Women of Color Writers’ Authentic Voices: Natalie Obando, Part 2
The Nasiona Podcast
We continue with the second part of my conversation with , the current national president of the and first Latina to take the helm. They continue to discuss the , her experiences and thoughts about the White Gaze in publishing and storytelling industries, how she uses her influence to transition us out of it so we can become more authentic and reflect a more realistic representation, and much more. They also dissect the harmful urge to center the comfort of others by anglicizing our names, thereby decentering ourselves at the outset of relationships, and the kind of impact this form of...
info_outline
Women of Color Writers’ Authentic Voices: Natalie Obando, Part 1
The Nasiona Podcast
Today’s 2-part conversation is the first of’s new series showcasing the authentic voices of Women of Color writers. The Nasiona teamed up with the’s and the organization to publish their inaugural first anthology, entitled. Check our website at for more information on the anthology. For our podcast series, I interviewed everyone we published in the anthology to present you with an in-depth exploration of their individual literary journeys, their relationships to authenticity, experiences where they learned that language and their stories have power, obstacles they have experienced as...
info_outline
Relationship Between Psychological Trauma and Physical Illness
The Nasiona Podcast
What is the relationship between psychological trauma and physical Illness? Co-producer joins on the podcast to interview Molly “Marco” Marcotte to answer this question. Molly “Marco” Marcotte (they/them) is program designer, evaluator, and consultant in their eighth year of work in the anti-violence field. They have co-implemented and evaluated over 30 county-level sexual violence primary prevention initiatives, co-authored multiple state-level and organizational change models and corresponding evaluation plans, designed culturally relevant programming and evaluation for...
info_outline
Blue Blood: Challenging the Rhetoric that Trans People are ‘Unnatural’
The Nasiona Podcast
We all begin in water and are called back to water. Blue Blood challenges the rhetoric that trans people are “unnatural” through captivating verses about metamorphosis and meditations on the concept of home. Robin Gow invites readers to celebrate identity; to question what their own body means to them.
info_outline
Decolonizing & Indigenizing Storytelling, Part 2
The Nasiona Podcast
We share Part 2 of a virtual public event Julián Esteban Torres López gave on what it means to decolonize and indigenize storytelling, hosted by Texas A&M, San Antonio. He talks about the relationship between language and identity; how the concept of time can be used to challenge hegemonic epistemologies; the importance of centering/circulating thinking/art from the Global South; and more. Dr. Alexandra Rodriguez Sabogal interviews Julián, followed by a Q&A w/ the audience moderated by Dr. Katherine Gil
info_outline
On Healing, Transformation, & Reclaiming Authority of Your Authenticity
The Nasiona Podcast
What does it mean to show up as you beyond the you you were told to be? Christine Cariño joins The Nasiona to discuss the philosophy of authenticity, how getting over trauma often means finding your way back to that person you were before the trauma, and the transformative process of rerooting and replanting yourself and reclaiming deferred dreams. This episode is about healing, empowerment, and giving ourselves permission to say yes to ourselves and to create the conditions we need to become ourselves.
info_outline
Decolonizing & Indigenizing Storytelling, Part 1
The Nasiona Podcast
What does it mean to decolonize and Indigenize storytelling? How do institutionalized Euro-centric storytelling frameworks limit creativity, understanding of stories and histories, and how we relate to others, our selves, our environment, and our art creations? In this episode, Julián Esteban Torres López addresses the importance of decolonizing storytelling, affirming Indigenous storytelling traditions, and creating safe and encouraging spaces for BIPOC stories.
info_outline
Being Latina/e/o/x
The Nasiona Podcast
A tour of what it means to be Latina/e/o/x through the voices of previous The Nasiona Podcast guests: Sylvia Salazar, Colette Ghunim, Alondra Adame, Eva Gonzalez, Diana Castellanos, Mireya S. Vela, Liza Ann Acosta, Alexandra Meda, Christina Igaraividez, J.L. Torres, Irma Herrera, Beezy Montaña, Ra Avis, Patrick A. Howell, Carlos Carrasco, and Deborah Taffa. Our stories are complex, nuanced, and deserve to be heard. In the show notes, you can find links to the previous guests’ episodes.
info_outline
Growing up Black and Brown in a White Town
The Nasiona Podcast
What’s it like growing up Black and brown in a predominantly white town? Joe Sparkman and Julián Esteban Torres López share their experiences of growing up together in the 1990s as teenagers in Nashua, New Hampshire: Money magazine’s best place to live in the US in 1987 & 1997; where JFK announced he would run for president; and home to the first racially integrated US team in modern baseball. With this episode we glimpse into the kinds of situations that give rise to activists and social justice warr
info_outline
The Nuyorican Hallway: Belonging & Living Between Worlds
The Nasiona Podcast
J.L. Torres is the author of Migrations, the inaugural winner of the Tomás Rivera Book Prize. His work focuses on the diasporican experience—living in the inbetweeness that forms and informs the Puerto Rican experience. We dissect the central themes of Migrations—a collection of stories deeply rooted in Puerto Rico's history—where he elevates the experiences of Othered individuals. This is a far-ranging conversation that spans colonialism, Nuyorican identity, colorism, Critical Race Theory, and heal
info_outlineAccording to the Blended Future Project, even though multiracial and multiethnic identity can absolutely be a fluid and difficult road to understand, Blended Future Project would like to create a platform to initiate that understanding. To start this process, the Blended Future Project is creating a new cultural identity where multiracial and multiethnic people are understood and free to develop and collaborate their own unique culture(s). They believe this would not only benefit the growing population of multiracial and multiethnic peoples, but also adopted individuals who may not even know their racial or ethnic backgrounds, or third culture kids who have grown up in a country with a different societal culture from their parents. With this, Blended Future Project is actively uniting multiracial and multiethnic people and integrating them fluidly into the cultural communities of all other racial and ethnic groups.
I had the honor of speaking with the leaders of the Blended Future Project, Maris Lidaka and Beth Chin, on June 2nd, 2021, to further discuss the hurdles of creating such a blended future and what that future may look like, as well as hearing about their own mixed-identity journeys.
Beth Chin was born and raised in the Chicagoland area and was seventeen when she co-founded her first non-profit organization with her friends in high school, earning them the President’s Volunteer Service Award from Barack Obama. Being of Chinese, German, and Polish descent, her work focuses on multi-racial identity. She is the founder of the All Related Art collective in Hamburg, Germany, as well as the author of Being Mixed: A Visual Guide on Mixed Identity. Chin is the creator of Blended Future Project, Re-Mixed – A Multicultural Festival, and is working to create more events and bring greater community in the years ahead.
Maris Lidaka is the founder of The Blended Future Project. Born in Oak Park, IL, he is of African-American and Latvian heritage, and has spent the past 20 years working in the entertainment industry in a variety of capacities for large companies such as Disney, Warner Bros, AT&T and Verizon. He created The Blended Future Project to empower the experience of being multiracial and multicultural. With the ultimate goal to create a larger space for empathy and understanding.
The Nasiona Podcast amplifies the voices and experiences of the marginalized, undervalued, overlooked, silenced, and forgotten, as well as gives you a glimpse into Othered worlds. We focus on stories that explore the spectrum of human experiences—stories based on facts, truth-seeking, human concerns, real events, and real people, with a personal touch. From liminal lives to the marginalized, and everything in between, we believe that the subjective can offer its own reality and reveal truths some facts can’t discover. Hosted, edited, and produced by Julián Esteban Torres López.
Please follow The Nasiona on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook for regular updates: @TheNasiona
Original music for The Nasiona Podcast was produced by the Grammy Award-winning team of Joe Sparkman and Marcus Allen, aka The Heavyweights. Joe Sparkman: Twitter + Instagram. Marcus Allen: Twitter + Instagram.
The Nasiona Magazine and Podcast depend on voluntary contributions from readers and listeners like you. We hope the value of our work to our community is worth your patronage. If you like what we do, please show this by liking, rating, and reviewing us; buying or recommending our books; and by financially supporting our work either through The Nasiona’s Patreon page or through Julián Esteban Torres López's Ko-fi donation platform. Every little bit helps.
Thank you for listening and reading, and thank you for your support.