Documentary: Liberation Under Siege | Liberación Bajo Asedio

Following the triumph of the Cuban Revolution, which successfully fended off imperial aggression by the United States, the United States imposed an economic trade blockade as punishment, which has continued to be in place for the past 60 years. The US has undertaken repeated attempts to plunder the Cuban people through genocidal measures, which has been met with the staunch resilience of the Cuban people, who continue to have faith and confidence in the socialist principles of the Revolution, despite the blockade materially impacting their everyday lives.

“Liberation Under Siege” examines the material conditions cultivated by the destructive blockade through the experiences and stories of everyday Cubans, and reclaim the imperialist narrative pushed by the United States through billions of dollars.

Filmed, Directed, and Edited by:

Priya Prabhakar
Reva Kreeger
Sabrina Meléndez

Documentary: Scan, Label, Apply, Manifest

"Scan, Label, Apply, Manifest" is a short documentary that centers the advocacy work of the Warehouse Workers Resource Center (WWRC) in light of the mass expansion of Amazon factories in the Inland Empire. The film centers the experiences of former and current warehouse workers and organizers as it documents how workers’ bodies are pushed to their limit under capitalism and the specific working conditions of Amazon factories, shedding a larger light on the culture of excess, consumerism, demand, and waste within the United States. "Scan, Label, Apply, Manifest" then goes to document how immigrant workers are leading movements of resistance to Amazon through campaigning, collective organizing and bargaining, unionization, and striking through the WWRC.

Filmed, Directed, and Edited by:

Priya Prabhakar
Kai Keevil
Nezihe Atun

Interview Series: Indigenous Peoples’ Day

As Program Director of and Podcasts/Interviews at KSPC 88.7 FM, I regularly programmed content in the form of interviews with activists, scholars, authors, artists, and more. For Indigenous Peoples’ Day, I interviewed six folks who shared their work, ideas, and knowledge about Indigenous resistance, Indigenous art, and Indigenous Peoples’ Day. This programming aims to amplify the continual transnational Indigenous resistance against settler-colonialism and capitalism, and the possibilities for a better world this resistance shares. The interviews included:

Carolann Duro (they/them) is a student at Scripps College majoring in Sociology. Priya Prabhakar interviews Carolann about their summer project, their process of learning the Serrano language, along with forming solidarity with other Indigenous folks at the Living Language Circles. 

Micky Huihui is the executive director of the Hawai’i People’s Fund. She talks about how HPF subverts the hegemonic white savior paradigm of Western NGOs, their work with over 800 community-based organizations committed to social change, settler-colonialism in Hawai’i, and more.

Dr. Noelani Goodyear-Kaʻōpua (she/her) is a Kanaka Maoli from O‘ahu, Hawaiʻi. She is professor and chair of the political science department at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, where she teaches Hawaiian and Indigenous politics. Noe has published articles and books on Hawaiian social movements, Indigenous education and decolonial future-making.

Votan Henriquez (he/him) is a Los Angeles native of Maya and Nahua roots, who blends the knowledge of his ancestry, graphic design, street art, and awareness of the issues facing Native people today. He expresses his voice primarily on city streets in the form of large scale murals and street art, to create artworks which blend contemporary arts techniques with old Mayan symbology and Native American imagery.

Dr. Uahikea Maile (he/him) is a Kanaka Maoli scholar, activist, and practitioner from Maunawili, Oʻahu. He is an Assistant Professor of Indigenous Politics in the Department of Political Science and Affiliate Faculty in the Centre for Indigenous Studies at the University of Toronto. He has published in the journals of Native American and Indigenous Studies and Cultural Studies <-> Critical Methodologies, and has forthcoming articles in Hūlili: Multidisciplinary Research on Hawaiian Well-Being and American Indian Culture and Research Journal.

Podcast: Interview with Cynthia Stephen for Dalit History Month

I had the privilege of being able to interview Cynthia Stephen during the month of Dalit History Month. Cynthia Stephen is an independent social policy researcher and writer who has trained for decades in gender policy and development issues and written for a variety of alternative publications, such as newspapers, magazines, journals, and books. Cynthia’s whole life has been writing as an intellectual by cultivating the margins of academia, along with being in several leadership positions in grassroots organizing, such as being the State Programme Director of Mahila Samakhya Karnataka and a consultant for the International Justice Mission. In 2016, Cynthia was awarded the Akka Award for Social Work by the Basava Samithi, a prominent social and cultural organization in Karnataka. As a Dalit, Christian, and woman, Cynthia’s pedagogy is grounded in amplifying the voices and perspectives of the marginalized, especially in the dominant caste Indian feminist movements that exclude Dalit women. Cynthia’s knowledge and experience are vital in cultivating gender justice critiques from Dalit and Dalit Bahujan perspectives. I had the great privilege of being able to interview Cynthia and go further in-depth into the nuances of her experiences as an independent writer, an accessible breakdown of Brahmanical caste hegemony and where that places Dalit women, the experiences of being a Christian Dalit, the brilliance of Dr. B. R. Ambedkar, along with Black-Dalit and Dalit-Muslim womanist and feminist solidarities.

For the first hour of my show, I air this interview, and for the second hour, I air a compilation of songs, speeches, and poetry in honor of Ambedkar or by Dalit artists, activists, and poets. These include:

- “Bhadram Koduko” by Gaddar
- “Danger Chamar” by Ginni Mahi
- “Fan Baba Sahib Di” by Ginni Mahi
- “Dalit Rap” by Sumeet Samos
- “Babasahebanchi Ringtone” by Anand Shinde
- “Bodies of Revolution” by Thenmozhi Soundararajan
- “A Song for Rohith Vemula” by Hirawal Troupe at University of Hyderabad
- Live Song by Sheetal Sathe of the Kabir Kala Manch (KKM)
- “Ye Hitler Ke Sathi” by Lokshahir Sambhaji Bhagat
- “Song on Ambedkar” written by Kalekuri Prasad, performed by Dappu Prakash
- “తెలంగాణ” by Gaddar
- Poem by Rajni Tilak
- “A Cunning Stunt” by Meena Kandasamy
- “Backstreet Girls” by Meena Kandasamy
- “Mulligatawny Dreams” by Meena Kandasamy

This show was aired on Tuesday, April 10th, 2018 from 2 - 4 PM PST on KSPC 88.7, and again on Wednesday, April 11th, 2018 from 6 - 8 AM PST.

Transcription located here.

Podcast: Interview with Lola Smallwood Cuevas, Director of the LA Black Worker Center

Lola Smallwood Cuevas is a project director at the UCLA Labor Center an an expert on unions, employment discrimination and the black working-class, specifically in Los Angeles. She directs the Los Angeles Black Worker Center, a project of the UCLA Labor Center which is the first worker center in California focused on solving the Black job crisis. The BWC aims to build power among black workers to create greater access to quality jobs, address employment discrimination, and transform industries that employ black workers. Smallwood Cuevas previously served as the political and community coordinator for the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 1877 and she has helped build a dynamic Black community partnership with a largely immigrant union. She's co-authored the Labor Center's publication, Women's Work: Los Angeles Homecare Workers Revitalize the Labor Movement, and wrote a chapter in the 2010 book Black Los Angeles: American Dreams and Racial Realities.

Transcription located here.

Podcast: Interview with Dr. Jih-Fei Cheng, Professor of Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies

Jih-Fei Cheng is Assistant Professor and Interim Chair of Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at Scripps College. Previously, he worked in HIV/AIDS social services, managed a university cultural center, has been involved in arts and media production and curation, and has participated as a board or steering committee member in various queer and trans of color community-based organizations in Los Angeles and New York City. Cheng’s research examines the intersections between science, media, surveillance, and social movements. His first book project, tentatively titled Queer Code: AIDS and the Native-Black-Alien Nexus in the Age of Virology, examines the science and media of late twentieth and early twentieth-first century AIDS activism in relation to the colonial history of virology. A co-edited volume with Nishant Shahani and Alexandra Juhasz, AIDS and the Distribution of Crises, will be published in spring 2020 (Duke UP). He is also at work on a second project that engages how the colonial histories of virology and genetics have structured global industries, white supremacy across the Atlantic and the Americas, and Han Chinese ethnosupremacy across Asia Pacific.

Mix for Radio AlHara: MEMORY/ YEARN/ MOMENT/ BEAT

MEMORY/YEARN/MOMENT/BEAT is a mix by Priya Prabhakar and Somnath Bhatt (@m0henjodaro) for Radio Al-Hara (@radioalhara). Comes out April 10, 10 PM Bethlehem time.

This mix is a collage of memories flooding back, temporality in transition and fondness for intensity. Mutual admiration of sonic worlds and love for public radio brought this mix together. The motive of this mix is to re-listen to the experience of time passing.

“Guts Theme” (Calmado)
”Missing You” (Ananda Shankar)
”Goodbye to Wendy” (Robin Guthrie & Harold Budd)
”Sabor a Mi” (Alba Armengou Quartet)
”Dreary Town” (Nadine Shah)
”Mist of Capricorn” (Agam)
”Cheshme Man” (Dariush Eghbali)
”Odo Nwom” (Kofi Nti & Ofori Amponsah)
”Habibi I Love You” (Gawaher)
”La Vie En Rose” (Grace Jones)
”Yali Yali” - Todd Terje Edit (Neşe Karaböcek)
”The Devil Is Loose” (Asha Puthli)
”Ramer Sans Rame” (Akofa Akoussah)
”Vellai Pookkal” (A. R. Rahman)
”Alaminadura” (Bi Kidude)
”Ali Ali Ali” (Nooran Sisters)
”Shasanam” (Sima Bina)
”Nada Em Vão” (Rodrigo Amarante)
”Kacharpari” (Los Caballeros)
”Deixa A Gira Girar - Edit” (Os Tincoãs)
”Mujh Se Pehli Si Mohabbat” (Faiz Ahmed Faiz, recited by Zohra Segal)

“Aporia Hours” with DJ Lal Salam

I host a weekly radio show on KSPC Claremont 88.7, "Aporia Hours" under the name DJ Lal Salam. I regularly air music of underrepresented artists (women, queer, trans, people of color), revolutionary and anti-imperialist music of the Global South/South Asia, past interviews and speeches of famous leftist figures such as Angela Davis, Mumia Abu-Jamal, and Leila Khaled, and music of old Hindi and Tamil cinema. This particular episode was aired on February 22nd, 2019, for Centering Black Voices in Media Week.

“Afro Blue” (Robert Glasper feat. Erykah Badu)
“Steve Bik (Stir It Up)” (A Tribe Called Quest)
“Media Is The Mirage” (Mumia Abu-Jamal)
“NAFTA: A Pact Made in Hell” (Mumia Abu-Jamal)
“South Africa” (Mumia Abu-Jamal)
“Belem” (Opotopo)
“Ms. Fat Booty” (Mos Def)
“Speed Law” (Mos Def)
“Political Persecution” (Angela Davis)
“What Is To Be Done?” (Angela Davis)
“Shine A Light” (Shabazz Palaces feat. Thaddillac)
“Runnin’” (Blood Orange feat. Georgia Anne Muldrow)
“Nobody Other” (Kadhja Bonet)
“Francisco” (Kadhja Bonet)
“Floor Show” (Kelela)
“Broken Hearted” (DJ Rashad)
“May 13th Remembered” (Mumia Abu-Jamal)
“Father Hunger” (Mumia Abu-Jamal)
“Toe Fat (Ghettozone)” (Madlib)
“More Love” (Robert Glasper feat. KING)
“Friends (Foes)” (Madlib)
“Message to Mumia” (Assata Shakur)
“Kicks” (FKA Twigs)
“Where Do We Go From Here” (Charles Bradley feat. Menahan Street Band)

View all the past playlists for “Aporia Hours” here.