s a great one discussing her story and identity as a Sudanese refugee and the history and current genocide in Sudan. She talked about how “refugee” is the identity of the future and offers some wisdom on how one might thing about home in these changing circumstances. She’s also funny as hell.

Catch up on all episodes during your hopefully more relaxed summer! We’ll be back with more new ones as the season rolls along.

Solidarity and Knicks in 5!

Amirtha