This past March, choreographer Miguel Gutierrez posted a call on his Instagram. It asked performing arts institutions to honor their commitments to artists like him, who were no longer able to perform publicly because of the pandemic. "The first thing I noticed was all the cancellation emails and their complete, uh, lack of acknowledgement of a financial component," Miguel told me. "Like, you have the money in your budget, right? So pay me."
While Miguel wanted to make sure he was compensated for his work, he also told me that he's been reexamining his relationship to performing. "There's a whole other part of me that’s like, do I ever want to tour again, actually?" he told me. "I actually crave certain kinds of normalcy that are just part of other people's lives." We talked about the years it took for him to learn how to manage his finances as someone living gig-to-gig, how getting sober helped him get out of years of debt, and how he was able to make ends meet this year.
Inside John Waters' Home (But Not Inside His Colon)
How Clothes Help Us Find Our People and Ourselves
Lucinda Williams Says Whatever the Hell She Wants
Big Freedia Bounces Back
Finding Meaning After My Husband's Public Death
Knock Knock, Who's There? Bob the Drag Queen
What's Going On With Student Loans?
"This Isn't Just About Abortion": What the End of Roe Means to You
Bottled Up: Your Stories About Alcohol
The Highs and Lows of Being a Starbucks Union Organizer
“No Call Goes Unanswered”: A Lifeline in Wyoming
The Very Hot Marriage of Niecy Nash and Jessica Betts
Cut Loose: Your Stories of Breaking Up
'I'm Done Kissing Your Butt': From Manager to Labor Activist
How Harvey Fierstein's Bad Sex Led to Good Art
What Our Teachers Are Carrying
Maria Hinojosa on Partying, Partnership, and Her New Pulitzer
How Much Climate Anxiety Helps?
"There’s Never a Perfect Time to Say, 'I’m Blind'"
Anna Sale Introduces Dead End: A New Jersey Political Murder Mystery
Create your
podcast in
minutes
It is Free
Stuff You Should Know
On Being with Krista Tippett
TED Radio Hour
Planet Money
The Dinner Party Download