Green Card Voices, The Podcast

By Green Card VoicesSociety & Culture

Green Card Voices, The Podcast episodes

February 01, 2021*Bonus!* One Year, Three Seasons: GCV Pod Hosts Mahlet/MK, Asha, and Tri reflect. Recorded Oct 2020
It's the GCV, the Podcast 1 year, 3 seasons-end reflection and conversation!
Green Card Voices, the Podcast Season 1 host Mahlet aka MK, Season 2 #LoveYourAsianNeighbors host and co-manager Tri, and Beyond Allyship podcast manager and co-host Asha Thanki join each other after the end of the season 3 Beyond Allyship finale in October 2020, barely a week before the momentous 59th United States presidential election on Tues Nov 3rd, 2020. Tri has a lot of questions for the hosts, including:
Mahlet’s thoughts, as the host who was part of the start of the overall life of the podcast, on what the unplanned trajectory, as impacted by worldwide pandemic and the U.S national social uprisings, of the podcast series means to her

Tri’s thought process in the conception and shift to season 2 of GCV the Podcast, titled the #LoveYourAsianNeighbors series. As GCV’s then-social media intern with an amateur enthusiasm for podcasts as a long-time podcast consumer, Tri took on the task of shifting the format of the podcast to best demonstrate GCV’s role as a storytelling platform during a global pandemic whose circumstances also amplified anti-Chinese and Chinese-adjacent attitudes and actions in countries such as the U.S.

Asha’s circumstances and task that became creating the season 3 series, Beyond Allyship, of stepping into the podcast manager role in 2020, in the wake of George Floyd’s murder by Minneapolis police and the consequent uprisings that began in Minnesota and has since spread to many sites of allied protests worldwide, and shifting the podcast’s goals, yet again, to address the social injustices against peoples grouped and distinguished as “Black” and African under the banner of a Minneapolis-based non-profit that primarily seres as a platform for immigrant and refugee first-person storytelling

Asha sharing how GCV the Podcast is set up well to reach listeners in many different places as it concerns their understanding of the political, historical, and cultural moment we’re living by facilitating a platform for guests to demonstrate what work they have already been doing, rather than the hosts guiding the conversations outside of the immediate experiences of the guests

Tri’s comment on how the Green Card Voices became a veritable “time capsule” for three stages of GCV’s varied alignment of commitments to immigrant and refugee first-person storytelling first on its own terms, then in emphasized relationship to Asian U.S diasporic peoples during a global pandemic, and in most recent memory in relationship with often non-immigrant Black peoples and recent-diasporic African peoples

Tri asks Mahlet, Asha, and is asked himself: “How are you? Have you been able to go for relaxing walks? Have you seen a cute dog? Have you had enough down-time off of Zoom?”

Last but not least, we bring back the closing Story Stitch question that became a staple of the #LoveYourAsianNeighbors series: “Tell about a time when your life felt abundant.”
Thank you so much for listening along to our bold and stimulating conversations with community and movement leaders. Please check out our past episodes and conversations with strong-willed, whole-hearted, and community driven storytellers and leaders to see just how powerful and complex our immigrant, refugee, and diasporic communities really are.
Visit us at greencardvoices.org to learn more about the necessary value of immigrant, refugee, and diasporic narratives in building the future in America worth sharing with one another as local and global neighbors.
Thank you for being a great listener and neighbor.
1 hr 4 min
September 30, 2020 Beyond Allyship Ep 6: "Beyond Buzzwords: Our Ancestral Toolkits", ft. Indigenous Roots co-founders MaryAnne and Sergio Quiroz
It's the Beyond Allyship season finale conversation! Please subscribe to the podcast, listen to all our amazing past conversations, and be ready for when Green Card Voices steps further into the new decade with bold feet and clear eyes with more voices speaking to the role of immigrants, refugees, and diaspora peoples in shaping the quickening currents of our messy world.
Podcast manager Asha Thanki sits down with Sergio and MaryAnne Quiroz to talk about how they, as Indigenous and Asian American artists and activists, collaborate with the movement for Black liberation.
Their nonprofit, Indigenous Roots Cultural Center, is not only a collaborative space for artists but also became a major mutual aid station for the East Side of St. Paul. Sergio and MaryAnne discuss the ways in which their art is inseparable from their activism, the ways in which they’re participating in conversations around colorism and anti-Blackness in their communities, and the deep ties to ancestry through the work they do in the community. Check out our sixth episode -- the last one of this season -- to hear more about why both Sergio and MaryAnne are hopeful for the future.
Join the Green Card Voices podcast community by becoming a podcast Patron: https://bit.ly/ForOurGCVNeighbors
Learn more about Indigenous Roots Cultural Center’s work: https://indigenous-roots.org/
Share our conversation with Sergio and MaryAnne online—using the #BeyondAllyship hashtag—and tell us how you are contributing to the movement and uplifting Black voices.
Thank you so much for listening along to our bold and stimulating conversations with community and movement leaders. Please subscribe to the podcast for future Green Card Voices, the Podcast seasons to come.
ABOUT THIS SPECIAL SERIES:
Green Card Voices is based in the Twin Cities, and, after the police murder of George Floyd, we are pivoting our platform to elevate Black voices and direct our listeners toward resources and actions they can take today to benefit the movement for Black liberation. Throughout this series, we highlight the work of local organizers while addressing how different immigrant and cultural communities can better align with the movement to take actions beyond a performative allyship and better act in solidarity with our Black communities.
55 min
September 15, 2020Beyond Allyship Ep 5: pt 2/2, a Loving Letter to Asian American "Wokeness"
Listen to Episode 2 for the first installment of our conversation with Darian and Lily on reimagining our relationship with the United States.
We’re back with Darian Spearman and Lily Luo, doctoral candidates at the University of Connecticut, to continue the conversation from our second episode. With a little more political theory and history, this half of the conversation looks more closely at the intersection of labor and social justice, while investigating ways different cultural communities build solidarity.
We dive into complicated relationships with mythologized ancestry, as well as questions like: How can we build bridges through social justice conversations with our diaspora families? What does it mean to have one foot in a U.S. American identity and the other based in another homeland or motherland? How can we conceptualize “family” and “solidarity” in ways that bridge different communities?
Join the Green Card Voices podcast community by becoming a Patron: https://bit.ly/ForOurGCVNeighbors
Share our conversation with Darian and Lily online—using the #BeyondAllyship hashtag—and tell us how you are contributing to the movement and uplifting Black voices.
Discussed or mentioned this week:
On Racial Capitalism, Black Internationalism, and Cultures of Resistance, by Cedric Robinson

The Intimacies of Four Continents, by Lisa Lowe

Desis Rising Up & Moving (DRUM)

Queer Phenomenology, by Sara Ahmed
ABOUT THIS SPECIAL SERIES:
Green Card Voices is based in the Twin Cities, and, after the police murder of George Floyd, we are pivoting our platform to elevate Black voices and direct our listeners toward resources and actions they can take today to benefit the movement for Black liberation. Throughout this series, we highlight the work of local organizers while addressing how different immigrant and cultural communities can better align with the movement to take actions beyond a performative allyship and better act in solidarity with our Black communities.
54 min
September 01, 2020Beyond Allyship Ep 4: "Building Communities Beyond Capitalism" ft. Freedom, Inc.’s Co-Executive Directors, Kabzuag Vaj and M. Adams
Race, Feminism, Capitalism- oh my!
[warning: explicit language used in podcast series, including this episode conversation]
Host Mahlet Aschenaki and podcast manager Asha Thanki join Freedom, Inc.’s Co-Executive Directors, Kabzuag Vaj and M. Adams, to talk about their work at the intersection of gender justice, queer justice, and Black and Southeast Asian Liberation.
We dive into the history of Freedom, Inc., and how it’s evolved from a Southeast Asian focus to one bridging Southeast Asian and Black youth, queer folks, and low- to no-income communities. M. explains the necessary integration of a labor lens to justice organizing while Kabzuag recounts her interactions with members of her community around the murder of George Floyd and their property-focused response. You don’t want to miss this one!
Join the Green Card Voices podcast community by becoming a podcast Patron: https://bit.ly/ForOurGCVNeighbors
Learn more about Freedom, Inc.’s work: https://freedom-inc.org/
Instagram: @freedominc
Share our conversation with Kabzuag and M. online—using the #BeyondAllyship hashtag—and tell us how you are contributing to the movement and uplifting Black voices.
Discussed or mentioned this week:
The Movement for Black Lives

‘No Blacks’: Evicted, Harassed and Targeted in China for their Race Amid Coronavirus, Alice Su in the Los Angeles Times

"Pandemic Is A Portal," Arundhati Roy in Financial Times

Black Visions Collective

The Black National Convention on August 28, 2020
ABOUT THIS SPECIAL SERIES:
Green Card Voices is based in the Twin Cities, and, after the police murder of George Floyd, we are pivoting our platform to elevate Black voices and direct our listeners toward resources and actions they can take today to benefit the movement for Black liberation. Throughout this series, we highlight the work of local organizers while addressing how different immigrant and cultural communities can better align with the movement to take actions beyond a performative allyship and better act in solidarity with our Black communities.
1 hr 11 min
August 11, 2020Beyond Allyship Ep 3: “No Easy Sacrifices” ft. 18MR.org's Laura Li and MPower Change's Kifah Shah
⚠️WARNING⚠️: no easy conversations ahead, and yet so much to gain.
Ready or not, welcome to the movement. 🖤🌱
In the third episode of Green Card Voices’ new series, host Mahlet Aschenaki and podcast manager Asha Thanki sit down with campaign managers Laura Li (18 Million Rising) and Kifah Shah (MPower Change) to talk about their personal relationships to organizing, advice for newcomers on how to get involved, and the importance of knowing your history.
Laura gives us a crash course on the relationship between Asian American and Black Americans’ social justice alignment, and Kifah highlights the importance of Muslim Black history in the U.S. The takeaway from both guests is clear: Organizing and social justice work takes dedication and time. Newcomers, buckle your seatbelts and prepare to dedicate the rest of your lives to this work.
*Join* the Green Card Voices podcast community by becoming a podcast Patron: https://bit.ly/ForOurGCVNeighbors
Learn more about:
Laura’s work with 18 Million Rising: https://18millionrising.org/

Kifah’s work with MPower Change: https://www.mpowerchange.org/

*Share* our conversation with Laura and Kifah online—using the #BeyondAllyship hashtag—and tell us how you are contributing to the movement and uplifting Black voices.
Discussed or mentioned this week:
TechIsNotNeutral.Com

Radical Summer School with Laura, Kifah, and Bianca

18MR's Call on Me, Not the Cops

Asians for Black Lives Means: Do Not Call the Cops

Welcome to Chinatown
ABOUT THIS SPECIAL SERIES:
Green Card Voices is based in the Twin Cities, and, after the police murder of George Floyd, we are pivoting our platform to elevate Black voices and direct our listeners toward resources and actions they can take today to benefit the movement for Black liberation. Throughout this series, we highlight the work of local organizers while addressing how different immigrant and cultural communities can better align with the movement to take actions beyond a performative allyship and better act in solidarity with our Black communities.
1 hr 12 min
July 28, 2020Beyond Allyship Ep 2: A Loving Letter to Asian “Wokeness”, Pt 1 of 2 ft. Darian Spearman and Lily Luo @UConn
In this second episode of Green Card Voices’ new series, podcast manager Asha Thanki and social media manager and former #LoveYourAsianNeighbors host Tri Vo sit down with Darian Spearman and Lily Luo, doctoral candidates at the University of Connecticut, to discuss how Asian Americans are communicating with their relatives about the movement for Black liberation, some political theory and history, and the steps they think must be taken next by communities to push forward.
Starting with critiques of different letters meant to bridge communication gaps, this conversation asks listeners how they’re ensuring their outreach to family and communities are truly conversations, how they’re keeping the fire from burning out, and lessons we can learn from organizers in the racial justice space. Part two of this conversation coming soon!
Join the Green Card Voices podcast community by becoming a Patron: https://bit.ly/ForOurGCVNeighbors
Share our conversation with Darian and Lily online—using the #BeyondAllyship hashtag—and tell us how you are contributing to the movement and uplifting Black voices.
Discussed or mentioned this week:
Time to Say Goodbye, “About those 'letters to my Asian parents about anti-black racism'"
Connect with and read Lily’s online work at https://theyellowlilyblog.wordpress.com/
ABOUT THIS SPECIAL SERIES:
Green Card Voices is based in the Twin Cities, and, after the police murder of George Floyd, we are pivoting our platform to elevate Black voices and direct our listeners toward resources and actions they can take today to benefit the movement for Black liberation. Throughout this series, we highlight the work of local organizers while addressing how different immigrant and cultural communities can better align with the movement to take actions beyond a performative allyship and better act in solidarity with our Black communities.
48 min
July 10, 2020Beyond Allyship Ep 1: The ‘Build Power’ Hour ft. Joy Marsh Stephens, Jeff Aguy, and Tomme Beevas
In this first episode of Green Card Voices’ new series, host Mahlet Aschenaki and podcast manager Asha Thanki sit down with Joy Marsh Stephens, Tomme Beevas, and Jeff Aguy to discuss their personal relationships to organizing, their efforts in the ongoing movement for Black liberation, and the steps they think must be taken next.
Bridging public and private domains, Joy discusses the changes she sees structurally and culturally at the city government level; Tomme dives into the mutual aid work centered at his restaurant, Pimento Jamaican Kitchen, and his support for on-the-ground organizers; and Jeff analyzes how entrepreneurs and financial support of organizers and political candidates can help allies put their money where their mouth is.
Learn more about:
Joy’s work with the City of Minneapolis’ Division of Race & Equity http://www2.minneapolismn.gov/coordinator/Equity/index.htm

Tomme’s restaurant Pimento, which now moonlights as a hub for relief services https://pimentokitchen.com/

Jeff’s work bridging public, private, and philanthropic divides: https://www.2043.co/
Join the Green Card Voices podcast community by becoming a Patron: https://bit.ly/ForOurGCVNeighbors
Share our conversation with Joy, Tomme, and Jeff online—using the #BeyondAllyship hashtag—and tell us how you are contributing to the movement and uplifting Black voices.
Discussed or mentioned this week:
Tomme Beevas, “If the Building Burns, Well, We’ll Figure It Out”

NAACP, “Twin Cities Economic Inclusion Plan”
ABOUT THIS SPECIAL SERIES:
Green Card Voices is based in the Twin Cities, and, after the police murder of George Floyd, we are pivoting our platform to elevate Black voices and direct our listeners toward resources and actions they can take today to benefit the movement for Black liberation. Throughout this series, we highlight the work of local organizers while addressing how different immigrant and cultural communities can better align with the movement to take actions beyond a performative allyship and better act in solidarity with our Black communities.
1 hr
June 04, 2020 #LoveYourAsianNeighbors Ep 6: Cayden and Samala Conspire Together
Cayden Mak and C.M. Samala from 18 Million Rising check in with each other and our series
host Tri Vo in this final episode of Green Card Voices’ #LoveYourAsianNeighbors podcast
series’ first season.
In this episode, Cayden and Samala discuss how they’ve adapted to the online atmosphere of
COVID-19, how debt holds labor captive, and what it means to be a co-conspirator.
Though this episode was recorded prior to the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police, its
content remains a call-to-action for our listeners. Cayden and Samala call on guests to take action
against systems of privilege and oppression in this country and in the world. As Cayden points
out, saying that one believes something is not a high enough risk to take; co-conspirators stand in
solidarity with others through action. In this same moment, with the pandemic ongoing, many
folks must simultaneously stand up and take action while making space for grief. Samala guides
listeners through finding that balance and sharing empathy with others.
Learn more about Cayden and Samala’s work with 18 Million Rising and its important
organizing work here: https://18millionrising.org/
Join the Green Card Voices podcast community and hear more from Cayden and Samala by
becoming a Patron: https://bit.ly/ForOurGCVNeighbors
Share Cayden and Samala’s conversation online—using the #LoveYourAsianNeighbors
hashtag—and tell us your story of raising the voices, whether it’s your own or another’s voice, of
Asian Americans.
Discussed or mentioned this week:
● “This Is How Ignorant You Have to Be to Call Haiti a Sh*thole,” Washington Post
● Stephanie Black, Life and Debt
● David Graeber, Debt: The First 5,000 Years
● “Postscript: Grace Lee Boggs,” New Yorker
● Arundhati Roy, “The Pandemic is a Portal,” Financial Times
ABOUT THIS SPECIAL SERIES:

As we continue to live in the middle of the COVID 19 pandemic, cases of xenophobia and race-
based hate crimes targeting Asian American communities have escalated in an alarming yet not
unprecedented manner. To combat the harmful rhetoric being spread and inflicted on our
neighbors, Green Card Voices has launched #LoveYourAsianNeighbors campaign. In this
special podcast series, we highlight the lived narratives of Asian Americans overcoming
difficulties, finding abundance in the face of scarcity, and taking action towards a better future.
1 hr 1 min
May 20, 2020 #LoveYourAsianNeighbors Ep 5: Theater Artists Lily and Rick are Mu-ving theater forward
Theater artists and leaders—Lily Tung Crystal and Rick Shiomi—check in with each other and
our series host Tri Vo in this continuation of Green Card Voices’ #LoveYourAsianNeighbors
podcast series.
In this episode, Lily and Rick talk daily challenges of COVID-19, the highs and lows of
transitioning theatre to online platforms during the pandemic, and following passions even when
your family doesn't quite understand.
The big questions Lily and Rick consider: How, with theatre companies shut down across the
country, can artists grieve a career and the subsequent loss of income while also making space
for the grief of losing an integral part of one's identity? How do people value art in the midst of
an ongoing crisis? As minorities within the theater space, and whose identities have been
represented in yellowface, how can artists organize and make these injustices known?
The takeaway is clear: The arts are more important than ever in these times.
Learn more about Lily’s work as Artistic Director of Theater Mu and the company’s online
offerings during this pandemic here: https://www.theatermu.org/
Learn more about Rick’s work as Co-Founder and Co-Artistic Director of Full Circle Theater
Company: https://www.fullcircletheatermn.org/
Join the Green Card Voices podcast community and hear more from Lily and Rick by becoming
a Patron at https://bit.ly/ForOurGCVNeighbors
Share Lily and Rick’s conversation online—using the #LoveYourAsianNeighbors hashtag—and
tell us your story of raising the voices, whether it’s your own or another’s voice, of Asian
Americans.
Discussed or mentioned this week:
● Atacama by Augusto Amador
● Fire in the New World by Rick Shiomi
● The Empathy Project by Stephanie Lein Walseth
● Inside Out & Back Again by Min Kahng
● “The Asian American Dream,” Philip Kan Gotanda
● Building a Better ‘Mikado,’ Minus the Yellowface
https://www.americantheatre.org/2016/04/20/building-a-better-mikado-minus-the-
yellowface/
ABOUT THIS SPECIAL SERIES:
As we continue to live in the middle of the COVID 19 pandemic, cases of xenophobia and race-
based hate crimes targeting Asian American communities have escalated in an alarming yet not
unprecedented manner. To combat the harmful rhetoric being spread and inflicted on our
neighbors, Green Card Voices has launched #LoveYourAsianNeighbors campaign. In this
special podcast series, we highlight the lived narratives of Asian Americans overcoming
difficulties, finding abundance in the face of scarcity, and taking action towards a better future.
1 hr
May 13, 2020#LoveYourAsianNeighbors Ep 4: Fred and Na-Rae are Reality PhD Stars!
Fred Lee and Na-Rae Kim, professors of Asian American Studies from the University of Connecticut-Storrs, check-in with each other and our series host Tri Vo. They discuss historical moments—including the H3N2 pandemic of the 1960s, the Vietnam War, and the internment of Japanese Americans during WWII—that have shaped the sinophobia of the COVID-19 crisis. Looking even further into the past, they share the stories—and acknowledge the missing stories—of their grandparents and great-grandparents in Korea, Taiwan, and Southeast China. Finally, they share their hopes for the memory of our current moment and the future of Asian America.
Join the Green Card Voices podcast community and hear more from Na-Rae and Fred by becoming a Patron at https://bit.ly/ForOurGCVNeighbors
Share Fred and Na-Rae’s conversation online—using the #LoveYourAsianNeighbors hashtag—and tell us your story of raising the voices, whether it’s your own or another’s voice, of Asian Americans.
Learn more about Fred and Na-rae’s scholarship at UConn’s Asian American Studies institute at https://asianamerican.uconn.edu.
UConn’s Asian and Asian American Studies Institute, or AAASI, is proud to launch an arts initiative to respond to the challenges and concerns faced by all of our college students during the COVID-19 pandemic. Check out the courageous work from AAASI students at the following webpage: https://asianamerican.uconn.edu/illustrated-profiles/
Discussed this week:
“Virus X and Ending the Forever War,” Jason Oliver Chang

“Coronavirus and America’s Vietnam Syndrome,” Long Bui

Dangerous Crossings, Claire Jean Kim

Parable of the Talents, Octavia Butler
ABOUT THIS SPECIAL SERIES:
As we continue to live in the middle of the COVID 19 pandemic, cases of xenophobia and race-based hate crimes targeting Asian American communities have escalated in an alarming yet not unprecedented manner. To combat the harmful rhetoric being spread and inflicted on our neighbors, Green Card Voices has launched #LoveYourAsianNeighbors campaign. In this special podcast series, we highlight the lived narratives of Asian Americans overcoming difficulties, finding abundance in the face of scarcity, and taking action towards a better future.
1 hr 2 min

About Green Card Voices, The Podcast

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Connecting our common humanity with first-person stories of immigrants and refugees living in the United States.

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Green Card Voices, The Podcast

Green Card Voices, The Podcast episodes

About Green Card Voices, The Podcast