The Witch Wave

By: Pam Grossman / Phantasmaphile LLC
  • Summary

  • The Witch Wave is a podcast for bewitching conversation about magic, creativity, and culture. On each episode, host Pam Grossman speaks with a leading visionary about art and Craft.
    2017-2024
    Show More Show Less
activate_samplebutton_t1
Episodes
  • #134 - Cécile McLorin Salvant, Enchanting Chanteuse
    Sep 25 2024
    Welcome to Season 8 of The Witch Wave!Cécile McLorin Salvant is a three-time Grammy-winning singer and composer, considered by many to be the Ella Fitzgerald/Sarah Vaughan/Billie Holiday/choose-your-own-iconic-vocalist of our time. The late opera legend Jessye Norman described Salvant as “a unique voice supported by an intelligence and full-fledged musicality, which light up every note she sings.” Salvant’s style and repertoire are extensive and expansive connecting vaudeville, blues, theater, jazz, baroque, pop, and folkloric music. She’s known as an eclectic curator, unearthing rarely recorded, forgotten songs with strong narratives, interesting power dynamics, unexpected twists, and humor. Salvant is widely admired and decorated with such awards as being the winner of the Thelonious Monk competition in 2010, the MacArthur fellowship (known in shorthand as the MacArthur Genius Award), and the Doris Duke Artist Award, in addition to the aforementioned multiple Grammys for Best Jazz Vocal Album. In addition to her stunning singing, Cécile is beloved for her visionary visual style, as well as for the tropes of mythology, magic, and monstresses which often show up in her original songs and her interpretations of existing ones. Her two most recent albums, Ghost Song (Nonesuch Records, 2022) and Mélusine (Nonesuch Records, 2023) include songs about supernatural love and mythic transformations, and her forthcoming album and animated feature, Ogresse, is a musical fable she describes as both a biomythography and an homage to the loa Erzulie.Born and raised in Miami, Florida of a French mother and Haitian father, she started classical piano studies at 5, sang in a children’s choir at 8, and started classical voice lessons as a teenager. Salvant received a bachelor’s in French law from the Université Pierre-Mendes France in Grenoble while also studying baroque music and jazz at the Darius Milhaud Music Conservatory in Aix-en-Provence, France.Salvant is also an accomplished visual artist, and her fantastical drawings, embroideries, and papercuttings can currently be seen up at Picture Room in Brooklyn through Nov 3, 2024. She is also on tour now, and will be performing at Carnegie Hall multiple times over the coming months.On this episode, Cécile discusses how she learned to embrace her “weird” in her music and other work, her love of hybrid creatures and mystical monstresses, and her burgeoning interest in ancestral magic.Pam also talks about voting as a means of counteracting tired old tropes about “diabolical” outsiders, and answers a listener question about getting to know the goddess Athena.Cécile McLorin Salvant songs featured in this episode:“Ghost Song” from Ghost Song (Nonesuch Records, 2022)“Wuthering Heights” cover from Ghost Song (Nonesuch Records, 2022)“Fenestra” from Mélusine(Nonesuch Records, 2023)Our sponsors for this episode are Ritual + Shelter, The Vintage Storyteller, Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab, BetterHelp, Blackthorn’s Book of Sacred Plant Magic out now from Weiser Books, Mithras Candle, and The Missing Witches Deck of Oracles out now from North Atlantic Books.We also have print-on-demand merch like Witch Wave shirts, sweatshirts, totes, stickers, and mugs available now here.And if you want more Witch Wave, please consider supporting us on Patreon to get access to detailed show notes, bonus Witch Wave Plus episodes, Pam’s monthly online rituals, and more! That’s patreon.com/witchwave
    Show More Show Less
    1 hr and 40 mins
  • #133 - Suranne Jones, Bewitching BAFTA-winning Actor
    Jun 26 2024

    This season finale of The Witch Wave features Suranne Jones, the award-winning English actor, producer, and series creator. She’s been nominated for several awards for acting and won a BAFTA for her starring role in the hit series Doctor Foster: A Woman Scorned. Some highlights from her decades long television career include starring roles in Gentleman Jack, Vigil, and Scott and Bailey, and she’s also appeared in such British television intuitions as Coronation Street and Doctor Who. She’s currently in production on a new Netflix thiller series called The Choice, which sees her starring as the British Prime Minister opposite Julie Delpy’s French president, so look for that in 2025. Suranne also has an illustrious theatre career, and has starred in such plays as Frozen, Orlando, and Beautiful Thing.

    As producer, Suranne runs the TeamAkers Productions company with her husband Laurence Akers, and it’s this company that is responsible for the new docuseries, Suranne Jones: Investigating Witch Trials(which features our own Pam Grossman!) The series is currently airing in 2 parts on the UK’s Channel 4 on June 23rd and June 30th, and if you missed the first part not to worry as both will be streaming on the Channel 4 site as well.

    On this episode, Suranne discusses what compelled her to make a witchcraft documentary, her personal relationship to magic, and the shapeshifting abilities that she brings to the craft of acting.

    Pam also talks about why historical witch hunts are relevant to this present moment, and answers a listener question about revealing her witch self on a date.

    Our sponsors for this episode are Ritual + Shelter, Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab, Nicole Marxen, BetterHelp, Snowy Owl Tea, Liza Fenster’s COMMUNION course, Sphere + Sundry, and The Queer Witches of Maude’s Paperwing Gallery

    We also have brand new print-on-demand merch like Witch Wave shirts, sweatshirts, totes, stickers, and mugs available now here.

    And if you want more Witch Wave, please consider supporting us on Patreon to get access to detailed show notes, bonus Witch Wave Plus episodes, Pam’s monthly online rituals, and more! That’s patreon.com/witchwave

    Show More Show Less
    1 hr and 25 mins
  • #132 - Cat Willett, "Women of Tarot" Author and Illustrator
    Jun 12 2024

    Cat Willett is a Brooklyn-based artist. She has written, illustrated, and published two full-length books. The first is The Queen of Wands: The Story of Pamela Colman Smith, the Artist Behind the Rider-Waite Tarot Deck. Her newest book, Women of Tarot, An Illustrated History of Divinators, Card Readers, and Mystics is out next week. Cat is fascinated by tarot as a facet of art history, and her work aims to elevate the women behind its evolution. She’s dedicated the last few years to telling these magical stories in her published books, both of which feature her own research and gorgeous artwork.

    Cat also makes illustrated comics about parenting, motherhood, gender, and animals, and she is a regular contributor to The Washington Post. Other clients and publications include The New York Times, Apple, Doc Martens, the Museum of Arts + Design, and the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, and she is available for select freelance work and projects as well.

    On this episode, Cat discusses visionary tarot artists such as Pamela Colman Smith and Lady Frieda Harris, the illuminating power of illustration, and the divinely feminine history of divination.

    Pam also talks about tarot’s impact on the arts, and answers a listener question about witchly concerns regarding a religious pre-school.

    Our sponsors for this episode are Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab, Sphere + Sundry, BetterHelp, The Queer Witches of Maude’s Paperwing Gallery, and Snowy Owl Tea.

    Please consider donating to Pam’s fundraiser for the Palestine Children’s Relief Fund

    We also have brand new print-on-demand merch like Witch Wave shirts, sweatshirts, totes, stickers, and mugs available now here.

    And if you want more Witch Wave, please consider supporting us on Patreon to get access to detailed show notes, bonus Witch Wave Plus episodes, Pam’s monthly online rituals, and more! That’s patreon.com/witchwave

    Show More Show Less
    1 hr and 24 mins

What listeners say about The Witch Wave

Average customer ratings

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.