Below the Radar

Jackie Obungah is in conversation with Aida Mwanzia about the importance of centering Black youth and community perspectives in policymaking. Aida speaks about a policy brief she wrote advocating for a cap on international student tuition, as well as her experience working with Ethọ́s Lab to create accessible and inclusive tech spaces.

Full episode details: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/70-aida-mwanzia.html

Read the transcript: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/transcripts/70-aida-mwanzia.html

Read Aida’s policy brief on international student tuition:

https://levelvf.ca/project/building-an-ethical-relationship-between-the-province-of-british-columbia-and-international-students/

More about Ethọ́s Lab:

https://solidstate.coop/ethoslab

Bio:

With 5 years of facilitation experience, Aida is skilled at bringing people together to discuss critical topics, create new possibilities, and transform the way that teams interact with one another. She is driven by her mission to connect and empower youth through transformative educational programs, and currently has her own facilitation business. Aida’s roots in Kenya, upbringing in Gambia and experience in Canada inform her desire to shift the narrative about misunderstood places, people, and systems in order to positively shape how we engage with the world around us. You can reach her for booking enquiries at [email protected], or via Linkedin.

Cite this episode:

Chicago Style

Obungah, Jackie. “Youth in Policymaking — with Aida Mwanzia.” Below the Radar, SFU’s Vancity Office of Community Engagement. Podcast audio, August 20, 2020. https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/70-aida-mwanzia.html.

How do we come together to make and enjoy art in a time of physical distancing? Interdisciplinary artist and community organizer Vanessa Richards joins host Am Johal in his backyard for a physically distanced conversation about convening community through music during the pandemic. They discuss the challenges and opportunities of practising community-engaged arts over these past months; Vanessa’s experiences of virtually leading Van Van Song Society and Dancing in the Dark; and how Vancouver is responding to and participating in this moment of heightened community action for racial justice.

Full episode details: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/series/pandemic-conversations/69-vanessa-richards.html

Read the transcript: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/transcripts/69-vanessa-richards.html

Resources:

Van Van Song Society:

https://www.vanvansongsociety.com/

Creative Together:

http://creativetogether.ca/

Resmaa Menakem:

https://www.resmaa.com/

Bio:

Vanessa Richards, born in Vancouver, works as an artist and facilitator. Her practices encourage the personal and civic imagination towards positive social change and sustainability. Since the 1990's she has been devising and delivering arts-based engagement, education and programming through collaboration with community programmes, universities, unions, cultural organizations, health care providers, and projects that serve the imaginations of young people and elders. As a community choir leader she also brings collective singing to conferences and gatherings to connect ideas, emotions and people. Her poetry and critical works are anthologized in the UK, Holland, United States and Canada. As a performer she has been nominated for a Jesse Richardson Theatre Award. She is on the advisory committee for the RADIUS Fellowship at Beedie School of Business SFU and a producer/facilitator for the Social Venture Institute with Hollyhock Leadership Institute. For many years Richards served as a volunteer on the City of Vancouver Black History Month Advisory Committee as well as the Hogan’s Alley Working Group and Society. She is currently a volunteer mentor for two youth co-operatives, Ethọ́s Lab and Solid State. For her work in community engagement Richards was the recipient of the 2018 City of Vancouver’s Mayor’s Achievement Award.

Cite this episode:

Chicago Style

Johal, Am. “Pandemic Conversations: Singing Through the Dark & Other Pandemic Pleasures — with Vanessa Richards.” Below the Radar, SFU’s Vancity Office of Community Engagement. Podcast audio, August 18, 2020. https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/series/pandemic-conversations/69-vanessa-richards.html.

On this episode of Below the Radar, our guest host, Jackie Obungah, is joined by Ayaan Ismaciil and Natasha Mhuriro. They discuss the importance of starting a Black in BC Mutual Aid fund during the pandemic as a means of community support and sustenance. Ayaan and Natasha also talk about finding a balance between student life and community organizing. Both Ayaan and Natasha are members of the African Students Association at SFU and have been part of several student organizing initiatives on campus. In this conversation, they also explore the continued solidarity between Indigenous and Black communities in working towards liberation.

Full episode details: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/68-ayaan-ismaciil-natasha-mhuriro.html

Read the transcript: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/transcripts/68-ayaan-ismaciil-natasha-mhuriro.html

You can learn more about the African Student Association here: https://www.facebook.com/SfuAfricanStudentsAssociation/

Black in BC Community Support Fund for COVID-19:

https://ca.gofundme.com/f/covid19-black-community-support-vancouver

Bio:

Ayaan Ismaciil is a Black African Muslim Refugee-settler on the stolen and occupied ancestral homelands of the Coast Salish Peoples; the xwməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), and səl̓ílwətaʔɬ/Selilwitulh (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations. She is invested in community organizing, furthering aftocentric decolonial practices in her life/community, and creating youth spaces that center the leadership, lived experiences and expertise of Black and Indigenous youth. Ayaan is a founding member of the Black in BC Mutual Aid Fund Team. She is also working on a personal project Dreams of Humanity: Refugee Voices which aims to create space for Refugee folks living in what’s colonially known as Vancouver. Amid this global pandemic and fight for Black liberation and Indigenous Sovereignties across Turtle Island, Ayaan is being sustained by mutual support and community care from Black and Indigenous youth.

Natasha Mhuriro was born and raised in Zimbabwe. She currently lives, works and studies on the occupied territories of the xwməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam, Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), and səl̓ílwətaʔɬ/Selilwitulh (Tsleil-Waututh) Peoples. Her interests are in public policy and empowering self-identified Black women. Upon completion of her studies at SFU she hopes to start initiatives that will encourage young women to foster positive societal change by taking an active role in shaping public, economic and development policies. She is inspired and guided by the many teachings and lessons she continues to receive from the Black women in her life. She is passionate and invested in community organizing, which has resulted in her making lasting contributions in the various fields she has worked in marked by an exceptional devotion to amplify the voices of Black women. On campus she organizes with the SFU African Students’ Association as President of the group to engage and amplify African students’ voices and interests and the community at large. She also currently volunteers as one of the co-organizers of the Black in BC Mutual Aid’s Support Fund which is a low-barrier, emergency, micro-grant program that seeks to support Black people in BC throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.

Cite this episode:

Chicago Style

Obungah, Jackie. “Black Youth in Community Organizing — with Ayaan Ismaciil and Natasha Mhuriro.” Below the Radar, SFU’s Vancity Office of Community Engagement. Podcast audio, August 11, 2020. https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/68-ayaan-ismaciil-natasha-mhuriro.html.

On this episode of our Below the Radar Conversations Series, our host Am Johal is joined by Ann Livingston, community organizer and drug user activist. Ann is the co-founder of the Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users, and is currently the Executive Project Coordinator of the BC-Yukon Association of Drug War Survivors. Am and Ann discuss the two current public health emergencies: the COVID-19 pandemic and the fentanyl contamination deaths in BC.

Full episode details: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/series/pandemic-conversations/67-ann-livingston.html

Read the transcript: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/transcripts/67-ann-livingston.html

You can find out more about the Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users here: https://vandureplace.wordpress.com/

And you can learn more about the BC-Yukon Association of Drug War Survivors here: http://bcyadws.ca/

Bio:

Ann Livingston is a community organizer, who works to improve access to citizenship for people who use illegal drugs. After co-founding the Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users (VANDU) in 1998, she was employed as VANDU’s executive program director for 10 years. Ann organized with PWUD to form several drug users’ groups including the BC Association of People on Opiate Maintenance, the Western Aboriginal Harm Reduction Society, the BC Yukon Association of Drug War Survivors & the Canadian Association of People who Use Drugs. Ann has advised the Vancouver Injection Drug User Survey, the NAOMI & SALOME Heroin Trials, BCCSU and the City of Vancouver. Ann was central in ensuring the policy of 1-for-1 Needle Exchange become Needle Distribution & Collection as well as seeding drug user groups for people who smoke crack, people who drink illegal alcohol, women who use drugs and survivors of the heroin prescription programs. Ann has opened 4 unsanctioned overdose prevention sites. She is the Executive Project Coordinator of BC/Yukon Association of Drug War Survivors.

Cite this episode:

Chicago Style

Johal, Am. “Pandemic Conversations: Ending Fentanyl Contamination Deaths — with Ann Livingston.” Below the Radar, SFU’s Vancity Office of Community Engagement. Podcast audio, August 7, 2020. https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/series/pandemic-conversations/67-ann-livingston.html.

On this episode of Below the Radar, our host Am Johal is joined by Amal Ghazal, Director of the Centre for Comparative Muslim Studies, and Associate Professor in the Department of History at SFU with a focus on the modern history of the Middle East and Africa. Born in Lebanon, she has studied at the American University of Beirut and moved to Canada in 1996 to complete her MA and PhD at the University of Alberta. Prior to joining SFU, she was a faculty member at Dalhousie University in Nova Scotia. Amal has been the Director of the Centre for Comparative Muslim Studies since 2017, with an emphasis on community engagement within Muslim communities and beyond.

Full episode details: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/66-amal-ghazal.html

Read the transcript: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/transcripts/66-amal-ghazal.html

You can find out more about the Centre for Comparative Muslim Studies here:

http://www.sfu.ca/ccms.html

Bio:

Amal Ghazal was born and raised in Lebanon, where she earned a BA in History at the American University of Beirut. She moved to Canada in 1996 and completed her MA and PhD at the University of Alberta. After a postdoctoral stint at the University of Toronto, Amal joined Dalhousie University as a faculty member in the History Department. She joined SFU's History Department in September 2017. Amal is currently the director of the Centre for Comparative Muslim Studies at SFU.

Cite this episode:

Chicago Style

Johal, Am. “Community Engagement in Muslim Communities — with Amal Ghazal.” Below the Radar, SFU’s Vancity Office of Community Engagement. Podcast audio, August 5, 2020. https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/66-amal-ghazal.html.

On this episode of Below the Radar, we speak with Kenneth Bailey, the co-founder of the Design Studio for Social Intervention. With our host Am Johal, he discusses how social justice issues have been exacerbated during the pandemic and protests in support of racial justice and defunding the police.

Full episode details: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/series/pandemic-conversations/65-kenneth-bailey.html

Read the transcript: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/transcripts/65-kenneth-bailey.html

You can learn more about Design Studio for Social Intervention: https://www.ds4si.org/

Design Studio for Social Intervention's book Ideas-Arrangements-Effects: https://www.ds4si.org/writings/iae

Bio:

Bailey is the co-founder of the Design Studio for Social Intervention. His interests focus on the research and development of design tools for marginalized communities to address complex social issues. With over three decades of experience in community practice, Bailey brings a unique perspective on the ethics of design in relation to community engagement, the arts and cultural action. Projects he has produced at ds4si include Action Lab (2012- 2014), Public Kitchen (2011-2018), Social Emergency Response Center (SERC, 2017), People’s Redevelopment Authority (2018) and inPUBLIC (2019). Bailey was recently a Visiting Scholar in collaboration with University of Tasmania and also a founding member of Theatrum Mundi NYC with Richard Sennett. He is currently pursuing his MFA at Bennington College. His new book (co-authored with DS4SI) is entitled “Ideas—Arrangements--Effects: Systems Design and Social Justice” (Minor Compositions, 2020).

Cite this episode:

Chicago Style

Johal, Am. “Pandemic Conversations: Designing for Social Intervention — with Kenneth Bailey.” Below the Radar, SFU’s Vancity Office of Community Engagement. Podcast audio, July 30, 2020. https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/series/pandemic-conversations/65-kenneth-bailey.html.

On this episode of Below the Radar, our host Am Johal is joined by Adel Iskandar, Middle East media scholar and Assistant Professor of Global Communication at Simon Fraser University’s School of Communication. He is the author and co-author of several works, including “Egypt In Flux: Essays on an Unfinished Revolution” (2013, AUCP/OUP), “Edward Said: A Legacy of Emancipation and Representation”, (2010, University of California Press) and “Al-Jazeera: The Story of the Network that is Rattling Governments and Redefining Modern Journalism" (2002, Basic Books). His research primarily involves media, identity and politics. Adel is also the co-editor of online publication “Jadaliyya,” and academic podcast “Status.”

Full episode details: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/64-adel-iskandar.html

Read the transcript: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/transcripts/64-adel-iskandar.html

Bio:

Adel Iskandar is an Assistant Professor of Global Communication at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver/Burnaby, Canada. He is the author, co-author, and editor of several works including Egypt In Flux: Essays on an Unfinished Revolution (AUCP/OUP); Al-Jazeera: The Story of the Network that is Rattling Governments and Redefining Modern Journalism (Basic Books); Edward Said: A Legacy of Emancipation and Representation (University of California Press); Mediating the Arab Uprisings (Tadween Publishing); and Media Evolution on the Eve of the Arab Spring (Palgrave Macmillan). Iskandar's work deals with media, identity and politics; and he has lectured extensively on these topics at universities worldwide. His forthcoming publications are two monographs, one addressing the political role of memes and digital satire and the other about contemporary forms of imperial transculturalism. Iskandar's engaged participatory research includes supporting knowledge production through scholarly digital publishing such as Jadaliyya and academic podcasting such as Status. His community research agenda involves showcasing local grassroots participatory creative production by communities in the Middle East to confront the rise of extremism. Iskandar's work also involves the autobiographical documentation and self-representation of Syrian newcomer women in the Lower Mainland illustrates their ingenuity in the face adversity. Prior to his arrival at SFU, Iskandar taught at the Center for Contemporary Arab Studies and the Communication, Culture, and Technology Program at Georgetown University, in Washington, DC.

Cite this episode:

Chicago Style

Johal, Am. “ Social Media and Revolution — with Adel Iskandar.” Below the Radar, SFU’s Vancity Office of Community Engagement. Podcast audio, July 28, 2020. https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/64-adel-iskandar.html.

On this episode of Below the Radar, our host Am Johal sits down with Dan Adleman, an Assistant Professor of Writing and Rhetoric at the University of Toronto. He has also previously taught at the University of British Columbia, Simon Fraser University, British Columbia Institute of Technology, and Emily Carr Institute of Art + Design. Dan received his PhD from the University of British Columbia in 2016, in his dissertation he explores new-rhetorical approaches to American fiction grappling with the emergence of a new media environment at the turn of the millennium. Alongside Am Johal, he is the co-founder of Vancouver Institute for Social Research, a non-profit graduate-level critical theory free school run out of the Or Gallery since 2013.

Full episode details: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/63-dan-adleman.html

Read the transcript: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/transcripts/63-dan-adleman.html

Bio:

Daniel Adleman was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba. After acquiring his undergraduate degree in English and Philosophy from the University of Manitoba, he moved to Akita, Japan, where he taught English and studied Japanese. He eventually moved to Vancouver to study English Language and Literature at the University of British Columbia while he worked as a freelance journalist. Upon receiving his Master’s Degree, he decided to enroll in UBC’s English PhD program, receiving his doctorate in 2016. His PhD dissertation explores new-rhetorical approaches to American fiction grappling with the emergence of a new media environment at the turn of the millennium. In 2012, impelled by his passion for learning and community-building, Daniel co-founded the Vancouver Institute for Social Research (VISR), a critical theory free school situated in downtown Vancouver. Since that time, VISR has hosted lecture series on subjects ranging from sovereignty to new media theory to theories of violence. In 2017, he left his post as VISR’s co-director to take up a teaching position at the University of Toronto’s Innis College. Daniel has taught Rhetoric and Composition, English Literature, and Media Philosophy at the University of British Columbia, Simon Fraser University, British Columbia Institute of Technology, and Emily Carr Institute of Art + Design. His writing has appeared in Performing Utopias in the Contemporary Americas, Canadian Literature, The Part of No Part Catalogue, The Western Front Catalogue, Discorder Magazine, Tooth and Dagger Magazine, and The Republic of East Vancouver. He is currently writing a book about new conjunctures of media theory, rhetoric, and political thought.

Cite this episode:

Chicago Style

Johal, Am. “Rhetoric and Pedagogy — with Dan Adleman.” Below the Radar, SFU’s Vancity Office of Community Engagement. Podcast audio, July 21, 2020. https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/63-dan-adleman.html.

In this episode of Below the Radar, our host Am Johal sits down with Karen Jamieson, Vancouver-based dancer and choreographer. Karen's company Karen Jamieson Dance works with residents of Vancouver's Downtown Eastside through community engagement and cross cultural dancing, and is recognized nationally as groundbreaking. Additionally, her work, "Sisyphus," was named one of the 10 Canadian choreographic masterworks of the 20th century by Dance Collection Danse. Karen has be recognized for her talent and dedication to her field, receiving the Vancouver Mayor's Arts Award in 2013, honoured with the Isadora Award in 2016, and in 2018 she was inducted into the Canadian dance hall of fame "Encore! Dance hall of Fame!"

Full episode details: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/62-karen-jamieson.html

Read the transcript: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/transcripts/62-karen-jamieson.html

You can learn more about Karen Jamieson Dance at their website: https://www.kjdance.ca/

You can also read more about community engaged dance on our blog, where we spoke with Karen Jamieson Dance facilitator Julie Lebel: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/about/updates/all-updates/finding-community-through-dance-our-conversation-with-julie-lebel.html

Bio:

Karen Jamieson is a dancer, beginning her career after receiving a BA in Philosophy and Anthropology, training extensively in dance in New York. She has created over 92 original dance works with original scores by over twenty respected Canadian composers, and performed in Canada, Europe, Japan and the United States. She has received the Chalmers award, Canada’s principal choreographic award, and her work Sisyphus was named one of the ten Canadian choreographic masterworks of the 20th century. In 1983 she established Karen Jamieson Dance, whose vision is to reveal the power of dance as an art form with potential to transform, engage, captivate, heal, and to impart knowledge available only to the dancing body; believing the power of contemporary dance transcends cultures, languages, histories and traditions by connecting us all at a very primal level. In 2002 she embarked on the Skidegate Project, a multi-year, cross-cultural dance project with with the Haida village of Skidegate, BC, to honour Percy Gladstone, a respected Haida elder. The project is featured in Letters to Skidegate, a short film created as part of the Documenting Engagement Project. She also leads the Dance in the Downtown Eastside Project, offering dance workshops to residents of all ages and abilities. The workshops have led to numerous performances by the Carnegie Dance Troupe that emerged from the project.

Cite this episode:

Chicago Style

Johal, Am. “Community-Engaged Dance — with Karen Jamieson.” Below the Radar, SFU’s Vancity Office of Community Engagement. Podcast audio, June 30, 2020. https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/62-karen-jamieson.html.

On this episode of Below the Radar's Pandemic Conversations series we talk with Garth Mullins, documentarian, community organizer, and host and executive producer of the podcast CRACKDOWN. Garth and our host Am Johal talk about how the overdose crisis in Vancouver has been affected by COVID-19, and the positive affects that listening to drug user activists can have on the safety of the community.

CRACKDOWN is a new, monthly podcast about drugs, drug policy and the drug war led by drug user activists and supported by research. Each episode will tell the story of a community fighting for their lives. It’s also about solutions, justice for those we have lost, and saving lives. Learn more https://crackdownpod.com/

Full episode details: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/series/pandemic-conversations/61-garth-mullins.html

Read the transcript: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/transcripts/61-garth-mullins.html

Bio:

Garth Mullins is an award-winning documentarian and longtime community organizer, host and executive producer of CRACKDOWN. Garth has been an opioid user for years, injecting heroin daily all the way through the last overdose crisis, and is now on methadone. The podcast is led by an editorial board made up of some of Vancouver’s most experienced drug user activists. CRACKDOWN is produced by Cited Media Productions on the territories of the xʷməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), and sel̓íl̓witulh (Tsleil-waututh) Nations.

Cite this episode:

Chicago Style

Johal, Am. Pandemic Conversations: Fentanyl Contamination Deaths during COVID-19 — with Garth Mullins.” Below the Radar, SFU’s Vancity Office of Community Engagement. Podcast audio,July 2, 2020. https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/series/pandemic-conversations/61-garth-mullins.html.