Asia Pacific Forum
Tuesdays at 8pm ET on WBAI 99.5 in NYC and
live on the Web
Asia Pacific Forum is the progressive pan-Asian radio show broadcast every Tuesday night from 8-9pm on WBAI 99.5 FM in New York City and live on the web.
Chitra Aiyar is a housing and labor attorney at African Services Committee. Prior to law school, she worked in microcredit and then lived in Bangladesh, studying informal education for rural girls. She serves on the boards of Andolan – Organizing South Asian Workers and the New York Unemployment Project. Chitra joined APF in the summer of 2006.
amna akbar joined the collective in august 2005 because she likes to ask people questions. her eyes ears and mind are particularly attuned to the intersecting influences of racism and sexism in the us and around the world.
Aniruddha Das joined APF in 1998 after a number of years on the editorial collective and board of SAMAR magazine, as well in NY-based progressive South Asian groups (SAAA: South Asian AIDS Action; CSA: formed in 1992 to counter the religious intolerance and bigotry funded by South Asians in the US and UK,...). His other life is as a research scientist working on the brain mechanisms of visual perception, at Columbia University's Center for Neurobiology and Behavior.
Andrew Hsiao is the executive editor of the non-profit publishing house The New Press, and was an editor and staff writer with The Village Voice. He’s written for The New York Times, The Washington Post, Spin, and other publications, and is the author of a deck of cards, Regime Change Begins at Home. He’s been a labor organizer and a board member of groups including CAAAV: Organizing Asian Communities, and, currently, the Asian American Writers Workshop. He joined APF in 1999.
A former union and tenant organizer, Leyla Mei is currently a Ph.D. candidate in history at the CUNY Graduate Center, where she is working on a dissertation on race and cancer in the 20th-century United States. She joined APF in the spring of 2002.
One of Dorian's grandfathers grew up in a cold water flat in lower Manhattan. The other was a guerrilla fighter in the Philippines. Dorian is a print and radio reporter. He's written for Hyphen Magazine, The Miami Herald, Latin Beat Magazine and the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism. His radio credits include PRI's The World, WNYC's Morning Edition and KPFK's Aziatic Rhythmz. Dorian also worked as a public school teacher and a poet in Los Angeles before moving to New York. He joined APF in February, 2008.
Amy Paul is a nonprofit worker and performance artist who joined the APF Collective in January 2007. Inspired by the artistic and political underground, Amy is excited about bringing under-reported stories of Asian/Asian America struggles to mainstream consciousness. In 2006, she completed her MA in International Affairs at the New School and is intrigued/animated by questions of sustainable development- of where we are going and how we can build a holistic future. Amy is also a member of the Asian American women's theater troupe Mango Tribe.
Silky Shah joined the APF collective in November 2007 after relocating earlier that year from Texas to New York City. Her interest in radio began in 2001 when she co-hosted the Chutney Bubble Tea Half Hour, an Asian American community radio show in Austin, TX. She currently works as an Outreach Organizer at the independent news program Democracy Now!
Esther Wang is a member of CAAAV: Organizing Asian Communities and works with the Chinatown Justice Project and the Chinatown Tenants Union. Her day-job is at the Center for Constitutional Rights, where she works in the Communications department. She joined the collective in the summer of 2007.