Drag THINGING!, Belonging, and Honoring Your Anger With CYRO

Original Air Date: November 9, 2020

Honor your anger. Honor your pain.

CYRO’s words resonated deeply with me – like a bell used to awaken your spirit.

This isn’t just an interview.

It’s an awakening. It’s a residence. It’s a healing.

I am so grateful that CYRO took the time to sit down and share their passionate and powerful wisdom with all of us.

Leah Kirby, also known as CYRO, creates theatre that incites change and incorporates non-western techniques in order to explore social, economic, and political issues through a non-traditional format. 

They are an activist, theatre maker, actor, writer, and drag thing named CYRO. 

CYRO is a Queer, Non-Binary, DRAG THING! 

They bring strength, beauty, and awareness to the stage with acts like 'Run Rabbit', exploring the struggles of gang induction and violence within black communities, and 'I am not your', a piece that delves into black masculinity within a non-binary body and shows the beauty it can exude by stripping back the facade. 

They use spoken word, movement, composition, Lip syncing, and storytelling within their work to incite change through artistic calls to action.

I am telling you: this interview is everything you have been looking for in a THE Celebration episode.

Do yourself a favor. 

Hit play.

You can learn more about Cyro through their website, or you can follow them on Instagram.

tomearl.me/cy

Listen to "Drag THINGING!, Belonging, and Honoring Your Anger With CYRO" on Spreaker.

Drag THINGING!, Belonging, and Honoring Your Anger With CYRO

Honor your anger. Honor your pain.

CYRO’s words resonated deeply with me – like a bell used to awaken your spirit.

This isn’t just an interview.

It’s an awakening. It’s a residence. It’s a healing.

I am so grateful that CYRO took the time to sit down and share their passionate and powerful wisdom with all of us.

Leah Kirby, also known as CYRO, creates theatre that incites change and incorporates non-western techniques in order to explore social, economic, and political issues through a non-traditional format. 

They are an activist, theatre maker, actor, writer and drag thing named CYRO. 

CYRO is a Queer, Non-Binary, DRAG THING! 

They bring strength, beauty and awareness to the stage with acts like 'Run Rabbit', exploring the struggles of gang induction and violence within black communities, and 'I am not your', a piece that delves into black masculinity within a non-binary body and shows the beauty it can exude by stripping back the facade. 

They use spoken word, movement, composition, Lip syncing and storytelling within their work to incite change through artistic calls to action.

I am telling you: this interview is everything you have been looking for in a THE Celebration episode.

Do yourself a favor. 

Hit play.

You can learn more about Cyro through their website, or you can follow them on Instagram @cyrodragthing

Listen to "Drag THINGING!, Belonging, and Honoring Your Anger With CYRO" on Spreaker.

If you'd like to learn more about T.H.E. Celebration Academy.  Here's 30 days of Free Membership.

Why “I Don’t See Color” is a Lie With Dr. Angela Courage! and Dr. LaTonya Jackson

“I don’t see color.”

“We all bleed red.” 

“We’re all just human.”

Oh God. No. 

#FacePalm

If you’ve ever engaged in a dialogue on race or attempted to invite someone in on their racism, I would bet my favorite pen that you’ve heard some variation of these.

Hey.  I’ll up the bet. 

I’d wager my favorite pair of headphones that more likely than not it was one of us white folks who uttered said phrases too. 

All jokes and bets aside, phrases like “I don’t see color”—while good intentioned—derail efforts towards anti-racism. 

Rather than being egalitarian, they are actually racist. 

Now you might be saying to yourself, “What the hell, Tom? How is this racist?” 

Here’s my suggestion:  listen to this week’s episode. 

My guests this week are Dr. Angela Courage! and Dr. LaTonya Jackson, authors of “5 Blinders to Seeing Color.”

We took a deep dive into this topic and provided insights on how “I don’t see color” is problematic at best. 

If you’re striving to unpack your whiteness and privilege, or you’re looking for resources to send to a friend who keeps saying “I don’t see color,” we have you covered.

In addition, during this episode we talked about: 

• race 

• power 

• privilege 

• color 

• colonialism.  

• control  

• social privilege 

• economic privilege 

• layers of privilege  

• international question: “we don’t have white privilege in my country” → colorism.  

• corporate issues ←- relating to race. 

• individual issues ←- relating to race. 

We really went in on this one and I know it will bring you tremendous value. 

Hit play and let me know what was your biggest aha. 

You can learn more about Dr. Angela Courage! and Dr. LaTonya Jackson’s work at - seecolorr.com

Listen to "Why “I Don’t See Color” is a Lie With Dr. Angela Courage! and Dr. LaTonya Jackson" on Spreaker.

If you'd like to learn more about T.H.E. Celebration Academy.  Here's 30 days of Free Membership.

Banned: Immigration Enforcement in the Time of Trump With Shoba Sivaprasad Wadhia

In this week's episode, I have the honor of talking with Professor Shoba Sivaprasad Wadhia. We talk about how immigration policy has changed in the time of Trump and we also talk about why people on both sides of the aisle should care about immigration.

Dr. Shoba is the Samuel Weiss Faculty Scholar and Clinic Professor of Law at Penn State Law in University Park. Her research focuses on the role of prosecutorial discretion in immigration law and the intersections of race, national security and immigration. 

She has published more than thirty law review articles, book chapters and essays on immigration law.  In this episode Dr. Shoba shares the insights she received from the people she interviewed for her book on immigration enforcement as well as the role that being a lawyer had in writing and publishing her works. 

Wadhia’s first book, Beyond Deportation: The Role of Prosecutorial Discretion in Immigration Cases, was published by New York University Press in 2015, and was given an honorable mention for the Eric Hoffer Book Award. Her second book, Banned: Immigration Enforcement in the Time of Trump, was released on September 10, 2019 by New York University Press. Her immigration textbook, Immigration and Nationality Law: Problems and Solutions, with co-authors Steve Yale-Loehr and Lenni Benson, was published by Carolina Academic Press in early 2020.

In 2018, Wadhia was named the inaugural Editor-In-Chief of the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) Law Journal, a partnership between AILA and Fastcase. In 2019, she served as the Enlund Scholar In Residence at the DePaul University School of Law.  At Penn State Law, Professor Wadhia teaches doctrinal courses in immigration and asylum and refugee law. She is also the founder/director of the Center for Immigrants’ Rights Clinic (CIRC).

Dr. Shoba does a brilliant job of demystifying the machinery of Trump's immigration policy and she illustrates her perspective through stories, terms and concepts we can all relate to and take action upon. I know you are going to love this week's episode and Dr. Shoba's insight may just shine some light on some issues you have seen for yourself.

You can read more about Dr. shoba’s publications by visiting her  website and you can purchase her books here.

Listen to "Banned: Immigration Enforcement in the Time of Trump With Shoba Sivaprasad Wadhia" on Spreaker.

If you'd like to learn more about T.H.E. Celebration Academy.  Here's 30 days of Free Membership.

A memoir on my relationship with transportation

This week, I’m joined by Farzana, a friend and colleague of mine who, at the time of the interview, was conducting a research project about driving in Los Angeles. This is a unique episode, because Farzana mainly interviews me about the topic at hand. We talk about liminality (or the in-between places), the stresses of and issues with transportation and infrastructure in L.A., and my own journey from not only Wisconsin to Los Angeles, but from relying on my car to giving it up entirely.

Farzana is a community-based researcher who is interested in social harmony and rupture, reactions to heterogeneity, discourses of mass panic, and conflict resolution. Her most recent project is an ethnography of Los Angeles drivers, and through this she is learning about the quirks that characterize the lives of Los Angeles residents, the ways in which their relationships with driving define how they interact with the world, and their responses to anomalies that they encounter on and off the road.

Listen to "A memoir on my relationship with transportation" on Spreaker.

If you'd like to learn more about T.H.E. Celebration Academy.  Here's 30 days of Free Membership.