We Are All Americans

In episode six* of season two, two participants of the Reciprocity Los Angeles Artists Retreat discuss their family immigration stories, their Polish Bubbies named Netti, and shared disappointment in the fallacy of the American dream and the fear often sewn by each waive of immigration.

We Are All Americans is a podcast series Inspired by the fact that my Russian great-grandfather gained his US citizenship after serving in the US Army and my Lithuanian (or Austrian, or Russian, or Latvian - depending on who is telling the story) great-grandmother entered the US on fake passport. Each episode is a different recorded conversations about how family stories are passed down from generation to generation and what it means to be American in the contexts of multiculturalism, immigration, military service, black lives matter, white privilege, and indigeneity.

* Recorded during the Reciprocity Los Angeles Retreat on April 9, 2019 in Simi Valley, CA

In episode five* of season two, Sarah Mostov and Jenny Yurshansky discuss their shared experiences of being children of Jewish refugees and how that shapes their thoughts on Israeli and American treatment of Muslims from the Arab world. Jenny's parents are from what is now called Moldova in the former Soviet Union and Sarah's mother was born to Iraqi parents in a refugee camp in Jerusalem.

We Are All Americans is a podcast series Inspired by the fact that my Russian great-grandfather gained his US citizenship after serving in the US Army and my Lithuanian (or Austrian, or Russian, or Latvian - depending on who is telling the story) great-grandmother entered the US on fake passport. Each episode is a different recorded conversations about how family stories are passed down from generation to generation and what it means to be American in the contexts of multiculturalism, immigration, military service, black lives matter, white privilege, and indigeneity.

* Recorded during the Reciprocity Los Angeles Retreat on April 9, 2019 in Simi Valley, CA

In episode four* of season two, Rotem Rozental, who originally came to the US from Israel to work on her PhD and now has two children born here, talks with Michele Jaquis about the Jewish diaspora who migrated from Europe to Israel and from Israel to the United States.

We Are All Americans is a podcast series Inspired by the fact that my Russian great-grandfather gained his US citizenship after serving in the US Army and my Lithuanian (or Austrian, or Russian, or Latvian - depending on who is telling the story) great-grandmother entered the US on fake passport. Each episode is a different recorded conversations about how family stories are passed down from generation to generation and what it means to be American in the contexts of multiculturalism, immigration, military service, black lives matter, white privilege, and indigeneity.

* Recorded during the Reciprocity Los Angeles Retreat on April 9, 2019 in Simi Valley, CA

In episode three* of season two, Kayla Tange compares her experiences living in the United States and visiting the country of her birth, as a Korean-born adoptee in a Japanese-American family.

We Are All Americans is a podcast series Inspired by the fact that my Russian great-grandfather gained his US citizenship after serving in the US Army and my Lithuanian (or Austrian, or Russian, or Latvian - depending on who is telling the story) great-grandmother entered the US on fake passport. Each episode is a different recorded conversations about how family stories are passed down from generation to generation and what it means to be American in the contexts of multiculturalism, immigration, military service, black lives matter, white privilege, and indigeneity.

* Recorded on January 18, 2019 in Los Angeles, CA

In episode two* of season two of We Are All Americans, Hugo Claudin, an artist, curator and organizer originally from Guadalajara, Mexico who has lived in Grand Rapids, MI for the past 38 years, discusses his father’s idea of American liberty and justice in contrast with the reality of economic and racial disparities in housing issues, the defunding of public education and the arts, and the US’s interventions in Latin America.

We Are All Americans is a podcast series Inspired by the fact that my Russian great-grandfather gained his US citizenship after serving in the US Army and my Lithuanian (or Austrian, or Russian, or Latvian - depending on who is telling the story) great-grandmother entered the US on fake passport. Each episode is a different recorded conversations about how family stories are passed down from generation to generation and what it means to be American in the contexts of multiculturalism, immigration, military service, black lives matter, white privilege, and indigeneity.

* Recorded on December 30, 2018. via video chat in Los Angeles, CA & Grand Rapids, MI

We Are all Americans is back with Season two. In episode one* Jada Amina, a self proclaimed “Black-South-Side-Chicagoan,” talks about the messiness of being a child of diaspora with African, Creole, German and Native American heritage, and their reasons for not participating in US governmental systems like voting and tribal registration.

We Are All Americans is a podcast series Inspired by the fact that my Russian great-grandfather gained his US citizenship after serving in the US Army and my Lithuanian (or Austrian, or Russian, or Latvian - depending on who is telling the story) great-grandmother entered the US on fake passport. Each episode is a different recorded conversations about how family stories are passed down from generation to generation and what it means to be American in the contexts of multiculturalism, immigration, military service, black lives matter, white privilege, and indigeneity.

* Recorded on November 7, 2018. via video chat in Los Angeles, CA and Chicago, IL.

In episode twelve* of We Are All Americans, Chloe Brun, who was born in Paris to French and Iranian parents and raised in the United States, talks about the challenges of being multi-cultural and finding one’s place in the world.

We Are All Americans is a podcast series Inspired by the fact that my Russian great-grandfather gained his US citizenship after serving in the US Army and my Lithuanian (or Austrian, or Russian, or Latvian - depending on who is telling the story) great-grandmother entered the US on fake passport. Each episode is a different recorded conversations about how family stories are passed down from generation to generation and what it means to be American in the contexts of multiculturalism, immigration, military service, black lives matter, white privilege, and indigeneity.

* Recorded on October 16, 2018. at Otis College of Art and Design in Los Angeles, CA.

In episode eleven* of We Are All Americans, Monique Mansour shares stories with Michele Jaquis about her experiences living in California and traveling abroad as an American of Iraqi-Chaldean heritage.

We Are All Americans is a podcast series Inspired by the fact that my Russian great-grandfather gained his US citizenship after serving in the US Army and my Lithuanian (or Austrian, or Russian, or Latvian - depending on who is telling the story) great-grandmother entered the US on fake passport. Each episode is a different recorded conversations about how family stories are passed down from generation to generation and what it means to be American in the contexts of multiculturalism, immigration, military service, black lives matter, white privilege, and indigeneity.

*Recorded August 28, 2018 at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, CA.

In episode ten* of We Are All Americans Michael Rippens, who is half Dutch and half Filipino, discusses with Michele Jaquis the complexities of being multi-racial and therefore simultaneously fitting in nowhere and everywhere.

We Are All Americans is a podcast series Inspired by the fact that my Russian great-grandfather gained his US citizenship after serving in the US Army and my Lithuanian (or Austrian, or Russian, or Latvian - depending on who is telling the story) great-grandmother entered the US on fake passport. Each episode is a different recorded conversations about how family stories are passed down from generation to generation and what it means to be American in the contexts of multiculturalism, immigration, military service, black lives matter, white privilege, and indigeneity.

*Recorded August 19, 2018 in the Chinatown neighborhood of Los Angeles, CA.

In episode nine* of We Are All Americans Badly Licked Bear talks about their life in America as a gender-non-conforming, Indigenous, Jew whose friends think of them as a professional code switcher.

We Are All Americans is a podcast series Inspired by the fact that my Russian great-grandfather gained his US citizenship after serving in the US Army and my Lithuanian (or Austrian, or Russian, or Latvian - depending on who is telling the story) great-grandmother entered the US on fake passport. Each episode is a different recorded conversations about how family stories are passed down from generation to generation and what it means to be American in the contexts of multiculturalism, immigration, military service, black lives matter, white privilege, and indigeneity.

*Recorded on August 15, 2018 in the Historic South Central neighborhood of Los Angeles, CA.