Tonight, we talk about the significance and practice of direct action from Asian Americans who believe that this tactic is crucial to our movement. We look at the history of Asian Americans doing direct action, notable examples, and most importantly, how direct action is being used by Asian Americans today. Tonight’s show will feature brilliance and wisdom from Sabiha Basrai from Alliance of South Asians Taking Action [1]and Sarah Lee from Asians 4 Black Lives [2]. We have special guest hosts from API Equality - Northern California [3], Spam and Spam and the Cynthisizer.

[caption id="attachment_272311" align="aligncenter" width="1024"] Sammie Ablaza Wills and Cynthia Fong from API Equality - Northern California. Photo by Brooke Anderson.[/caption]

Our first guest is Sabiha Basrai from Alliance of South Asians Taking Action, also known as ASATA. ASTA is a San Francisco Bay Area all-volunteer group working to educate, organize, and empower the Bay Area South Asian communities to end violence, oppression, racism and exploitation within and against our diverse communities.

Our second guest is Sarah Lee from Asians 4 Black Lives, a diverse group of Asian voices based in the Bay Area that came together in response to a call from Black Lives Matter Bay Area and the larger Black Lives Matter movement. Asians 4 Black Lives is not an organization but they’re are organized; they believe in embracing frontline leadership, organizing our folks, and striving to use a diversity of tactics.

We’re very excited to have Sabiha from ASATA and Sarah from Asians 4 Black Lives here because today, we’re just going to have a conversation about direct action as Asian Americans in the movement.

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Community Calendar

APAture [4] is happening throughout the month of October. Support Kearny Street Workshop, the Bay Area’s hub for Asian Pacific American arts, by a multi-day, multidisciplinary arts festival featuring a lineup of some of today's most exciting emerging artists from the San Francisco Bay Area. We'll hear more about the festival on APEX Express, next week.

Just a few weeks shy of the October 10 hearing, the Trump administration announced its third iteration of the Muslim Ban. Join the resistance on October 9th at Civic Center Plaza in SF, to band together against Trump’s Muslim Bans and their impact on our communities - no Muslim ban ever! [5]

On Indigenous Peoples’ Day this Monday, join Indigenous people in ceremony by participating in the Indigenous Peoples' Day Sunrise Gathering on Alcatraz [6].

[1] http://www.asata.org/

[2] https://a4bl.wordpress.com/

[3] https://www.apiequalitync.org/

[4] https://www.facebook.com/events/359932494427920

[5] https://www.facebook.com/events/1427286337385134/

[6] https://www.facebook.com/events/357851897979847/?active_tab=about#