EMMA ALABASTER
SELECT PORTFOLIO
Imperfect Paradise: Strippers Union
LAist Studios
In 2023, North Hollywood’s Star Garden reopened as the only unionized strip club in the U.S. LAist Producer Emma Alabaster tells us the behind-the-scenes story of the workplace conditions that pushed the dancers into action, the complex conversations it sparked among sex workers and the labor movement, and what struggles and questions still remain after the Star Garden dancers win their union campaign.
Reporting, voicing, writing, sound design, scoring by Emma Alabaster
4-part series available wherever you get your podcasts
Snooze Podcast
LAist Studios
Snooze is a show about things people put off, how they conquer them, but most importantly, how they conquer themselves. In each episode, host Megan Tan, the Snooze Squad and guest celebrities will strategize an action plan for people like you and me to face our fears.
Episode 10: RuPaul's Drag Race helped Gerardo come out of the closet and eventually find his love for drag. But is he ready to finally apply to be a contestant on the show? He starts applications, but never finishes them. Gerardo will decide whether this year is the year he hits submit on his application or not.
This episode of Snooze was written and produced, with sound design and original music by Emma Alabaster. Written and edited by Megan Tan and Erick Galindo.
Available wherever you get your podcasts
WILD Podcast, Season 2
LAist Studios
WILD is a podcast about growing up… kind of. About those big and small moments that transform us forever. About how sometimes we come out on the other side of chaos or adversity with scars, but we come out stronger.
WILD season two is all about love with co-hosts Erick Galindo and Megan Tan. Erick tells Megan a fictional love story, inspired by the wildest thing he once did for love... It starts with an invite on a cross-country road trip with the woman who stole his heart. Join him and Melinna Bobadilla, Gabrielle Ruiz and Atsuko Okatsuka. Does Erick find his one true love? Listen to WILD Season 2: I Think I’m Falling in Love
Production and Sound Design by on episode 2 (and half of the season's episodes)
by Emma Alabaster
Available wherever you get your podcasts
A project and podcast by Taja Lindley examining the intersections of race, gender and the double entendre of labor: to work and to give birth. Formerly known as the Birth Justice Podcast NYC. Produced by Colored Girls Hustle.
Music & Pre-Production by Emma Alabaster
Lyrics by Taja Lindley & Emma Alabaster
Available wherever you get your podcasts
Music & Direction by decibelists: Emma Alabaster & Leo Ferguson
Edited by Erin Greenwell
The video was created through an interactive process of community engagement in which born-and-raised New Yorkers were invited to tell their “displacement stories” and create short narratives for the video.
Full decibelists album available on all streaming platforms
decibelists also made the theme song for Diaspora Podcast
Brooklyn Community Bail Fund, Jews For Racial & Economic Justice, Never Again Action and New Sanctuary Coalition joined forces to launch the Let My People Go campaign, to bail people out of jail and immigration detention, and demand that Governor Cuomo and Mayor de Blasio #FreeThemAll.
Just in time for the first night of Passover, nine musicians and over thirty singers came together to set our demands to music. The ensemble features Black Jews and other Jews of Color, professional singers and passionate amateurs, and people from every background — all united in outrage over the government’s indifference to the lives of incarcerated New Yorkers.
Emma Alabaster - Vocal Arranging; Leo Ferguson - Arranging & Production
Lyrics adapted by Mare Berger, Emma Alabaster, Leo Ferguson, and Alicia Raquel Bauman Morales Video edited by Drew Dickler; Directed by Emma Alabaster & Leo Ferguson
“I Know What It Means To Be Free” was created by the Let My People Go campaign in collaboration with Israel Adeyemi Adeniji who was arrested by the police and spent 190 days in ICE detention. Last year, BCBF paid the $12,000 bond - ransom - required to secure Israel's freedom and reunite him with his family. The criminal charges against Israel have since been dropped but he is still fighting his immigration case. Thousands of our immigrant neighbors remain in detention.
Produced by Israel Adeyemi Adeniji and Emma Alabaster
Narrated by Israel Adeyemi Adeniji
Directed and Animated by Nathan Leigh
Music by ES Wex
Audio Mixing by Emma Alabaster
Poem by Sterling A. Brown
Music, Vocals & Acoustic Guitar - Cornelius Eady
Bass, Vocals & Music Direction - Emma Alabaster
Violin - Concetta Abbate
Drums - Leo Ferguson
Electric Guitar - Charlie Rauh
Vocals - Robin Messing
Arrangement - Rough Magic
In 2013, Cornelius Eady was commissioned by the Poetry Society of America to set three poems by Sterling A. Brown to music. Since then, Eady has composed music for an additional nine Brown poems. Released in February 2021, The Sterling Brown Project is a celebration of Brown’s canon, an exploration of the historical context of his work, and a testament to the power of art as Black resistance and Black joy. Eady is joined by a spectacular group of musicians, and additional works are read by esteemed poet Rowan Ricardo Phillips.
Called “the Poet Laureate of the Jim Crow South,” Sterling Brown’s blues and folk poems drop the reader into the untold, hidden stories of African-American life. Police and vigilante violence, cotton fields and tenements are all rendered in gripping narratives and poignant verse.