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Activists Around the World: Sunu P. Chandy · Stuff Mom Never Told You

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  Speaker 1: Hey, this is Annie and Samantha.
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  Speaker 2: I'm welcome to stuff I ever told your prediction of
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  Speaker 2: iHeart radio.
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  Speaker 1: And welcome to another activist around the world. And we
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  Speaker 1: are jumping into API or Asian American and Pacific Islander
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  Speaker 1: History Month because that is me. So we are starting
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  Speaker 1: strong with a civil rights attorney, social justice activist and
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  Speaker 1: poet writer Sunoupi Chandhi. I'm very excited. So in twenty
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  Speaker 1: twenty three, Chandhi published her award winning poetry book titled
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  Speaker 1: My Dear Comrades. The book is described like this from
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  Speaker 1: her website sunu Chandhi dot net. In this poetry collection,
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  Speaker 1: Sunupia Chandhi includes stories about her experiences as a woman,
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  Speaker 1: civil rights attorney, parent, partner, daughter of South Asian immags,
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  Speaker 1: and member of the LGBTQ plus community. These poems cover
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  Speaker 1: themes ranging from immigration, social justice, activism, friendship, loss, fertility challenges, adoption, caregiving,
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  Speaker 1: and life during a pandemic. Soon news poems provide some resolve,
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  Speaker 1: some peace, some community amidst the competing notions of how
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  Speaker 1: we are expected to be in the world, especially when
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  Speaker 1: facing a range of barriers. Soon news poems provide company
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  Speaker 1: for many who may be experiencing isolation through any one
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  Speaker 1: of these experiences and remind us that we are not,
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  Speaker 1: in fact going it alone, whether the experience is being
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  Speaker 1: disregarded as a woman of color, attorney, being rejected for
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  Speaker 1: being queer, losing a most treasured friendship, doubting one's romantic partner,
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  Speaker 1: or any other form of heartbreak. Soonus poems highlight the
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  Speaker 1: human requirement of continually starting anew. These poems remind us
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  Speaker 1: that we can and we will collectively rebuild. I love
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  Speaker 1: these descriptors. They do such a great job in prepping
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  Speaker 1: for what you might see in need. We are not
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  Speaker 1: going to read any of your pot poems. Definitely not from
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  Speaker 1: her book, although there are articles that describe and talk
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  Speaker 1: about her poems, but they are beautiful. You should definitely
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  Speaker 1: look at it. She has several published that you can
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  Speaker 1: get access to. So she explains how her book came
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  Speaker 1: together on her bio from her publishers, So they did
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  Speaker 1: a whole bio for her, and there she kind of
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  Speaker 1: writes in about how it came about. So this is
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  Speaker 1: from Regal House Publishing dot org. My book includes poems
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  Speaker 1: that span over two decades from the late nineteen nineties
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  Speaker 1: to the spring of twenty twenty one, one year into
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  Speaker 1: the global pandemic, given that some of the poems should
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  Speaker 1: feel outdated, and yet sadly, we are again facing increased
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  Speaker 1: violence against Asian Americans as we did after nine to eleven.
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  Speaker 1: There's ongoing police violence against black people in this country,
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  Speaker 1: and we are in the midst of ongoing work by
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  Speaker 1: survivors to address and prevent sexual harassment. We are also
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  Speaker 1: facing a series of new tragedies resulting from gun violence
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  Speaker 1: and the failure to address this crisis. These poems include
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  Speaker 1: questions of how do we parent with integrity in this
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  Speaker 1: content text in the middle of a pandemic, too, how
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  Speaker 1: do we make time for not just fifth grade fractions,
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  Speaker 1: but also finding the lost water colors and making coconut
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  Speaker 1: cake from scratch. So obviously this has been a long
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  Speaker 1: time in the making, and she's been writing for a
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  Speaker 1: very long time, and like she said, unfortunately these issues
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  Speaker 1: that we thought may go away after some time or
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  Speaker 1: at least gotten better, have not, and so they're all
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  Speaker 1: still relevant today as it was twenty years ago. And
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  Speaker 1: in this book she has put together a beautiful book
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  Speaker 1: in talking about those issues. And before she actually published
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  Speaker 1: these poems. She's been published already with her work being
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  Speaker 1: in her college publications. So from her college days the Quarry,
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  Speaker 1: they have some publishings and then as well as the
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  Speaker 1: Asian American Literary Review. If you go google her name
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  Speaker 1: sun U p Chan Dha n d Y Poetry, you
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  Speaker 1: can find some of her excerpts. Some of them are gorgeous,
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  Speaker 1: beautiful poetry, some of the really heartbreaking too, so you
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  Speaker 1: should definitely take a minute to go review her poems. Also,
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  Speaker 1: if you didn't know, she also has degrees and Peace
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  Speaker 1: and Global Studies Women's Studies, which I'm like, wow, I
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  Speaker 1: didn't know you can do Peace and Global Studies. I
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  Speaker 1: like that. A law degree from Northeastern University School of Law,
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  Speaker 1: and an MFA for Writing from Queen's College the City
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  Speaker 1: University of New York. So she is a lot of
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  Speaker 1: things under her belt. With all of this, it's very
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  Speaker 1: obvious as to how her career came about. Being both
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  Speaker 1: a poet and civil rights lawyer seems to be something
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  Speaker 1: she does in a very harmonious way, though it wouldn't
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  Speaker 1: be without some struggles. Yeah, I think in her intersectional
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  Speaker 1: life she understands these struggles, but it's not something that
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  Speaker 1: has stopped her. She's talked with Penn dot Org about
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  Speaker 1: how all of these parts of our life have come together.
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  Speaker 1: She said this first, as a writer in these spaces,
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  Speaker 1: I aim to be both direct and nuanced. I seek
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  Speaker 1: to convey legal arguments and write poems with a clarity
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  Speaker 1: that can also hold interesting dynamics and difficult contradictions. In
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  Speaker 1: this time, we must be bold as we share what
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  Speaker 1: we experience as honestly as we can, and how that
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  Speaker 1: ties to what needs to change. At the same time,
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  Speaker 1: there's also a strategy and an art to convey the
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  Speaker 1: message in a way that can be heard, perhaps with
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  Speaker 1: humor or. Through first finding spaces of connection. I really
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  Speaker 1: enjoy figuring out how different communities use language and the
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  Speaker 1: real work of finding just the right word to convey
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  Speaker 1: a precise sentiment. And that goes for both legal briefs
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  Speaker 1: and poems. I love that understanding that we communicate differently
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  Speaker 1: in different settings. And she has to navigate those ways
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  Speaker 1: because we know poetry does not work in necessarily the
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  Speaker 1: legal world, but conveying something with humanity is very important
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  Speaker 1: in connecting through cases. We know this is a big
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  Speaker 1: part of the trials, and she has done this very
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  Speaker 1: thing in the legal world. As a current senior advisor
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  Speaker 1: with the Democracy Forward and formerly the director of the
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  Speaker 1: National Women's Law Center, she's been making significant impact in
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  Speaker 1: these different communities. So this is from the WADC dot org.
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  Speaker 1: Before starting at Democracy Forward in September twenty twenty three,
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  Speaker 1: she served as the Legal director of the National Women's
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  Speaker 1: Law Center for six years. Soon led the center's litigation efforts,
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  Speaker 1: providing strategy across in WLC to create better outcomes for
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  Speaker 1: women and girls, including in schools, workplaces, and the healthcare sector.
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  Speaker 1: She also helped create the Center's Legal Network for Gender Equity,
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  Speaker 1: provided guidance for the center's policy positions towards greater workplace justice,
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  Speaker 1: and led their LGBTQ plus rights related policy work. So
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  Speaker 1: she's done quite a bit of work. She also has
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  Speaker 1: had the opportunity to testify for the Equality Act and
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  Speaker 1: has done works with the US Commission on Civil Rights
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  Speaker 1: on federal sectors and for the hashtag mete too hearings,
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  Speaker 1: So she's done a lot. She's done a lot, and
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  Speaker 1: with all of this, she was also the General Counsel
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  Speaker 1: of the DC Office of Human Rights, Deputy Director for
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  Speaker 1: the Civil Rights Division with the Department of Human Health
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  Speaker 1: and Services and was an attorney with the US Employment
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  Speaker 1: Opportunity Commission, So she's got a lot of work experience,
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  Speaker 1: to say the least, and as the current advisor for
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  Speaker 1: Democracy for she's been working with them to address the
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  Speaker 1: issues and harmful policies that have been in place against
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  Speaker 1: the LGBTQ plus communities. This is back to her interview
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  Speaker 1: with WADC dot org. She says, my organization has supported
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  Speaker 1: the Biden administration efforts to address inequalities for LGBTQ plus elders,
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  Speaker 1: pushed efforts to revoke harmful policies that allowed healthcare workers
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  Speaker 1: to put their personal beliefs ahead of people's health, even
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  Speaker 1: in emergencies, and so to stop attacks on librarians who
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  Speaker 1: display books with LGBTQ themes from Arkansas to Alabama, so
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  Speaker 1: they should be noted here. Obviously we're not under the
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  Speaker 1: Biden administration, but she still continued to do this work.
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  Speaker 1: And this is a bit more from shop booksuite dot
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  Speaker 1: com and Independent Bookstore about the organization. From her interview,
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  Speaker 1: she says, we're a nonprofit group led by Scott Perryman
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  Speaker 1: that helps to fight many of the harmful policies brought
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  Speaker 1: by the Trump administration in court, My colleagues have brought
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  Speaker 1: many of the lawsuits currently going against the Trump administration,
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  Speaker 1: and we've had many success in court to stop and
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  Speaker 1: slow down these harms alongside partner organizations. So they're still
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  Speaker 1: going strong and trying to fight these really harmful policies.
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  Speaker 1: And with her legal works as well as our poetry,
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  Speaker 1: she's been allowed voice to protect the marginalize and making
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  Speaker 1: sure people understand the threats as well as the actions
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  Speaker 1: that are happening during this time. So, going back to
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  Speaker 1: that pin dot org interview, they ask her what she
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  Speaker 1: saw as one of the biggest threats to free expression,
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  Speaker 1: and she said this, in our domestic contexts, the biggest
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  Speaker 1: threat to free expression is coming from a range of
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  Speaker 1: forces that are working aggressively to roll back baseline protections
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  Speaker 1: relating to our very bodies as women and queer people,
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  Speaker 1: and the broader work for rachel and other inclusions that
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  Speaker 1: we have thought over decades to secure. So many of
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  Speaker 1: our communities feel under attack and are under attack right
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  Speaker 1: now in so many ways. Ours have gone on the offensive.
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  Speaker 1: They've gone on the offensives to take LGBTQIA plus stories
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  Speaker 1: out of our schools, to take black history and racial
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  Speaker 1: analysis out, to exclude transgender students from medical care or
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  Speaker 1: school sports, to shun lgbtqia plus families by not allowing
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  Speaker 1: anyone to say gay. But in that same interview, she
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  Speaker 1: talks about different things and encourages everyone to continue by
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  Speaker 1: saying this, it is a joyful, horrific time in America,
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  Speaker 1: and I know many of us are fighting back with
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  Speaker 1: legal actions, without creative writing, and so much more. In
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  Speaker 1: my love note to my younger self, I would say
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  Speaker 1: some things will get easier and some may get harder,
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  Speaker 1: but just keep going. There will always be a community
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  Speaker 1: of activists, advocates and artists who are inspiring each other
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  Speaker 1: and fighting for change. So find your people and your
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  Speaker 1: joy in the midst of it all. And I thought
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  Speaker 1: that was such a great note to end on because
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  Speaker 1: we do talk about the fact that we need to
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  Speaker 1: find joy and define our community.
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  Speaker 2: Yes, absolutely well as always listeners, If you have any
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  Speaker 2: thoughts about this or any suggestions for future people we
• 10:08
  Speaker 2: should highlight on this segment, please let us know. You
• 10:12
  Speaker 2: can email us at Hello at Stuffnever Told You dot Com.
• 10:15
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• 10:26
  Speaker 2: Casey who is helping us out, and thanks to our
• 10:30
  Speaker 2: executive producer Maya. As always, thank you and thanks to
• 10:35
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