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 board of Andolan – Organizing South Asian Workers. Chitra joined APF in the summer of 2006.
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.
Michelle works and plays in New York City. Her various occupations have included ethnographic research in Shanghai and coat-checking at a West Village jazz club. She is a regular contributor to Colorlines and In These Times, and her reporting and writing have also appeared in Newsday, Progressive Media Project, South China Morning Post, Women’s International Perspective, and her old zine, cain. She joined the APF Collective in 2010.
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.
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.
Naureen Shah is a human rights researcher and lawyer. She joined APF in 2010.
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.