Pull up the Roots

Three intimate conversations reveal how we deal with changes to our most deeply rooted identities, and how we tell the people who matter most.

“Unspoken”

Documentary filmmaker Patrick G. Lee tells Cathy about the unexpected ways that coming out affected his family.

“The Debut”

Producer Preeti Varathan and her cousin Srinidhi unpack complicated feelings about their larger-than-life, coming-of-age musical performances.

“Buzz Cut”

Old college friends L and Sindhu reunite to talk about why they decided to cut off their hair.

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Resources and Recommended Reading

• To learn more about Patrick G. Lee’s documentary, “Unspoken,” follow the film on Facebook.
• Self Evident and Patrick will screen the film exclusively for our listeners in August, so if you want to see it online, subscribe to our mailing list. If you’re in New York on July 31, you can catch the big screen debut at the Asian American International Film Festival.
• There’s more at the intersection of LGBTQIA and Asian American identity than coming out, but our friends at Mochi Mag recently put together this sweet collection of coming-out stories from Chinese, Korean, Taiwanese, and Singaporean Americans to celebrate Pride.
• And one of our favorite podcasts, Nancy, has lots of awesome stories and episodes about being queer and Asian American — including this favorite, about co-host Kathy Tu’s visit with family to Taiwan.
• To hear Preeti’s violin performance from this episode, check out this video of her last concert.
• For more about arangetrams, their history, and discussions about class and gender, Preeti recommends this primer from The Hindu and this deep look at T.M. Krishan, whose writing explores how to “de-Brahmanize” carnatic music.
• For more work from Pavana Reddy (the poet who Srinidhi collaborated with onstage), visit pavanareddy.com.
• You can check out L's writing and comics here.

Shout Outs

Thanks to Sindhu Gnanasambandan for the conversation with L, and all the members of our community panel who gave us feedback on these stories.

Credits

Produced by Julia Shu, Preeti Varathan, and Alex Laughlin

Edited by Cheryl Devall

Production support by James Boo

Sound engineering by Timothy Lou Ly

Theme music by Dorian Love

Music by Blue Dot Sessions and Epidemic Sound

Sound effects by Soundsnap

Self Evident is a Studiotobe production. Season 1 is presented by the Center for Asian American Media (CAAM), the Ford Foundation, and our listener community. Our show was incubated at the Made in New York Media Center by IFP.

About CAAM: CAAM (Center for Asian American Media) is a nonprofit organization dedicated to presenting stories that convey the richness and diversity of Asian American experiences to the broadest audience possible. CAAM does this by funding, producing, distributing, and exhibiting works in film, television, and digital media. For more information on CAAM, please visit www.caamedia.org. With support from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, CAAM provides production funding to independent producers who make engaging Asian American works for public media.