Podcasts about writing about race

Returning guests: Philosopher, writer, and PhD student Anisha Sankar and soon to be Assistant Professor of Pacific Island Studies at the University of Oregon and author of Bloody Woman Lana Lopesi. Contents: This episode gives some background to the anthology project Towards a Grammar of Race in Aotearoa New Zealand to be published by Bridget Williams Books in Sept/Oct 2022. We reflect back on the beginning of a reading group that culminated into this project, drawing from Jodi Byrd's The Transit of Empire: Indigenous Critiques of Colonialism,  Frank B. Wilderson III's Afropessimism, Lisa A. Lowe's The Intimacies of Four Continents, Otherwise Worlds: Against Settler Colonialism and Anti-Blackness, and more. Reading and thinking with challenging theoretical perspectives, through different points of views and disciplines, offered productive tensions that better spoke to the messy and complex realities of our modern world. This background assisted us in finding language to navigate the local and global discourse and experience of race and power, such as debates between ethnicity vs. race in a New Zealand context. This project sought to bring together different authors, understandings, ideas, and experiences of race together. We confront a lack of societal consensus or shared language to even discuss race by putting these diverse positions together in what we call, ‘towards a grammar of race'. Grammar is both linguistic and philosophical, as the rules that give structure to language and to society. Ani and Lana also share a bit about their chapters in the book and we end with a critical reflection on ‘accessibility'. Terms: Incommensurability is a term borrowed from mathematics that refers to having no common measure, and is used in reference to Afropessimism, which uses the term to confront the inadequacies to theorise Black suffering and Blackness in other theoretical camps, positions, or traditions; Paranoid and reparative reading are references to Eve Sedgwick's book Touching Feeling – Affect, Pedagogy, Performativity and particularly the chapter ‘Paranoid reading and reparative reading, or you're so paranoid, you probably think this essay is about you.'; Colonial imaginary refers to the intellectual, aesthetic, and historical production of a modern euro-imperial consciousness and reality.

In this episode, I'm sharing about a panel discussion I attended at the Los Angeles Times Book Festival where Black woman authors discussed race in their writing. Also, my thoughts about not wavering from your focus. ** Find me on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter at @archuletawrites ** --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

In this episode we have the pleasure of speaking to Korean adoptee and award-winning writer James Han Mattson. We start with James' path to becoming a writer and the moment when his Iowa acceptance letter arrived in the mail. He treats us to two readings of his work: an extended excerpt from his recent novel Reprieve, and his essay “Letter to a Stranger” published in the literary magazine Off Assignment, which is about a pivotal moment during his time living in Korea. We discuss some of the themes explored in Reprieve - including the complex intersections between love, desire, and racial preferences - as well as the challenges of learning one birth language in one's birth country, while you're also so deeply engaged in your craft as a writer who publishes in English. Finally, James tells us about how his time in Korea changed his writing and gives us the scoop on his new novel in progress, which features a Korean adoptee protagonist. James Han Mattson was born in Seoul and raised in North Dakota. He reunited with his birth family in 2009. A graduate of the Iowa Writers' Workshop, he is the award-winning author of two novels: The Lost Prayers of Ricky Graves and Reprieve, which was a Fall 2021 Book Pick by The New York Times, The L.A. Times, The Chicago Tribune, The Guardian, Esquire, Entertainment Weekly, and the TODAY show, among others. He is currently the fiction editor of Hyphen Magazine. You can follow him on Twitter: @jhmattson or check out his website at www.jameshanmattson.com

This month our program features something unique. I’m featuring an audio program I created/wrote/ and produced in my graduate school days. To be quite honest, it was my first foray into audio production. It was for a class called “Writing About Race and Change” at Florida Atlantic University that was taught by its Writer in Residence, Dr. Kitty Oliver, who would later become my mentor and friend. “Cafe con Leche”—as I titled it, also won an award from FAU’s Graduate Research Symposium and led to a Summer Internship program under the tutelage of former NPR station manager and BBC freelance contributor—Dr. Kevin Petrich. I had the honor of being his teaching assistant for Broadcast Journalism for three years. Talk about lucky! This audio program brings back many fond memories for me: of the many friendships I made while in graduate school, of the challenges graduate school presented, and of the hard work and sacrifice it required. But it also reminded me of the sweet taste of success I achieved upon earning the doctorate. Just in case you’re curious, I remixed the program and hope you like my update.

Garnette Cadogan is an acclaimed essayist who teaches in MIT’s Urban Studies and Planning program. As befits a teacher who is also a professional creative writer, he conceives of the academic syllabus as a matrix of interconnected and recurring themes and leitmotifs, not as a schematic outline of self-contained units. In this episode, he describes how he designed his latest class, 11.S947 The Fire This Time: Race and Racism in American Cities, to draw on a wide range of cultural documents—not only written texts but also standup comedy, song, poetry, and film—to de-simplify students’ understanding of racial relations. Too often, he says, the struggle for social justice is presented in terms of a teleological progression toward freedom and inclusion, and too often victimization is presented as if it were the only experience of those on the receiving end of racism’s injustices. Oppression dehumanizes everyone, oppressor and oppressed alike, Cadogan says, but it isn’t the sum total of anyone’s being. He hopes this class will help students encounter the experiences of others in their full human complexity of joy, hope, pessimism, struggle, and imagination.Relevant ResourcesMIT OpenCourseWareThe OCW Educator PortalGarnette Cadogan’s course 1.S947 The Fire This Time: Race and Racism in American Cities -- coming soon!Garnette Cadogan’s course 11.S948 Seeing the City Afresh on OCW Garnette Cadogan’s essay “Walking While Black”Garnette Cadogan’s faculty pageWatch MIT’s 47th Annual MLK Jr Celebration to hear more voices on the role of joy in the struggle against systemic racism Music in this episode by Blue Dot Sessions Connect with UsIf you have a suggestion for a new episode or have used OCW to change your life or those of others, tell us your story. We’d love to hear from you! Call us @ 617-715-2517On our siteOn FacebookOn TwitterOn Instagram Stay CurrentSubscribe to the free monthly "MIT OpenCourseWare Update" e-newsletter. Support OCWIf you like Chalk Radio and OpenCourseware, donate to help keep these programs going! CreditsSarah Hansen, host and producerBrett Paci, producer  Dave Lishansky, producer Show notes by Peter Chipman

Andrea McDaniels of The Baltimore Sun discusses the positioning of positions and discussing racial inequities and health and education in an urban media environment.

Director Andrew Patterson joins us to talk about new movie The Vast of Night, the story of a small New Mexico town disturbed by lights in the sky and unidentified radio signals which is a loving homage to the sci-fi TV of the 1950s. The low budget, high concept film, which is Patterson’s directorial debut, is available on Amazon Prime. Writers Timberlake Wertenbaker and Winsome Pinnock talk about how white and black writers engage with race, and the importance and responsibility of white writers to talk about race and racism. Mark Damazer is the newly announced Chair of the Booker Prize Foundation which oversees the management of the Booker Prize and the International Booker Prize, for fiction in translation. After the Booker judges’ controversial decision in 2019 to split the main award between two authors, Bernadine Evaristo and Margaret Atwood, he joins us to talk about the Foundation’s plans for the year ahead. It’s the 31st anniversary today of the massacre of thousands of protestors in Tiananmen Square. Writers, musicians and writers, such as Bei Dao, Duo Duo and singer Cui Jian, were involved in the movement for Democracy in China, and Front Row briefly reflects on their role. Presenter: Tom Sutcliffe Producer: Julian May Studio Manager: Tim Heffer

In the second half of a special two-part episode, novelist and critic Jess Row and poet and critic Tim Yu talk to Fiction/Non/Fiction co-hosts V.V. Ganeshananthan and Whitney Terrell about writing about whiteness in America. Who gets to participate in cultural criticism, and why? Who gets reviewed by and compared to whom, and why? How can white writers render and challenge their communities' part in the country's history of racism? Row and Yu also share their responses to Bob Hicok's recent essay about diversity in poetry. (Find Part I here.) Guests:Jess RowTim YuReadings for the Episode:Jess RowWhite FlightsYour Face in Mine“What Are White Writers For?” in The New Republic, Sept. 30, 2016“Native Sons: A straight white American man on loving James Baldwin and learning to write about race” in Guernica, Aug. 13, 2013“A Safe Space for Racism,” in The New Republic, Nov. 23, 2016 Tim Yu"The Case of the 'Disappearing' Poet: Why did a white poet see the success of writers of color as a signal of his own demise?" The New Republic, August 7, 2019White Poets Want Chinese Culture Without Chinese People Calvin Trillin's "Have They Run Out of Provinces Yet?" is the latest in a long artistic tradition. The New Republic, April 8, 2016, 100 Chinese Silences Whitney TerrellThe King of Kings County Others:White Fragility: Why It's So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism by Robin DiAngelo (book)"The Authentic Outsider: Bill Cheng, Anthony Marra, and the freedom to write what you don't know," by V.V. Ganeshananthan“The Dominance of the White Male Critic,” by Elizabeth Méndez Berry and Chi-hui Yang, The New York Times, July 5, 2019"The Promise of American Poetry," by Bob Hicok, Utne Reader, Summer 2019 (originally appeared in Michigan Quarterly Review, Winter 2018)Race, Real Estate, and Uneven Development: The Kansas City Experience, 1900-2010 by Kevin Fox GothamPlaying in the Dark: Whiteness in the literary imagination by Toni MorrisonWhite People by Allan GurganusLiterary Color Lines: On Inclusion in Publishing Fiction/Non/Fiction #8: Dhonielle Clayton and Ayesha Pande Talk Sensitivity Reading January 11, 2018 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In the first half of a special two-part episode, novelist and critic Jess Row and poet and critic Tim Yu talk to Fiction/Non/Fiction podcast co-hosts V.V. Ganeshananthan and Whitney Terrell about writing about whiteness in America. How can white writers render their communities' part in the country's history of racism, and also challenge them? Row and Yu also share their responses to Bob Hicok's recent Utne Reader essay about diversity in poetry. To hear the full episode, subscribe to the Fiction/Non/Fiction podcast through iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app (make sure to include the forward slashes when searching). You can also listen by streaming from the player below. Guests:Jess RowTim YuReadings for the Episode:Jess RowWhite FlightsYour Face in Mine“What Are White Writers For?” in The New Republic, Sept. 30, 2016“Native Sons: A straight white American man on loving James Baldwin and learning to write about race” in Guernica, Aug. 13, 2013 Tim Yu "The Case of the 'Disappearing' Poet: Why did a white poet see the success of writers of color as a signal of his own demise?" The New Republic, August 7, 2019White Poets Want Chinese Culture Without Chinese People Calvin Trillin's "Have They Run Out of Provinces Yet?" is the latest in a long artistic tradition. The New Republic, April 8, 2016, 100 Chinese Silences Whitney TerrellThe King of Kings CountyThe Huntsman Others:White Fragility: Why It's So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism by Robin DiAngelo (book)"White Fragility," by Robin DiAngelo (article)"The Authentic Outsider: Bill Cheng, Anthony Marra, and the freedom to write what you don't know," by V.V. Ganeshananthan“The Dominance of the White Male Critic: Conversations about our monuments, museums, screens and stages have the same blind spots as our political discourse,” by Elizabeth Méndez Berry and Chi-hui Yang, The New York Times, July 5, 2019"The Promise of American Poetry," by Bob Hicok, Utne Reader, Summer 2019 (originally appeared in Michigan Quarterly Review, Winter 2018)"Have They Run Out of Provinces Yet?" by Calvin Trillin, The New Yorker, March 28, 2016Orientalism by Edward SaidMapping Prejudice Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On this episode, we explore food from a slightly different angle. We talked with Amy Lam, associate editor at BITCH Magazine and co-founder of the group "Portland Creatives of Color" — which is the reason why we met and started this podcast in the first place. Amy talked to us about her relationship with food, and how the gendered expectations she was raised with shaped the way she sees cooking. From there, all three of us share what it means to be writers and children of immigrants at the same time.

Author, New York Times columnist and master storyteller Samuel Freedman describes the process of creating powerful narratives about people engaged with race, faith and other cultural issues in this interview with veteran journalist Dean Nelson. Freedman is presented as part of the 19th Annual Writer’s Symposium by the Sea at Point Loma Nazarene University. Series: "Writer's Symposium By The Sea" [Public Affairs] [Humanities] [Show ID: 26029]

Author, New York Times columnist and master storyteller Samuel Freedman describes the process of creating powerful narratives about people engaged with race, faith and other cultural issues in this interview with veteran journalist Dean Nelson. Freedman is presented as part of the 19th Annual Writer’s Symposium by the Sea at Point Loma Nazarene University. Series: "Writer's Symposium By The Sea" [Public Affairs] [Humanities] [Show ID: 26029]

Author, New York Times columnist and master storyteller Samuel Freedman describes the process of creating powerful narratives about people engaged with race, faith and other cultural issues in this interview with veteran journalist Dean Nelson. Freedman is presented as part of the 19th Annual Writer’s Symposium by the Sea at Point Loma Nazarene University. Series: "Writer's Symposium By The Sea" [Public Affairs] [Humanities] [Show ID: 26029]

Author, New York Times columnist and master storyteller Samuel Freedman describes the process of creating powerful narratives about people engaged with race, faith and other cultural issues in this interview with veteran journalist Dean Nelson. Freedman is presented as part of the 19th Annual Writer’s Symposium by the Sea at Point Loma Nazarene University. Series: "Writer's Symposium By The Sea" [Public Affairs] [Humanities] [Show ID: 26029]