Aarzu Punjani
This interview is with Aarzu Punjani, a business manager and first-generation Indian-American living in San Antonio, TX. Aarzu talks about her early experiences with and without Indian and Ismaili communities. She describes growing up as the daughter of immigrants and how their constant hard work to provide in the US influenced her upbringing. She talks about her involvement with her family’s business, her college experience, and work-life balance. Aarzu also shares about her experiences with racism and xenophobia in the US, as well as her relationship to her Indian heritage and family.
Alexia Leclerqc
This interview is with Alexia Leclerqc, an environmental justice activist working with PODER in Austin, TX. Alexia discusses moving around a lot in childhood and struggling with others’ lack of respect for her family’s Taiwanese and Buddhist traditions. They talk about coming into environmental justice work via their education and witnessing injustice and contradiction in the world. She shares about the work she does, such as water testing and meeting with politicians and scientists. Alexia also describes Start:Empowerment, the nonprofit organization they cofounded to get environmental justice curriculum into high schools.
Amanda Veasy
This interview is with Amanda Veasy, co-founder of One Love Longview, a nonprofit resource center for unsheltered, uninsured, and underserved populations. Amanda talks about the rapid rise of her organization as a response to community needs for accessible mental and physical health care. She describes the changes in her religious experiences over time, including being spurred to leave the church over her unwillingness to condemn the LGBTQ community. Amanda also talks about her methods of helping effectively by putting the individual’s desires and consent first.
Aurelia Pratt
This interview is with Aurelia Pratt, a Chicana woman, and lead pastor to a progressive Baptist Church based in Austin, Texas. The vision of Pratt’s church focuses on decolonizing faith, justice, inclusion, and liberation. Aurelia speaks to the challenges of navigating life as a pastor during the global pandemic and how her personal experiences with racial tension and microaggressions as a brown woman of color have shaped who she is today.
Barbra O.
This interview is with Barbra O., a master’s student in Milan, Italy who was born in Nigeria and grew up in Texas. She details navigating life as an immigrant child and the experiences that shaped her perception of community and self. She describes cultural connections, such as memories of food and family. Barbra compares her experiences in Texas with her life now in Italy.
Chanda Parbhoo
This interview is with Chanda Parbhoo, an Indian-American organizer and immigrant from South Africa who lives in Dallas, TX. Chanda compares her early experiences of ethnic integration in Canada with her experiences of apartheid in South Africa. She also shares the challenges and prejudice her family experienced in Canada and the States. She describes the influence of her father’s business ventures and values on her childhood and career. Chanda talks about her activism for representation in her school district and for AAPI voting empowerment.
Chas Moore
This interview is with Chas Moore, founder of the Austin Justice Coalition and anti-racist activist in Austin, TX. Chas shares his story of exposure to deaths and incarceration at a young age and how those traumas shaped his beliefs and drive as an organizer. He talks about being directly exposed to overt racism for the first time in Austin and getting heavily involved in the city’s anti-racism organizing movement. Chas shares how the work of influential Black thinkers and activists as well as his faith have guided his activism. He also discusses challenges like funding, his goals for long-term change, and his hopes for a happier and more peaceful human experience.
Content Warning: The following interview contains sensitive material. Please note that the interview includes discussion of anti-Black racial slurs. These subjects will be discussed at 6:15-7:20 (in the transcript p. 2).
Elizabeth Melton
This interview is with Elizabeth Melton, the public engagement director at IDCL, from Crumpler, NC. Elizabeth describes her childhood in Longview, TX, where she was surrounded by her extended family with deep ties to public education and the Presbyterian Church (USA). She shares how her childhood involvement in theater eventually led to her PhD in performance studies. Elizabeth talks about her experience of the Texas Freeze of 2021. She also discusses her complicated relationship to Texas as both a beloved home and site of political strife.
Faiza Susan
This interview is with Faiza Susan, an Ahmadi Muslim woman and aspiring counselor. Faiza talks about her experiences growing up in an insular minority community and the bigotry she was subjected to at a young age in North Texas. She tells the stories of her mother and grandfather who experienced persecution in Pakistan for being Ahmadi. Having seen and felt traumas common among South Asians, Faiza is working toward her masters in rehabilitation counseling in order to become a counselor for the Desi Muslim community.
Gregory Han
This interview is with Gregory Han, an educator and Presbyterian minister active in interreligious dialogue in Houston. Gregory shares his story of growing up biracial in a very White area and the experience of simultaneously fitting in anywhere and nowhere. He talks about his path in education toward discovering his passions for both academics and ministry. Gregory discusses his work with Interfaith Ministries for Greater Houston, such as leading visits to houses of worship and organizing dialogue between leaders and communities of different faiths. He also talks about the unique challenges of interfaith work in Texas as well as doing this work in the aftermath of 9/11.