Who We Are

RESPAIR 

(noun) - the return of hope after a period of despair

(verb) - to have hope again

Respair Production & Media (RPM) is an ecosystem hub creating and supporting the media needed to reshape culture toward liberation. Based in Chicago, Respair Production and Media (RPM) builds new media projects in partnership with social movement participants and visionaries, enabling their work to reach new audiences and creating space for the ideological frameworks and material needs of those reimagining our world to be heard, shared, and supported.

Respair contributes programming, production, publishing, development, and personal tools to emergent media makers, while encouraging the autonomy necessary to independently build transformative media. A resilient, sustainable media ecosystem is both a necessary tool for liberation and a difficult structure to build. Respair makes it possible for movement mediamakers across the country to have access to the resources and support they need to create without compromise.

For nearly a decade, Respair co-founders Damon A. Williams and Daniel Kisslinger have built humanizing, subject-to-subject media projects in partnership and participation with liberation movements. They are the co-creators of AirGo, a weekly podcast in Chicago that reshapes the culture of the city and beyond for the more Liberatory and creative. Through longform conversations with movement workers, artists, rappers, poets, musicians, organizers, and changemakers, AirGo puts Chicago's reimaginers in conversation and creates a living dialogue-based archive of our creative communities and social movements. Past guests include Angela Davis, Mariame Kaba, adrienne maree brown, Hanif Abdurraqib, Eve L. Ewing, Jamila Woods, and many more. AirGo also has used its emergent frameworks and praxises to help organizations, campaigns, universities, and audiences across the country to create their own media projects and reimagine their communities.

Meet the Team

Damon A Williams is…

a movement builder, organizer, hip-hop performing artist, educator and media maker from the south side of Chicago. He is the Co-Founder of Respair Production & Media, and the Co-Creator of AirGo, a weekly podcast in Chicago that reshapes the culture of the city and beyond for the more liberatory and creative. He is the co-director of the #LetUsBreathe Collective, an artistic activist organization birthed out of supply trips to support the Ferguson uprising in resistance to the murder of Mike Brown. Williams and #LetUsBreathe transplanted the experiences from the front lines and continue to organize direct actions and community enrichment events throughout the streets of Chicago and in their movement building community center The #BreathingRoom Space, with the mission of utilizing cultural production and popular education to redistribute power and resources, eradicate systemic violence, and transform inequity.

In honor of his leadership, Damon been named a TIME Magazine’s 2020 Guardian of the Year, a Field Foundation 2021 Leader for a New Chicago, a Margaret Burroughs Fellow by the UIC Social Justice Initiative’s Portal Project, and a Power of Cash Narrative Change Fellow by Economic Security of Illinois.

Daniel Kisslinger is…

a Chicago-based host and producer who creates dialogue-based media showcasing the stories, voices, and artworks of communities challenging power, reconfiguring public life, and reimagining our world. He is the Co-Founder of Respair Production & Media, and is the Co-Creator of AirGo, a weekly podcast in Chicago that reshapes the culture of the city and beyond for the more liberatory and creative.

A twice Webby-nominated podcast producer, Daniel has also been named an Artist Fellow as part of the UIC Social Justice Initiative’s Portal Project, as well as a Power of Cash Narrative Change Fellow by Economic Security of Illinois. His words have been featured in NY Times bestseller We Do This ‘Til We Free Us and The New Normal, a salon journal published by The Hoodoisie. Daniel also edits CTU Speaks!, a podcast produced by the Chicago Teachers Union, and also works as a consultant helping organizations, individuals, and companies build humanizing, subject-to-subject podcasts from scratch.

Our Ecosystem

A remarkable network of movement and community media organizations in Chicago, who have been our thought partners, collaborators, and inspirations in the work of Respair.