Voices on the Side

Welcome back to the second half of our conversation with Mohamed, which brought me back into a feeling of being back at school learning from a beloved professor. I think this is an important piece of our work for liberation — the ability to be in beginner’s mind, to listen — truly listen — to one another.

Mohamed at once describes the problems with our world as well as how we can work — together — to overcome, transform, and build anew. For those of us here on Turtle Island, there are real, tangible, and immediate ways we can get involved, starting with standing in solidarity with our Indigenous kin and to listen to our youth.

May we continue finding each other, may we listen to and learn from each other, and may we take care of each other and the land. 

About Mohamed’s book

Mohamed’s article from Palestine Now

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The views expressed by guests are their own and their appearance on the program does not imply an endorsement of them or any entity they represent.

Mohamed is a North African-Egyptian Muslim settler of color on Turtle Island. He is an interdisciplinary activist-scholar of Indigenous, Black, critical race, and Islamic studies, as well as gender, sexuality, abolition, and decolonization with extensive fieldwork experience in the Middle East-North Africa, Asia, and Turtle Island. He is a professor and the author of Islam & Anarchism: Relationships & Resonances. 

In this first part of our conversation, we discuss the meaning of identity, home, and belonging and how this informs our building of community. Mohamed talks to us about his analysis of Palestine through the framework of 1492, illustrating as ever that all struggles for liberation are connected - a free Palestine cannot be separate from Indigenous land rematriation and Black reparations. He also tells us about the student encampment at Columbia, where he was the Arcapita Visiting Assistant Professor of Middle Eastern, South Asian, and African studies.

Mohamed asks us to go beyond rhetoric in our pursuit of freedom, to seek to understand what it means to be human, and to honor that land is a spiritual subject.

“Palestine 1492” event with Haymarket Books

feral feminisms article

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The views expressed by guests are their own and their appearance on the program does not imply an endorsement of them or any entity they represent.

So Yun is a Korean American filmmaker. Her debut film Liquor Store Dreams is an incredible and intimate portrayal of two Korean American children of liquor store owners in Koreatown, Los Angeles, who set out to bridge generational divides with their immigrant parents. The film pulls us back to the 1992 LA riots, which is a personal, heartbreaking childhood memory for many of us.

In this conversation, So Yun shares that her inspiration and motivation in filmmaking is rooted in witnessing and experiencing injustice and wanting to change the world in her own way. Through her work, she builds bridges between communities, identities, and generations. 

So Yun tells us about the process of filmmaking, the importance of using our voices to stand up for ourselves and to educate others, and the differences in perspectives for Koreans of the diaspora compared to Koreans in Korea. 

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Watch Liquor Store Dreams on iTunes

Watch Liquor Store Dreams for free on Kanopy with library card

Briana is a liberation mentor, a speaker, an academic, an Earth minister ceremonialist, and so much more. She is on a mission to liberate herself, others, and the planet by returning to earth-wisdom and has created The Earth Temple’s Liberation Mystery School, a community of tender revolutionaries building new systems of liberation for all. 

In our conversation, we talk about the spiritual industrial complex — a world that we both know quite well — and how we can find ways to heal and resource ourselves through the very practices that are so problematic in a capitalistic context. We also talk about religions and cults manufacturing obedience, the necessity of naming polycrisis, and the inherent mystery and paradox of being the embodied souls that we all are.

Briana emphasizes that we must each heal ourselves enough so that we do not continue propagating systems of oppression and so that we have enough strength to show up to love and fight. She also reminds us that we already have everything we need within ourselves and within Mother Earth — we simply have to access it.

2 gift weeks at The Mystery School

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Teresa is a mother, performer, yogi, and storyteller. Born in the Philippines, she emigrated to California as a child, but the motherland eventually called Teresa back. She now raises her 3 boys in Manila with her husband. 

We recorded our conversation in September 2024 with hopes of my publishing the episode ahead of the Global Mala Project, which was created with the mantra of uniting the global yoga community together with service and collective action. Aligned with the United Nation’s International Day of Peace, studios, teachers, and organizations across the world come together each year for this event so although I missed this year’s timeline, you can keep an eye out for its return in 2025!

Teresa and I talk about the heyday of LA yoga — the late 90s when we were both fledgling yogis practicing and working at studios in Santa Monica. I have been so grateful (and frankly relieved), that amidst an industry-wide resounding silence when it comes to Palestine, Teresa was calling for a ceasefire in October 2023. We compare our experiences and perspectives navigating the last year from different places in the world, although we ultimately arrive at the same perspective of standing with humanity.

We also question the traditional school system, talk meditation, and come home to compassion and hope. This was the uplifting conversation I didn’t even quite realize I needed until we got to the end; like many of us, I have been riding the waves of despair. A message coming through loud and clear right now is to refuse despair, and Teresa is a great teacher of this lesson in how she lives and expresses all the ever-evolving versions of herself.

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photo by Kieran Punay for Lifestyle Asia Magazine

We’re back with the second half of our conversation with Najla. Najla shares her experience navigating her identity in the theater and entertainment industries. We talk about racism, white supremacy, and propaganda and a concept called PEP — Progressive Except Palestine.

The past almost year has been one of shattered illusions, loss, and grief. Najla and I connect on the feeling of not knowing who to trust anymore but that of those we do trust, in Najla’s words: We trust so hard. I believe this is what it means to find your people and to build community.

Najla, with a Palestinian father and a Lebanese mother, is the embodiment of resilience, resistance, and hope for peace. It is an honor to be able to share some of her stories here, and if you’re in NYC, keep an eye on her upcoming performances.

The Mulberry Tree — Oct 10-20, 2024

Imperfect Allies - Sept 30, 2024

Najla’s book - Looking for Palestine

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Najla is an author, actress, playwright, and activist. Her identity cannot be reduced to a checkbox: she is Arab, American, Palestinian, Lebanese, and Christian. She is the daughter of Edward Said, the late Palestinian professor, author, and activist. Today, September 25, 2024, is the 21st anniversary of Professor Said's death, and I am so humbled to share my conversation with Najla. May it be in remembrance of Najla’s father as well as a prayer for both Palestine and Lebanon.
In this first part of our conversation, Najla shares personal stories around her complicated — and inconvenient — identity, from childhood, as her father’s daughter, and more recently over the last 11+ months. Despite differences in religion or ideology, Najla believes that every single human being deserves equal rights. We talk about secular humanism, being tokenized and bullied, and unexpressed pain eventually finding its way out, such as through an eating disorder, as it did for Najla. 

I am so grateful for Najla’s heart and artistry. 
And make sure to come back for the second part of our conversation later this week.
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Janet is a Dance Embodiment and Moving Meditation Guide who explores healing, self-discovery, and re-wilding through the power of dance and somatic movement. Our conversation dives right into a discussion of the wellness world and the burnout that can result as we try to free ourselves from personal and systemic trauma and harm. 

As a non-binary person of color growing up under the weight of expectations from family, society, and self, Janet has fought to understand and be who they really are. We talk about various systems of oppression from racism to capitalism, the resulting burnouts, and how to stay resilient through it all.

We ask questions of how we can reframe the wellness world, what does it mean to seek truth, and how do we receive so we can actually heal?

This was an extra long conversation so the first half will be available on Patreon which you can check out for a free 7-day trial. 

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Hannah is an unapologetically fat and queer Palestinian American. She is the author of Homeland: My Father Dreams of Palestine and she works at her Palestinian family-owned publisher, Interlink.

When I was first learning about Palestine in October 2023, I turned to books, which is what I have always done when seeking answers, inspiration, or healing. I came across Homeland and immediately took a copy home to my children. It still brings me to sobbing tears to remember sitting in my daughter’s room, learning alongside these pure, innocent souls, about the unjust loss of Palestinians’ homeland. 
In our conversation, we talk about the complexity of identity, and how both Hannah and I understand marginalization as well as privilege. We share stories about growing up having wanted to lean into whiteness and how our values have evolved to fight for the equality of all. 

Hannah shares her concerns about the censorship happening in schools, which is something I personally think of constantly as the mother of school-age children. She also explains how queer liberation is tied to Palestinian liberation and she calls on us as Americans to use our privilege to fight for humanity.

I love the way our conversation ends…in a shared vision of a liberated Palestine, in our lifetime. Inshallah. 
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Cassandra is our favorite restie bestie! An autistic Viet-Chinese somatic healer, grief-tender, and community caregiver, Cassandra is a spirit-affirming breath of fresh air. 

Our conversation is a reset that I think many of us desperately need. Cassandra shares her stories of unrest — from a childhood on the margins to chasing dreams that did not bring the wholeness we all seek. In time, they came to experience their disillusionment and discontent as an invitation to liberation. 

We talk about the cultural role of shame for diasporic Asians, the erasure of rest, and learning to sit with chaos. I love her framing of bringing the fractured parts of ourselves — body, mind, heart, and soul — back to center. 

I also love that they were inspired to make this reel about complicity and accountability following our conversation. Cassandra has many upcoming offerings so make sure to follow them on their IG and website.

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