The School of Public Policy is committed to creating a thriving, inclusive environment at the School, where everyone takes an active role in incorporating diversity, inclusion and belonging into their work, classroom and interactions with students and colleagues. To that end, we’re excited to share our monthly recommendations for books, poetry, documentaries, podcasts, art and more for students to refer to on their personal and professional journeys to cultivating diversity, inclusion and belonging.
In the month of May we observe Asian Pacific Islander Desi American Heritage Month, Jewish American Heritage Month, and National Mental Health Awareness Month. Here are a few recommendations from SPP staff, faculty, and members of the Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging Taskforce for you to engage with this month!
Watch
Deported
"Deported" is a five-part documentary series by Sahra V. Nguyen on "NBC Asian America Presents...," a digital video channel that features original content centered around themes and voices found in Asian American and Pacific Islander communities.
ULAM: Main Dish
Recommended by Raphael Ramil Rosalin, SPP Communications Specialist
ULAM: Main Dish is the first food documentary following the rise of the Filipino food movement via the chefs crossing over to the center of the American table.
“This documentary touches on a lot of subjects: how individualized ‘authenticity’ is, what it means to be an Asian-American who was born and raised in the States, who is ‘allowed’ to cook our food (spoiler: everyone), the struggles of running a restaurant that doesn't cater to the Western palate, and more. Great watch that really highlights how important food is to the culture, and it's inspired me to get back into the kitchen and reconnect with that part of my heritage.” - Raphael Ramil Rosalin
Maya Lin: A Strong, Clear Vision
Maya Lin: A Strong, Clear Vision is an Academy Award-winning documentary about sculptor and architect Maya Lin who, at age 21, designed the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C. The film tells the gripping story behind the Vietnam Memorial and explores a decade of her creative work. Maya Lin's design of the Civil Rights Memorial, the Yale Women's Table, and the Juniata Peace Chapel reveals her ability to address major issues of our times through the healing power of art.
GI JEWS: Jewish Americans in World War II
GI JEWS: Jewish Americans in World War II tells the profound and unique story of the 550,000 Jewish men and women who served in World War II. Through the eyes of the servicemen and women, the film brings to life the little-known story of Jews in World War II – as active participants in the fight against Hitler, bigotry and intolerance. These brave men and women fought for their nation and their people, for America and for Jews worldwide. Like all Americans, they fought against fascism, but they also waged a more personal fight—to save their brethren in Europe. After years of struggle, they emerged transformed, more powerfully American and more deeply Jewish, determined to continue the fight for equality and tolerance at home.
Joe’s Violin
In the award-winning short documentary film Joe’s Violin, a donated musical instrument forges an improbable friendship between 91-year-old Holocaust survivor Joe Feingold and 12-year-old Bronx school girl Brianna Perez, showing how the power of music can bring light in the darkest of times and how a small act can have a great impact.
Of Two Minds
Of Two Minds is an award-winning feature documentary that explores the extraordinary lives, struggles and successes of a few of the over five million Americans living with bipolar disorder. It puts a human face on the topic, providing an intimate, sometimes painful, sometimes painfully funny, look at those who live in its shadows: our parents and children, our friends and lovers...and ourselves.
DEPRESSION: Out of the Shadows
A lot of Americans are keeping an important, possibly deadly secret. The National Institute of Mental Health reports that approximately 18.8 million American adults have a depressive disorder. The disease is not discriminating, seeping into all age, race, gender, and socioeconomic groups. Depression stalls careers, strains relationships, and sometimes ends lives. So if this many people are living with the disease, why the silence? DEPRESSION: Out of the Shadows is a multi-dimensional PBS project that explores the disease's complex terrain, offering a comprehensive and timely examination of this devastating disorder.
Listen
Asian Not Asian
Asian Not Asian is a weekly comedy podcast with hosts Fumi Abe (Comedy Central) and Mic Nguyen (Mcsweeney's). The elevator pitch is this: Two Asian guys not from Asia talking about American issues no American cares about.
Asian Enough
From the Los Angeles Times, Asian Enough is a podcast about being Asian American -- the joys, the complications and everything in between. In each episode, hosts Jen Yamato, Johana Bhuiyan, Tracy Brown and Suhauna Hussain of the Times invite special guests to share personal stories and unpack identity on their own terms. They explore the vast diaspora across cultures, backgrounds and generations, and try to expand the ways in which being Asian American is defined.
Unorthodox
Unorthodox is the world’s leading Jewish podcast - but you don’t have to be Jewish to love it! Hosted by Mark Oppenheimer, Stephanie Butnick, and Liel Leibovitz of Tablet Magazine, each episode we bring you interesting guests, News of the Jews, and so much more.
Judaism Unbound
Since 2016, Dan Libenson and Lex Rofeberg have been hosting the Judaism Unbound podcast with new episodes out every Friday. Dan and Lex analyze pressing issues for 21st century American Judaism. Mixing their own analysis with interviews of leading thinkers, practitioners, and even "regular Jews," Dan and Lex look to push past the bounds of what it means to be Jewish in the 21st century.
The Mental Illness Happy Hour
The Mental Illness Happy Hour is a weekly online podcast that interviews comedians, artists, friends, and the occasional doctor. Each episode explores mental illness, trauma, addiction and negative thinking.
Celeste the Therapist
The purpose of CelesteTheTherapist podcast is to help shift the way you think. Many times, we get stuck in a negative cycle and struggle with getting out. Celeste interviews guests from different backgrounds who empower people in different capacities.
Read
Crying in H Mart: A Memoir
In Crying in H Mart, an exquisite story of family, food, grief, and endurance, author Michelle Zauner With tells of growing up one of the few Asian American kids at her school in Eugene, Oregon; of struggling with her mother's particular, high expectations of her; of a painful adolescence; of treasured months spent in her grandmother's tiny apartment in Seoul, where she and her mother would bond, late at night, over heaping plates of food.
They Called Us Enemy
They Called Us Enemy is a stunning graphic memoir recounting actor/author/activist George Takei's childhood imprisoned within American concentration camps during World War II. Experience the forces that shaped an American icon -- and America itself -- in this gripping tale of courage, country, loyalty, and love.
Not Quite Not White
At the age of 12, Sharmila Sen emigrated from India to the U.S. The year was 1982, and everywhere she turned, she was asked to self-report her race – on INS forms, at the doctor’s office, in middle school. Never identifying with a race in the India of her childhood, she rejects her new “not quite” designation – not quite white, not quite black, not quite Asian — and spends much of her life attempting to blend into American whiteness. Part memoir, part manifesto, Not Quite Not White is a searing appraisal of race and a path forward for the next not quite not white generation –a witty and sharply honest story of discovering that not-whiteness can be the very thing that makes us American.
Reporting Black America: For young Indo-Caribbean adults, culture is complex and a source of pride
This article encapsulates the Indo Caribbean community in the U.S., a lesser known part of the Indian diaspora. Their experiences are diverse because members of these communities originate from the countries in the Caribbean like Guyana and Trinidad that have significant populations of individuals of Indian descent. The US has been receiving Indo-Caribbean immigrants from nations in the Caribbean since the 1960s and their experiences encapsulate the complexity of being a hybrid of cultures and identities, both Caribbean, Indian, and American. They have less visibility than more traditional representations of the Indian community and have significant policy needs and interests that matter for their ability to integrate and thrive in the US. To learn more watch this video.
A Bintel Brief: Love and Longing in Old New York
In an illustrative style that is a thrilling mash-up of Art Spiegelman's deft emotionality, Roz Chast's hilarious neuroses, and the magical spirit of Marc Chagall, A Bintel Brief is Liana Finck’s evocative, elegiac love letter to the turn-of-the-century Jewish immigrants who transformed New York City and America itself.
America’s Jewish Women
Pamela S. Nadell weaves together the complex story of Jewish women in America - from colonial-era matriarch Grace Nathan and her great-granddaughter, poet Emma Lazarus, to Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Recounting how Jewish women have been at the forefront of social, economic, and political causes for centuries, in America’s Jewish Women Nadell shows them fighting for suffrage, labor unions, civil rights, feminism, and religious rights - shaping a distinctly Jewish American identity.
Marbles: Mania, Depression, Michaelangelo, and Me (A Graphic Memoir)
Shortly before her thirtieth birthday, cartoonist Ellen Forney was diagnosed with bipolar disorder. Flagrantly manic and terrified that medications would cause her to lose creativity and her livelihood, she began a years-long struggle to find mental stability while retaining her passion and creativity. Darkly funny, intensely personal, and visually dynamic, Forney’s graphic memoir Marbles provides a visceral glimpse into the effects of a mood disorder on the artist’s work. Her story seeks the answer to this question: if there's a correlation between creativity and mood disorders, is an artist's bipolar disorder a curse, or a gift?
Insane: America's Criminal Treatment of Mental Illness
America has made mental illness a crime. Jails in New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago each house more people with mental illnesses than any hospital. As many as half of all people in America's jails and prisons have a psychiatric disorder. One in four fatal police shootings involves a person with such disorders. In this revelatory book, Insane: America’s Criminal Treatment of Mental Illness, journalist Alisa Roth goes deep inside the criminal justice system to show how and why it has become a warehouse where inmates are denied proper treatment, abused, and punished in ways that make them sicker.
Experience
Care Package, from The Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center
The Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center is a migratory museum that brings history, art and culture to you through innovative community-focused experiences. Care Package is a variety of poems, meditations, films, and other cultural nutrients for times like this; curated with love by the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center.
We are not a stereotype, from The Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center
We are not a stereotype is a series for classroom teachers and caregivers who teach with educational videos and resources about migration, occupation, racial and gender identities, cross-community building, and how to support student learning on these topics.
Nine Washington, DC Women
Nine Washington, DC women - including award-winning cookbook author Joan Nathan and NPR host and correspondent Susan Stamberg - is a virtual exhibit from the Jewish Women’s Archive where the nine featured women share stories of their childhood homes, their personal struggles, and their transformative careers in this compelling series of oral history interviews.
The Jewish Museum of Maryland
The Jewish Museum of Maryland is a space for all people to connect with Jewish life, history, culture, and art in Maryland. You can interact with exhibits, collections, events, archives, library, and historic synagogues in person at the Downtown Baltimore campus or online.
The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
A living memorial to the Holocaust, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum inspires citizens and leaders worldwide to confront hatred, prevent genocide, and promote human dignity. Federal support guarantees the Museum’s permanent place on the National Mall, and its far-reaching educational programs and global impact are made possible by generous donors.
The University of Maryland Counseling Center
The Counseling Center provides comprehensive support services that promote the personal, social, and academic success of UMD students. Within the Counseling Center, students may seek help from the Counseling Service, Accessibility & Disability Service, and the Testing Office. Consultation and referral services also are available to UMD faculty, staff, parents, and guardians.
National Alliance on Mental Illness Personal Stories
Throughout the month, NAMI will feature personal stories from people experiencing mental health conditions. By reading about lived experience, NAMI aims to encourage people to prioritize their mental health and increase awareness about mental illness.
Get Involved
Stop AAPI Hate
In response to the alarming escalation in xenophobia and bigotry resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic, AAPI Equity Alliance (AAPI Equity), Chinese for Affirmative Action (CAA), and the Asian American Studies Department of San Francisco State University launched the Stop AAPI Hate coalition on March 19, 2020. The coalition tracks and responds to incidents of hate, violence, harassment, discrimination, shunning, and child bullying against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in the United States. Our mission is to advance equity, justice and power by dismantling systemic racism and building a multiracial movement to end anti-Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) hate. Our approach recognizes that in order to effectively address anti-Asian racism, we must work to end all forms of structural racism leveled at Black, Indigenous, and other communities of color.