Uplift All Voices

For our fourth episode, the Stories Empowered team interviewed Rumneek Johal, a Sikh journalist who has previously worked at the Daily Hive and CBC News Toronto, is currently editing for 5X Press, and manages her own blog at rumandwoke.com. Throughout this episode, Rumneek talked about her experiences being the only journalist in a family of doctors, then recounted her experience interning and working in Canada’s journalism field. Following that, Rumneek challenged the assumption that white journalists are better-equipped to objectively report on BIPOC communities, instead claiming that minority journalists understand cultural nuances and should be responsible for handling these stories. Finally, Rumneek reflected on the white-washed hierarchy of the Canadan news industry and urged for more diversity in leadership.

For our third episode, the Stories Empowered podcast team interviews Stephanie Hu, a high school junior who founded Dear Asian Youth, an international organization that seeks to empower Asian youth across the world. During this episode, we discussed her inspiration behind creating Dear Asian Youth, the process of expanding the organization’s outreach, and some projects that are among her favorites. Following that, Stephanie reflected on the instances of discrimination that she faced in Capistrano Unified School District (CUSD) and her involvement in the student-led social justice organization CUSD Against Racism.

In our second episode, the Stories Empowered podcast team interviews Doris Schlothan, a literary and language arts teacher from Portola High, about her experience as an Asian-American teacher, the thought process in which books are chosen for literature classes, and the lack of BIPOC-written books in Portola High’s English curriculum. In addition, we delved deeper into the creation of Portola High’s Asian American literature class and discussed the reason why it no longer exists. Towards the end of the episode, Ms. Schlothan explained the ways in which Irvine Unified School District can include more education about race and gave us her perspective on the importance of representative literature.

In today's episode, the Stories Empowered podcast team interviews Nisien Notario, art student at Irvine Valley College and creator of @blackcommunityirvine on Instagram, about her encounters with racism in Irvine, how she approaches her art from an activist standpoint, and ways in which Irvine can become more inclusive. Throughout the episode, Nisien reflects on her identity growing up as an Afro-Latinx and the intersectionality between the two cultures. Finally, she discusses the misconceptions surrounding poverty in Irvine and changes she wishes to see in housing, corporate accountability programs, and representation in education.

Welcome to Uplift All Voices! This is our trailer episode introducing  our podcast under the organization Stories Empowered.