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The AC Pulse

The AC Pulse

By: AJ Corrales
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About this listen

Welcome to The AC Pulse, hosted by AJ Corrales — Executive Director of Avante Garde, artist advocate, and unapologetic creative disruptor. This is the space where the creative heartbeat lives. We bring you raw, real conversations with artists, changemakers, and visionaries who are rewriting the rules and building a world where artistry, financial stability, and social justice collide. If you’re ready to feel the pulse of the culture — unfiltered and unbothered — you’re in the right place. ✨ Produced by AJ Corrales in collaboration with Avante Garde. For Artists, By Artists.AJ Corrales Social Sciences
Episodes
  • S2 E11 The Whisper Network
    Jan 30 2026

    The AC Pulse — Season 2, Episode 11The Whisper Network Wasn’t Lying

    The whisper network wasn’t gossip.
    It wasn’t drama.
    It was survival.

    In this episode of The AC Pulse, host Amanda Corrales gives voice to the stories artists were never allowed to say out loud — the late-night texts, the hallway warnings, the quiet “be careful” messages that turned out to be true.

    This episode examines how institutional silence, soft blacklisting, and reputation control operate in the arts — and why artists learn to whisper instead of speak publicly.


    🔍 What this episode covers:

    • Why the whisper network exists in the arts
    • How unpaid labor is framed as “opportunity”
    • Institutional blacklisting without paper trails
    • How reputations are quietly destroyed without formal action
    • Why accountability is punished while compliance is rewarded
    • How artists protect each other when systems won’t

    Amanda breaks down how silence is cultivated, how concerns are acknowledged privately and dismissed publicly, and how artists are labeled “difficult” the moment they ask for boundaries or accountability.

    This episode makes one thing clear:
    The truth didn’t disappear.
    It learned how to survive underground.


    📘 For Artists Ready to Reclaim Authority

    Amanda’s new release, The Artist Code: Power, is a guided companion for artists navigating exploitation, silence, and power in creative industries.

    👉 Find it here: https://tr.ee/f8xV7YmmKQ

    Have you ever heard something in the whisper network — and later realized it was true?

    • Tag @theacpulse
    • Use #WhisperedWasTrue
    • Or share anonymously: amanda@ajcorrales.com

    Follow The AC Pulse, share this episode, and leave a review.
    Truth travels differently when it’s recognized.

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    9 mins
  • S2 E10 RedLine Reframed: Artist Harm, Repackaged
    Jan 19 2026

    The AC Pulse — Season 2, Episode 10

    RedLine Reframed: Artist Harm, Repackaged

    How do nonprofit arts institutions reframe artist harm as growth — and why do funders reward it?

    In this episode of The AC Pulse, host Amanda Corrales breaks down how institutional harm is often repackaged through PR, DEI programming, and “learning narratives” instead of being addressed with accountability, repair, or restitution.

    This is not a general critique.
    It is a documented pattern.

    Episode 10 examines how artist exploitation, uncredited intellectual property use, and exclusion are routinely reframed as organizational resilience — while the artists who were harmed are erased from the conversation entirely.

    • How nonprofit arts organizations reframe artist harm as institutional growth
    • The “DEI-as-PR” cycle used to launder accountability failures
    • Why harmed artists are excluded from so-called healing processes
    • How silence, rebranding, and leadership continuity protect institutions — not communities
    • Why funders often reward reframing instead of repair

    Amanda walks through how RedLine responded after being publicly called out — not with accountability, but with a pivot. A shift in optics. A reframing of harm as “learning.” And how that reframing was rewarded.

    This episode is about institutional gaslighting in the arts, creative labor exploitation, and the systems that protect brands while discarding people.

    A parody of institutional damage-control culture — because nothing says equity like a glossy recap with no accountability.

    Amanda has just released The Artist Code: Power, a guided companion for artists reclaiming creative authority, boundaries, and stability after institutional harm.

    👉 Access The Artist Code: Power here:
    https://tr.ee/f8xV7YmmKQ

    Have you seen your harm reframed as an organization’s progress?

    • Tag @theacpulse
    • Use #RepackagedHarm
    • Email your story: amanda@ajcorrales.com

    Because we remember what they tried to rewrite.

    Follow The AC Pulse, share this episode, and leave a review wherever you listen — independent truth-telling depends on community.

    The AC Pulse — where truth isn’t fragile, but community is sacred.

    🔍 What this episode covers:🛑 Satirical Ad Break: RePutation™📘 New Release — For Artists📣 Community Call

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    7 mins
  • S2 E9 Receipts & Red Flags: Part 2 — The Promo Language Theft
    Jan 9 2026

    Receipts & Red Flags: Part 2 — The Promo Language Theft

    In this episode of The AC Pulse, Amanda Corrales documents what happens when an artist’s original concept doesn’t just get “borrowed”—it gets rebranded.

    You’ll hear Amanda read directly from her original submission, Artist Through the Prism, followed by the promotional language used by RedLine for its 2024 programming. The similarities aren’t abstract. They’re structural, tonal, and—at points—word for word.

    This episode explores:

    • How artistic ideas are institutionally laundered

    • Why lack of credit is a systemic issue in nonprofit arts spaces

    • The difference between recognition and replication

    • How appropriation often hides behind equity language

    This isn’t a copyright case.
    It’s a pattern.

    And once you hear it, you can’t unhear it.

    🧺 Featuring a satirical ad break: The Language Laundromat™
    Because “credit” is optional—but your gala speech is mandatory.

    📌 Follow @theacpulse, share the episode, and leave a review to support independent reporting.
    📚 The Artist Code: Power is available now — links are in the show description.

    The AC Pulse — where we don’t wait for permission. We document.

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    7 mins
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