Toxins, Tonics and Trixie Mattel (part 2) with Ekoo Beck & Susan Bin

Recovering from Lil Nas X's MONTERO music video; storytelling to bring invisible lives into focus; illustrating Indian boarding schools to process intergenerational trauma: these are some of the topics covered in part 2 of our conversation with artist-activists Susan Bin and Ekoo Beck. Susan Bin, the inaugural Women in Animation Scholar, and her work have been featured in books, film, TV, and video games. She has exhibited her art domestically and internationally and serves as a local community liaison for DFW-area artists with organizations like the Crow Museum of Asian Art, Kinokuniya, and the Dallas Public Library, among others. She mainly works in cinema with an interest in horror and queer themes, and continues to work on projects dedicated to opening up new tributaries of storytelling and talent. Iko'tsimiskimaki “Ekoo” Beck is a Community Organizer at Montana Women Vote, an organization that works to uplift the voices of low-income Montanan's through advocacy, civic engagement, and policy change. Ekoo grew up in Missoula, the settler occupied homelands of the Bitterroot Salish, and graduated with an A.B. in Social Studies. Ekoo's current artistic endeavors include a drawing project on Indian Boarding Schools in Montana, a mural installation with other Indigenous artists of Missoula, and lots of beading. They are an enrolled descendent of the Blackfeet Nation, are a member of the Little Shell Chippewa (Red River Métis) and are German American.