Kathy Peterson was a political science lecturer, until she decided one day to do something different. So she asked for a job from the director of Cass Community Social Services in Detroit. What the director had for her…wasn’t what she was expecting.

This audio story was produced for WDET and the Transom Traveling Workshop in December, 2019.

Felixity

A Return to Roots

I begin this story with a personal question—if I already identify as a feminist man, why should I join a men’s anti-sexism group?

Men are struggling to find ways to talk about masculinity and sexual violence, and what our roles as feminist allies are in the #me-too era. We don’t want to de-center the experience of women in the public conversation around gender equality, but at the same time we have thoughts and feelings that we need to get out of our heads and hearts, and have conversations about in real life, not just in the virtual echo chambers of social media.

This is a story about a Boston-based group of men called FAMM—Feminist Accountability Movement with Men—what their group is about, how they’re facing this contemporary moment, and also, how I came to join them.

The Feminist Case For Joining A Men's Group

Dear listener,

Hello, from the Quincy August Moon Festival! By the 2020 census, the Asian population in Quincy, MA is expected to exceed that of Boston Chinatown's—every year for the past 32 years, Quincy residents and beyond have come together for this festival that just gets bigger and bigger. It's a big deal. Listen in on highlights from speeches and performances, and conversations with a city councilor and kung fu master.

Yours Truly...

Audio Postcard: Quincy August Moon Festival

Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPI) make up nearly 6% of the national population, but clinical research on AAPIs funded by the National Institutes of Health made up only .17% of their total budget from 1992 to 2018, according to research by Lan Doan, doctoral candidate in public health at Oregon State University. I speak with Doan about her research, and with Sherry Dong, the Director of the ﻿Asian Health Initiative at Tufts Medical Center in Boston, about how lack of research impacts health services for AAPI communities.

Health Experts On Research Funding Disparities for Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders

Felix Poon is a freelance journalist, audio storyteller, and personal essayist.

Felix Poon

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