Immigrant Squared

St. Clair Detrick-Jules is an Author, Photographer, Videographer, and Documentarian. Born and raised in Washington DC to an immigrant father from St Barths and growing up surrounded by immigrants, St. Clair became interested in immigrant stories.

She is currently working on a photojournalism book about immigrants and physical objects they brought with them to the US. She believes that storytelling connects us to humans, and helps us recognize shared humanity. In her book, she is also exploring the idea of home and how it transforms over time. Some of the things St. Clair learned from immigrant stories so far are the desire to maintain the language of their home country, and the importance of building immigrant communities.

Check out my Instagram @alisadel_ for a sneak peek into my photoshoot with St. Clair, and the object I brought to the US.

Check out her other book "My Beautiful Black Hair" - which started as a labor of love to support her little sister who was being bullied in school for her afro. You can buy her book on her website www.stclairdetrickjules.com

If you are an immigrant and would like to share your story on my podcast, I would love to hear from you. Please email me at [email protected], message me on my website www.alisadel.com or message me on Instagram @alisadel_

If you would like to be featured in St. Clair's book, share your story and an object you brought email her at message her on Instagram @stclairdetrickjules, and check out her website www.stclairdetrickjules.com or email her at [email protected]

Today's episode is dedicated to my birthplace Ukraine! To all the brave people who are fighting for their life. I won't go into politics historical analysis or commentary. I want this episode to serve as an encouragement to help Ukraine but also as a reminder, as Albert Einstein once said "The world is a dangerous place to live not because of the people who are evil, but because of the people who don’t do anything about it" 

This is the first episode in a series "Immigrant Voices from the War". Let us focus on and respect Ukraine right now. I am planning to highlight other conflicts wars and areas of the world in future episodes and focus on how immigrants and children of immigrants are impacted when their countries of origin are under attack.

If you are an immigrant or a child, spouse, relative of an immigrant that has been impacted by a conflict, or war in your or their country of origin and would like to share your story, I would love to host you on my podcast. Please email me at [email protected] or send me a message on Instagram @alisadel_ these stories need to be heard.

Today my guest is Leon. Leon is a child of immigrants. His mother is from Odessa Ukraine and his father is from Moscow Russia. Leon and I discuss how this war has impacted us, what we do to cope and help the people in Ukraine while also supporting our parents who are devastated seeing their home countries destroyed and innocent people murdered, and what others who are not impacted can do to help.

If you would like to help Ukraine:

Global Empowerment Mission- This is a nonprofit located in Doral, Florida. They are on the ground in Lviv, Ukraine providing supplies and food. You can donate on their website, and follow them on Instagram.

Website https://www.globalempowermentmission.org/

Instagram @globalempowermentmission

Project Dynamo- This is on the ground helping to evacuate people. You can support them by donating on their website.

Website https://www.projectdynamo.org/

Instagram @projectdynamo

Aerial Recovery Group - Is on the ground providing supplies and helping evacuate orphans to safety. You can donate on their website, and fill out a volunteer form if you are qualified to travel and help there. Follow their amazing work on Instagram.

Website https://linktr.ee/aerialrecoverygroup

Instagram @aerialrecoverygroup

#standwithukraine #Istandwithukraine #stopthewar #immigrantstories #peaceforukraine #security #humanitarian aid #saveukraine

Annick lives in Montreal, Canada, and her podcast "Immigrant Dilemma" focuses on the identity we develop as immigrants.

In this episode, she shared her journey to discover her identity, which is a fusion between the French and English speaking parts of her home country Haiti. Annick shared her struggles with picking a career that did not meet her parent's expectations, and how she chose to view her immigration as a journey and kept an open mind to learn.

Immigration forced her to mature faster, and she wishes she knew that her parents are not going to have all the answers. In the process of blending in a new place its is very easy to forget where you came from and adopt new values forgetting that they could be perceived as offensive in your culture of origin.

Annick felt like she lost her identity and in order to rediscover it and feel grounded she decided to not fit in any box, rather view her identity as an evolution. Her advice to immigrants is to be patient, and remember that everything is a matter of perception.

Follow Annick's podcast on Instagram @immigrantd_podcast

Stay tuned for updates on Instagram @alisadel_

Don’t forget to subscribe, rate, and leave a review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or Anchor.com

Links to the podcast are available on my website www.alisadel.com

#Immigrant²Podcast #immigrantstories #alisadel #inspiringimmigrants

This is part two of episode 3 where I interviewed Tinatin Japaridze. To celebrate Tinatin's book Stalin’s Millennials: Nostalgia, Trauma, and Nationalism which is coming out this week on February 15, you will get a sneak peek into the book. The idea to write about Stalin was born as a class paper for Soviet Legacy Seminar at Columbia University, turned into a term paper, and now a book. Since 2016 Tinatin visited the Stalin Museum in Stalin's birth city, Gori, Georgia. Tinatin conducted interviews and took notes for several years because she was genuinely interested to understand why is Stalin so popular when everything else surrounding his popularity suggests otherwise.

Writing the book was very therapeutic for Tinatin and she shared that she is planning to write another book. Tinatin's advice to immigrants is "when you are struggling, you have to make a pact with yourself to go forward. It is going to be ok and you will get through it, believe in yourself, and remember that you are in charge of your story."

Stay tuned for updates on Instagram @alisadel_

Don’t forget to subscribe, rate, and leave a review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or Anchor.com

Links to the podcast are available on my website www.alisadel.com

#Immigrant²Podcast #immigrantstories #stalin #immigrantbooks #stalin'smillenials #alisadel #inspiringimmigrants

I had the pleasure of interviewing a fellow immigrant and woman in security Sonia Knowles. Sonia immigrated from Peru in pursuit of educational opportunities. She assimilated into the American culture by becoming a military spouse. While adapting to the culture of military life she was not able to identify herself as an immigrant, but she found a community.

Years later she started to wonder what it means to be an immigrant. Sonia and I discussed our struggles with our foreign accents, and how we overcame those struggles and found humor in idioms.

As women in security, we discussed the advantages of growing up abroad, the awareness and security skills we have as a result, and why multilingual and multicultural analysts are crucial to the success of Security Operation Centers in the private sector.

#immigrants #immigrantstories #womeninsecurity #diversity #securityoperationcenter #corporatesecurity #immigrantsinsecurity #GSOC #diversityinsecurity

Are you an immigrant? Would you like to share your story? I would love to meet you. Please reach out [email protected] and follow on Instagram @alisadel_

Listen, rate, and subscribe to the podcast on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.

Maribel Rodriguez is a child of immigrants. She loves her roots and her parents’ countries, Colombia and Puerto Rico. Having been to both countries and growing up in Brooklyn, NY, a melting pot of many cultures, she has a love for people of diverse cultures and walks of life. Her organization  Love 4 Immigrants was founded as a graduate capstone project out of the frustration of seeing immigrants being depicted in the media in untruthful and inhumane ways.

Love4Immigrants is a social space for immigrants’ support. It aims to connect immigrants to their communities, as respected, loved, and heard individuals by sharing their narrative through art and storytelling.

In this episode, we discuss how growing up surrounded by immigrants benefited her, and the adventures she experienced being a child of immigrants. Maribel shares how art and storytelling help immigrants express themselves, and others to learn about diverse cultures. Recently Love4Immigrants had a virtual reality art exhibit where immigrants shared their journey. Maribel also shared her experience growing up in a Puerto Rican community in Williamsburg, New York, and her trips back to her parents' homelands to learn about her heritage. Her struggle as a child of multicultural and multiracial immigrants was always feeling in between, neither here nor there.

Follow @love4immigrants on Instagram and visit their website https://love4immigrantsorg.wordpress.com/to learn how you can get involved.

Tinatin considers herself a serial immigrant. She was born in Georgia (the country), grew up in Russia, moved to London, then New York City, and now she lives in Washington DC. She felt most at home in New York City because she did not have to lose her own identity in order to become a New Yorker. Washington DC feels like a transient place for her, and she finds uncertainty and instability very comforting and motivating. Her biggest struggle as an immigrant was not having a community or circle to tap into right away for support. Tinatin shares why she envies the Armenian communities in the diaspora, and how she found comfort among other immigrants. We discuss why individuals with mixed identities should be empowered, what is our sense of identity, and how we deal with nostalgia. Stay tuned for part 2 where we discuss her book Stalin’s Millennials: Nostalgia, Trauma, and Nationalism which will be published in February 2022, and oups I might have committed to writing my own book soon.

From the midway point between the North and South poles - Quito Ecuador, I had the honor to interview a fellow Immigrant²  Dina Dubnitsky. Dina was born in Kazakhstan to a Romanian mother and a Ukrainian father. She is a nurse, a food blogger, a dancer, and a fitness instructor. Dina shared the differences between immigrating as a teenager, and 16 years later immigrating yet again as a parent. She doesn’t feel at home anywhere and prefers to be a citizen of the world.

Dina's advice to immigrants is to be patient, believe in yourself, and never forget your roots.

We can help immigrants by accepting their differences and not bullying them.

Follow her on Instagram to see her amazing dance videos @dinamd_

Check out her and her daughter's food blog for delicious recipes @freskatzo

Are you an #immigrant? Or a child of #immigrants? Do you want to share your story? Email me at [email protected] I would love to hear from you!