A very special episode! Today we are chatting with Xander Marro, co-founder of the Dirt Palace, "a feminist cupcake encrusted netherworld located along the dioxin filled banks of the Woonasquatucket river, which is to say in Providence, RI USA". The Dirt Palace is a feminist artist-run collective/residency program/space that has been a pivotal part of the artistic community in Providence for over 20 years, and this interview is the first in a three part series focused on the Dirt Palace and its two co-founders: Xander Marro and Pippi Zornoza. This series was made in collaboration with Voices in Contemporary Art (VoCA), and was recorded in December 2022 in Xander's studio. In a first for the pod, you can *watch* the interview, including clips of Xander's work here: https://vimeo.com/889901548 In the interview, we discuss Xander's creative origins, explorations in puppetry, animation, printmaking, film, live performance, and community arts organizing.  We don't normally share guest-written bios, but Xander's is a work of art in its own right, so we simply must: "Xander Marro has been living the good life in the feminist sub-underground for too many years to count on her long bony fingers.  She draws pictures (usually narrative), makes movies (usually not narrative), produces plays with elaborate sets and costumes (usually narrative, but confusing), and then makes stuff like posters, quilts and dioramas (probably narrative?). Her work is often about spiritual relationships to the material stuff of this world. Co-founder of the Dirt Palace in 2000 (feminist cupcake encrusted netherworld located along the dioxin filled banks of the Woonasquatucket river, which is to say in Providence, RI USA). Her studio (and heart) is there still. Xander currently serves as co-director of Dirt Palace Public Projects. She cut her teeth in community arts management serving as the Managing Director of Providence’s legendary AS220. She teaches a class on poster design at RISD and serves as The Board Chair of One Neighborhood Builders, a community development/affordable housing organization." Stay tuned for our conversation with Pippi, and the final episode in the series where we sit down with both artists to discuss their decades long collaboration. Links from the conversation with Xander > http://xandermarro.com > https://www.dirtpalace.org > https://www.dirtpalace.org/wchbnb Get access to exlusive content - join us on Patreon! > https://patreon.com/artobsolescence Join the conversation: https://www.instagram.com/artobsolescence/ Support artists Art and Obsolescence is a non-profit podcast, sponsored by the New York Foundation for the Arts, and we are committed to equitably supporting artists that come on the show. Help support our work by making a tax deductible gift through NYFA here: https://www.artandobsolescence.com/donate