Project Voice

"Empowering Voices: AAPI Power Through Media, co-hosted by Smith College Asian Students Association, Vietnamese Students Association, and Pan Asians in Action, provides a platform on campus for Asian American and Pacific Islander voices, bringing light to issues about identity. Content creators Sahra V. Nguyen and Jessica Nguyen use various mediums to raise awareness of AAPI identity and how it intersects with traditional cultural values. They will speak on how to challenge stereotypes, break away from a minority status, reclaim individual identity, and redefine what it means to be Asian American."

  On March 31st, 2018, I was invited to speak with Sahra Vang Nguyen at my alma mater. For those of you who were not able to come see the event in person, here is the recording of my speech and our Q&A session! For the Q&A session, you can skip to 11:12! Our first question pertained to how we as digital content creators approach the sharing of narratives in an ethical manner. My response to this question was about being aware of how I framed my questions. By being careful about how I phrase my sentences, I am able to avoid sharing narratives based on my own preconceived notions.   Watch the video here:    To follow Sahra Vang Nguyen, check out below: http://www.sahravang.com/ @oneouncegold on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram   "Sahra V. Nguyen is a writer, director, and filmmaker currently based in Brooklyn, New York...   Mid-2016, Sahra sold her second documentary series to NBCNews.com, 'Deported,' which follows the grassroots fight to end deportation of Cambodian Americans from the U.S. to Cambodia.  Under her own production company, One Ounce Gold, she filmed the doc in Seattle, Philadelphia, New York City, and Cambodia. You can watch “Self-Starters” and “Deported” on NBCNews.com, Roku, AppleTV, Amazon Fire, YouTube, and Facebook."

Jumpstarting a career in the entertainment industry is a terrifying decision you could make in life, especially if you are a woman of color. But who says that you have to make a big, scary move in order to reach your dreams when deep down, all you really care about is being able to showcase your work to the people who matter to you? Whether it's acting, writing, or something else, I believe that there is little stopping you from sharing your story - it's just as a dramatic life-changing decision to start small and to start creating. In this podcast, I had the amazing opportunity to invite Paget Kagy of "Kat Loves L.A." to share her journey with us on how she went about starting a webseries on her own, learning to juggle between acting, writing, and producing, and yet, still staying true to herself and her visions while facing all the demanding challenges that came with the project. And as for me, to finally have found a romantic comedy starring and written by an Asian American woman was my hopeless romantic teenage girl dream coming true!   Season 1 just ended, but I'm impatiently waiting for more!   Here's an IMDb Synopsis of "Kat Loves LA:" "Kat Park finds herself fresh out of a relationship and in a quarter-life rut where seemingly nothing in life is going her way--she's jobless, loveless, and generally stuck in life. When she's set up on a blind date with Andrew Park, an unlikely friendship develops as they team up to take on adulthood together, helping each other overcome the struggles of career, dating, and finding the beauty in an otherwise ordinary life."   To watch the first episode, click here!: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_2zEJLiaIi0   Paget Kagy is the writer/producer/actor of "Kat Loves LA", a new romantic comedy webseries now available on YouTube. She hopes to continue her journey in representing Asian Americans on screen in ways that progress multi-dimensional narratives, and showcase new emerging talent.   YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCp4DD8wkWtI2MRA-g9sZapg Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/katlovesla/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/katlovesla Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/katloveslaseries/

Let's do a little throwback and talk about how we all had a time in our lives when we wanted to be the Yellow Ranger. Now, many of our awesome selves have become one. In today's episode, YLWRNGR's Lauren Espejo will share her personal experiences of how she has fought against the Model Minority Myth through her involvements in the world of social media, the digital arts and Asian American activism. 

Lauren Espejo is a Filipino-American graphic designer and blogger based in New York City. Lauren's fine art has been featured in 9 exhibitions including the Greenpoint Gallery, Dr. M.T. Geoffrey Yeh Art Gallery, and the Angel Orensanz Foundation. Her design work for Liberty Mutual has been featured on Inc. BrandView. In 2016, she created the Asian-American blog and social media accounts, YLWRNGR (Yellow Ranger), to create a safe space where Asian-Americans share their culture and experiences.

Check out the blog & socials to join in on the convo!

Blog:https://ylwrngr.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ylwrngr/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/ylwrngr

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ylwrngr/

 

We're back after a brief hiatus with season 4! After giving time to how I wanted to steer forward with Project Voice, I realized how there are still so many changemakers out there who are giving back to our community through their own projects and initiatives that I'd like to help raise awareness for.

My vision for Project Voice has been to turn the podcast into a safe space for Asian women to share their narratives growing up in the U.S. While many of these narratives had been about our past experiences, I want to switch gears to focus on the present, what we're doing now to keep our community moving forward.

So, we're going to kick off the new season with Elizabeth Yang and her global virtual summit, Hmong Women Take on the World (HWTOTW). After discussing with Elizabeth about how despite having no country, Hmong women continue to stay strong and thrive all around the world, I could see why she is so passionate about supporting the resilient tribe that she chooses to represent. In this podcast, we will learn about Elizabeth's inspirations behind taking action and visions for HWTOTW.

Elizabeth Yang was inspired by a conversation with her 7-year old daughter to ignite the Hmong Women Take on the World movement. She believes in bettering the world and amplifying those in pursuit of better.   Elizabeth brings 10+ years of experience in Fortune 50 companies driving innovative new growth businesses in R&D, product development, and leading and coaching teams. From ideas to concept to marketplace launches, she brings a convergence of experience in generating value in products, services, and business models that tap into her background across healthcare, education, staffing, and retail.   She enjoys the challenge of being a Research & Development Innovation Program Strategy Director at a top Fortune 10 global healthcare IT innovation company alongside being the founder and CEO of her own company, Better With Company, which is where Hmong Women Take on the World sits as a global social brand experience platform. She also advises startups and is passionate about mentoring emerging leaders, women, and girls. Elizabeth believes this new way of co-creating global social brand platforms -- the fusion of social media, marketing, technologies, and experiences -- amplifies specific messages into the world faster than ever before.    Curiosity and making an impact drive her continuous learning. Her sweet spot is Human Factors in Behavior Economics, Design Thinking, Emerging Technologies, and Productivity in High Performance.   She enjoys traveling, reading and a good laugh. You’ll find her mostly embarking on life adventures with her amazingly, handsome husband and adorable minions — her two kids —  in Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.A.   Follow Elizabeth Yang & Hmong Women Take on the World: Website: www.HmongWomenTakeontheWorld.com Twitter: @hmongwomenday (to follow HWTOTW) or @elizabethyangix (to follow Elizabeth Yang)  Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/hmongwomenday Email: [email protected]

I have decided to take a break from Podcasting. Project Voice will be on an open hiatus until further notice. I think it’s time for me to leave some time out to re-prioritize what I want to do next in my life.

I think I’ve reached a stage where the majority of the conversations that I wanted to put out in the world has been done on Project Voice and although I know that my curiosity and passion for social justice is never-ending, I feel what needed to be said has been said for now.

To my each and every one of my listeners, thank you for listening and keep your eyes out for a few potential bonus episodes on our Podcast. Otherwise, I hope to see you soon in season 4 (or on another project under my name!).

Thank you for tuning in to the finale of season 3.

Much love,

Jess

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For my final interview of season 3, I had the honor of interviewing Cherisse Datu, the co-designer behind the upcoming video game, The Girl Who Sees in this episode. Both Cherisse and I quickly connected over our passion in designing and creating content through digital media. Not only do we hope to encourage our listeners to let go of their feelings of guilt and discomfort from navigating in such White/ignorant spaces, we also hope that our experiences shared in this episode will inspire others to find their own means of disrupting these kinds of spaces as well.

Cherisse Datu is a video producer and game designer. She received her Masters in Game Design from American University and was a JoLT (Journalism and Leadership Transformation) Fellow studying the Intersection of Game Design and Journalism with a grant from the Knight Foundation. She's worked with ESPN’s The Undefeated, Al Jazeera’s The Stream, Extra Credits, and Fusion. She’s a game designer for The Girl Who Sees, a Filipino fantasy-adventure game. She was chosen as Google Jump Ambassador and is currently working on a VR project on Asian-American experiences and identity.

 

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Full disclosure: my friend Fatema and I decided to redo our first take because we wanted to make sure that you'll be able to take away everything that we've had planned to share for today's episode topic: how we as loved ones can support those who have been diagnosed with depression.

Like many other mental health disorders, depression goes on a spectrum and the issue of being diagnosed with it is interrelated to a number of factors, including one's own cultural background. Simply put, we can't deny the fact that being raised as an Asian woman makes it more challenging to initiate dialogues about having depression. Although we've touched upon the topic of depression before, I wanted to readdress it from a more third-person perspective. How do you as loved ones keep yourself engaged in these discussions of depression?

After hearing about Fatema's interest and involvements in depression prevention research, I invited her to share her findings as well as her personal accounts of how she carefully navigates within the field of research. In the research field, one cannot apply their own personal observations so easily. However, on Project Voice, we'll have the exciting opportunity to hear Fatema share her personal connections and observations about depression as well.

We hope that you find the information and advice provided to be helpful and applicable to your lives.

Fatema is a project coordinator at the Youth Emotion, Development, and Intervention Lab at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, where she manages a depression prevention study for teens. Fatema is interested in becoming a therapist, researcher, and advocate for youth from diverse cultural backgrounds who are struggling with eating disorders, depression, and anxiety. In her spare time, she loves to bake, kickbox, and travel.

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Project Voice is going to be a bit unconventional here with our topic of the day: how to blend into the White world as an Asian woman. This interview wouldn't be a success if it wasn't for the creative thinking of Ashley of @angryfeministworkouts. Episode 32 definitely has a head-turning title - and that's really what Ashley and I wanted at the end of the day. The question and central message here is, how do we convert super White dominant spaces into POC friendly spaces? To answer this, we thought that we could have a little fun listing all of the sh*t that's been said to us Asian women on a day-to-day basis and all of the sh*t that we're expected to regurgitate to make ourselves more palatable to White society; we've split up what we wanted to share into four categories: travel, friends and family, food, and general cultural faux paux. Trust me, we could've had more.    Ashley Hermosura is the founder of Angry Feminist Workouts, an Instagram community created because “after you get hit on, sometimes you want to hit back.” It’s ideally for folks who would like a safe space after they feel mistreated from living in the misogyny of the patriarchy (which can also come from women too!) She believes in taking back white spaces (finance, politics, media, beauty, etc.) and is dedicated to creating workshops and classes to break down the collective makeup of these industries and allow for more marginalized communities to enter and thrive and revolutionize these spaces. While a huge advocate of Asian American art and artists, she still thinks Asians have a lot to learn when it comes to community and the goal of Angry Feminist Workouts is to allow a place for healing, growth, and development, unlearning and empowerment of anyone who has ever felt their power taken away from them.    

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There is always something to share about when it comes to growing up as children of immigrants, especially when it comes to stories of adversities that have helped shape us to who we've become today. So, I thought what better person to talk to than Amy? Amy Huang credited her experiences working at her family's Chinese restaurant and struggles with assimilating to the American culture that led her to be the independent, strong woman that I am proud to call a close friend of mine. One lesson that I would like to highlight as you dive into this episode - which was also what peaked my interest in interviewing Amy is: if you are fortunate enough to have family who has been supportive to you throughout your life, stick up for them when they have no one to support them.

We don't just stop there, though. At 41:07, I had the privilege of having Amy share the current challenges that she's faced working in Corporate America, one of them in which includes the seemingly never-ending microaggressions that we still continue to receive from our fellow colleagues as Asian women in the workplace. Not only that, we also will explore and critique the meaning of what it means "to fit in the work culture" and "to be professional" in work environments that to begin with, already lack diversity.

Amy is a 23-year-old Chinese-American originally from Phoenix, AZ. She currently resides in Boston, MA, where she is completing pharmacy school. Growing up working at a restaurant, Amy has cultivated an ambition to make the most of her opportunities. As a first generation Chinese-American, Amy tells stories of her experience as part of an immigrant family with humor. She is also a working professional and an advocate for more women and diversity in the workforce. As a close friend who hears her stories, I believe that her unique perspective on life should be shared with the world. (To me, Amy is the true meaning of grit)

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Today, I have the pleasure and honor to interview Emiko of Her Confidence Her Way, a Podcast series with a mission to guide Japanese women towards having self-confidence and living a meaningful life.

So, for every episode, I aim to make the topic applicable to the Asian/Asian American community but for this one, I wanted to tune into a more specific audience and that is, of course, the Japanese/Japanese American women listening out there. Despite the fact that Japan is one of the most technologically advanced countries of our time, like many other countries, it still has room for improvement for gender equality. We will be discussing on Japan's current state and progress in its agenda for women empowerment.

Emiko Rasmussen is a Confidence Building Coach, Virtual Mentor, Host of Her Confidence Her Way Podcast, Speaker and Leader of the Her Confidence Her Way Community. She helps Japanese women who don’t feel confident because of their self-limiting beliefs and language/cultural barriers. Emiko empowers Japanese women to be more confident by helping them break through their fears and discover their gifted talents so that they can do what they really want to do and live a meaningful life without worrying about someone else’s opinion.  

Follow The Emi Style:

Podcast: http://apple.co/2hMg5Iz

http://www.theemistyle.com/

https://www.facebook.com/TheEMIStyle/

https://twitter.com/theemistyle

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