Today's interview with Shaina Harrison with NYAGV Shaina on grief and trauma communities deal with due to gun violence: "I think you know when I think about trauma, and especially working in the communities that I serve, I understand that the young folks that I'm working with don't want, they don't have Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, right? They, nothing is "post" with them. They're living through this every single day. They lose folks so much that they don't even know that it's traumatizing, right. A lot of times this stuff just seems like it's normal. And it's like, what just happens in their community. What I would like folks to understand is that we're talking about real people, we're talking about mothers and fathers and sisters and brothers here. And I know that we can have rights, and we can also be safe. And I need folks to understand that we can have both of those conversations. At the same time. The fact of the matter is, America cannot afford gun violence, like we just can't, right. I remember reading a news article, right after the beginning of COVID-19 hit, it literally said, Please stop shooting, we do not have any more beds, right. Like the hospitals were packed with folks who had COVID, they couldn't even assess like, you know, the people who are coming in the shooting, shooting victims who are coming in right at a moment where every dollar counts, our federal, state, and local governments are spending a combined average of $34 million each day to deal with the aftermath of gun violence across the country. Like the total annual bill for taxpayers, survivors, families, employers, you know, and communities is 20, what $280 billion, right? We're spending so much money on gun violence when we could be taking that money, and actually putting it into resources that can keep our community safe. So I think for me, I really would want people to understand what the real impact is when it comes to gun violence in this country. And also think about this idea of protection. If we have more than half of the people who are dying from gun violence or dying from suicide. It really questions this idea of whether or not guns protect you, right? It's 22 times more likely to be killed someone you love, or yourself when you have a gun in your home, right? You don't like this. These are real statistics, the real facts, the real people, we are losing so much when it comes to, you know, gun violence, and we really need to have that conversation. How much is this actually costing us?" Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In this Episode of Obscene, I spoke with Julia Davis, Director of Youth Justice and Child Welfare for Children’s defense fund in New York. She helped me break down what’s in the American Rescue Act, whom it helps, and who it leaves out. We also examine what policies could truly protect and aid children and their families, not just to recover, but to flourish.  Julia Davis joined New York’s Children’s Defense Fund in 2018 as the Director of Youth Justice and Child Welfare. In her role, she works in partnership with young people, defenders, service providers, and other advocates to advance policies that support children and youth who may have contact with the child welfare or criminal legal system. She has spent two decades working on behalf of young people through civil rights litigation, public policy, research, and public engagement campaigns. Prior to coming to CDF, she was a senior attorney at Children’s Rights, leading reform litigation for system-involved youth across the country.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Host Maya Contreras discuss voting by Absentee Ballot, Vote-by-Mail, what the difference is, and how difficult it will be to obtain, mail, and have your vote counted. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Ashlee Marie Preston is a Trans Rights Advocate, Cultural Creative & Founder of You “Are Essential”. Ashlee is the first trans woman to become editor-in-chief of a national publication, Wear Your Voice Magazine, and she has just launched a voter mobilization initiative with Human Rights Campaign President, Alphonso David called My Vote is My Voice. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Shannon Watts is the founder of Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America—the nation’s largest grassroots gun violence prevention group, with chapters in all 50 states effecting change at the local, state and national level. Her book, Fight Like a Mother: How a Grassroots Movement Took on the Gun Lobby and Why Women Will Change the World, was released in May of 2019. Sybrina Fulton, Trayvon Martin’s mother, once said she “had to do more than just cry,” after her son was murdered in two-thousand-twelve. Since then she has been a passionate advocate against gun violence, and is currently running for Miami-Dade County commissioner.     Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Denise Oliver-Velez has been a political activist and community organizer, was in the Civil Rights movement, women's movement, and AIDS activism movement, and was a member of both the Young Lords Party and the Black Panther Party in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Denise is currently a Contributing Editor for the progressive political blog Daily Kos. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Dr. Merseth discusses language barrier obstacles are still in place for eligible voters even with the language provision in the Voting Rights Act. Dr. Julie Lee Merseth's interests are situated in the field of American political behavior with a dual and overlapping focus on race and immigration. Her research is especially animated by questions of how racial and ethnic politics in the United States are changing as a result of fast-growing populations of immigrants, largely from Latin America, Asia, Africa, and the Middle East. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Dr. Carol Anderson is a Professor of African American Studies at Emory University and author of White Rage: The Unspoken Truth of Our Nation's Divide, a New York Times Bestseller, Washington Post Notable Book of 2016, and a National Book Critics Circle Award winner. She is also the author of One Person, No Vote: How Voter Suppression is Destroying Our Democracy, which was long-listed for the National Book Award and a finalist for the PEN/Galbraith Award in non-fiction. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Rebecca Cokley is the director of the Disability Justice Initiative at American Progress, where her work focuses on disability policy. Most recently, she served as the executive director of the National Council on Disability (NCD), an independent agency charged with advising Congress and the White House on issues of national disability public policy. She joined the NCD in 2013 after serving in the Obama administration for four years, including time at the Department of Education and the Department of Health and Human Services, as well as a successful stint at the White House where she oversaw diversity and inclusion efforts. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

A discussion with the NARF Staff Attorney Jacqueline De León on Native American Rights Fund's (NARF) comprehensive study entitled, “Obstacles at Every Turn: Barriers to Political Participation Faced by Native American Voters.” Jacqueline De León is an enrolled member of the Isleta Pueblo. As a staff attorney at Native American Rights Fund better known as NARF, she helps lead field hearings across Indian Country on Native American voting rights and practices ongoing voter rights litigation. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Perry Grossman, is Voting Rights Attorney. He focuses on litigation and advocacy efforts concerning voting rights and election law issues. Perry’s cases include New York Immigration Coalition v. U.S. Department of Commerce, the successful challenge to the Trump Administration’s efforts to put a citizenship question on the 2020 Census; League of Women Voters v. New York State Board of Elections; an ongoing state constitutional challenge to a statute requiring voters to register at least 25 days in advance of an election. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

While Voter Suppression and Disenfranchisement have a deep impact on elections, Dr. Bernard L. Fraga research found that there still a gap in voter participation amongst marginalized groups even if voting barriers were removed. We discuss this and his book "The Turnout Gap" in this interview. Dr. Bernard L. Fraga is a political scientist who studies American elections, focusing on racial/ethnic politics, voter turnout, and the impact of election laws on voters and politicians. He is an associate professor in the Department of Political Science at Indiana University, and received his B.A. in Political Science and Linguistics from Stanford University and Ph.D. in Government and Social Policy from Harvard University.   Prof. Fraga is interested in how group identities and electoral contexts shape political behavior.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On December 31, 2019, the World Health Organization’s office in China heard the first reports of a previously-unknown virus behind a number of pneumonia cases in the city of Wuhan.   On March 11, 2020 that virus, now named COVID-19 better knowing as the Coronavirus outbreak was now characterized as a pandemic by the World Health Organization.   Today the NYTimes wrote: The number of known corona virus cases in the United States continues to surge. As of Tuesday afternoon, at least 5,002 people in 49 states, plus Washington, D.C. and three U.S. territories, have tested positive for the coronavirus, according to a New York Times database at least 93 patients with the virus have died. “The pace of diagnosis is expected to quicken as the virus spreads and testing becomes more widely available. More state and private labs have started running tests for the coronavirus in recent days, increasing the capacity to identify new patients after weeks of delays and test kit shortages.”   On twitter Speaker Nancy Pelosi said “The Families First” bill was about many things but first and foremost: testing testing testing. I urge Senators to pass this legislation today, to make testing free and to provide masks, make it available ASAP. Any delay, is a delay, in testing.   While we wait on relief legislation to be passed by our federal government  The CDC have advised us: ·     To wash are hand often with Soap and water for at least 20 seconds ·     Use an alcohol based hand sanitized with at least 60% alcohol if soap and water are not available. ·     Cover you coughs or sneezed with a tissue or cough or sneeze into your elbow not your hand. ·     Stay home as much as possible. Social distancing can slow the spread.   These are confusing and scary times and so, like many of you, I wanted a bit more clarity about what this virus is, and why it’s difficult to find a vaccines, so I turned to my friend, Dr. Hazel Levy, is a virologist and a research scholar in the bio-medical sciences, in STEM education, and in higher education policy. She was the first Black American woman to have an independent and National Institutes of Health funded research laboratory in the history of the University of Florida's College of Medicine. Dr. Levy is a social justice community organizer, serving as the vice-Chair of the Women of Color Caucus of National Women’s Liberation's Gainesville, FL chapter, and was the founding faculty advisor to UF's Black Women in Medicine student organization.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Maya Contreras interviews political wonk Stephen Robinson. Stephan is a writer and social kibbitzer based in Portland, Oregon. He's on the board of the Portland Playhouse theater and writes for the immersive theater Cafe Nordo in Seattle. "Wonkette is an American online magazine of topical satire and political gossip, established in 2004 by Gawker Media and founding editor Ana Marie Cox. The editor since 2012 is Rebecca Schoenkopf, formerly of OC Weekly. Wonkette covers U.S. politics from Washington, D.C. to local schoolboards. Taking a sarcastic tone, the site focuses heavily on humorous breaking news, rumors, and the downfall of the powerful. It also deals with serious matters of politics and policy, producing in-depth analysis". Stephen is also a playwright. Last year, he cowrote the world premiere adaptation of Tom Robbin’s JITTERBUG PERFUME for the immersive theater, Cafe Nordo, in Seattle's Pioneer Square. He’s excited to collaborate again with co-artistic directors Erin Brindley and Terry Podgorski for CURIOUSER AND CURIOUSER, a modern take on Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland & Through the Looking Glass. This production is an ambitious multi-story, multi-room musical experience with a six-course tasting menu included with admission. Cafe Nordo is not just a great theatre space. It’s also one of Seattle’s best bars and restaurants all in one. He’s thrilled to add his own style of humor to an evening of eat mes and drink mes. The play runs from April 2 to May 31. Go to rabbithole.art for details. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hello, I’m your host Maya Contreras and welcome to a new season of obscene. This is a special holiday episode, the official new season of Obscene will start the first week of January 2020 were I’ll be talking to candidates running for office, voting rights, and policy issues you should be on the lookout for at the ballot box and so much more.   Before I get into the interview today I first want to bring your attention to an article published last month by StoryBench, a news division of Northeastern University’s School of Journalism. It’s an article that I think deserves more attention, and confirms a lot of underlying frustrations I have expressed on Twitter and that other have also been disheartened with. I talking about how legacy media has handled the coverage of the 2020 Election Cycle thus far.  Here’s a paragraph from the Storybench article titled: How news media are setting the 2020 election agenda: Chasing daily controversies, often burying policy: "It’s a paradox of examining political coverage. Are news media just reporting what the political candidates are talking about? Or does political journalism really set the agenda by selecting stories around specific news items, scandals and issues du jour? Our topic analysis of ~10,000 news articles on the 2020 Democratic candidates, published between March and October in an ideological diverse range of 28 news outlets, reveals that political coverage, at least this cycle, tracks with the ebbs and flows of scandals, viral moments and news items. This tendency, in turn, allows important issues such as health care, climate change and reproductive rights to fall off the agenda every time a Trump-driven media cycle emerges from some new outrage or a flavor-of-the-day controversy pops up." So, I agree! This is what has been missing from the 2020 Conversation. This is why I asked with Shimica Gaskins Executive Director of the children’s defense fund in California, to have a conversation with me about policy, specifically policy that some of the leading 2020 Candidates have proposed around children and families – everything from Baby Bonds to Universal Pre-K. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Except from the Episode: "Hello everyone! It’s me, Maya Contreras, host of Obscene podcast! On the last episode, you heard an excerpt of my interview with Ben Williams of the Princeton Gerrymandering project.  Here is the full episode. I hope you’ll enjoy it.  On June 27th, The Supreme Court essentially blocked the citizenship question from being added to the Census. On July 3rd, it was determined that the Census would be printed without it. I wanted to post this episode about Gerrymandering and the Census, shortly after that, but just as I went to post it, the citizenship question and whether or not it was going to be added to the Census was in limbo yet again." Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Excerpt from this episode:  "It’s the 4th of July, and I know a lot of folks out there aren’t feeling very patriotic, and I completely empathize. It’s difficult to feel patriotic given what is happening at the border, with reproductive rights, and when there are military tanks rolling down the streets of DC that took over $2.5 million dollars away from protecting our parks, but I digress. One of the reasons I wanted to do a fourth of July podcast episode is because I wanted to touch on a few issues that are keeping many in our country from fully participating in our democracy, like gerrymander and voter suppression, and how the biases in our political reporting is damaging to our discourse, but I also wanted to this episode to touch upon something that should inspire you just a bit. In 488 days, we have a change once again, set the tone of what we want out of this country. And I don’t know about you, but I’m going to save my sparklers for Nov 3rd, 2020. In this episode, I speak with Meg Heckman. Meg is an assistant professor of journalism at Northeastern University. I also speak with Rebecca Sive,  author of Vote Her In: Your Guide to Electing Our First Woman President (2018). But first I speak with Ben Williams. Ben a Legal Analyst and serves as the lead for the Princeton Gerrymandering Project's research and organizational partnerships."   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On Episode 11 of Obscene, Host Maya Contreras interviews Reproductive Justice Advocate, Renee Bracey Sherman on the importance of Abortion Storytelling, Abortion Funds, and Abortion Access. "Renee Bracey Sherman is a Chicago-born, Midwest-raised activist, writer and reproductive justice activist committed to the visibility and representation of people who have had abortions in media and pop culture. She is among the most vital voices in the United States elevating the conversation about abortion experiences, and using creative and innovative strategies to shift the conversation centering people of color and other marginalized identities. Her work is so influential that the right-wing website Twitchy recognizes her as “the queen of all abortions”.She has trained hundreds of abortion storytellers in the United States and around the world, including elected officials. Renee developed and designed a curriculum for storyteller support and training based on her extensive interviews with abortion storytellers. In 2014, she published the results and recommendations from these interviews in two 20-page guides, Saying Abortion Aloud, which are used and referenced across the reproductive health, rights, and justice field. In 2015, Renee partnered with media critic and author Anita Sarkeesian and anti-rape activist and author Jaclyn Friedman to co-author Speak Up & Stay Safe(r), a multilingual digital guide on handling online harassment.Renee has written for New York Times, the Guardian, EBONY Magazine, Cosmopolitan, Salon, Broadly, Rewire, Bustle, Glamour, and many more. Currently, Renee serves as the Senior Public Affairs Manager at the National Network of Abortion Funds where is the creator of We Testify, the only national and intersectional leadership program for people who’ve had abortions in the United States, created by and for people who’ve had abortions, centering race, class, and gender identity." Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Episode 11 is with Jalessah Jackson. What is Reproductive Justice? Host Maya Contreras takes a deep dive on this subject with Jalessah Jackson, Georgia Coordinator at SisterSong. "Jalessah Jackson is a mother, womanist, and interdisciplinary scholar of training whose research explores the connections between popular culture and critical theories of race, gender, sexualities, and social inequity.  She is the Georgia Coordinator at SisterSong, and in this role, Jalessah marries her lived experiences with her education background to advance reproductive justice work in the state of Georgia. In addition to her role at SisterSong, she has been an educator in both community-based and formal settings and is a Lecturer of Gender and Women's Studies and African and African Diaspora Studies at Kennesaw State University. As an educator, trainer, and public speaker, she has addressed countless audiences at schools, conferences and cultural events.Jalessah was a 2018 Errin J. Vuley Fellow at the Feminist Women’s Health Center, and won the 2018 Distinguished Recent Alumna Award from Simmons College in Boston, Massachusetts where she earned her master’s degree in Gender and Cultural Studies. Jalessah also holds a bachelor’s degree in African and African Diaspora Studies from Kennesaw State University. She currently serves on the Executive Board for the Southeastern Women’s Studies Association (SEWSA), a major regional arm of the National Women’s Studies Association (NWSA).Jalessah lives in Atlanta with her partner Jason, and their daughter, Semyra.   SisterSong:SisterSong is a Southern based, national membership organization; our purpose is to build an effective network of individuals and organizations to improve institutional policies and systems that impact the reproductive lives of marginalized communities.SisterSong is a Women of Color Reproductive Justice Collective was formed in 1997 by 16 organizations of women of color from four mini-communities (Native American, African American, Latina, and Asian American) who recognized that we have the right and responsibility to represent ourselves and our communities, and the equally compelling need to advance the perspectives and needs of women of color." Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Excerpt from Episode: What we need in 2020 is something that we’ve never had in the history of this country, a Women President and a Women Vice President.  Its clearer than ever that we need a woman at the top of the ticket, and you won’t find anyone who agrees with that notion more than Rebecca Sive. Rebecca Sive is a speaker and commentator on women’s political leadership and power, a past lecturer at the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy, and the author of two books, Vote Her In: Your Guide to Electing Our First Woman President (2018), and Every Day Is Election Day: A Woman’s Guide to Winning Any Office, from the PTA to the White House (2013).  As you listen to my conversation with Rebecca she wanted me to remind you all that: There is joy in doing this.There is joy in being a woman running for office.  There is joy in supporting women running for office.There is joy in electing women to serve in office. Books by Rebecca Sive: Vote Her In : https://www.amazon.com/Vote-Her-Guide-Electing-President-ebook/dp/B07DL86LHN Every Day Is Election Day: A Women's Guide to Winning Any Office, from the PTA to the White House: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1613746628/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i1 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices