Project Voice

Jessica Nguyen sits down with Lacy Lew Nguyen Wright of Ballot Breakers, Representative Padma Kuppa of Michigan, and Representative Patty Kim of Pennsylvania to discuss civic advocacy and American politics. We start off the episode learning about the women’s relationship with politics, a field they all originally viewed as dirty business and were reluctant to partake in. They all share how their backgrounds and life experiences have influenced the work that they do in the political space, whether that is as a state representative amplifying and advocating for their communities or the founder of a platform that highlights the younger generation of politicians and celebrates their victories. For State Representatives Patty and Padma, we hear more about their journey running for office, touching upon the causes they are passionate about and the importance of active listening. They talked about the challenges they faced as well as their proudest achievements as elected officials. Lacy shares the origin story of B

Jessica Nguyen sits down with a few members of the Southeast Asian American (SEAA) SEAAster Scholars Collective–Jacqueline Mac, Linda Pheng, Vanessa S. Na, Varaxy Yi–to hear more about their experiences as POC/SEAA in academia, the meaning of homemaking, and the origin story and mission of their collective. After running into each other at various conferences and acknowledging that there were not many SEAA that occupy the academic space, they made it a goal to create a support system that provided the exchange of knowledge and authentic voices/experiences of the SEA diaspora. Oftentimes feeling alienated and isolated in academia, which is a predominantly White space, some members have taken more creative approaches (like dyeing their hair blue) in order to stand out and fight against invisibilization. When speaking about the challenges they had to overcome, they realized they wanted to do more than just survive. They wanted to thrive. Focusing on fostering a collaborative atmosphere, the SEAAster Scholars Col

Jessica Nguyen sits down with Seo Kelleher, the author of the newly released book “Don’t be a Bitch, be an Alpha,” to talk about her journey as an intuitive life and business coach and shamanic healer. With 20 years of marketing experience and an MBA under her belt, Seo used to define herself as a high performing career woman who focused on getting good grades and climbing the corporate ladder. Concerned with what other people will say and think about her, she realized that she was creating challenges in her head with the mindset that she had to live up to what the world had expected of her. When she transitioned into becoming an intuitive life and business coach, she realized that she had to dig deep within herself and face and heal her own traumas before she could help others with their transformations. Her approach in coaching focuses heavily on people relying on their own self for clarity in answers. Using her personal experience of transforming her own life, she wants to pass on these practices to a grea

Jessica Nguyen sits down with Tiffany Huang, the founder of Spill Stories, to talk about how she is able to foster personal growth passion projects. Stifled by the fast-paced Hong Kong lifestyle, Tiffany wanted to build a platform that allows for people (particularly womxn of color) to be unrestrained in the way that they speak and share their stories. Having to juggle both her day job and her passion project, she realized that sometimes one has to throw organization out the window and just start executing when you realize what it is that you want to do. With time and experience, Tiffany has learned that authentic stories come about when one does not overthink and simply makes their passion and intentions clear. Delving into more how Tiffany was able to develop Spill Stories to be what it is today, she touches upon she has become aware of the cues that precede burning out, prompting her to check in and make sure that her basic life needs are met. They talk about the importance of self love and how it is easy

Julie McConnell sits down with Julia Ha and Tammy Tran from Project Yellow Dress (PYD) to talk about how underrepresented communities are gaining visibility through self-expressed artistic mediums. We start the podcast getting to know the two PYD founders who talk about their family history (fun fact: they are second cousins). Their family experienced a double diaspora having to escape China and Vietnam because of warfare, and as a result, have traveled to many different countries in search of a new place to call home. We move on to hear about the lightbulb moment when a children's book on the Holocaust inspired them to start PYD. Recognizing how taking ownership of one's history is so crucial for communities who are often overlooked in history textbooks and mainstream media, they created PYD as a platform to encourage silenced individuals to share their stories through whatever medium they desire. This is a community of people who are flipping the script as they do advocacy in their own way. Yes, Asians can

Jessica Nguyen sits down with Ivy Kwong to talk about navigating the healing process individuals may have to go through with their family, particularly their parents. After talking about her own personal experience, Ivy shares tactics to help people heal and foster healthier relationships with their parents. Ivy touches upon how growing up as a child of immigrants from China and Hong Kong, she felt that she constantly had to constantly switch back and forth between two cultures–home was China while school was America. Having to straddle between these two worlds, she often was shocked at how her experience with family was so different than that of her American friends. She struggled to seek validation, approval, and love from her parents who gave conditional love only when she was succeeding. She often had to walk on eggshells within a household that didn’t process and talk about emotions. Ivy comes to realize that this emotional repression leads her to turn the anger she feels toward her parents against herse

Jessica Nguyen sits down with Helena Berbano to delve into how and why Asian-Americans are so politically disengaged. Given Helena’s active involvement in campaigning for Asian-American women candidates, she speaks about the power of political engagement and how the lack of such action negatively impacts the larger community.  We start the podcast with Helena speaking about the difficulties of working and existing in a white male-dominated space that heavily relies on having connections. Still holding onto her authenticity, she has found a way to adapt within this space as a woman of color. Working in politics, she has also gained insights into why the Asian-American community has lower engagement with politics compared to other communities. Besides more obvious factors like voter suppression tactics and language barriers, there are also issues with lack of contact and lingering trauma from past experiences with corrupt politics. Taking these into consideration, we should reevaluate what would be the mos

Jessica Nguyen sits down with Abigail Hing Wen, the author of Asian-American young adult novel “Loveboat, Taipei,” to learn about her journey in becoming a published author. Working in artificial intelligence in Silicon Valley, Abigail had no idea she would ever become a writer. Although she grew up reading books all the time, the idea for a book never came until she graduated from law school in 2007. Her journey started with the novel FOXSTONE and has continued over the course of 12 years where she continued to work on her craft, even getting an MFA from Vermont College of Fine Arts. 5 books later, she came out with “Loveboat, Taipei,” a story based on her own experiences attending a summer camp in Taiwan where she was able to revel in Asian culture and build amazing relationships. For Abigail, this coming-of-age story was written with the intent for 1) the Asian community to feel that they too can be protagonists of a novel and 2) showcase the diversity and humanity that exists within the community. Tune in

Jessica Nguyen sits down with Florence Shin and Athina Wang from COVRY Eyewear to talk about how they celebrate and set a new standard for diversity in the eyewear industry. These long-time friends who ended up going to schools on opposite coasts, found themselves working in the same city after college. With offices that were a block away from each other, Florence and Athina met each other during lunch breaks to discuss their business ideas. Realizing that they were always having to settle for eyewear that didn’t fit well, they want to create a product that would reflect the beauty of diverse face shapes. Unlike other fashion pieces that could be easily hemmed and altered to fit one’s body, adjusting pieces that were meant for the face was much more complicated. That is how COVRY was born. What started as their personal desire to produce eyewear that fit them well, soon became this movement away from one-size-fit-all to pieces with sizes that fit real people. In this pursuit of creating eyewear that combines

Julie McConnell sits down with Cece Horbat to discuss all things environmentalism. As someone who has been interested in the environment after watching NBC commercials about recycling, Cece is now majoring in environmental justice at the University of Michigan’s School for Environment and Sustainability. Responding to the article “Five Ways to Make the Outdoors More Inclusive,” Cece finds a correlation between the diversity of the environment and the human population and feels that it is inherently wrong that some people do not have equitable access to the resources that the earth has to water, whether that’s clean air, water, or even healthy. This lack of equity may be due to a variety of factors such as geographic location, economic stress, and/or lack of education. What also comes hand in hand with this lack of access to the outdoors is the lack of awareness of how humans are impacting the environment. Although the topic itself may be complicated and overwhelming to tackle, Cece encourages people to start

Julie Connell sits down with Nkauj Iab Yang from Southeast Asia Resource Action Center (SEARAC) to deliver an engaging and educational episode centered around trauma–from how it's defined to the long-term consequences that unfold when trauma goes unaddressed. This episode covers a wide variety of trauma with trauma being defined as emotionally and physically distressing experiences that challenge one's ability to cope. The conversation starts off with a focus on the older generation who lived through the war in Southeast Asia and fled their homeland for the sake of their well being and safety. Besides having experienced violence firsthand, these individuals had to face many stressors that came with resettling in a foreign country. Faced with language barriers and lack of access to resources and information regarding higher education, many Southeast Asian communities suffer from high rates of unemployment and poverty. Many people had to learn how to navigate America on their own since there was no pre-existing

Jessica Nguyen sits down with Cynthia Koo and Irene Kwong to talk about their experiences as Asian-American women business owners in the stationery industry. In this interview, we explore how they turned their passion into a career while dealing with obstacles from external pressures. Cynthia and Irene briefly introduce Wonton In A Million and Simply Gilded, respectively, before delving into how their obsession with stationary during their childhood carried over to adulthood. Their interest to pursue this interest professionally grew as they discovered the welcoming stationary community. As they look back on their journey as creative entrepreneurs, they reflect on how it wasn’t something they set out to do full-time right from the beginning. Facing difficulties with breaking into the market and their fears of financial instability, the process to eventually go all-in on their passion projects was gradual as they built confidence in their craft. Technology played a crucial part in that process as it enabled th

This is it. We made it. Season 4 finale. As many of you know, Project Voice has been running for a little over 2 years since November 2016. When I first started the podcast, I only expected myself to produce 15 episodes at the most. It was started by me and a bunch of my friends who I invited to share their experiences on the show. Most of us didn’t come from an academic background in ethnic studies or Asian American studies. We were just speaking from our own experience[s]. I was learning as I was going through the conversations taking place on Project Voice, and over time, eventually became very active and involved with the activist community. I learned to be more convicted with my beliefs while at the same time, open-minded and respectful towards those who hold different views from mine. I’ve learned and listened from a variety of perspectives. As many of you know, I have not been in the U.S. for a few years now and just moved my base to Australia where I’ll be living for at least another year. During this

About a year ago, Minnie Ng and I invited Jen Sungshine to share with us not only her history and experience in activism and video production under Love Intersections but her insights about collaborating with other multitalented QTPOC artists as well. From our interview with Jen, we will learn about why collaborations may be the most effective and ethical approach to sharing stories of communities across borders. In this episode, we also will discuss more about the importance of engaging in difficult dialogues and listening with empathy and compassion as creative activists. As we near the end of season 4, Project Voice will be preparing for its lineup for season 5 (and ANOTHER big surprise coming soon!). If you are interested in being interviewed, please email us at projectvoicepod@gmail.com! Jen Sungshine speaks for a living, but lives for breathing life into unspoken situations in unusual places. She is a nerdy queer Taiwanese interdisciplinary artist/activist, facilitator, and community mentor based in Van

Content warning: sexual assault Years before the online #MeToo movement that took place in October 2017, Yee Xiong filed a civil suit case against her attacker. Determined to bring justice to her case, she bravely held her ground despite the bribery and threats that occurred during the conviction. It was only a few months later that Yee reached out to me to again to share news of her huge win of her lawsuit case. The legal battle lasted for 6 years. According to a NY Times interview, Yee hopes that her victory will send “a very powerful and positive message to the world that people will be held accountable for their actions, no matter how long it takes.” In this episode, Yee will share with us how she navigated through the legalities of her case and healed herself after the incident. On a larger scale, we also will discuss about how sexual violence is related to immigration rights. Yee Xiong is a daughter of Hmong refugee parents and an advocate for sexual assault survivors and immigrant rights. She earned he

Brought to you by our co-host, Afsana Oreen: Anti-Blackness within the South Asian diasporic community is often not discussed. That’s why I was excited to learn how Nina Bhattacharya – a writer, educator, and cultural organizer – combats anti-blackness. I invite you to modify her strategies, with some additional guidance from the Aerogram’s article “The Revolution Starts with My Thathi,” the next time you need to confront anti-Blackness in your community or in unfamiliar spaces. Nina Bhattacharya is a writer, educator, podcast producer, and cultural organizer based in Cambridge, MA. Her writing has been published in The Toast, Kajal Magazine, and The Aerogram.

Recently, a man by the name Edward Blum and the Students for Fair Admissions have teamed up to sue Harvard for discriminating against its Asian American applicants with its affirmative action policy. Affirmative action has been one of the hottest debates for a while within our community and I thought that it would be really helpful to have Quyen Dinh, Executive Director from the Southeast Asia Resource Action Center, also known as SEARAC, on the podcast to share her personal story as well as SEARAC’s findings on the important impact affirmative action and data disaggregation has had on our Southeast Asian American community. Quyen Dinh is the Executive Director of the Southeast Asia Resource Action Center (SEARAC). As Executive Director, Quyen has advocated for Southeast Asian Americans on key civil rights issues including education, immigration, criminal justice, health, and aging.  Born to Vietnamese refugees, Quyen identifies as a second-generation Vietnamese American. She holds a Masters of Public Po

It is no surprise to us how often Asian women are bombarded by harmful messages from society and media. Tired of being told how we should navigate the world, Sung Yeon Choimorrow and I will be opening up the conversation on body issues by first discussing and dispelling stereotypes fostered by microaggressions, internalized racism, fatphobia, racism, and more. Later on in the podcast, Sung Yeon also will share her professional involvement with body politics through means of organizational advocacy under the National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum (NAPAWF). She will bring up topics on NAPAWF’s current agenda, such as immigration and deportation. We will end strong with closing remarks to questions that many of us in our community have asked every day: What does #bodylove mean to us? What does it mean to have agency over our bodies? How can we change the culture and attitude around our politicized bodies and finally reclaim agency over our bodies? Sung Yeon Choimorrow is the executive director of the Nati

So, I was ecstatic to know that Bharat Babies was going to be a sponsor for Project Voice and I really wanted to give the platform to its founder, Sailaja, because what she’s doing for our community is really inspiring. When I was looking for sponsors for Project Voice, one of the items on my criteria was to partner with a business who reflected our values and I believe that Bharat Babies really fit the mold for us as a business. As someone who grew up craving for stories that looked like me, I thought it was refreshing to hear that there was someone out there who decided to make a change about it. So, here I’m going to have Sailaja share her story on how she started Bharat Babies. Bharat Babies is an indie publishing house that shares the stories of South Asian characters doing everything from the everyday to the extraordinary. From stories of superhero, the celebrating festivals, to standing up for themselves, Bharat Babies helps to ensure that every child can see themselves in the stories told. Bharat Babi

After coming back from a retreat for Asian American women, I have fostered a deeper appreciation for physical spaces dedicated solely for Asian women. That’s why Dr. Connie Wun is here today to share about her upcoming launch of #ImReady, being held from November 3rd-4th, 2018. She will be sharing how she founded her own organization for AAPI women as the director of AAPI Women Lead, “an intergenerational organization that strengthens the social and political power of AAPI communities through the leadership of AAPI Women-identified, women and girls in solidarity with other communities of color.” “The #ImReady Movement aims to strengthen the progressive political and social platforms of Asian and Pacific Islander communities in the US through the leadership of self-identified AAPI women and girls.  Our goal is to challenge and help end the intersections of violence against and within our communities. We do this work in solidarity with other communities of color. The #ImReady Movement raises visibility aro