We Are All Americans - season three - episode seven

In episode seven of season three*, Anuradha Vikram, the first in her family to be born in the US, speaks with her mother Dr. Revathi Vikram, a Naturalized Citizen from India, and her 9 year old daughter Nadja Vikram Bugaj, about how 9/11 shifted the South Asian-American role in racial politics and activism and what Kamala Harris’ nomination for Vice President of the United States means to them.

* Recorded on Aug. 21, 2020 at the ICA LA as part of Field Workshop: Action Projects, in the midst of the global COVID 19 pandemic and the reinvigorated Black Lives Matter movement after the murders of Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and George Floyd. 

We Are All Americans - season 3 - episode 6

In episode six of season three*, Holly M. Crawford and Michele Jaquis share their individual family stories about love, trauma, illness, protest, silence, and believing versus questioning… all while grappling with the question of what do we do with the stories we hold and their effects on our present day relationships.

*Recorded on Aug. 21, 2020 at the ICA LA as part of Field Workshop: Action Projects, in the midst of the global COVID 19 pandemic and the reinvigorated Black Lives Matter movement after the murders of Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and George Floyd. 

We Are All Americans - season 3 episode 5

In episode five of season three* Yrneh Gabon tells the story of how he followed his grand-uncle from Jamaica to Los Angeles to pursue his American Dream of working in Hollywood. Despite much success, he also laments his experiences being questioned by campus police while pursuing his college and graduate degrees as a Black man who was older than the typical college student.

*Recorded on Aug. 21, 2020 at the ICA LA as part of Field Workshop: Action Projects, in the midst of the global COVID 19 pandemic and the reinvigorated Black Lives Matter movement after the murders of Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and George Floyd. 

We Are All Americans - season 3 - episode 4

In episode four of season three*, Asuka Hisa and Michele Jaquis talk about the important role education and engagement plays in combating fear and collectively telling stories that move society towards a better place, despite our human nature of not always wanting to talk about the bad things. 

*Recorded on Aug. 21, 2020 at the ICA LA as part of Field Workshop: Action Projects, in the midst of the global COVID 19 pandemic and the reinvigorated Black Lives Matter movement after the murders of Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and George Floyd. 

We Are All Americans - season 3 - episode 3

In episode three of season three*, Marjan Vayghan talks about the challenges and inadequacies of her American education as a new immigrant from Iran in the mid-nineties, and her uncle’s disappearance after arriving at LAX from Iran during Trump’s travel ban in 2017, while also asking Michele about the optimism of bringing a child into this messed up world.

*Recorded on July 27, 2020 via Zoom, in the midst of the global COVID 19 pandemic and the reinvigorated Black Lives Matter movement after the murders of Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and George Floyd. 

We Are All Americans - season 3 - episode 2

In episode two of season three*, Beverly Naidus talks with Michele about “the pleasure of being able to blend into the world of otherness that I never had growing up in a white town where I was always an outsider.”

* Recorded on July 17, 2020 via Zoom, in the midst of the global COVID 19 pandemic and the reinvigorated Black Lives Matter movement after the murders of Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and George Floyd. 

We Are All Americans - season 3 - episode 1

In episode one of season three*, Cole M. James talks with Michele about how zie collects stories of Black migration from the American South to Chicago and Los Angeles by sitting with the elders at family reunions. “They sacrificed a lot, and they made it through a lot, for us to be right back in it.” 

*Recorded on June 22, 2020 via Zoom, in the midst of the global COVID 19 pandemic and the reinvigorated Black Lives Matter movement after the murders of Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and George Floyd. 

Season Three Coming Soon!

This podcast may seem to have taken a hiatus, but seven conversations were recorded in summer 2020, both on Zoom and at the ICA LA as part of their Field Workshop: Action Projects series. It's just the pandemic and working from home without childcare for much of the year prevented me from spending time on postproduction - which should be finished by the end of this month.

Stay tuned for the release of Season 3, with 7 episodes, including conversations with Cole James, Beverly Naidus, Marjan Vayghan, Asuka Hisa, Yrneh Gabon, Holly M. Crawford, and Anuradha Vikram with her daughter, Nadja Vikram Bugaj, and mother, Revathi Vikram.

The podcast is available Apple iTunes, Spotify and Stitcher.

We Are All Americans at the ICA LA - Aug. 21 from 1-6pm

I’m so excited to be participating in Field Workshop: Action Projects at the ICA LA. Join me on Aug. 21 to participate in Season 3 of We Are All Americans - a socially engaged documentary project in the form of an oral history recording workshop series and an audio podcast. Participants will be able to sign up for 1 hour time slots between 1-6pm to have social distanced (with masks) recorded conversations about how family stories are passed down from generation to generation and what it means to be American at this moment.
RSVP here.

We Are All Americans - Season 3 - Participants Wanted

Conversations are currently being recorded via Zoom. Contact Michele Jaquis to schedule your conversation.

We Are All Americans - season 2 - episode 9

In episode nine* of season two, Claudia J. Hernández Romero tells Michele Jaquis about her childhood experience of her father's death and the subsequent decision of her middle-class family to leave El Salvador and come to the US via plane.

* Recorded on October 28, 2019 at Otis College of Art and Design in Los Angeles, CA.

We Are All Americans - season 2 - episode 8

In episode eight* of season two, Maria Laura Hendrix shares stories of her childhood growing up first in Mexico and then on a citrus ranch in Ventura County, CA, and the disappointment that she feels that despite her US citizenship and American education (she is about to complete her MFA degree) she may always be seen as not American enough.

* Recorded on November 26, 2019 at Otis College of Art and Design in Los Angeles, CA.

We Are All Americans - season 2 - episode 7

In episode seven* of season two, Maria Elena speaks of her assumed indigenous ancestry and shares stories of her life after immigrating to the US from Guatemala some fifty years ago.

* Recorded on October 22, 2019 in West Hollywood, CA.

We Are All Americans - season 2 - episode 6

In episode six* of season two, two participants of the Reciprocity Los Angeles Artists Retreat discuss their family immigration stories, their Polish Bubbies named Netti, and shared disappointment in the fallacy of the American dream and the fear often sewn during each waive of immigration.
* Recorded during the Reciprocity Los Angeles Retreat on April 9, 2019 in Simi Valley, CA

We Are All Americans - season 2 - episode 5

In episode five* of season two, Sarah Mostov and Jenny Yurshansky discuss their shared experiences of being children of Jewish refugees and how that shapes their thoughts on Israeli and American treatment of Muslims from the Arab world. Jenny's parents are from what is now called Moldova in the former Soviet Union and Sarah's mother was born to Iraqi parents in a refugee camp in Jerusalem.
* Recorded during the Reciprocity Los Angeles Retreat on April 9, 2019 in Simi Valley, CA

We Are All Americans - season 2 - episode 4

In episode four* of season two , Rotem Rozental (R), who originally came to the US from Israel to work on her PhD and now has two children born here, talks with Michele Jaquis (L) about the Jewish diaspora migrating from Europe to Israel and from Israel to the United States.

* Recorded on April 9, 2019 during the Reciprocity Los Angeles Retreat at American Jewish University’s Brandeis-Bardin Campus in Simi Valley, CA .

We Are All Americans - season 2 - episode 3

In episode three* of season two, Kayla Tange compares her experiences living in the United States and visiting the country of her birth, as a Korean-born adoptee in a Japanese-American family.

* Recorded on January 18, 2019 in Los Angeles, CA

We Are All Americans - season 2 - episode 2

In episode two* Hugo Claudin, an artist, curator and organizer originally from Guadalajara, Mexico who has lived in Grand Rapids, MI for the past 38 years, discusses his father’s idea of American liberty and justice in contrast with the reality of economic and racial disparities in housing issues, the defunding of public education and the arts, and the US’s interventions in Latin America.

* Recorded on December 30, 2018. via video chat in Los Angeles, CA & Grand Rapids, MI

We Are All Americans - season 2 - episode 1

We’re back!

In episode one of season two Jada Amina, a self proclaimed “Black-South-Side-Chicagoan,” talks about the messiness of being a child of diaspora with African, Creole, German and Native American heritage, and their reasons for not participating in US governmental systems like voting and tribal registration.

* Recorded on November 7, 2018. via video chat in Los Angeles, CA and Chicago, IL.

We Are All Americans on hiatus until late Spring 2019

Season one of We Are All Americans is complete. Season two starts late spring, 2019 with all new episodes featuring Jada Amina, Hugo Claudin, Claudia Hernandez Romero, Kayla Tange and more. Contact Michele if you want to participate.