Welcome to Season 2 of Radical Futures Now. Get the inside scoop about our rebrand and the reasoning behind it. Listen and get to know the members of the Racial Futures Now team. Learn about our roles, passions, and why we love to do this work. Hear about what guests and topics we have in store for you.
Transcript:
Rhiki:
Welcome to Radical Futures Now. On this podcast, we connect with social justice leaders around the world to talk about how to organize, how to be a movement and how to build radical futures now. Now we wanted to do something really special for you all, so we’re calling this Episode Zero. In today’s conversation, we’re going to talk about some changes we made since season one. We’re going to give you the opportunity to meet our podcast team and learn more about us as individuals.
Paige:
Our old podcast name was called the Radical Zone. Which sounds like the corner in the office, where the diversity committee meets and the carpet is made out of liberal rainbows and sparkles and Angela Davis posters on the wall. But in all seriousness, we changed our name and vision to reflect our values as social justice leaders in the globally connected world. Our conversations uplift current movements and people power on the ground. The way we organize relate to each other and fight for change directly shapes the futures we want to live in. So we’re going to do a round-robin of the whole team and the first round will be, what is your name and role on the podcast team?
Rhiki:
So I’ll start us off. I don’t know if you are all familiar with my voice, but just in case, if you’re not, my name is Rhiki Swinton. I use she, her pronouns and I am the host, content writer and executive producer of Radical Futures Now.
Gilbert:
My name is Daniel Gilbert Bwette. I’m the audio editor and I use he, him pronouns.
Paige:
My name is Paige Chung. I’m the co-host, writer and producer of Radical Features Now. And I use she and they pronouns.
Nikki:
Hi, I’m Nikki. I’m the communications coordinator, and part-time co-host when Paige can’t either, and I use they, them pronouns.
Julie:
And I’m Julie Marron-Parker. I use she, her pronouns and I’m the relationship coordinator and in charge of logistics.
Rhiki:
So now I want to ask you all, what do you love about being part of this team and I’ll start us off. So I really love having deep conversations and being a part of conversations that aren’t afraid to take it there. And what I mean by that is I feel like whenever you’re talking about systemic oppression or systemic racism or capitalism, or what have you, having conversations at the surface level just doesn’t allow for the conversation to be as transformative as it could be.
Rhiki:
And, I get it diving into the depths of conversations around topics like that and the unknown can be scary. You don’t know what you’re going to say, there’s a fear of offending someone, but I think the fear is outweighed by what can really come through in a conversation like that. The learning, the understanding, the transformation that can happen. So I’m a risk taker, I’m always down to have a deep conversation. Plus I just love our team. This is the only team where, when I have a meeting for our team on the calendar, I’m not like, “Oh, another podcast meeting.” I look forward to our meetings because we have fun in them.
Paige:
Yeah. That’s my favorite part about being on this team too? I feel like our meetings are just super fun and we goof off a lot, but my family also calls me big mouth and big ears. And I just love talking to people. I love eavesdropping on conversations. So, being on a podcast just lets me do that.
Nikki:
So in the same kind of way, I think, I’m here and I love being a part of this team because I’m really drawn to intentional, meaningful and conversations that just feel bigger than you. And while you’re in them, you contingently feel yourself expanding almost. And those conversations just fill me and give me life and they give me hope for the future. So I love being a part of a team that, the whole point is to be here and to have these conversations.
And I mean, I get to do it alongside of literally some of the most thoughtful, fun, collaborative, and honest people I know. And that’s just an absolute joy that I get to love fully and trust fully my team and do something that feels bigger than us. And I really believe that this podcast will help at least myself learn to envision and build radical futures. And so I really believe that being a part of this team is going to help save me and save my community and the people I love and all of us. So I’m just really grateful to have a place in a role in it.
Paige:
Nikki, you’re going to make me cry.
Nikki:
Oh my God, don’t cry. I love you.
Paige:
I Love you too.
Julie:
I love doing the behind the scenes work. For me, this is probably the last time you’ll hear me on the podcast. I’m an introvert at heart. So my favorite part about this is reaching out to people that we’re in relationship with at the Arcus Center or that we building new relationships as well as sustaining the ones that we already have and bringing them into conversation, really intentional conversations that I look forward to listening to the episodes when they’re done.
Gilbert:
I think the best part of being on the podcast is to be a part of, for me, a global team. I remember when we started the podcast, the pandemic found me when I was in the U.S And then I was confined in the house. So it was a very big opportunity for me to actually start shifting ideas and conversation with different minds and also different mindset holding conversation. And the fact that I’m the editor I’m usually listening in the background, listening into all these different radical and changemakers from different parts of the world. So that gives me the opportunity to learn. And also being part of this team, you get to learn about what everybody’s doing.
So when I came back home, I’m always looking forward to our team meeting. Even with all these challenges of connections and what have you, but when you connect, you know that you’re part of this huge opportunity to make sure that you’re part of the team that brings the knowledge out there that brings people together is a huge opportunity.
Paige:
Okay. All right. This is our last round. What social justice issues are you passionate and focused on?
Rhiki:
Okay, for me, this is Rhiki talking to, for me being a black woman, it’s not a surprise that I’m really passionate about systemic racism and focusing on how it’s evolved over time. But I also am passionate about black feminism and I think black feminism is a great framework that will help people understand the intersections of identities and how to hold up multiple identities within a space and within a conversation. I think too many times when we have conversations, we want to just focus on just one issue or just one identity. And then people kind of get flustered or overwhelmed when we bring in other identities into the conversation, but it just deepens the conversations. And yet it’s hard to do sometimes, but I feel like we do need to learn how to master that because we’re not just one thing.
Another thing that I’m really passionate about is mass incarceration, because I feel there’s no true way to tackle the issue of racism without also talking about how people of color are constantly being surveilled, targeted and limited by our criminal justice system, a system that’s supposed to protect us. So that’s me.
Julie:
For me coming to the Arcus Center three years ago was my awakening to radical thinking. And I’m still grateful that I get to be in conversation and build relationships with people from all different places in the world that I get to learn from people about what’s happening for them and really deep diving into hard conversations. I am passionate right now about immigration and migration. I’m working on bringing Hostile terrain ’94 to the Arcus Center, which is an art installation. It’s a participatory art installation, which requires people to fill out toe tags that represent people who have died trying to cross the Arizona desert.
Julie:
It exposes the brutality and the inhumanity of the U.S border patrol policies. It calls us to recognize that these human beings have died because of these policies and to memorialize them. But it also calls us to action to start changing these policies that have led to the deaths of these people. So that’s where my focus is right now, but I am committed to being anti-racist in all the ways that racism shows up in myself, as well as in the world.
Paige:
For me, I think everything stems from two things, the first being stories. So I believe the power of language and art that can have profound changes within ourselves and within the world and the communities that we’re participating in. And then the second one would be relationship building, especially across generations. I try to make sure to visit my elders. I try to make sure to talk to the youth and also talk to people my age. And I think that’s really important in movement work. And then the last thing I want to say is my political consciousness was rooted in critical ethnic studies and organizing in the Bay Area with [A-Pink 00:10:28] . And especially in my writing, I try to explore all of these things. The stories, the language and relationship building.
Gilbert:
My areas of passion really lies around community, because most of my upbringing has been really around different communities, and the opportunities it presents to learn and to use the knowledge that gets from different corners of the community. But also, I’m also passionate about teaching young people, especially on the continent of Africa the ability to learn to tell their own stories, which has been one of the most problem especially on the continent with the young people, where we have to wait for other people to tell our stories.
So with a few tools and the skills that I’ve been able to get with also my knowledge from the [Hook 00:11:24] Foundation has given me that opportunity, but also that responsibility to keep on carrying on that responsibility to teach young people to use either photography, to use all these skills, especially in the indigenous hiphop culture to use those skill sets that they get from the culture tell their stories.
So it might be through the bread dance, through photographies, through MC, through spoken word, to make sure that you tell your own truth to the rest of the world. And then when I get the opportunity to travel to the outside of the continent, especially in America, is to also now use that opportunity to now share these stories to either academia to social justice circles, to the friends that I have and also connect with especially people of color in the Americas to also attract them to start traveling to come to, especially in Uganda.
If you can come to Uganda to start travel to any parts of Africa to get that exposure, because I really believe that, that also expands your best of knowledge once you start to travel and also maybe start to feel like you’re not a minority in the community where you… that there is that huge continent that have the people that look exactly like you, who probably think like you, and also when you travel, when you feel like you have now the opportunity to share the knowledge or the skill sets that you have that you probably have not gotten the opportunity to share them where you come from.
Or you feel like maybe that is less of what you have. The opportunity you have when you travel is huge and then the responsibility, the friendships that you make. There’s a huge gratitude points to carry on there. So that is for me, where my passion is to make sure that we use these skillsets, but at the same time to also speak into the political and systemic injustices that we face as young people.
Nikki:
How to follow that. Okay. So I think it’s really important to name that I’m a white, fat, queer disabled non-binary person. And all of those pieces that I just named have played a role in understanding who I am and who the world is and my relationship to it. And so I’m really, really deeply passionate and really oriented towards body liberation, specifically fat activism for me and who I am, but the idea of body liberation is just something that’s always just at the tip of my tongue, because I believe it’s a really important anchor to the work I do, and to the idea of a liberated and radical future.
So yeah, I would say that body liberation and fat activism is a big part of who I am. I’m also really passionate about disability justice. I want to clear everything up and I’m really, really also oriented towards the idea of just grappling with nuance and learning how to hold nuance as a way to reject binary thinking and just recognizing the complexity in our lives and ourselves as human while scraping every little bit of healing and hope I can out of my time. Is kind of how I spend my time and what I’m passionate about and what I think I can offer to this podcast. Yeah.
Paige:
I love you all. This was great. Hey, Rhiki, what should the listeners be excited for in season two?
Rhiki:
Well, Paige, we have some amazing guests coming. So we have Sammie and [Yuan 00:15:22] from A-Pink, which is your organization. We have Mia Henry, Shae Howell, Abeni Jones. We’re also talking about topics like time banking. If you don’t know what that is, then you definitely need to listen to that episode and radical community care.
Gilbert:
So, in this season we’re also going to have Baba Buntu, who is coming from South Africa, indigenously also called as Azania land. He is huge on centering people of color with African knowledge especially young boys and youth, like how do you grow up when you feel you’re not shaken by the systemic problems that are surrounding you within the community that you live in, but you feel like you have the path to move forward.
They have one of the biggest African library books in South Africa, and he also the CEO of a company called Ebukhosini Solutions where Baba Buntu and his wife go to different countries, empowering young people, especially young people of color on how to ground themselves and feel powerful in the community where they feel pressures of different kinds of things that are surrounding them. So I’m really excited to listen to the kind of knowledge that he’ll be sharing on this podcast
Rhiki:
And we also want to be intentional this time around about making sure our audience is able to get involved in some of the issue areas that we cover on our podcasts. So the way that we’re going to do that is for every episode, we’ll provide our audience with some resources and a resource list that they can click on to get the books that we talked about, or to get connected to the organizations that we named in our conversations. So be on the lookout for that. I’m really excited about it.
Paige:
So that’s us, our rebrand and what we have coming for you in season two. If you want to know more, you can go to our website, acsjlradicalfutures.kzoo.edu. That’s acsjlradicalfutures.kzoo.edu. Centering the radical now to build radical future.