This is a storytelling podcast which mostly explores minor moments in the lives on migrants. In these intimate mixtapes you will also encounter stories on education, gardening, and food justice - all meant to help us make sense of live in the US. Updated tri-weekly.
The host Lina Zigelyte is an educator and media creator. She has taught courses on media studies and visual culture at research universities and colleges across Western New York. Lina is based in Rochester, NY.
Schools will not be the same in the upcoming academic year. So much might be on the line because of the pandemic and the ongoing anti-racist protests which have taken over the country. So, what can education do in the era of Black Lives Matter? To explore this question, this episode looks at elementary schools. One of our guides in this journey will be Mary Kokinda, an educator based in Western New York. What racial ideas do students encounter in routine tests they take at schools? How do parents react to students’ engagement with the topics of race and ethnicity? How is America’s changing demographic landscape shifting teachers’ labor? These are some of the questions you will encounter in this episode.
Additional resources:
A Class Divided (a PBS documentary, 1985), https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1mcCLm_LwpE.
Jane Elliott on the OWS (1992), https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ebPoSMULI5U.
"18 striking findings from 2018," Pew Research Center, Dec 13, 2018, https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2018/12/13/18-striking-findings-from-2018/.
Judith Adkins, “ 'These People Are Frightened to Death.' Congressional Investigations and the Lavender Scare," 2016, https://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/2016/summer/lavender.html.
James Brown, "School board passes RCSD budget that cuts 300 positions," https://www.rochestercitynewspaper.com/rochester/rochester-school-board-adopts-budget-that-would-cut-300-positions/Content?oid=11768607.
This episode includes sounds from PBS, ABC, CBS, and uncredited found footage from You Tube. Sound effects are from the FreeSound.org
Music in this episode is by Loaylty Freak Music and the piece is called Summer Pride, courtesy of the Free Music Archive and licenced under the CC BY licence.
Image of Mary Kokinda and Mr. Z courtesy of Mary Kokinda.
E3: It is not a representation thing, an interview with Elliot Lyons
In this episode, we go to the city of Utrecht in the central part of the Netherlands to talk to Elliot Lyons, a writer and photographer who left the United States in 2008 and has lived in the Netherlands since then. We chatted in the beginning of June 2020. By then, massive protests against racism and police brutality have swept the United States. I wanted to hear what Elliot had to say about watching the United States from abroad. What does one do with hope immediately after a wave of hopelessness which the COVID-19 pandemic intensified? Why should we be critical of project America and its legacy? What do we make of black squares and #blackouttuesday at a time when overcommunication about black organizing is vital? These are some of the topics discussed in this episode.
Additional resources:
Elliot Lyons can be found on Instagram as @elliot_lyons.
Elliot Lyons, "Veganism's Race Problem," Vegan Magazine, https://www.blackvegansrock.com/blog/2016/7/4/feature-elliot-lyons (https://www.blackvegansrock.com/blog/2016/7/4/feature-elliot-lyons).
"Mobilize for Black Lives Guide," https://docs.google.com/document/d/1q53GNj-kwhfWNzM7HK2CVpDBqNOTflnsWI-Ga2AUZN0/mobilebasic (https://docs.google.com/document/d/1q53GNj-kwhfWNzM7HK2CVpDBqNOTflnsWI-Ga2AUZN0/mobilebasic).
“Mapping Police Violence,” https://mappingpoliceviolence.org/?fbclid=IwAR28RM79XWUtKzCO0xEqGOsyB7mCTnTPwMPg4mKNUa_MIHg2tY1BilsPeVc (https://mappingpoliceviolence.org/?fbclid=IwAR28RM79XWUtKzCO0xEqGOsyB7mCTnTPwMPg4mKNUa_MIHg2tY1BilsPeVc).
"Slave Patrols: An Early Form of American Policing," https://lawenforcementmuseum.org/2019/07/10/slave-patrols-an-early-form-of-american-policing/ (https://lawenforcementmuseum.org/2019/07/10/slave-patrols-an-early-form-of-american-policing/).
“Officer’s tattoo causes chief to ‘question his ability to function effectively,’ ” https://www.charlotteobserver.com/latest-news/article217573000.html (https://www.charlotteobserver.com/latest-news/article217573000.html).
#sayhername project, https://aapf.org/sayhernamereport/ (https://aapf.org/sayhernamereport/).
Da'Shaun Harrison, "Instead of Posting Black Boxes to Your Instagram, Abolish Whiteness," https://wearyourvoicemag.com/instead-of-black-boxes-abolish-whiteness/ (https://wearyourvoicemag.com/instead-of-black-boxes-abolish-whiteness/)
Kimberly Springer, "The Tricky Allure of Becoming a Black American Expatriate," The Atlantic,
https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2018/10/being-black-american-expatriate-its-complicated/573211/ (https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2018/10/being-black-american-expatriate-its-complicated/573211/).
Photographs from march for Black Lives Matter from Vilnius, Lithuania, can be found on the webside of Vilnius-based podcast Nyla, https://nanook.lt/podcast/tukstantis-ne-rasizmui/ (https://nanook.lt/podcast/tukstantis-ne-rasizmui/)
This episode included news clips from Al Jazeera English, C-Span, and Democracy Now.
Music in this episode was by Chris Zabriskie from the Free Music Archive and the piece is called “Another Version of You.”
Image of Elliot Lyons courtesy of Elliot Lyons.
18 Jun 2020
Teaser for E3: It is not a representation thing, an interview with Elliot Lyons
In this episode, we go to the city of Utrecht in the central part of the Netherlands to talk to Elliot Lyons, a writer and also a photographer who left the United States in 2008 and has lived in Holland since then. Holland was where I met Elliot twelve years ago. Our reconnection in the current climate will be of interest to those who wonder about watching project America from a distance.
Episode 3 will be released this Friday, which is also the Juneteenth.
Image of Elliot Lyons courtesy of Elliot Lyons.
29 May 2020
E2: In the garden
In her book The Garden Book, the Antiguan-American writer Jamaica Kincaid has said that gardening can offer us an exercise in memory. In this personal episode, your host Lina Zigelyte goes into her herbal garden and one plant takes her down the memory lane. This episode of Mixtapes from America will resonate with those who have lost a family member to dementia.
22 May 2020
Teaser for E2: In the garden
This is a teaser for episode two of Mixtapes from America. In this episode, I talk about gardening, the memory of my dad who died from dementia several years ago, and about the ways the Antiguan-American writer Jamaica Kincaid inspired me to use gardening as a way to think about memory.
The music in this teaser is by Tri Tachyon, provided by the Free Music Archive.
8 May 2020
E1: The green card box
On April 22, 2020, the US president Donald Trump signed an executive order which actively suspends green card applications submitted from abroad for 60 days. How does the green card application work? And what do green card applications tell us about foreign-born nationals living in the US? Who will be impacted by this executive order?
To explore these questions, the first mixtape tells a story of a box, the green card box. In the podcast, you will hear archival audio materials, non-fiction storytelling, and references to media on immigration to the US.
The first season of Mixtapes from America examines a range of ideas and misconceptions about migration.
The host Lina Zigelyte is an educator, writer, curator, and occasionally an audiovisual artist. She is based in Western New York.
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