Well, this is the last episode of The Banh Mi Chronicles Podcast. I am joined by my friend and podcast host of The Vietnamese, Kenneth Nguyen who interviewed me about the process of the podcast and what to look forward to next. Many thanks to my guests, past sponsors, and listeners for making the last 4 years a wonderful ride. Special thanks to Huythang Tran for designing the logo and season themes.

Bio: Kenneth Nguyen served honorably as a former U.S. Marine (1993-97) and holds a B.A degree from USC in Visual Anthropology (2000) with an emphasis in Cinema Studies. He is a Los Angeles based podcaster with over two decades of in the Vietnamese film media space. Kenneth Nguyen was a founding partner of Wave Releasing, the first U.S. based Vietnamese language film distribution company. He managed marketing, theatrical and ancillary distribution on films such as OWL AND THE SPARROW, DE MAI TINH and SIX INCH HEELS. He currently is a founding partner at EAST Films. Kenneth hosts and produces a popular podcast called The Vietnamese with over 300 episodes recorded.

My good friend and fellow Cambodian American Tola Livesey joins us for this episode as we talk about the effects of assimilation and her understanding and curiosity of her Cambodian identity and heritage. She also talks about her passion for archiving stories, and its importance to the Cambodian community and more!

Bio:

Tola is a 1.5 generation Cambodian American who currently lives in in the Los Angeles by way of Chicago. She completed her undergrad in anthropology at the University of Illinois Chicago and her master’s in library and information Science from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. She currently works as a librarian and archivist concentrating on preserving and archiving Cambodian American histories and stories.

Tola has been a former board member and community organizer at the National Cambodian Museum and Killing Fields Memorial in Chicago and was the lead project coordinator for several community programming. Her passion for cultural preservation is the driving force for one day creating a Cambodian American digital archive that will provide a platform for Cambodians to preserve and share their stories.

(S9, EP 8) Joined by my good friend and internationally acclaimed artist Anida Yoeu Ali, we talked about Anida's journey as a Muslim Khmer American, her years-long work as an artist, and the challenges she's experienced along the way including the forced disappearance of her Red Chador. Anida shared the process in developing her critically acclaimed Buddhist Bug that has been seen in exhibits across the globe, and her upcoming exhibition in Seattle in 2024. You won't want to miss this episode!

Bio:

Anida Yoeu Ali (b.1974, Battambang) is an artist whose works span performance, installation, video, images, public encounters, and political agitation. She is a first generation Muslim Khmer woman born in Cambodia and raised in Chicago. After residing for over three decades outside of Cambodia, Ali returned to work in Phnom Penh as part of her 2011 U.S. Fulbright Fellowship. Utilizing an interdisciplinary approach to artmaking, her installation and performance works investigate the artistic, spiritual and political collisions of a hybrid transnational identity.

S9, EP 7. Pulitzer Prize winner Viet Thanh Nguyen is back on my podcast again, this time to talk about his latest book, A Man of Two Faces, the political and socio issues among Vietnamese Americans, and so much more!

Bio:

Viet Thanh Nguyen’s novel The Sympathizer won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and numerous other awards. His most recent publication is his memoir, A Man of Two Faces. His other books are the The Sympathizer, The Committed; The Refugees, a short story collection; Nothing Ever Dies: Vietnam and the Memory of War (which was a finalist for the National Book Award in nonfiction and the National Book Critics Circle Award in General Nonfiction); and Race and Resistance: Literature and Politics in Asian America. He has also published Chicken of the Sea, a children’s book written in collaboration with his son, Ellison. He is a University Professor, the Aerol Arnold Chair of English, and a Professor of English, American Studies and Ethnicity, and Comparative Literature at the University of Southern California. Viet is a recipient of fellowships from the Guggenheim and MacArthur Foundations, he is also the editor of The Displaced: Refugee Writers on Refugee Lives.

Catching up with my friend Alec Phan about his experience as a Chicago stage actor in a queer/trans-centered production, and his mom's experience as a Vietnamese singer and how it influenced Alec's work as an artist, and more!

Bio:

Alec Phan (he/they) is a queer, trans, Viet-American theatre artist based in Chicago. He was last seen as Jon in an all-trans and gender non-conforming production of TICK, TICK...BOOM!, an autobiographical musical created posthumously from the solo works of RENT-creator Jonathan Larson. An actor, deviser, and musician himself, Alec believes in the power of collaborative storytelling to heal hearts and shift paradigms.

Dolly Ave joined us for this episode as she talks about her recently released debut album, the impact of her mom's passing, and her life and vision as an artist.

Bio:

Dolly Ave has received radio airplay on powerhouse 103.5 KISS FM Chicago, influential KEXP and tastemaker station 88Rising Radio on SIRIUS XM. She has appeared at two major music festivals, and received press in Forbes, The NY Times, Paper and was named Live Nation One’s To Watch “Artist of the Week”. Dolly Ave has been placed on multiple editorial playlists on Spotify, YouTube, Vevo and Amazon Music. The artist’s 11-song full length debut is arriving this Summer via Sony Music’s The Orchard distribution. The album chronicles Dolly Ave’s journey growing up in Missouri and finding her voice after the death of her mother. The record is a coming of age story touching on personal growth topics including finding hope in even the darkest of times.

In this week's episode, I chatted with journalist and author of her memoir, "Ma and Me", Putsata Reang. We talked about the process in writing her memoir, her queerness and Khmer identity and how that affected her relationship with her mother and more!

Bio:

Putsata Reang is an author and journalist whose work has appeared in the New York Times, Politico, The Guardian, The San Jose Mercury News, and the Seattle Times among other publications.  Born in Cambodia and rural Oregon, Reang has lived and worked in more than a dozen countries, including Cambodia, Afghanistan, and Thailand.  She is an alumna of residencies at Hedgebrook, the Kimmel Harding Nelson Center for the Arts, and Mineral School, and she has received fellowships from the Alicia Patterson Foundation and Jack Straw Cultural Center.  She is also the author of her current memoir, “Ma and Me”

(S9, EP 3)

Rahimeh Ramezany discusses the lack of Muslim and religious groups in DEI work, and her advocacy in raising that awareness through her work. We talk about the current state of DEI, and Rahimeh shares important practices with listeners on how to be proactive as advocates and be an agency for change.

Bio:

Rahimeh Ramezany (she/her) is a multiethnic, neurodiverse, Muslim American woman, and a diversity, equity, inclusion, and intercultural practitioner. She founded her DEI business in 2021 in order to train organizations on how to include Muslims and religious identity in their existing DEI efforts, while developing nuanced understandings and practical DEI skills that can be applied across identity groups.

Rahimeh leverages her lived experiences at the intersections of multiple marginalized and privileged identities, a master’s degree in intercultural communication, and years of professional DEI experience to address the often deeply uncomfortable but nonetheless essential work of making our spaces inclusive and equitable for all.

For more: visit her at www.rahimehramezany.com