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.
Amna Akbar joined the collective in August 2005 because she likes to ask people questions. She is interested in the intersecting realities of racism and sexism, media, law, and human rights.
Andrew Hsiao is a senior editor with Verso Books. He was the executive editor of The New Press, and 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 playing cards, Regime Change Begins at Home. He’s been a labor organizer and a board member of CAAAV: Organizing Asian Communities and of the Asian American Writers Workshop, where he is currently board chair. He joined APF in 1999.
Leyla Mei teaches history and American studies at Lehman College, CUNY and has taught Asian American studies in NYC. Her interests include the history of American medicine and public health and the intersection of race, disease, and genetics in the contemporary US. She has also worked as a union and tenant organizer in NYC and Florida.
Dorian has reported for The Miami Herald, the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism, The New York Times, The Jakarta Post, Hyphen Magazine, Latin Beat Magazine, Filipinas, PRI's The World, Free Speech Radio News and WNYC. He is the author of two chapbooks of poetry, The Changegiver and Stone of the Fish, and a spoken word CD, Heaven is a Second Language. The short film, MIGRATIONS, for which he wrote and performed the poetry, was awarded the 2008 Poetry Foundation Award. He’s also worked as a teacher and a counselor in the public schools of Los Angeles. 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.
Maia Ramnath joined the APF collective in fall of 2008. Besides teaching and writing about global history and modern South Asia in NYU's Draper Interdisciplinary program, she is also a dancer, aerialist and activist, who has organized against things like imperialism and neoliberal globalization and for things like Palestine solidarity, worker-student solidarity, and projects that tend to involve sharing radical books. Her previous radio gig was the weekly Amateur Desi Music Hour at Free Radio Santa Cruz.
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 Organizing and Outreach Coordinator at the Detention Watch Network.
Irene works at Make the Road New York, New York City's largest immigrant organization, where she has served as Supervising Organizer and Director of Organizing. She has led major campaigns for immigrant, workplace, LGBT, housing and environmental justice in New York City. Previously, she worked for New York's Working Families Party. She has also trained and supported lesbian, bisexual, and transgender organizers in China. She has served on the boards of the North Star Fund and New York Jobs with Justice. She joined APF in 2008.